L4D2 lags and hangs, didn't use to, and I use an i7. Help?

I have this weird problem. After about 6 minutes of solid smooth FPS gameplay, the game begins to lag and my whole system begins to freeze up, and even windows stops responding. I have an i7, 4 GB RAM, nVidia Geforce 525M.

L4D2 used to run effortlessly on my system. Now, even after lowering the resolution down to 800x600, memory usage to Low, and all graphics to Low, after 5-6 min of gameplay, the system hangs and I'm forced to CTRL-ALT-DEL out (which the task manager takes a few minutes to load). It's that bad.

I checked for memory leaks and there are none, CPU usage for L4D2 stays at around 10% while on High settings, and 8% while everything is low. I checked Game Cache integrity on steam etc, and nothing seems to work! I don't want to format my computer.

Has anyone had a problem like this?

 

Had the same prob, solved after change graphiccard.

 

yup. or it could be a memory card problem. think there are some programs you can download and use to do certain checks on your hardware. or its like Marvel says a Videocard cooler which isn't working propperly. during games your GPU gets heated up. and will freeze at some point if a too high tempature is reached. try run some GPU or memory checks to see

 

Something similar happened to me when I used to use a laptop, and yeah it was overheating. Solved it quite simply by taking out the heatsink and cleaning it and the fan; there was so much dust and cat hair in there it was ridiculous, no problems afterwards. I assume you're on a laptop, using a 525M.

 

Furmark ran for 2 minutes and lagged to death.

It might have been a heating problem (my laptop was getting quite hot), so I pulled out my vacuum cleaner and tried to vacuum the fans. I have no idea how to remove the heat sink from a laptop, so that's beyond me. I found an old cooling mat so I put that under the laptop. Now to see if it helped any.

Thanks for the help.

 

Try a laptop cooler, that works as well.

 

Surprisingly, it was the temperature. Runs without lag now, thanks everybody!

 

Luke, just wondering if your Video Card could be overheating. I just got a new motherboard a few months ago and I5. Since then one of my cards overheats and after 5-7 min of gameplay my game will freeze making me do a hard restart. To prevent this I have a small house fan blowing on the card from outside of the case but I sometimes forget to turn it on. If your V-card came with software monitor and controls turn it on so you can see temps in game, you can also increase fan speed by using tools. I hope it is something as simple as that.

 

Most fan speed controllers are bios/OS based so they only work for certain laptops.
Luke mentioned he had a 525M meaning the regular nvidia software to control gfx card settings (like 3D, v-sync etc) and M -> mobile laptop = always a risk of heating problems

What I did for my old laptop was buy a mini 15W fan and lift my laptop with small stands so the fan would blow cool air under the laptop, under the ventilation so the cool air is taken by the laptop fans and pumped through the system. The problem with my laptop was that it would get the air from under but it wasn't lifted high enough with the rubber pads, so it really only pumped hot air through the system which didn't help...

Laptop coolers aren't the best solution for gaming pcs because the power of the fan is less than sufficient. One hardware temperature program that worked a bunch for me was EVEREST!

Also to clean the inside, not much you can do apart from opening the laptop and risking violating your terms of agreement on the warranty, so your best bet isn't a vacuum but a blower if you can get one.

 

dude the best way is..buy a new videocard( Pixel Shader:5.0,Open GL at least 3.2,Bus memory(biti) some 256)
then buy a liquid Corsair and u are set...
or a Coler Master..

 

..i forgot something...if the game crash and the win too,then is because of your videocard i think u have low bus memory,it cant be with the i7processor,the differences frequency to your processor and the videocard are bad so try to buy a GDDR.3 OR 5 with @ least 128-256 bits bus memory

 

..A block diagram of the Core i7 system architecture. Source: Intel.

 

You said you have i7, i7 is good processor and 4 gb ram should be enough for l4d bro, but check about your grapfic card its not to strong maybe.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-525M.43889.0.html
If you think is not a card then maybe is virus or something with a drivers.

I play with old Amd 6000+ and old gtx 260 and get between 35-70 fps on mgftw with medium settnigs.

 

DUDE this doesn't fit inside a LAPTOP lol

 

lol

still wouldn't fit

 

The problem was with the heating. I never had problems with my laptop before. It was good enough to play Crysis on High settings and L4D2 was a joke for the GPU/CPU. Recently it started lagging, and surprisingly, it was the temperature.

Now I have a fan blowing on my laptop, and I placed a book underneath it to make more room for its internal fans.

 

...with this all your problems will be solved..