Computer freezes when playing games

[rooney791]

Hey Guys,

I recently bought a Dell Inspiron 570. Its processor is AMD Athlon II X4 630 at 2.8 GHZ

Whenever I play games such as Call of Duty or FIFA 11, the screen falters and everything freezes. After a few seconds, the screen becomes a board of checkers in all the colors you can imagine.

I have tried calling Dell but their help is useless at best.

Is it my ATI Radeon 4200? Is it the actual screen?

I would really appreciate your help and ideas.

One more thing, a friend suggested I use the BurnIn test program and even during the running of the test, the same problem happened without finding out the results.

If I should simply buy a higher performance video card, let me know. Thanks for your help and ideas.


THe link below will show you a picture of what my screen looks like during this problem.

 

[Ivan the SoSo]

Some questions first....Is it a full tower? Do you have a PCIE slot? Do you have a decent(over 500 watts) power supply or the stock Psu?
Do you have any 6pin power connectors?

 

[smarteyeball]

Is it my ATI Radeon 4200? Is it the actual screen?

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/690/img00052201104171432.jpg/

If it looks like the screenshot I'd say you have an issue with the onboard graphics.

It looks more like a h/w fault than a driver issue.

Since it's a recent purchase and under warranty, get it replaced.

 

[Ivan the SoSo]

Is it my ATI Radeon 4200? Is it the actual screen?

If it looks like the screenshot I'd say you have an issue with the onboard graphics.

It looks more like a h/w fault than a driver issue.

Since it's a recent purchase and under warranty, get it replaced.

A very good suggestion....however its a Dell, that means dealing with Dell support...more commonly known as, first word Dell, second word rhymes with Dell, starts with a H:banghead:

 

[rooney791]

THank you for your replies guys.

Please let me know if this is normal:

• When goin into Device manager, my display adapter shows ATI Radeon 4200 HD;
• But when I reinstalled the driver from the CD that came with the computer, the update was for ATI Radeon HD5450.

Could this be it?

 

[Ivan the SoSo]

AMD /ATI drivers differ in the OS used...not so much the card....You can go into AMD control engine/performance/AMD Overdrive/Defaults...if for some reason its clocked wrong that will fix it...but "I" think your onboard is hosed...

 

[cannotdisplay64]

try using this program Buy SIW Pro or Download SIW Freeware (download the freeware version without installer) to see your card model and then install the associated drivers, if this continues to happen make sure your case is well ventilated and cool as they get hot also yeah is it on board or a separate card as separate cards sometimes need a power connector , by the sounds of it your card is artefacting dont know why this happens but it happened to me, I tried what people suggested but haven't been able to fix it so am resorting to upgrading to 2 6950's

 

[Ivan the SoSo]

Here is a site that has pictures of various video card problemsDiagnose video card problems by comparing with example corrupted screens