Freezing problem durring games..

I have the same problem, and another game to add is ES4: Oblivion. It is a very annoying problem. I believe it may be a dual-core processor problem, but have not found anything that has worked for me yet. Everyone with this problem be sure to contact Sager so they know that we all have this problem.

I am running the FX-60, and I have the same problem too.

You can try: Setting your power management to "Always On" It will no longer down-clock to save power when not in use, but even with that, I still have problems. Maybe we need a BIOS update, or it could be a windows problem.

there's a couple things that may be happening together. the stuttering or random slow downs that fix themselves pretty quick i found were caused by heat AND by throttling of the fx-60

downloading rmclock and forcing the fx-60 to 2.6ghz fixed my issues. but without some added cooling it would still happen, but much less.

Same issue here with the hypersonic 9750. I also have tried everything. I know for a fact it's the CPU. Quick way to reproduce the problem is pull the power cord so it runs on battery. If anyone has solved this, please post what you did, i can't take it anymore.

Yes, it is the CPU and I too have tried everything to fix the problem from new AMD Processor Drivers to setting the Power Management to "Always On."

I really don't think that it is heat in my opinion because the air coming out the back is no where near very hot. I paid so much for this FX-60 and now it runs worse than a single core.

Guidonet, do you have the FX-60? It seems like this happens to all of the Athlon X2's as well, but just wondering.

I wish someone new of a real way to fix this issue; I can only pray that some how Windows Vista will resolve this...

i have an x2 3800

FOr some odd reason it doesnt do it to me in bf2. But just about every other game it happens in. It used to do it in bf2, but suddenly it just stopped doing it. Was never able to explain that either.

Just to add, i tried the RMClock app. If i up the voltage to 1.4 instead of 1.35 the freezing seems to subside. Goes from once every 5 minutes, to once every few hours. If this worked for anyone else, please post.

I believe the problem may actually be the video card getting too hot. I have fixed the problem about 95% by using external coolers to blow air across the laptop (above video card, front left) and also blowing air under the laptop where the video card is.

When not using the coolers, freezing occurs about 15-20 minutes into intensive gameplay. I thought it was the processor for a long time, but I believe it is actually the 7800 getting too fried.

I have had the same problem with my hypersonic fx7/9750. It mostly happened when playing Battlefield 2, Call of Duty 2, and Tomb Raider Legend. I would get 5 to 15 seconds of extreme slow down and maybe 10 frames a second.

I have also found that increasing airflow has almost completely stopped the problem. I also just upgraded my 7800 to the 7900gtx 512 and the problem has happened even less. I I have not tried the voltage increase but will keep that in mind.

It's back for me, i guess it could be the gpu heating up, anyone able to pull temps on their gpu? I've tried every app i can think of and have never been able to get the gpu temp.

But i can't explain why i can reproduce it by pulling the plug so the cpu throttles. A good example is bf2, you can pull up the fps and when it happens it locks at 15fps. Same thing i pull the plug while the game is going.

I also did the arctic silver as well and it had no effect.

I don't know how to get gpu temps.

Guidonet, try to get some kind of fan stuff around the video card and see if it helps (even if it is temporary to test). I played BF2 at a LAN party for about 8 hours straight, and I didn't have any freezes. Usually I couldn't go even an hour before it got so bad, it was unplayable. The CPU cooling was the same, the only thing I changed was the exterior gpu cooling.

It sounds like the 7900 is better about this from what hexum said. I think I'll wait a few months for the possible Go 8800 GTX with DDR4(runs cooler by 45% supposidely). Hopefully the gpu won't drain too much extra power with all the extra shaders, but hey, they have laptops with dual 512 7900 GTX, so hopefully our 220 Watters can handle it.

Ok. i think i have found a solution and want some others to test if they are still having this issue. In the Nvidia control panel there is a setting for threaded optimization, at least in the 95 series drivers. This normally is set to auto but needs to be set to Off. This solved my freezing problems. Let me know if this works for anyone.

HI YOU ALL
Good news !! I "solved" the problem -- lol

First this slowdown appeared in Gothic3 and now in Dark Messiah...
NEVER EVER had this thing before. I really tried anything possible. No go. RMClock, DC Hotfix, any suggested settigs, high voltage, several drivers, hours and hours passed by, my eyes got sicker and sicker...

