Mysterious Black Box of Death.

**Thanatos** · May 06, 2011, 01:21 AM

"Yeah, time for a good game of Civ 5/browsing Youtube/Moderating TWC/whatever."

*doo dee doo dee doo, just minding my own business*

THEN SUDDENLY.

DISASTER.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

But seriously. It keeps freezing pretty damn randomly, and I always get this weird black box that goes over my mouse. It always appears. Thoughts? Advice? Remedies?

**GasMask** · May 06, 2011, 03:00 AM

Looks like a CPU problem to me not a graphics one as the pixels appear to be fine just my theory im moving house so cant give full answer however i have seen this before have you checked for other programs which may cause the problem ?

Report back.

Cheers.

EDIT

Try rolling back your system to a previous date if that does not work i suspect you may need a new processing unit.

Edit

Just read last part about mouse go to control panel/hardware and sound/Mouse then look for mouse icons make sure nothing is conflicting and that everything appears to be fine if not simply choose another icon by the way what mouse are you using.

**Bolkonsky** · May 06, 2011, 06:46 AM

Always over your mouse?

First thing I'd do is clean out my PC. Make sure everything's cool, has no dust, fans are all working, etc.

**GasMask** · May 06, 2011, 06:53 AM

I dont see how cleaning his pc out can fix his mouse but hey great advice ad it may solve the problem.

I have had this problem exactly the same however i never cleaned my pc i simply changed something in the mouse options and it went away im positive its something to do with your mouse running in both gaming windows then underneath its telling you something but i just cant remember DAM !

**Thanatos** · May 06, 2011, 10:47 AM

Ah, I forgot to mention the worst part. Whenever the mouse turns into the black box, my computer always freezes, from anywhere in about three seconds, to about a minute. It just completely locks up.

Still a CPU problem?

**Dewy** · May 06, 2011, 10:53 AM

If it is a hardware problem strange how it affects the mouse and nothing else apart from the freezing. Did you add any new software/update since this started happening?

**Thanatos** · May 07, 2011, 02:58 AM

Originally Posted by Dewy

If it is a hardware problem strange how it affects the mouse and nothing else apart from the freezing. Did you add any new software/update since this started happening?

I wish I knew. This has been going on, on and off for about two years now.

**Ishan** · May 07, 2011, 02:10 PM

Yeah Video Driver issue nothing else, Do a clean uninstall then reinstall the latest version it happens in windows XP a lot and i believe you have that thanny.
Also do what bolkonsky suggested clean the dirt, over heating of the GPU due to it also results in such abnormal graphics behavior.

**Crazyeyesreaper** · May 07, 2011, 04:49 PM

Its an AMD / ATi driver issues been around for a long time,

As Ishan stated its a gpu driver issue nothing else this issue is more common with crossfire then single card situations, update your gpu drivers to the newest avaible 11.4whql, should stop the issue,

The problem is also far more likely to happen if you have multiple monitors, as each monitor is synced on its own it basically causes 1 monitor to have a screwed up cursor and the other to look perfectly normal

I can also tell you the error above happens more often when running, Open GL apps, especially anything running pre Open GL 2.0, this is from my own testing, i have 1 game that on drivers before 11.4 would cause the issue every time. Its a cursor issue aka cursor corruption. ill leave some links documenting the issue but its been around since DX10 ATI gpus started out, just randomly happens, my guess is a hardware to windows usage issue. As Mac OS, and linux do not suffer the problem as far as i can tell.

http://forums.amd.com/game/messagevi...hreadid=137745

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/27...rsor-distorted

anyway hope that helps you at least a little bit.

**Thanatos** · May 08, 2011, 03:47 AM

How do I do this in Windows 7? Should I merely run CCleaner and uninstall the ATI Catalyst?

**Ishan** · May 08, 2011, 04:54 AM

You have to use Driver Sweeper, it's a freeware.

**Crazyeyesreaper** · May 08, 2011, 11:18 AM

dosent even need to do that latest AMD drivers are pretty good in terms of uninstall and reinstalling without issue

just download the 11.4whql that fits your Operating system, launch it tell it to uninstall, remove all drivers then reboot, once back in windows launch the same exe again install all drivers reboot done you now have up to date drivers.

**GasMask** · May 09, 2011, 09:57 AM

I knew it was something either GPU or CPU so i was on the right tracks indeed this goes into my book that i will be releasing in 2012 for the ultimate computer tricks and tips

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