Tips on how to get Warcraft 3 to work on my computer?

[vietgurl]

I've been playing Warcraft 3 fine until today when my computer decided to start freezing during the Campaign (Chapter 3 Into the Realm of the Eternal). I'd be about 5 minutes into the game and the screen would become a mess of colors and freeze or the monitor would stop receiving input and I'd be getting only sound (and it'd eventually freeze if I left it there). When I restart my computer, I get this error that says that my video card had failed and had to be reset or something like that; it pretty much says that my video card fucked up. I've installed the WC3 patches, deleted and reinstall my video card drivers, taken the card out of my computer and put it back in, let my computer sit for about 30 minutes before trying again, googled the problem...nothing seems to be working. Does anyone here have any other tips I should try? Here are my system specs:

3.0 GHz pentium 4
1.0 GB RAM
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (128 MB)
etc...

This should be more than enough to run Warcraft 3 fine. I turned off all of the programs I usually have running in the background (except for my firewall and antivirus) and it still froze. I have directx 9.0 and I've checked that by typing in dxdiag in Run but everything seems fine. The video card test animation from the Blizzard site works fine too.

Maybe I should just copy my save files over to my gaming laptop and play there...

EDIT: wow, I must have been tired when I wrote this...so many spelling errors

[redgopher]

Might be a graphics driver issue. You may need to use older drivers in order for it to work right. I know I used to have to downgrade my nVidia drivers or else WC3 would have serious video problems.

[GreenMonkey]

http://www.blizzard.com/support/?id=awr0649p

In the steps it suggests updating your motherboard drivers...a good idea - are your MB drivers up to date? What kind of PC or motherboard?

Also, I saw mention on the google search that the videos can conflict and cause crashes...specifically with codec packs. Didn't sound like the videos were the cause of the problem but FYI.

In general it sounded like there were some sound problems...one of the steps on the blizzard troubleshooter is to run a reg file that mutes the sound (keeps it from initializing I assume), etc to test...sounds like a good step to help isolate the problem.

[SOSTrooper]

Does it only freeze in WC3 or in other recent games as well? Worst case scenario is that video cards do fail sooner or later. Check to see if the video card is overheating by inspecting the fan and how hot the card is when the computer freezes.

[Oktoberfest]

Some tips that might off from Blizzard Technical Support Site
http://www.blizzard.com/support/?id=awr0585p
http://www.blizzard.com/support/?id=awr0572p

[btw1217]

As a last resort, replace the video card. It'll fix the issue if nothing else will.

[psiufoxx2]

Is your card overheating? Could be a cause for concern.

[WolfPac_Ite]

There are many different reasons for this to happen. I would pick over heating as the prime suspect. Have you cleaned out your PC recently? Was this self built, or bought from a custom builder? If so, then make sure it has enough cooling.

[psiufoxx2]

I would also recommend a clean install of Windows.... you NEVER know what downloads, utilities, spyware (undetectable) etc might be causing a conflict. If you have your original windows disks you can re-install the core system without having to reinstall your programs (you may need to reinstall some drivers too..)

It's a good last resort.