Win XP makes my games crash!!! help!!

gonzo · Post by **gonzo** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 3:00 pm

I just dont know what to do, with every game i play on my PC, whether they are dos games or win games, i play 5 minutes and then the game mysteriously crashes, and my mouse and keyboard die, and im forced to re boot. why the hell does this happen?? i've tried the compatibilty wizard and it stills crashes, games like heroes of might..., starcraft, even neogeo emulators, and even the dos game one must fall, they all crash, please somebody help

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 5:33 am

this is not an OS problem as I've played a lot of games, old and new alike, from releases in the early 90s like Master of Magic and Master of Orion to current things like Heroes of Might and Magic IV, Master of Orion III, Morrowind...

So, the problem could be one of three things as I see it: bad configuration, bad hardware (least likely), bad programs. Well, it might also be a faulty installation of OS.

- Bad config: Could be lots of things in this category, but the most likely one is malfunctioning or outdated hardware drivers. Make sure you update them all. Either search microsoft for drivers or find the web page of each hardware manufacturer and get their latest drivers. Note that for some hardware there are semi-generic drivers in case you can't locate the exact one for your card. Example: on old computer, I had an nVidia card with a Riva TNT chipset. nVidia was bought by some other company, and no longer supported the old nVidia cards. It was still possible to get drivers for cards with the TNT chipset which solved that problem for me.

Bad programs: Anything nasty that may reside in your computer. Update virus database and perform an anti virus scan. Get the latest reference file for ad-aware and/or spybot and perform a complete sweep of malicious stuff residing in your computer.

Bad OS: Try running in safe mode. Else reinstall/repair OS.

Bad hardware: Some of your hardware is not functioning properly due to problems in the actual hardware, as opposed to driver problems. Not only can the process of locating the problem be tedious, but it could also mean you'd have to spend some money. However, once you've done the other things, start off by removing any "unneccessary" peripheral devices, connected to the computer by USB, serial etc.

Oh, btw, has your system always crashed when running games, or did it just start doing so at some point? This is as much things as I can come up with without more information.

gonzo · Post by **gonzo** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 5:55 pm

thanks for all the tips, i had already tried most of the solutions you named, but it the problem was something very simple really. I read that p4's tend to heat up rather quickly and their reaction to high temperature is simply freezing up. So i took off the side cover of my pc's cabinet and put a fan right next to the hardware, and guess what, it has never crashed since.

meatpilljunkie · Post by **meatpilljunkie** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 3:55 pm

gonzo wrote:thanks for all the tips, i had already tried most of the solutions you named, but it the problem was something very simple really. I read that p4's tend to heat up rather quickly and their reaction to high temperature is simply freezing up. So i took off the side cover of my pc's cabinet and put a fan right next to the hardware, and guess what, it has never crashed since.

Just a silly question:

Do you have a Heat-sink and fan (HSF) on your P4 processor?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 12:26 am

Nice you found the error.

Just on a side note, I have a P4 myself and never experienced this problem. But as asked in post above, I have HSF, as well as an extra fan in the computer casing that helps getting fresh air inside the box (no I'm not talking about the "power supply" fan)...