New build PC hangs for seconds
KidPoker
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Hello, I recently built my own computer. When playing games like Football Manager with the radio playing once every first hour the computer turns on it will freeze. The computer freezes upwards for 30 seconds then recovers.
When I say freeze nothing is responsive - not the mouse, keyboard. The computer makes a weird buzzing noise coming from my TV which I use as a monitor (coming from TV speakers).
I've uninstalled drivers and reinstalled the latest. I am honestly lost here.
When I say freeze nothing is responsive - not the mouse, keyboard. The computer makes a weird buzzing noise coming from my TV which I use as a monitor (coming from TV speakers).
I've uninstalled drivers and reinstalled the latest. I am honestly lost here.
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This is the sound the machine makes when it freezes for 40 seconds. It always lasts the same amount of time...
https://www.devside.net/blog/lcd-making-a-buzzing-noise
scroll down and look at the replies some of them might help
sorry i meant to say the buzzing sound from the pc was coming through the tv speakers..
a couple of them you might want to consider..
if you scroll down to the comment of the 27th may 2013 can you check if that post applies to you?
does your monitor or pc have internal speakers?
the person discovered they had internal speakers and the volume was set at 85.
by reducing the volume to zero they eliminated the buzzing noise..
like you the sound from the pc was fed through their tv speakers or through a pair of headphones..
there are also posts about adjusting the refresh rate for the monltor helping to eliminate buzzing noises..
Try uninstalling the video drivers and re-installing, or even uninstalling/re-installing without the graphics card audio drivers selected. (you may need to do a custom install to see these options)
You might be getting it if you are playing a game with sound & also have internet radio playing at the same time. Do you have onboard sound or a dedicated sound card?
The games are running under load at less than 40oc so it isn't down to cooling.
I uninstalled and reinstalled the graphics card driver, but it happened as soon as I started a game up.
I've left it into my cousins computer shop to have a look and he's been trying to fix it since 9:30am this morning. I will try that custom install as well.
I didn't purchase a sound card, just a graphics card with NVIDIA audio and a HDMI lead. Should I perhaps purchase a sound card?
Also I had the sound for the game turned off. It still occurs. Thanks everyone btw.
Does it only happen with games and when listening to the radio? What happens if you play the games without the radio?
If possible, connect the TV using VGA instead of HDMI and plug in standard speakers or headphones and see if the same thing occurs.
Using tools like the Sysinternals Process Monitor and Process Explorer can help highlight any relevant activity prior/during/after the freezing:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinternals/bb795533
Will also try a vga cable.
Most motherboards come with a built in HD audio chip, sounds like it could be down to the nvidia audio driver that gets installed when you install the nvidia graphics drivers. You shouldn't need to get a dedicated sound card but I find they have better sound quality than the built in audio.
Try this to see if it helps, right click the speaker icon in the system tray & click playback devices. You will see various items in the list. Look for one that says Realtek or VIA audio down near the bottom of the list that has speakers in bold & click it once & then set it to default (make a note of what the default one is before you change it, default one will have a green tick on it) That might help stop the issue, if not you can always set it back to the one it was before you changed it.
That will stop the audio through HDMI to narrow it down to see if that or the Nvidia HDMI audio driver is the culprit.
It depends on whether the application in question simply uses the Windows default sound device or allows the user to select a specific device. If the latter then the default setting is irrelevant.
I have also known Windows change the sound device setting all by itself when it detects an HDMI connection. So Windows chooses the HDMI automatically without any intervention by the user.
This certainly happens on my laptop when I plug an HDMI lead in even though the built in soundcard is set as default device. The internal speakers mute and all sound comes from the TV on the other end of the lead. If I want to use the laptop speakers I have to change the setting manually.
When two devices connect over HDMI they communicate with each other to determine their capabilities. Therefore if you turn off audio on the monitor the PC won't see the monitor as an audio capable device.
Not sure it would be that easy to disable audio over HDMI on a TV however.
Mind you even if the OPs PC did auto switch to HDMI there should be no reason why he could not manually switch away to use the built in sound of the PC.
It has just happened now and the following has shown up in Event Viewer:
Activation context generation failed for C:\Windows\SysWOW64\DixXControlPanelApplet.cpl
Could it really be down to the HDMI lead rather than using a DVI lead? I find that hard to believe, but somebody told me to check that.
If it was me I would back up the windows install with macrium reflect free & then do a completely fresh install of the OS. I know windows 8.1 has a lot of drivers by default (ie I don't need to install motherboard drivers, only graphics & sound drivers)
I would check that all your hardware is secure on the motherboard, remove & insert memory, graphics & sound cards if you have them & check all connections & cables.
Reinstall the OS, drivers & update DirectX & try to see if it still does it, you can always restore the macrium reflect free backup to get all your data back.
HDMI and DVI are completely compatible with each other. The only difference really is that HDMI usually has audio data along with the video and DVI does not. And of course the physical plugs and sockets are different but electrically they are pretty much the same. Hence why a simple bit of wire can convert DVD to HDMI or vice versa.
So I can't see any logical reason why a DVI lead would work any better than a HDMI lead other than the fact that the DVI might not have any audio data.
On a previous PC of mine, the audio driver associated with the HDMI was just 'HD audio' which is a generic driver. If you can get hold of the driver for the specific audio chipset it might improve things.