I've had this problem for like a year, eventually I just gave up on it, but lately I've been wanting to play HL2/it's mods more so I'm determined to fix it.

Basically, I'll be playing, and all of a sudden the screen's image will freeze (or be incredibly choppy for a second or two and then freeze), and the audio will go into like a one second loop. If I manage to get back to Windows I usually find that "steam.exe" is using 99% CPU resources. Sometimes I can't get back to Windows, and have to force a reboot. A few times, I've had it crash and both of my monitors just turn off. If I log into my PC with VNC everything works, but it's like my video card just gave up. When I reboot the monitors come back on.

Now, a few months ago I RMA'd my video card because I thought that might be the problem. I went from a GF 7800 GT to a GF 7950 GT. Clearly that didn't help my problem.

My specs are Athlon 64 3500+, 1 GB DD4 400, GF 7950 GT. I'm using my monitors onboard sound because I thought maybe my Audigy 2 was causing the problem (it wasn't).

Any help would be much appreciated. I tried searching this problem when I was first having it, spent *a lot* of time on it, and never found anything that worked.

It mostly happens in CS:S, but I've had it happen in other mods too.

It's probably also worth mentioning that when I first tried the Bioshock demo I had the monitor-shutting-off thing happen when the map was first about to load. I updated my drivers to the ones recommended for Bioshock and it worked fine after. Also, I *think* I've had the freezing-with-looping-sound issue happen in Oblivion, not sure if it's related.

I have the same thing happen with my 7800GTXs, I've still not found a solution.

It's done it in XP and Vista, with the X-Fi in the comp or not...

Silly people. Still playing games on PCs.

i've given up and moved on to my 360.

Can't you just turn off whatever steam.exe is (or delete it), and then play your game? Or is the game itself called steam.exe?

You're not overheating are you?

I've had that BEFORE I had overheating issues. Could be sound related, but found no fix.

Steam is what launches the game, but I'm not sure if it needs to be running for the game to continue working. Next time I play I'll try launching the game, then closing Steam.

I really don't think it's a heat issue, I've had it happen after playing for a long time, or within the first 60 seconds.

As for the PC comment, the reason I gave up on this issue was because I had basically switched to gaming on my 360 full time But lately I've had a craving for some PC gaming.

Also, I seem to have better luck if I play user-made maps rather then stock ones. The only reason I can think of would be maybe it's because retail maps are more detailed?

Oh right, steam. That sucks.

I had a problem with Steam games (games like Guild Wars and Battlefield 2 were fine) with an EVGA 7800 GT* (can't remember which, exactly) where the Vista video drivers crashed CONSTANTLY. Upgrading to an 8800 GTS solved the problem.

Basically, have you tried using a different video card?

Well, other than switching from a 7800 GT to a 7950 GT, no, I haven't.

Because in that case it's definitely the video card and CAN'T be the drivers.

Honestly, it's probably a driver issue specific to your make and model of card (or in this case your card's maker), so look and see if you can find something about it on google. If not, it could be something with your windows install (XP is always great about that--random undocumented problems popping up in random installs. Fun ****.)

Because, when you change the video card, you never use different drivers. :downs:

I would see if the CPU is over heating and also check on your PSU. It sounds like a hardware issue, but you'd be seeing artifacts if it were your video card.

The steam.exe issue is worth looking into too, though, as it should be taking hardly any CPU time at all. If you don't have these problems on an other games, try completely reinstalling steam. (Delete left over flies/folder ect. after install)

Sounds like an old problem that I had with my laptop, when the graphics chip overheated it would gear down the performance to adjust for that heat... maybe you should check the vents on your computer and the fan... are they jammed with dust?