Murat Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 Awhile back I posted in another forum about what could cause my computer to shut down while try to play games like Midevil total war 2,sims2 and GTA San Andreas. I was given advice that my psu was failing.I finally got the money up and went out and upgraded to a 450 watt psu.I am still however running into issues with it rebooting. In GTA whenever I try to hit someone it reboots In total war 2 whenever i try to go into a battle scene it reboots In Sims 2(alone and with expansions) when I try to build it reboots I can play NBA live 08 with no crashes or reboots at all. I can play Combat Arms(online game) without any trouble at all Computer Specs are: Emachines W3052 Sempron 3000+ 120gig HD 1gig of ram 1600 AGP ATI Pro 450psu(upgraded) 19 widescreen dell monitor I dont remember if it did this back in july when I had a standard 17 inch monitor because I hadnt played them in awhile and thought id dust em off and give them some more play time.Could the fact that the monitor being widescreen be causing some issues and making the computer reboot?If not please advise another idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a-guitarist Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 I'm no expert, by any means, but it sounds like your computer could be maxing out it's computations. I seem to remember being told, at one point years ago, that your computer figures out what to do by matrix computations, and when it does more than it can, or or a bad one, it blows up. Are you on vista or xp? Or something else? Vista has a compatablity problems I've heard, and can usually be fixed by right clicking on the launch icon and picking what OS you want it to run the game in. (I'd suggest picking xp). Further, if you do have Vista, you don't really have what is required to run the OS properly, let alone a game on top of that. Disable indexing pronto. I won't, myself, say it isn't the monitor causing this... in some way, possibly. But I've never heard of this happening because of that, it wasn't an issue with my widescreen... just made things look funky sometimes, until I fixed the issue with each program individually. Other things I'd suggest: reinstalling the offending games and applications. Update the OS to the most current version, and stroll about the official game forums for similar issues. a-g Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murat Posted January 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 thanks.It is xp sp2.Ive unistalled each several times with no luck.Ive never had this problem before.It played sims2 with all expansions and total2 for along time and never had this problem.I guess I will try using directx eradicator and reinstalling 9.0c.Ive also updated Ati graphic drivers a few times so I might go back and try to find the orginal disk that came with it and see if it works.Its just annoying that I finally have a nice big monitor that I dont have to zoom into see everything and now I cant play crap.I wouldnt mind buying a new computer sometime this year but chances of that are slim to none.If all else fails I will try a system wipe and see if that does it.At this point I dont care what I gotta do as long as I can play the games Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a-guitarist Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 XP had some issues with an update awhile back, causing reboots (if I remember correctly). If you've been doing system restore points, that'd be the next step. But, worst comes to worst, format and reload the thing. It's really not that big of a deal, takes an hour or two... and probably should be done every so often anyways, in my opinion. You may even try reverting to an older graphics card driver... I've seen that work on occasion. ATI should have it on their page, and there is a site that hosts only old drivers. (olddrivers.com maybe?) Anyways, I wish I was more help... there is always this cool thing www.ubuntu.com a-g Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murat Posted January 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 Sorry you wont convert me but i am in no hurry to update to Vista.Im finally getting to understand Xp's issues and I dont think I could handle starting all over.I have the original ati drivers that came with the graphic's card so if it dont work then I dont know.Im just hoping i dont have ram/motherboard issues or ill be only playing fl for along time.Im not saying thats a bad thing but I gotta have my fps to relieve stress after work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zhokril Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 It may be that your graphics card is insufficient . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WarriorCleric Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 Have you looked into it being a heating issue? If something is overheating then it's going to shut down or reboot. I don't know enough about the games in general to know if everything suddenly changes when those actions take place, but if you upgraded to a widescreen with a substantially larger resolution then your old cpu/gpu might not be able to handle to increase to computing/rendering of the graphics. (Makes sense for TW games when battles start, lots of little people on screen in some amazing detail.) Fortunately this is easy to check and rule out. Download some programs from your Graphics card's website that monitor heat levels. Google your results, see if it's getting to hot. Rule out the easy stuff before you make drastic changes. Anyone online who tells you to spend money on something to fix it should be kicked in the pants unless they have given you a list of other things to check, or multiple sources proving you need to buy an new PSU. Other options, have you turned down graphics and tried again just to check? WC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f0xx Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 I am with WC on this one. It looks like a classic overheating problem to me. I would suggest checking/cleaning your fans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest emp_newb Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 thanks.It is xp sp2.Ive unistalled each several times with no luck.Ive never had this problem before.It played sims2 with all expansions and