Help: PGA Golf - Game freezes/monitor goes black

[Midcoastsurf]

I have a PGA Golf Championship Edition 3 game.  Every once in a while, the screen will go blank and sound will cut out (the orange and green light on the front of the computer tower are locked on and not blinking when this happens).  I have to reset the game to get it working again.  I assume this is something with the computer?  Has anyone had this happen before?  This only happens when I am playing a course, and I can't replicate the crash.  I thought it only happened on Colonial CC, but it happened on the 1st hole of Pebble Beach tonight.  I tried different players, but the system will still freeze/crash.  Sometimes I am able to play for an hour with no issues.  Last night it crashed 4 times in a row, then I played about 5 different courses (9 holes on each) without an issue.  Now that I think about it, the problem hasn't occurred when the machine has been on for a while, only within the first 10 minutes of being on.

Thanks,
Brad

[smartbomb2084]

Do you have the RESTORE CDs?  If so, try reloading the software...

Have you opened up the tower and visually inspected the Motherboard for bad capacitors?

[stpcore]

In my experience with PGA and crashing/freezing issues it has almost always been the video card.  These towers generate so much heat that they crash regularly.  Pop the side off of the tower and keep it off.  I would then check to see if your video card fan is operating properly and if you even have a fan on the video card.  I recently replaced the video card on one of my machines with a freezing crashing issue and it fixed it without a hitch.  I personally like to use the TI 4200 128mb card as you can swap it out without any issues.  If I can help you further please let me know (I've been in your situation, beleive me!).

[Midcoastsurf]

Good insight about the video card...makes sense considering it takes out the monitor as well.  Where is the best place to find this video card?  I checked online, but everywhere is out of stock (I'm guessing because it is old and practically obsolete...except for people with this game

I'll also check the Mobo while i'm in the tower.

Did you also upgrade the memory on your computer?  I believe the game comes with 512mb.  Just curious if this improved performance much.

Thanks,
Brad

[stpcore]

I can normally find them on eBay for $10 - $20.  I upgraded with another 512mb of memory and the game loads and runs smoothly.

[stpcore]

Here is one on eBay for $25 shipped.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gainward-VG4TI420-8X-Ti-4200-128MB-AGP-VGA-Video-Card-Tested-/251211607530?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item3a7d60edea

[Midcoastsurf]

Perfect, I just got it on Ebay.  Did you add any fans pointing at the computer? (besides just taking the side of the tower off?).

[stpcore]

I haven't added any fans at all, although I'm sure it wouldn't hurt.  As long as the fans are functioning properly within the tower as well as the fan that is directly on the video card I've never run into any issues.  I do keep the side of the tower off though as I think that helps as well.  Once you get that video card replaced and your tower is running cool you should be set.

If you are going to increase your RAM you have to buy another 512mb stick as a 1gb stick will not be recognized.  You will notice the load times are cut down a bit and the game play isn't nearly as choppy during the flight of the ball.

Good job on the new video card!  Let me know how it works out for you!

[stpcore]

Here is a list of supported video cards that another member sent to me recently.  He found this in one of the folders of his "ALL ACCESS" PGA machine.  I'm not sure if all these are compatible with every version of the game but I know that the TI 4200 is a simple swap.

GeForce 6200
GeForce 6200 with TurboCache
GeForce 6600
GeForce 6600 GT
GeForce 6610 XL
GeForce 6800 Ultra
GeForce 6800
GeForce 6800 GT
GeForce 6800 LE
Quadro FX 4400
Quadro FX 540
Quadro FX 1400
Quadro FX 4000
Quadro FX 4000 SDI
Quadro FX 3450
Quadro FX 3400
Quadro FX 1300
Quadro FX 1100
Quadro FX 330
Quadro FX 3000(G)
Quadro FX 600
Quadro FX 500
Quadro NVS 285
Quadro NVS 280 PCI
Quadro FX 2000
Quadro FX 1000
Quadro FX 700
GeForce FX 5950 Ultra
GeForce FX 5700 Ultra
GeForce FX 5700
GeForce FX 5700LE
GeForce FX 5700VE
GeForce PCX 5750
GeForce FX 5900
GeForce FX 5900 Ultra
GeForce FX 5900 XT
GeForce FX 5900ZT
GeForce PCX 5900
GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
GeForce FX 5200 LE
GeForce FX 5200
GeForce FX 5500
GeForce FX 5100
GeForce PCX 5300
GeForce FX 5600 Ultra
GeForce FX 5600
GeForce FX 5600XT
GeForce FX 5600SE
GeForce FX 5800 Ultra
GeForce FX 5800
GeForce4 Ti 4800
GeForce4 Ti 4800 SE
GeForce4 Ti 4200 w/AGP 8x
GeForce4 Ti 4600
GeForce4 Ti 4400
GeForce4 Ti 4200
Quadro4 980 XGL
Quadro4 900 XGL
Quadro4 750 XGL
Quadro4 700 XGL
Quadro4 500 XGL
GeForce3
GeForce3 Ti 500
GeForce3 Ti 200

[Midcoastsurf]

Hmmm...sometime my tower turns on (solid orange light along with blinking green light), and sometimes only the orange light comes on.  I pulled a working GeForce 5600 card from a spare computer and swapped in two 512 sticks of memory.  The computer won't fully power on (no green light in front of tower and hard drive does not seem to be spinning).

