Tom's Hardware > Forum > Games General > Games General Discussions > Computer won't let me game!
Ask the community Add a reply
Word :    Username :           
 
Kogaya   08-03-2008 at 09:15:53 AM

Just got an old rig up and running. Whenever I try to play a game, as it turns on the screen goes blank and the computer resets. What's going on? Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Add a reply
Sponsored Links
Register or log in to remove.
Proximon   08-03-2008 at 11:00:37 AM
- 0 +

Would need far more info.

Is the game compatible with the OS?

Reply to Proximon
rtfm   08-03-2008 at 01:43:40 PM
- 0 +

Could be lots of things, heat, power supply, bad ram/cpu/gfx card yada yada yada... Like Proximon said, how about some more info:

What mobo, cpu, ram, gfx card, psu etc
What software, game, os etc
Does it reset doing anything else

Also try prime95 stress test, find out your temps for gfx and cpu

Try mem test to check your ram

Run Dxdiag (on xp - start menu > run and type "dxdiag", I'm not sure about earlier versions) and try all the tests.

Reply to rtfm
Kogaya   08-03-2008 at 10:51:44 PM
- 0 +

Thanks for the response guys. So like I said this is an old rig, never the less i'd like to get it fixed up... so here are some of the specs:

Epox EP-8VTAI
Asus Radeon A9800
Crucial 512 mb ddr ram
AMD XP 1800


So after doing some more research I realized it could be a myriad of different things. If you guys could provide some more tests that I could run to isolate the problem I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.

Reply to Kogaya
rtfm   08-03-2008 at 11:54:39 PM
- 0 +

Check your temps in hardware monitor:
http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

Check your ram with memtest86:
http://www.memtest86.com/

run a stress test (good for testing cpu and general system stability) using prime95:
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm

See if you can run this (for gpu stress test):

http://www.daionet.gr.jp/~masa/rthdribl/

Did you pass the dxdiag tests?

Are you sure your power supply is ok (test with another or psu tester)?

Reply to rtfm
llama_man   08-05-2008 at 05:17:56 PM
- 0 +

Could be that the old graphics card doesn't support the Direct X version required by the game?

Message quoted 1 times
------------------------------ +46.53 Pedantry/+75 Wingding Approval/+27 Vindictive bastard/+7 innovative violence/+11 Scouse trophies/Bastages WD:9 RC:4 AV:1 [specials; cluster:2,leather elbow patched:1,pre-approved:3,first class (upgrade):1,multi-thread:1,double-barrel:1]
 Reply to llama_man
rtfm   08-05-2008 at 07:00:09 PM
- 0 +

llama_man wrote :

Could be that the old graphics card doesn't support the Direct X version required by the game?



That would just crash the game, or produce a windows error, wouldn't reset the pc, would it?

Reply to rtfm
llama_man   08-06-2008 at 10:28:47 AM
- 0 +

Sorry, missed the bit about the computer resetting as well! That suggests a hardware fault to me.

------------------------------ +46.53 Pedantry/+75 Wingding Approval/+27 Vindictive bastard/+7 innovative violence/+11 Scouse trophies/Bastages WD:9 RC:4 AV:1 [specials; cluster:2,leather elbow patched:1,pre-approved:3,first class (upgrade):1,multi-thread:1,double-barrel:1]
 Reply to llama_man
Ask the community Add a reply
Tom's Hardware > Forum > Games General > Games General Discussions > Computer won't let me game!
Go to:

There are 974 identified and unidentified users. To see the list of identified users, Click here.

Forum map
Bestofmedia Forum ©
2000-2009 Bestofmedia Group
Page generated in 0.254 seconds
Please mind

You are about to answer a thread that has been inactive for more than 6 months.
If you still wish to proceed, please ensure that your posting is original and does not duplicate or overlap any prior responses to this thread.

Add a reply Cancel
Sponsored links
  • Ask the community now
  • Publish
Ad
Related Topics
See all relatives topics
They won a badge
Join us in greeting them