Random crashes when playing games in XP Home

[Mithrandir01]

Basic problem: programs randomly crash, especially Medal of Honor (MOHAA), but any other game or program crashes too. Every piece of hardware has been replaced, the computer has been rebuilt multiple times, programs have been un-installed and re-installed.

History:

- Unpacked brand-new computer
- Installed MOHAA and Need for Speed
- MOHAA in particular crashed frequently. Crashes happened completely randomly, the game would run anywhere from 2 minutes to 2 hours. "Crash" means everything completely locked up, and I had to hard-reboot (turn it off).
- Need for Speed and other games locked up too (in the same way), but not as often.
- Per tech support, replaced video card (ATI Radeon 9200 SE). No change.
- Per tech support, replaced motherboard. No change.
- Returned case to manufacturer, who blamed a bad memory stick
- Tried to play MOHAA and NFS...same problem.
- Had other program crashes (such as the system screensaver)
- Reinstalled XP
- Installed MOHAA...same problem.
- Per tech support, replaced CPU chip, no change
- Computer was quite unstable
- Sent case back in, 2nd time: they replaced the HDD
- Now, fresh OS, clean everything.
- Installed MOHAA
- MOHAA runs for less than 30 seconds and freezes, then crashes to the desktop. The sound continues on for a minute or so past the freeze point.
- NFS runs for awhile, eventually crashes in the same manner as MOHAA
- Replaced video card with Radeon 9600XT
- No change whatsoever in system behavior

- Other current symptoms:
- computer occassionally crashes completely and automatically restarts, showing the "Windows has recovered from a serious error" on reboot.
- the following are sure to crash ("xxxxx has generated errors and will be closed by Windows") at some point in use, perhaps about once an hour, on average.
- Mozilla, Internet Explorer, and Firefox
- InterActual Player (DVD player) crashed
- Trillian (IM client)
- MOHAA
- Need for Speed
- Age of Empires II

I've checked the system and application error logs, but can't see any pattern: it seems to be a different fault marker each time. I also made sure I had the latest driver from ATI: I have also tried older drivers without noticing any difference. Replaced the 300W PSU with 350W and 500W PSU's...no help.

Since I wrote the above, I've increased the paging size drastically, to 4096 MB. That seems to help...MOHAA will play for about 15 mins now before crashing (to the desktop: Event Viewer says "Faulting application MOHAA..." The rest of the message varies as to which module caused the crash). The "serious error" message hasn't showed up since I increased the paging size, but it hasn't been long enough for me to be sure that problem is fixed. Someone also suggested I increase the registry size, which is easy to do in Windows 2000 or XP Pro, but apparently hard or impossible in XP Home?

Specs:
CPU: Athlon 64 3200+ 2 GHz
1 GB RAM
XP Home, version 2002, SP 1
ATI Radeon 9600XT

Any ideas? I'm completely out..

 

[gpalmer711]

Perhaps not what you wanted to hear but if these are the problems you are experiencing after all these parts being replace I would say send the machine back and demand a refund.

Take a look at faq779-5240 and follow the instructions, If you could perhaps post a couple of the messages here we might be able to find a link.

You could try testing the Ram

http://www.memtest86.com

Greg Palmer
Free Software for Adminstrators

http://www.palmersoft.co.uk

 

[franklin97355]

Borrow the game disk from a friend and see if things improve. If not, call tech support before the warranty runs out. Don't go messing around inside before you call tech support.

 

[satrow]

Is the PSU up to the task?

Some manufacturers try to get away with very low output PSU's.

Andy.

 

[DRowland]

Here's another idea.
right click the shorcut, and choose properties, then advance, and select to run in separate memory space. I did this on some of the game I play regularly, and it made them load faster, with less hangs and snorts.

|========================|
I sure wish there was a way
to receive the best teaching,
without having to go through
some of the worst experiences!
|========================|