Total lockup in games...Is registry cleared during reformat? 2

[Shadowlover]

My computer completely locks up, although only when playing games. (Everquest, Civ III, Black and White). I have reformatted more than once, but I do not know if the registry is cleared during a reformat. Is it possible that there could be some problem in there that remains?

System:

Soyo Dragon Ultra Platinum 8x, P4 2.4BGhz 533, 1 stick 512Mb Kingston DDR400, Sapphire Radeon 9500 Pro 128MB, WD JB 80GB 8MB cache, TT-350 Silent PS, Win XP Pro fully updated, DX 9, no over-clocking, and excellent cooling.

I have updated bios and all drivers and as for hardware I have changed MB, CPU, Video, and memory. Only HD and power supply remain but will go soon I guess.

Thank you for any insight you may have...

 

[bcastner]

If you reformat the drive and do a clean install the registry is not an issue. A maintenance re-install is not going to change your registry very much.

But if I had to guess I would focus attention on your video board. First, back off the hardware acceleration slider under video properties, Troubleshooting. Run a cmd session of DXDIAG and see what happens when you run through all the DirectX tests. Visit ATI's site and some of the Game sites and Forums for tips. Make certain your BIOS settings disable any on-board video chipset if it exists, and that the RAM setttings for video are appropriate if they exist. Focus on the video board.

 

[linney]

Everything is replaced by formatting and re-installing XP.

To get further information about the error look in your Event viewer.

Look in the System or Application folder. You can get to the Event Viewer via right click My Computer icon and select Manage.

Any errors logged in the Event Viewer can be expanded by double clicking on the error line.

Take any event error I.D. number and search for it on this site.

http://www.eventid.net/events.asp

I think the latest version of DirectX is 9a and there is a recent update at Windows Update.

HOW TO: Verify Unsigned Device Drivers in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q308/5/14.asp

Try the games troubleshooter at this site.

http://techchat.ea.com:4080/rnw/helpwinxp-index.html

http://techsupport.ea.com/troubleshooting/winxp/

 

[Shadowlover]

Thank you bcastner and linney for confirming that the register gets wiped during a reformat.

There is a ton of info in that Event Viewer (I didn't even know that was there). Im having everyone who uses the computer to write down the time if it crashes to see what is happening at that momment.

I lowered hardware accel. to the lowest that Everquest will still load and ran DXDIAG. Every tab in DXDIAG says no problems and all the tests were successful. Still same lock up. In the past I even installed Mad Onion SysMark 2001 and it executed all those tests with no problem. I dont remember the scores but I was pleased considering it is a moderate budget system. I gonna research on ATI's site when I get back.

Thanks again, you have given me some avenues to explore...

 

[bcastner]

Be sure and follow linney's advice to upgrade DirectX to 9.0a.

Best of luck.