All games keep crashing to deskop

Caimbeul

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Hi, i was wondering if anyone had any ideas as to what could be causing this, Here goes...

Im trying to sort my bro's PC out for him as all games are crashing back to desktop, from NFSU 2 to Icewind dale 2 + more they all start up fine and play fine but they all (particularly IWD2) will crash back to desktop within a few mins to an hour or so. no error messages are displayed.

I have dissabled all unnecessary start up items, its the 2nd fresh install of XP Pro (first time with only SP1 now with SP2) DX 9.0c installed, all latest drivers (Nvidia Nforce 5.10 + Nvidia 66.93) - have also tested memory as best i can (tried just one stick on its own, then the other on its own, this didnt resolve the problem)

His system is as follows: XP2100+, 512Mb unbranded RAM, ASUS A7N8X Deluxe Rev2.0 with Bios Ver 1006, Leadtek Ti4200 64Mb, 80Gb Seagate Barracuda.

I cant for the life of me think what it could be. It may be a case of not seeing the wood for the trees but any ideas would be greatly appreciated. oh and if there is a better place to post this, please just say - i thought i'd post here due to the high level of knowledge held by some of the guys that frequent this forum.

Thanks!


<i>Mmmm Dawn AND Eve at the same time...Drroooooll
-------------------------------------------------
<b>XP2800 Barton, 2x512Mb PC2700, ASUS A7N8X, Hercules 9800Pro 128Mb. :cool:
 

folken

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Do you have the asus utility installed to monitor the temps of you mobo/cpu while in windows? That sort of sounds like a heat prob but I think a heat prob would cause a system crash not just a program crash.
See what the event viewer has to say when the crash occurs.

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>
 

Locomotive000

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/format/reinstall windows
ps:windows suck
seems like a memory leak or problem with graphics card

amd64 3000+
1gig ddr pc 3200-400
ati 9800xt
250 wd 7200/8mb cache hd
dvdrw plextor 708A
k8 albatron k8x800 mobo<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Locomotive000 on 12/19/04 10:26 AM.</EM></FONT></P>
 

jammydodger

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Could be graphics card overheat, leave the case open and feel the graphics card heatsink to see how hot it gets.
Have you tried running memtest86 for a few hours?
How much virtual memory have you got assigned?
What PSU are you using?
 

bjpatrick

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Does the PC crash under any other heavy loads? I would have to say: wipe everything. Start over. Get the important files needed and go from there.
 

Esso

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Some how I don't think that overheating would cause you to crash to your desktop. It would cause your whole system to halt or crash... but not just dump you back.

I agree with the format/reinstall.. that usuall fixes everything. One strange thing that happened to my old PC was when I dumped saved ghost image back onto it and this image happend to have C:\ shared to everyone. For whatever reason, all the shortcuts for my games (and god knows what else) had run paths of \\<computer_name>\<game> instead of the C:\<direct_path>\<gamename>.

So when I tried to run a game they would either do nothing or run past the splash screens and intros and then crash.
 

jammydodger

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If it was a graphics card overheat it could cause a crash to the desktop. I seem to remember ATI having a crash prevention system was would stop the computer crashing when the GFX card had an error. This might halt the game completly and lead to a crash to desktop rather than a full system crash.
 

addiarmadar

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Sounds like the AGP card overheating, make sure to keep it at stock for a bit. Maybe the fan of the HSF is slowing down. Try putting a large case fan over it or plug in another NVidia-class card in there.

<i><font color=red>Only an overclocker can make a computer into a convectional oven.</i></font color=red>
 

Caimbeul

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thanks for the response...card isnt oc'd, have tried another Ti4200 in it to no avail, tried other RAM too. anyone thing the CPU could be in the process of giving up?

<i>Mmmm Dawn AND Eve at the same time...Drroooooll
-------------------------------------------------
<b>XP2800 Barton, 2x512Mb PC2700, ASUS A7N8X, Hercules 9800Pro 128Mb. :cool:
 

addiarmadar

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Its possible but Im leaning toward the Mobo. CPU can really take some punishment and if you are not OCing, even with a stock HSF it should be fine. Have you take the HSF off the CPU to make sure it is not damaged or has gunk or deris touching the cache nodes?

<i><font color=red>Only an overclocker can make a computer into a convectional oven.</i></font color=red>