Finally I could see a very simple thing removes any of those temporary slowdowns 100% completely and 100% for sure !
It´s activating VSync in game ---- that´s it.

I also activated triple buffer and set rendered ahead from 3 to 0.
But I don´t think this is the point. Just played.... suddenly from 40 to 10 FPS.... just set on VSync ... whooop ---- full speed at once...

This is a clear sign at least her the problem is game or driver related... well... lol - will try with driver panel VSync and some more things to get this annoying 30 -60 -30 -60 FPS switching away now....lol but butte than slowdowns anyway..

i've been going through very carefully and trying to dissect this problem. neverwinter 2 is giving me hell with the annoying 20-30 second slow downs.

i installed logging software for monitoring cpu and gpu throttling, temperatures, voltages, fps in games, any FID/VID requests and overall OS load vs cpu load.

the slowdowns occur with NO change in voltage or clock to either the 7800 or the fx-60. the only thing a very long session of gaming and logging showed was the during the "fps drops" the fx-60 was no longer using both cores. one core was completely down to 0% load. by forcing the CPU to stay at 2.6ghz i'm guessing either it's a threading error in the graphics/cpu subsytems or there is a point where the CPU shuts off a core to lower the heat. but it's only a guess....still working on it.

ok....this is what's happening. it's part of the cool'n'quiet program requesting a change in ACPI state due to overheating, and what constitutes overheating seems to vary depending on processor load on the 2 cores. forcing throttling off get's trumped i guess by the low level power management controls. I put an air conditioner unit under the laptop and could play oblivion on max with 16x AF and 8xAA for a half and hour straight with no slow downs. lay the laptop on a blanket and the slow downs begin.

going through the various logs shows the slow downs causing a complete drop in FPS, like from 60 down to 5. the temperatures immediately drop 10 degrees....then continue to go down for anywhere from a few seconds to a full minute before the FPS jumps back up to normal levels.

dropping the fx-60 multiplier to 12x @ 1.35v and just propping the bottom of the laptop up off what it's resting on seems to completely stop the slow down problems. i also noticed only a 2 fps minmaxavg change when dropping the multiplier.

My work-arounds with a 4800+ cpu and NWN2...

...have culminated with raising the entire (not just the front-end, since the vent for the video card is almost at the front of the chassis) notebook 1cm up on a stand, forcing the fans to max rpm, and forcing program affinity to cpu0. This prevents most slowdowns, all BSOD, and all ctd's. I'll be so glad when all programs can handle dual-core cpu's, even if only to automate the forced affinity thing...or has someone come out with a front-end applet to set affinity?

Is there some way to modify the multiplier(s) on a 4800+? I have the latest (as in I asked Sager for the update presently running) bios from 3 months ago--is there a new one out?

In closing, has anyone had any decent experiences with any video drivers for the 7800/7900 cards other than the 84.63's (or whatever Sager has on their site now--they're based on the 84.63 Nvidia ones though)? I gave up trying various ones from laptopvideotogo.com once Sager updated their drivers.

Out here (more NWN2 to play after I get the gf to sleep :-)...Stephen

the 97.31 drivers from laptop video to go have done great for nwn2 and dark messiah...

on another note: after two weeks of playing around with various logging tools and such ive come to the conclusion that my previous posts are entirely wrong. the only thing that causes the slow downs i, and others, have been experiencing is the 7800gtx getting too hot and throttling back.

there's 3 states in the 7800 bios...default core clock, and 2 throttling. once the core hits 105 degrees it throttles back. (the 105 reading may not be completely accurate...i've never seen any artifacts you expect from heat.)

i rigged sort of a generic liquid cooling setup to play with. Oblivion on 1600x1200 with some seriously high graphics settings worked flawlessly for 2 hours straight. taking the cooling apparatus off and going back to fans caused slow downs everytime the GPU got to 105 degrees. interestly enough...rivatuner shows no change in clock when the gpu throttles which is why it's been somewhat difficult for people to diagnose the cause of the slowdowns.
after talking to some people it looks like it there is some variability in GPU heat performance. some 7800gtx's just seem to run hotter than others. i was told to try to move to the 7900gtx if possible.

Comparison of Go 7900's and 7800's.
http://www.nvidia.com/page/go_7800gtx.html