Nvidia video card keeps crashing

[Mezlo]

I need some help / advise from some techies. So whenever I play ffxiv now (most of the time) my screen goes black randomly. I force shut off, turn back on and then i have a box that pops up and says my Nvidia device stop working and was forced to shut down. It gives what version I have and then says internet explorer can help to find the eroor, or something like that... Has this happened to anyone? Any advice on how to fix this? It never happens when I'm surfing the internet, only when playing ffxiv. The Nvidia is GEFORCE 9800M GTS CUDA 1GB is that helps.

thanks in advance!

[Raydeus]

If you haven't updated the driver then update. If you just updated go back to a previous driver.

[Aeni]

What Raydeus said ... you should also download an app that can monitor your GPU temp ... say, MSI Afterburner ... and see if it's overheating in FFXIV.

[Mezlo]

Ok, I installed the new drivers (which took a bit) and I'll try again tonight on ffxiv. I also downloaded the burner thing. Do i run that before firing up ffxiv? then just minimize ffxiv to see how what the burner program says?

[Raydeus]

Check the monitor first to see how your card in functioning. Specially the temperature and fan speeds as Aeni pointed out. Then if everything is normal run the game and see how your card behaves.

If for some reason your graphics card fan is malfunctioning or the heatsink is too dirty it may be raising the temperature too much while running a GPU intensive game like FFXIV (or Sleeping Dogs at max settings) and causing your card to crash. There's also the possibility that your stock heatsink just isn't good enough (happens more often then you may think) and requires a lower room temperature to keep things normal. Case ventilation can also be affecting your system temperature if that's the problem.

But first see if the new drivers fix the issue, then work from there if they don't.

[Mezlo]

My laptop does run really hot when playing ffxiv, lol... I move it occasionally on the coffee table to an are that it hasnt been sitting on and is cool to try and help out. The stone coffee table top where the lop top was sitting is too hot for me to keep my hand on... Yeah, it's hot...

[cidbahamut]

Sounds like you're probably just overheating then. You might want to take your laptop apart and see if you can't clean out some of the dust that's inevitably built up in your fans. That should help some.

[Raydeus]

Laptop? Ah, yeah, almost guaranteed to be overheating then. <_<;

In addition to cleaning your fans you may also need to consider getting one of those Laptop cooling pads in the near future.

[cidbahamut]

Or just getting a proper desktop to handle your high-end gaming. That's always my recommendation, because laptops always seem to have a ton of trouble when it comes to gaming.

[Mezlo]

My laptop is basically a desk top in the form of a laptop. It's never had problems before. I'll trusing the dust buster on it, the thing that shoots out air to clean keyboards, think that will work? I'm afraid to take it apart.

[cidbahamut]

It might, but ideally you'd take it apart and clean out the fan entirely. Canned air only goes so far, especially if the dust bunnies get wedged in real good.

I don't blame you for not wanting to take the laptop apart though. They're not as easy to deal with as a standard tower case, but if you can get your hands on a manual or some schematics detailing how to open it up it shouldn't be insurmountable. Just remember to remove the battery before you start taking things apart.

[Aeni]

Check the temp on the laptop if you can (like Raydeus suggested) prior to running any game. You might be okay for the most part with other games because they may not be pushing your GPU hard. However, FFXIV does, as my own GPU will go into the mid 70s (centigrade) easily enough (as opposed to my 42 "normal" desktop temp) World of Warcraft doesn't push my GPU as hard as it usually sits 10C lower on average.

As for MSI Afterburner, you don't need to fiddle with the "overclocking" stuff ... just have monitor enabled (disable everything else if you want)

[Hayde]

Granted I've been in the market for a new computer case for better ventilation (I'm probably going to hold off till Newegg's Black Friday at this point.) I can tell you that when I played FFXIV heavily, this game always pushed my GPU's temperature to 70~75c steady. I have a fairly beefy rig--or at least at that point, I did (i7 2600k, 560ti) so when I raised my graphical settings higher, my card actually pushed 90-95c and I had to turn things back down to mid-high to avoid a potential overheating.

That being said, like Aeni--my GPU temps is rarely pushed beyond 60c on load for most games, even if I max their settings so this is definitely an issue with FFXIV's current engine. It's really hard to say what the culprit is--my laptop managed at similar settings with lower temps, and yet I knew people who ran with water cooling and the 600-series cards that suffered worse load temps.

[Mezlo]

My temp was being pushed to 90-95c, lol, which is a bit high, huh? LOL. After I propped up my laptop to allow air to blow beneath it and i turned the ceiling fan on, my temp hovered around 75-80 and my display never shut off over the weekend. Problem solved!!! Thanks guys!!!

[Aeni]

Yeah ... 90-95c is scary high