A little background first before I explain my fix.
Specs: AMD XP 3200 +, GT6600 128 DDR3, 1 Gb RAM, WD SATA 250 Gb HDD. BF2 is patched to v1.41.
About a year ago while playing BF2 on an extended basis my then one year old GT6600 graphics card died on me in 3D mode. Plain old windows and 2d gaming worked fine. But the 3d environment would not work, I would get just a black window. So after reading NVIDIA forums and troubleshooting etc and using diagnostic tools, it was determined that the 3D portion of the card had died due to excessive heat build up. Basically my card was fried. This killed my BF2 fun! Bummer .
So I decided to purchase a new GT6600 but this time I would keep it cooler. I also bought a Zalman VF700 CU cooler. I swapped cards, installed the new Zalman VGA cooler and problems solved for a year. While I was inside my case I cleaned out the dust bunnies and re-seated my CPU heat sink (new application of thermal grease) and made sure my CPU fan was clean and that the CPU heat sink was clear for complete ventilation.
I should note that up until this point I never experienced a single CTD.
Well, starting about a month ago I had my first CTD! It got progressively worse. To the point that I could not even finish a single round without a CTD. After a one particular CTD, I rebooted my box and checked my CPU temp. 81 deg C. Hot when I normally ran in the 40 to 50's. Depending on what I am doing.
So I promptly shut down and opened up the case.
Low and behold dust from hell! My CPU heat sink was caked in a dust cover that would not allow the fan to cool. I pulled the heat sink, cleared out the dust. Pulled my AMD 3200+ chip cleaned off gently the old and almost cooked thermal grease. Re-applied some new thermal grease. Cleaned out the rest of the case and VOILA! Re-booted and played BF2 CTD free for over 4 hours!!!!! I rebooted once more and checked my CPU temp and I was not a 49 deg C.
The moral of the story is this... BF2 taxes a system BIG TIME! The 3D gaming environment pushes most graphic cards and CPUs and this will create a lot of heat. This heat need to be managed properly.... otherwise the cards and chips are vulnerable to failure.
If you are Crashing to Desktop often... check your rig and verify that you are properly cooling your RAM, CPU, and Graphics Card. This is one possible solution for a CTD.
Specs: AMD XP 3200 +, GT6600 128 DDR3, 1 Gb RAM, WD SATA 250 Gb HDD. BF2 is patched to v1.41.
About a year ago while playing BF2 on an extended basis my then one year old GT6600 graphics card died on me in 3D mode. Plain old windows and 2d gaming worked fine. But the 3d environment would not work, I would get just a black window. So after reading NVIDIA forums and troubleshooting etc and using diagnostic tools, it was determined that the 3D portion of the card had died due to excessive heat build up. Basically my card was fried. This killed my BF2 fun! Bummer .
So I decided to purchase a new GT6600 but this time I would keep it cooler. I also bought a Zalman VF700 CU cooler. I swapped cards, installed the new Zalman VGA cooler and problems solved for a year. While I was inside my case I cleaned out the dust bunnies and re-seated my CPU heat sink (new application of thermal grease) and made sure my CPU fan was clean and that the CPU heat sink was clear for complete ventilation.
I should note that up until this point I never experienced a single CTD.
Well, starting about a month ago I had my first CTD! It got progressively worse. To the point that I could not even finish a single round without a CTD. After a one particular CTD, I rebooted my box and checked my CPU temp. 81 deg C. Hot when I normally ran in the 40 to 50's. Depending on what I am doing.
So I promptly shut down and opened up the case.
Low and behold dust from hell! My CPU heat sink was caked in a dust cover that would not allow the fan to cool. I pulled the heat sink, cleared out the dust. Pulled my AMD 3200+ chip cleaned off gently the old and almost cooked thermal grease. Re-applied some new thermal grease. Cleaned out the rest of the case and VOILA! Re-booted and played BF2 CTD free for over 4 hours!!!!! I rebooted once more and checked my CPU temp and I was not a 49 deg C.
The moral of the story is this... BF2 taxes a system BIG TIME! The 3D gaming environment pushes most graphic cards and CPUs and this will create a lot of heat. This heat need to be managed properly.... otherwise the cards and chips are vulnerable to failure.
If you are Crashing to Desktop often... check your rig and verify that you are properly cooling your RAM, CPU, and Graphics Card. This is one possible solution for a CTD.