total2 for along time and never had this problem.I guess I will try using directx eradicator and reinstalling 9.0c.Ive also updated Ati graphic drivers a few times so I might go back and try to find the orginal disk that came with it and see if it works.Its just annoying that I finally have a nice big monitor that I dont have to zoom into see everything and now I cant play crap.I wouldnt mind buying a new computer sometime this year but chances of that are slim to none.If all else fails I will try a system wipe and see if that does it.At this point I dont care what I gotta do as long as I can play the games Microsoft recently released SP 3. You should probably try that. If not I would check your RAM. If not that then definately blow out your system with a can of duster. Computers are Vacuums with no real way to port the air out. If none of that works you should try FL again Also if your looking to spend a low amount of money for a system I started work with a company called Sungeek, we sell referbs, I can also make sure it is a nice system cheaply. Let me know if you are interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murat Posted January 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 got website to look at? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest emp_newb Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 www.sungeek.com Im just saying we sell referbs locally. We are mobile tech/repair/networking/server maintenance so we come across a HUGE pile of unused parts, or pc's that had a damaged CPU and they just bought a new one, and we take the old. So if you give me the specs over a PM I can go dig around the work bench and find parts to make a gaming pc. We use 480 watt power supplies also Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest emp_newb Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 Also Emachines are like pintos, sure they are great when you buy them. Then someone bumps into it and it explodes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murat Posted January 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 yea I know.I almost had enough to get what i wanted early last year but it got derailed by a emergency.I never planned on having it this long but I cant complain 3 years of playing games and me abusing it worse than a 16 year old kid with a mustang. I got a ole 256 ddr stick that im gonna swap em out with to see if I can get lucky and figure out if either 512 stick is bad or both.If its both Ill be playin off the wife's laptop simply cause ill take a hammer to this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest emp_newb Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 Well if you wanna see if you have bad ram do this. take out one stick, turn it on. If it boots fine and just says memory changed thats fine. Then take that stick out, put the one you took out first in, if it does the same thing your ram is fine. If the PC beeps at you, you have bad ram, I dunno what version of BIOS you run, so the beep code could be any number of things. the most common ones is 2 short beeps or 3 short beeps. If you try to boot up with each one and it works fine your ram is ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murat Posted January 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 but it doesnt matter because if the motherboard blew a capacitor I believe both ram slots would be bad. I stopped for the night cause it was getting on my nerves.I will do the ram check tomorrow when kid is in school and wife is doing whatever she does.Then If it dont solve it then I will go back to orginal drivers and try a monitor that is not a widescreen just to see and last reformat.Should be a good day tomorrow :eek: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest emp_newb Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 but it doesnt matter because if the motherboard blew a capacitor I believe both ram slots would be bad. I stopped for the night cause it was getting on my nerves.I will do the ram check tomorrow when kid is in school and wife is doing whatever she does.Then If it dont solve it then I will go back to orginal drivers and try a monitor that is not a widescreen just to see and last reformat.Should be a good day tomorrow :eek: But if it gets to post, then you know it is NOT ram, so then you can try to check the board after that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grosek_ Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 Run a benchmark on your CPU and then your Video CPU. If it reboots, it is a heating issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murat Posted January 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 with cpu-z? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaggyboiler Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 Memory address most likely is the problem. A part of the memory. Run Memtest86 on your machine. If it goes though 100% then you know memory is OK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murat Posted January 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 Shaggy, I ran 8 passes thru the memory and it came back okay so I guess its not ram. Grosek, Any particular benchmark software u recommend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WarriorCleric Posted January 9, 2009 Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 I don't think it really matters much, as you are just trying to warm your system up, not relying on the results. I'd try anything that has a 3d graphics benchmark focus, though. WC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murat Posted January 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 I added a fan and checked the memory.I couldnt get the benchmark to work cause my computer doesn't have a required piece.I found a program called ATI Tool which test vid card temp.Mine is at 77C which is way to hot.I think we it got damaged a month ago when we got a bunch of surges and made the comp shut off and on in rapid succession.Its on a surge protector but that did it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WarriorCleric Posted January 9, 2009 Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 77 idle? http://novabench.com/ Might try that benchmark, WC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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