Usually after plying on Borderlands for about 15 minutes the screen will freeze up, then turn black. The monitor then goes into standby, turns back on again, and this message is displayed on the screen:



Before it does the screen is usually dotted with small spots like this:

Here's an example:



Any help?

Your drivers crashes update them or use an older version.

They're up to date as far as I'm aware... I'll check soon.

post temps and full specs

Knew I'd forgotten something.

OS: XP Home Edition 32-bit.
Proccessor: Intel Pentium 4 - 3.4 GHz
GPU: Radeon X1650 Pro
2GB RAM

Sorry, but I can't remember anything else, and I'm not at my PC just now.

Overheating, possibly? I have almost the same specs (except Athlon 64 and 1gb of RAM) and run Borderlands for hours on end.

I doubt it. I think it's probably the drivers. I'll check for updates when I get home.

Drivers are up to date.

Where can I download older drivers?

I've never owned an ATI product so I don't know anything about where to get their older drivers, but there will be a link on their website.
Also, looking at your second picture I would say it is artifacting, which would be a heat related problem or your card is simply on it's way out.

Oh I just looked at your specs, holy shit a P4
You sure your system can even handle it? I mean I'm running a Q6600 and 8800GT and it lags when shit gets real.

I get the same symptom, only, I get it usually 5 mins after startup, the screen will just go black, then the VPU recovery will pop up.

My specs:

OS: XP Home Edition 32-bit.
Proccessor: Intel Core2Duo E7400 (2.8GHz)
GPU: Sapphire 3870 512MB
2GB RAM

No lag at all. One of the smoothest games I've played. On par with TF2.

The case hasn't been cleaned in ages, so I'll give that a clean, see if that helps with the heat issue.

Edited:

The black pepper of death only appears on Borderland, by the way.

Oh right, yeah clean out the dust.

It's a Dell, so it's got a big hole in the side where the dust gets in.

It's possible that something is conflicting with your hardware setup. Maybe a Borderlands patch will fix it up. Anyways, you aren't missing much. The game is lackluster and uninspired.

You do realise I can still play the game for about 20 or so minutes before it crashes, right? It's a great game.

Not really related, but why are you running such a low resolution lol?

LOLOLOLOL

Because I don't want it to lag, like it does on higher resolutions.

Does your GPU have a power plug in it? If so, is it going loose?

I doubt it. I can run other games fine. I'll take a look at the state of affairs inside the case later on.