Multiplayer losing VGA signal

[Jagger2002]

In the last couple days,I have had several instances of losing VGA signal while in multiplayer. The monitor goes dark and I cannot regain the VGA signal. I have to kill power to the computer and restart to regain the signal.

While monitor was dark, I tried using a different monitor and mouse to see if that was the problem but screen remained dark. I have a GT730 video card. It has the latest driver as of last spring 2018. However I found out today, NVidia has now ceased support for the card. I also unplugged both the PC and Monitor for 10 seconds plus and restarted but problem just occurred again. I also turned off sleep mode on the computer which is using Win7.

Again the problem has only occurred in the last couple days. I had two occurrences in a row doing an Egypt turn in FOGE yesterday and then on the third attempt was able to complete the turn. Today, I had two instances with the last turn of a FOG2 game before I was able to view and exit without losing VGA signal. And just now, I had an instance with a Dacia game in FOGE. The weird part is that so far, I have only had the problem while playing multiplayer with either FOG2 or FOGE. The problem appears random in that sometimes I do a turn and there is no problem. Although three occurrences today is not promising.

I will watch to see if it occurs outside of multiplayer and let you know if it does. Since I normally keep my computers running 24 hours a day, I would expect to see the problem outside of multiplayer if the problem lies somewhere within my computer system. Right now, it seems to be related to the multiplayer server.

Anybody else seeing this problem?

[pipfromslitherine]

Is it possible that the card is overheating? That could cause the behaviour you are seeing.

Cheers

Pip

[Jagger2002]

The problem appears to have cleared up on its own. I had two days of problems and nothing since. Hopefully it stays that way.

[Jagger2002]

Problems back as of yesterday. Very quick dropouts of VGA signal when in multiplayer. I have to shut down the computer to get the signal back. I am unable to complete turns. No problems for the last couple months since I last had it happen. PS: Also happening with FOG2.

[Jagger2002]

The problem is with my computer and not multiplayer. I loaded the game on my old internet computer and no loss of VGA signal. So some problem with my good computer.

[Hendricus]

I have this problem too, can watch YouTube all the time I want, but Empires let's me play only limited timeframe. Played 1000 hours before without trouble though. A bad thing is all moves are lost when VGA signal makes screen black and power has to be cut to make a restart. OOh boy this sounds like real trouble.

[Hendricus]

Is it possible that the card is overheating? That could cause the behaviour you are seeing.

Cheers

Pip

The trouble was not there before, but do you have a tip, so the card does use less heat ? The computer does feel warm indeed.

[Hendricus]

Perhaps the steam update had something to do with the signal failure ?

[pipfromslitherine]

A number of things to try

+ run in Windowed mode, this will look identical but can behave better with older drivers.
+ hit SHIFT+Q to see the framerate top left. If it is above 100 then it could be that the timer is being interfered with (sometimes happens with power saving motherboards). You can then try adding the line

FPSLIMIT 50

to your USER.TXT file in Documents/My Games/FieldOfGloryEmpires. This lowers the max framerate. You can then tinker with the value until you have a smooth framerate and no heating up.

That said, it's quite an old card and it may just be struggling with the amount of work. Ensure that its fan and board are free of dust (use compressed air to clean it, not a duster!!!).

Cheers

Pip

[Hendricus]

A number of things to try

+ run in Windowed mode, this will look identical but can behave better with older drivers.
+ hit SHIFT+Q to see the framerate top left. If it is above 100 then it could be that the timer is being interfered with (sometimes happens with power saving motherboards). You can then try adding the line

FPSLIMIT 50

to your USER.TXT file in Documents/My Games/FieldOfGloryEmpires. This lowers the max framerate. You can then tinker with the value until you have a smooth framerate and no heating up.

That said, it's quite an old card and it may just be struggling with the amount of work. Ensure that its fan and board are free of dust (use compressed air to clean it, not a duster!!!).

Cheers

Pip

Reset it from full screen to windowed and the black sceen did not appear, so thanks mate. The computer is warm but not hot this time.

[Jagger2002]

My problem was my video card fan was not operating properly and finally completely quit. The fan was dusty and dirty. Cleaned it out and manually spun the fan until it finally started operating properly. However I think the card was already damaged at that point.

In diagnosing the problem, I downloaded a small program called realtemp. It gives the temp of the ComputerPU and GraphicsProcessingUnit. The CPU temp was fine. The GPU temp soared to 208-215 F within a short period of time when I opened either FOG2, FOGE or Pike and shot and then the vga signal was lost. Under regular operation and games with less graphics demand, the card operated fine and did not heat up excessively. My solution was to buy an identical card and replaced the old card. So far, no problems at all and temperature of the GPU is fine. Also I suspect the fan will need to be cleaned every 6 months or so.