Few games crash (monitor turns off)

X1800XTTOP

Hello people

Im having a problem (been experiencing this for a while and finally would like to ask about it).

A few (4 actually) games have had this problem. They play fine, for about 10-15 minutes, and the monitor will go into stand-by (after having an image freezing).

Those games are;
Hitman4: Blood Money (makes this game unplayable as you cant load saves after game-shutdown - you have to compleate a level wich i cant in less than 10min..)

Faces of War (sometimes after only 5 minutes of gameplay)

Splinter Cell 3: Chaos Theory (doesnt happen as often in this game, as it does with the others - but it does happen)

Civillisation 4 (cant even complete the tutorial)

I´ve had this problem since i got these games - meaning i´ve tried everything from 6.1 to 6.9 without this issue getting fixed.

I have the very latest drivers installed for everything (and yes - i check things often). Right now im using the 6.9 chuck drivers, but as i mentioned - all drivers have been giving me this problem.

Note that i dont believe it is a hardware issue either. I play alot of games. With my "new" (got it back in new year) X1800 i´ve played probably over 40 games. Countless hours of Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion without ever (not even once) having the monitor going down like that (or any other issue for that matter).

Yet, if i fire up any of these games - within 15 mintues, im staring at a black screen. The are not on the same engine, not using the same catalyst settings. I cant find any link between these games that could possibly lead me to the issue.

I´ve tried VPU-recovery both on and off - neither makes a diffrence. My monitor is the Samsung SyncMaster 940B. I have drivers installed (i reinstall these after each ati-driver installation) and I´m using the DVI-connection.

Anyone with an idea of what the issue could be? Thank you for your time.

Ray Adams

Do you overclock your video board?

X1800XTTOP

No, i do not personally overclock the board, but the TOP-version is overclocked by default (to 700/1.6) - and of course it came with custom cooling too (Temps: idle; 49C, max temp under load (oblivion); 67C)

But if it was the overclock that was the problem, wouldn´t demanding games like FEAR, Oblivion, GhostRecon:AW, Call of Duty 2, Need for Speed: MW, Prey and Riddick also act like this?

That´s the thing - my computer is very stable. I´ve never had any crash or bluescreen or anything like that (not that i remember anyways). Nothing has ever ran slowly or laggy - most of the time the computer is what i would call "perfect".

But fire up one of those 4 games - and within 15 minutes the monitor will shutdown just like that.

X1800XTTOP

Any other ideas? Is there any setting in the CCC or maybe the BIOS that can cause these kind of issues? I´ve gone through both and cant really find anything.

Has anyone else experienced this kind of issues with these games?