I pulled the ASUS graphics card and it is fried!  Fan won't even spin by hand and the bearings a the center of the fan have separated.

Any ideas on why the computer won't fully start up?

Thanks

[smartbomb2084]

When you change the video card don't you have to change its drivers too by re-installing the software?

What Motherboard is this...NB32-SL or PS35-BL?

[stpcore]

Hmmm...sometime my tower turns on (solid orange light along with blinking green light), and sometimes only the orange light comes on.  I pulled a working GeForce 5600 card from a spare computer and swapped in two 512 sticks of memory.  The computer won't fully power on (no green light in front of tower and hard drive does not seem to be spinning).

I pulled the ASUS graphics card and it is fried!  Fan won't even spin by hand and the bearings a the center of the fan have separated.

Any ideas on why the computer won't fully start up?

Thanks

For PGA Golf towers that won't boot, start up randomly, etc. I have found 2 common problems.  The first one is replacing the power supply.  I've been using 500 watt power supplies on replacements and they work like a charm.  The second is replacing the battery on the mother board.  Replacing that battery has solved some boot problems for me.  And as strange as it sounds I've been able to start these things at times by holding down the power button (while the computer is one) for 30 seconds.  It shuts down the computer and then after about 30 seconds after pressing the power button again they will sometimes boot up. 

If you replace the battery in the mother board you will have to go back in and update the time and date in the CMOS settings.  You can do this by pressing the delete button during start
up.

If none of this works just wait to swap in that TI 4200.

[Midcoastsurf]

Update:

Had a spare 480w power supply that I threw in and the game powers up fine now.  There is still some lag in the graphics, but I am going to blame that on a fried graphics card.

My replacement graphics card just came.  I'm not sure which motherboard this is.  I took some pictures which I can upload later.

Thanks

[Midcoastsurf]

I installed the Ti4200 graphics card and now the screen displays the following message:

"Out of Range"

HF:  30-40KHz
VF:  47-160Hz

53.6KHz   85Hz

How do I adjust this to be back "in range"?

Thanks

[stpcore]

Have you tried adjusting the resolution or the refresh rate of the computer? That sounds like the issue to me. You may have to boot in safe mode and in the control panel go into the monitor display settings.  I think PGA runs at 30 frames per second but I could be mistaken. I can check my settings for you tomorrow if you are still stuck. Im not by my machine now unfortunately.

Sounds like you are just about up and running with this machine so hang in there!

[Midcoastsurf]

OK, I went in and re-started in "safe" mode, but the screen still wouldn't come up.  I hooked up the computer to an external computer monitor (which would allow higher resolutions) and went in and changed the settings from 75hz to 60hz.  I then hooked up the arcade monitor and it seems to work just fine now.

Is there a reason my motherboard has 3 memory sockets?  I thought memory sticks were usually used in pairs?  I have 2 512 sticks in there now, but have an extra 512 stick I could throw in the 3rd slot...would adding adding the 3rd stick be an issue? (sorry if this is a stupid question).

I'm going to try and hook up the 256mb graphics card I have (GeForce FX5600), install the drivers, and see if I can get the game going with that card instead of the 128mb card.  I assume the game would run smoother...I still get a slight lag when the ball hits the ground after being in the air.

Thanks

[stpcore]

I have (2) 512mb ram sticks in my towers and they run pretty well.  Not sure about your motherboard slots.  Glad you are up and running now.

[ed12]

hi
been watching this thread with interest
 an extra stick of ram will olny increase your :game: room,it has nothing to do with the video,now a video card jump from 128 to 256 will do wonder's for u..
i do not believe pga support's 512meg video

ed

[Midcoastsurf]

Thanks for the feedback Ed12,

I swapped in the 256 card and the game did not need any drivers installed (plug and play card - GeForce FX5600).  I tried updating the drivers, but for some reason, that made it worse (only allowed "4-bit" to be selected), so I had to roll-back the drivers (2008 vs. 2004).

The game runs much smoother now.  I'll throw in the 3rd memory stick (3x 512 total) since I don't have any other use for it.  Hopefully that will cut back load times even more.

The last thing for my game (other than updating it to Challenge of course - thanks Ed12!) will be to add a power switch on top that is more convenient.  It looks like there are already holes from where the tournament sign was located.  If anyone here has already made this mod, I would love to see how you went about it.

Thanks again for all the comments and help.  I really appreciate it!

[Midcoastsurf]

I have the NB32-SL motherboard and it appears this board supports up to 3 gb ram (3x 1gb).  Here is what I found on Crucial's website:

NB32-SL System Specs

Memory Type: SDRAM, PC133, SDRAM (non-ECC)
Maximum Memory: 3GB
Slots: 3

How much memory your Windows OS will recognize depends on which version of Windows you are running. 32-bit versions of Windows will see (and utilize) only 3GB or 3.5GB. To utilize more memory, install a 64-bit version of your OS. More information about OS memory maximums can be found here.

[ed12]

hi
for the pga golf by gobal vr
it is winxp>e<,which is striped down xp
so 2-x-512 is more then plenty head room

ed

[stpcore]

The game runs much smoother now.  I'll throw in the 3rd memory stick (3x 512 total) since I don't have any other use for it.

I'm looking for another 512 ram stick.  If you want to sell your extra one let me know.  Thanks.

[Midcoastsurf]

Stpcore:

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