Tunes

This has been happening ever since i bought this computer.
When i'm playing my online games (mainly Warcraft) it will randomly freeze.

Now normally i don't get an error message, but my graphics get all funky with little dots flickering all over the screen after this happens, and things inside the game start stretching very far.

Today for the first time though i got an error message and i'm hoping it'll lead to what's causing it to happen.

I've searched google and this forum for answers, but no one has a solid answer to what is causing this.

If you guys can fix this for me.. i'll be the happiest person.
After a year of this happening i'm getting really sick of it!

Please help!

ChaosMinionX

Something with your videocard is crashing, how old is it, and could you post a little more info regarding your system specs?

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Tunes

Sure.

I hope that's enough info.. If you need anymore just ask.

Also, i dont know exactly how old it is, the whole computer came as a package except the graphics card, i remember getting this computer last christmas i believe.

Dyre Straits

How long has it been since you gave the inside of your PC a really good cleaning? Check the fans that they're clean and working properly.

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Tunes

Well it turns out there's basically a layer of dust ontop of my graphics card, and a lot of dust all around the whole case.

Do you think cleaning that out will fix it or will i need to take extra steps?
I currently only see two fans in my computer.. should i have more?

I'd really like to avoid this issue all together..

Thanks in advance!

Dyre Straits

You need to shut down that baby, take it outside and give it a good ol' complete cleaning. Used canned air and make sure all the fans you do have are cleaned up real good. It's very highly likely that this is what has brought on the current problem. If you've caught it soon enough, a good cleaning may save your PC.

If your case is set up for it, a couple of good case fans will work wonders. Install one at the front pulling air in...and one at the back forcing air out.

Good luck!

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Tunes

Thanks a lot!
I appreciate the help.

I'm just wondering, you said "Save your PC"..
Does that mean i could have done permanent damage to it?

Stop It

Yes, put simply, heat causes silicon chips to gradually fail, which is the entire reason most computers use cooling fans, the build-up of dust causes computer parts (Specifically CPU/Gfx card) to have problems, as it acts as an insulator of heat, reducing cooling efficiency, artifacting/crashing are symptoms of a gfx card that has been overheating over a long period of time, much longer and thecard would have been permanently and irreparably damaged.

It cannot be stated enough how important computer maintenance is, both software wise (Registry/PC cleaner up etc), and hardware wise, which included regularly cleaning Fans, checking parts for potential failures (Hard-Drives and Ram for example, and there are testing suites for both that can serve as handy early warning tools), otherwise computer performance will gradually be reduced, and as you experienced, instability will occur.

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Tunes

There was A LOT of dust clogging my graphics card fan which could not have been good.
So i unclogged it, cleaned the rest of the dust.
I'm going to also get 2 other fans to help get the heat out.

I'm going to see if it happens anymore.
If it does, i'll be sure to post it here.

Thanks for the great fast support guys.