Gaming Problem

My son has a 3 month old gaming computer. It has been working perfectly until recently. Most of his games come from Steam. Recently, when he tries to play a game, the screen will abruptly tear and flicker before freezing. Sometimes it happens 30 seconds into the game, sometimes it happens 20 minutes into the game, sometimes it doesn't happen at all - but it is happening more frequently. This happens a lot with games and sometimes with Youtube - the screen appears normal with other applications such as MS Office and Chrome.

He has a high-quality LG monitor. We tried swapping it out with another high-quality monitor and got the same results. We restored the computer to its original state - that didn't help, but at least we ruled out the possibility of newly installed software causing the problem. We'd appreciate any thoughts as to what could be causing this. Here are the specs on the computer - I'm thinking it should be able to handle pretty much any game...

ENVY h9se
• Windows 8 64
• 3rd Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770K quad-core processor [3.5GHz, 8MB Shared Cache]
• 12GB DDR3-1600MHz SDRAM [4 DIMMs]
• 2TB 7200 rpm SATA hard drive
• 1TB 7200 rpm SATA hard drive
• 3GB AMD Radeon HD 7950 [Dual Bracket; DVI, HDMI, 2x mini-DP]
• Liquid Cooling Solution
• Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner

Thanks for your help.

Len

 

is this is a pre built machine with a warranty? if so Iwould get it sorted under warranty.
if not I would start by trying a different video card.

 

Yes - we will be contacting HP. Thanks. But frankly I have more faith in the expertise at this message board than at HP. And I'm hoping for a non-hardware solution.

 

This has all the signals of hardware problem. Contacting the manufacturer - HP, in this case - is the best thing to do IMO, especially if the machine is still under warranty.

 

Besides warranty, i'd recommend you these steps:

- check if all cables are OK and plugged in properly
- check if Liquid Cooling works and if additional fans are working
- check if Video card is installed properly / fans working
- reinstall latest video driver for your card
- check vga driver and test VSync on/off

good luck !

 

We plan to contact HP and I'll let you know how things turn out. Your collective thinking on this is a hardware issue, so I suspect that's what it will be.

Thanks for the quick responses.

 

Maybe overheating of the GPU.
Mrk

 

That sounds like a GPU problem.

Try re-seating the graphics card (Pulling it out and then placing it back into it's slot)
Make sure all cables are securely into place (Internally and Externally)
Try different cables, other than the one you've been using....See if that works
Uninstall old drivers and install the most current version from the manufacturer's website http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonaiw_vista64.aspx

I highly doubt its an overheating issue, or else you would experience crashing and or BSODS, but it still is a possibility. Check your GPU temps by using Speccy or Open Hardware Monitor, just to make sure.

Here are the links:

Speccy: http://www.piriform.com/speccy

Open Hardware Monitor: http://openhardwaremonitor.org/

The reason why I don't suspect overheating, because you say this type of problem sometimes happens just by opening a game (not playing it yet) or simply watching YouTube videos. Plus, today's video cards are able to withstand high temps (nothing over 55c idle or over 85c while gaming).

If the problem still exists after all the troubleshooting, then I would contact HP since it's still under warranty.

 

look at my post above, i'd already recommended this all...

 

I will admit, I only read the first post and then replied.

I'm usually good about reading all the other posts before posting mine.

My bad

 

So I promised an update. My update is that I am being jerked around by Hewlett Packard Support. Their "premium" service is a joke and an insult.

They concluded I have a bad graphics card and they sent me a replacement. They have since scheduled three appointments for a tech to come to the house and install it. We've waited for the tech and there have been 3 no-shows.

I know many of you will tell me to do it myself, but I'm just not comfortable doing that - especially with a computer like this. The graphics card is a huge thing - never seen anything like it. Remember, this is my son's gaming computer; I use a basic cheapo computer.

So I'm trying to escalate this at HP - but suffice it to say I am in HP hell right now.