Unlocking the ubiquitous freeze.

[Marbot]

Could someone please list the top ten reasons pc games lock up, examine the technical process and give direction to the most common solutions aimed to fix those problems?

Thanks, Marbot

[Martok]

Welcome aboard, Marbot.

Unfortunately, this isn't really the right place to ask that question. You'd probably be better off visiting a more general gaming website to get the answers you seek.

Now if you're having a specific problem with a Total War game, then you should head on over to the Apothecary. The good folks there can help you out.

[Thermal]

the 10 problems? i'm afraid members here arent all information desks! i'm useless with that kind of thing, take martoks advise, oh and are you too brothers? your names are so well suiting :surprise:

[TevashSzat]

Okay, some off of the top of my head. Its not really pertaining to freezing per se, but general causes of PC gaming issues

1) Your PC is Awful
Pretty self explanatory there. Basically, if your system doesn't meet the system requirements, don't go running off and act all confused or outraged when it doesn't run on your computers. Integrated Graphics is not a suitable replacement for a ATI 4870 X2...... Even if it meets the system requirements, that only means that it might be able to run the game mediocrely (10 fps+) on the lowest settings. So, yeah, don't act outraged again. It is the safest to get games that your hardware is slightly above the minimum requirements for.

Even if you meet the recommended requirements, it isn't a sign that you're readly for running that game with everything at high at 2560x1600. Sometimes, turning off Anti-aliasing, lowering down textures or notch, or bumping down resolution will mean the difference between a frustrating game stuttering along at ~15 fps and a great experience running at 30+ fps

Other times, there are just hardware incompatabilities. Sometimes, the game just plain doesn't like your Graphics Card (Like MTW with the Nvidia 8000 series) and it just won't run well. If this happens, well, tough luck. Either hope for a patch, get a different videocard, or just play the game on another computer

2)Get Better Drivers
It doesn't matter if you have Triple SLI GTX 280s in your custom built pimped out desktop, bad drivers will still destroy your gaming experience. Usually, the newest drivers are the best, but they may be unstable or just plain bad at times. Thus, I would recommend either asking for advice from other people with the same videocard or getting the newest driver and go back by a version until you find one that is adequete.

3)Don't Try to Cook Dinner with Your Computer
Computers can get really really hot. It is not unheard of for GPUs or CPUs to run at 80 Celcius (176 Farenheit) while gaming. Sometimes, (especially for laptops with some power under the hood) it gets too hot, usually 90 C or higher, and the hardware component either starts undercloking itself to get rid of heat, you might get a BSOD, or the component might just end up frying. No matter what happens, its not good. I would recommend cleaning all vents on the case and opening the case up (if its a desktop) and clean out any dust in there. If there is no dust.....then it is either a design issue (not enough fans or poor placement) or there is an actualy fault with whatever hardware component you have in mind (recent Nvidia laptop GPU problems come to mind)

4)Get a Better Game
Sometimes, games are just poorly written. They may be bug-ridden, prone to CTDs, or whatever.... In most games, there is usually nothing in your power to do other than look at whatever error you got, go to Google and try to find someone else who had your problem in hopes of finding a fix. If there isn't any, you will probably have to try to bypass wherever the problem occurs unless you can't really avoid it, which means you'll have to wait for either an official or unofficial patch that would address the problem.

5)Check Your Install
Other times, your installation of the game is just wonky. You might have had installation issues or your harddrive might be just wonky. Either way, you may end up with either some of the game files corrupted or missing. In either case, you're probably going to get some issues while gaming. Best way to fix it is to reinstall the game and see if the problem is fixed. If it isn't fixed, I would recommend installing the game on another computer to see if the problem is with your media. If your media is fine, then you most likely have either a hardware problem or a tangentially related software problem.

Again, its hardly complete, but these 5 should be most of the major issues. They're not necessarily in order of frequency though, but #1 there should be the most frequent.

[caravel]

Could someone please list the top ten reasons pc games lock up, examine the technical process and give direction to the most common solutions aimed to fix those problems?

Thanks, Marbot

Hmmm...

1) overheating graphic hardware
2) bugs in the game itself
3) system memory issues such as bad memory or memory with aggressive timings
4) buggy graphics hardware drivers
5) user not installing a patch
6) corruption
7) cpu overheating
8) wife/girlfriend/mistress/camel sabotages game
9) camels attack computer
10) other

[PBI]

Don't forget the no.1 cause of freezes - you've just won an massive hour-long 10000-man battle against the Mongols, just scraping victory with a miraculous stroke of good fortune you know you won't be able to replicate in a million years, and you only have one more routine scrap against rebels to fight before you can save.

[SubRosa]

One of the things that can contribute to overheating is that your intake vents can get choked full of dust-bunnies, to the point where no air is actually circulating through the box. It is a good idea to open your case up once and a while to clean up the dust. It is amazing how much of it builds up in there.

Another problem can simply be bad electrical sockets. Cheap wiring can lead to surges, which in turn adversely affect your PC. A good surge protector can help alleviate this somewhat.

[{BHC}HolySpagetty]

I Triple SLI GTX 280 FTW Edition's and still lag on 80,000 men battles!!

JK, I really have a 8600GT and have no problems at all running any games.

I run Crysis at med/high settings WITH AA.

I have no problems playing either.

I don't know the others problems with the 8000 series nVidia cards.

I personally would take nVidia over any ATI card.

[Monk]

Moved from the Entrance Hall, you should find more answers here.

[LeftEyeNine]

And I was wondering how we could get 3 Juniors in one thread here. That was a miracle and an indicator towards the actualization of the dream that my boy (Hard- Software Section) is ready to overthrow Teh Org and become the whole itself.

It was redirected. Gah.

On a serious note, figuring out a "Top Ten" would be hard. And yet such problems are best treated individually since the symptom "lock-up" has many complexions such as what happens before/after, how it emerges and when et cetera.

We're doing our best here to help. Feel free to ask away just in case.

[Xiahou]

Use the event logs, they are your friends.