Screen blacks out, game freezes, PC becomes unresponsive.

[Revoran]

Recently I've been having a problem with Civ V (however I don't know if it's patch related as I stopped playing for a while before the latest patch). When I run the game in DX10/11 mode even with low-medium settings (excepting textures on high as there is only high and low) the game plays fine for a while, then the screen blacks out -claiming there's no signal- and my pc becomes unresponsive - ie even the numlock key has no effect on the indicator LED on my keyboard. If I play in DX9 mode, the game and PC tend to freeze when loading a save/game.

This is a new problem as I used to be able to play for hours with few hiccups in DX11 mode. I've noticed it also occurs in some other games such as The Witcher Enhanced Edition. Today I cleaned the video card of dust, but the problem is still there. So, can anyone help?

My PC:
Win7 Ultimate 32 bit.
Intel Core-2 Quad Q8200 2.3 GHz
4 GB DDR3
GeForce 9800 GT (latest drivers)

 

[The_J]

I'm getting the feeling that there might be something wrong with the 9800 GTs, but the problem is here probably something else.
If it also happens with other games, then it's sure a computer thing.
You cleaned the computer, you said, that's already a good idea.
Next step should be to check, if the fans, which you've cleaned, are actually running when you turn your computer on.
Because that really sounds like overheating.

 

[Revoran]

I went and ran tests using SpeedFan (to see that the fans were running properly) and GPU-Z (to check temps) and it seems that you were right, the 9800 reaches 100 - 111*C (depending on which sensor you follow) even when all fans are at 100% after only a few minutes in game. This never used to be a problem so I don't understand what's wrong.

I just ordered a new GeForce 460 1GB factory OC'd with some sort of proprietary fan setup so hopefully that'll solve my problem. Thanks for the help man.

 

[timtofly]

I hope that works out for you. I think that this game causes some unnecessary over heating issues that I hope can be fixed.