Odd Graphics Card Problem

[Damon]

I'm fairly new to ToonTown, but ever since I installed it, I've had to put an external fan to my computer with the side of the case open because for some strange reason, the video card is overheating now. I'm not sure if anyone else has had this problem, but most of the time, ToonTown will just completely seize up my computer, and it has to be manually shut off and back on (completely unresponsive). Other times I get strange messages from XP saying that the computer needs to be restarted because the video card was caught in an infinite loop. There have been some occasions where the computer just flat out restarts on its own, or the monitor will just quickly change to a black screen with colored lines. Once, it even went off and told me to check the PC VGA settings! If anyone knows a possible solution to this, I'd be glad to hear it!

Oh, and I've already tried upgrading drivers, reinstalling drivers, upgrading DirectX and reinstalling ToonTown to no avail, but it's something to do with it because the computer never does it otherwise.

[UMT]

I have the same problem from time to time. It doesn't happen very much, but when it does it will happen several times over a day or two. Then the problem goes way for awhile. Sorry I can't help you out with what to do to fix it. It might be time for a new video card. Try calling your local computer store and ask for something they might have used. You can probably get a much newer card for practically nothing. That's a good and cheap way of eliminating on of the possible causes.

[Damon]

What type of card do you have? I have an S3 Graphics ProSavage with 32MB RAM.

I've also noticed that too... it'll happen every 5 minutes on some days, and on others I can play for hours on end with no problems at all. Just this morning it happened after 5 minutes of play, I've restarted, and it happened again after another short period of time.

I wonder if it might be a conflict with the card, as I don't think it's going bad, otherwise it would happen outside of ToonTown too... or at least I think it would.

[-rcv-]

The S3 Graphics ProSavage sounded familiar, there was a guy over on the LL with the same chipset. His problem was performance, though. ( Link here if you're interested )

What you have going on really sounds like overheating problems.

#1: Check and clean fans and heatsinks. In particular, check the CPU and graphic chipset heatsinks. I've seen them get plugged with link, but you can't see it with the fan in the way. Take the fans right off to check. I betcha that's your problem.

#2: Check software cooling. You'll need to check the details for your particular system for that, there is normally a utility that comes with the motherboard that will throttle back the CPU when it isn't being used heavily (cooling it down), as well as backing off on CPU speed when the temperature gets too high. I call this the #2 option, since the fans/heatsinks should normally be able to handle heat dissipation even at 100% CPU performance, continuously.

#3: Could be software/drivers. Make sure you are running the current version of DirectX (an update was released just this month). You may want to try running Toontown under OpenGL, to see if the problem follows. Check the text file included with TTwindow.exe in the Downloads section here to run under different video modes.

-rcv-
Kid Bugs

[Damon]

Thanks! I cleaned the fans and heatsinks off when it first happened, because I recognized it immediately as an overheating problem, but it continuted after those were cleaned.

My system isn't new enough to have in-built temperature monitoring features, it's just sort of there. It only gets really hot when ToonTown is being played. I don't think it's the CPU, because overheating only occurs within the 3-dimensional display of ToonTown, not when I'm running other processor-intensive programs.

I had tried, as the readme file says, running it in OpenGL and the only result was a faster lockup. After reading some documentation and reviews of my hardware, I learned that it prefers DirectX over OpenGL, but both DX7 and DX8 usages also caused overheating.

Following the advice of many, I scoured the internet once again in search of drivers. My manufacturer has not provided an updated driver since the date of release of the machine (late 2001). Because of this, I chose to look more in-depth for the manufacturer of the video chipset, and behold, I managed to find a 2003 driver listed for my chipset. I didn't know if this would fully work as it was recommended to obtain branded drivers from the manufacturer instead of the generic ones S3 provides, but after upgrading the drivers, ToonTown seems to run much more smoothly. I never even knew that the side-screen notes (The ones that point at Cogs, Toons and Buildings) had a white, semi-transparent background. Before they had just been a solid image making the words harder to read. Also, the text within the game is much easier to read now as it's less fuzzy. I believe I've solved my problem as I haven't incurred another seize up, but I haven't replaced the cover and removed the fan yet, but I suppose I'll try soon. Thanks everyone!

[Adam]

It happens to me too outside my house & my pc is OK