Random computer resets and crashes to desktop.

[Naetha]

My computer randomly crashes (BSOD) as well as ToA regularly randomly crashes to desktop. I have done absolutely everything I can think of bar formatting the hard drive:

Reinstalled ToA
Reinstalled windows
Virus scanned - no viruses found, and have decent anti-virus and firewall
Installed uber fans - both CPU fans and exhaust fans - CPU runs at a max of 46 degrees C.
Upgraded all drivers
Rolled drivers back
Changed sound card
Switched gfx card from Geforce fx 5700 Ultra to Radeon 9500 pro
Changed BIOS settings to remove high end settings
Run in NT4 compatibility with ToA
Tested my memory with Memtest 86
Changed UIs

My system is a:

Athlon 3200+ XP
MSI K7N2 Motherboard with Nforce2 chipset
1024 MB of Kingston DDR 400mhz RAM (can't remember exact description)
Gfx card(s) as listed
Creative Soundblaster PCI128
Hitachi 40GB HDD
Windows XP Home

Am I missing anything or have I really done everything?

 

[Kami]

Sounds very similar to a problem I had with my old PC, over the course of a year I did just about every type of test I could get to find the problem, reinstalled everything, updated everything both drivers and firmware. Turned out to a faulty stick of RAM which several mem testers said was fine. If your able to either swap the RAM out and try it or try it with just one stick of RAM in (if you have two sticks). You may also want to try it in alternative RAM slots on the motherboard.

Just thinking out loud - worth a try though.

Unrelated I think but Soundblaster PCI128 cards aren't the best, never had a problem with DAOC but back in the days when I played Ultima Online it cause no end of crashing to desktop. (edit just noticed you've tried it without this..)

 

[Naetha]

I'll try running on one stick of RAM

 

[Naetha]

I tried it without my sound card (I coudln't remember if I'd put that in before or after the problems had started) and it still crashed to desktop, so I'll try it with one stick of memory.

 

[Naetha]

Tried it with all different configurations of memory and memory slots, and I still crash. Guess there's nothing else to do but throw my computer out of the window

 

[behatch]

Custom built? no? take it back.

It may be somthing faulty on your motherboard which leads too bad flow off elecricity...??

At my college there is approx 15 pc's in the room and they all do it OFTEN.

(btw that was just a guess with the bad flow)

 

[Arbaal]

Had a problem fairly similar. Didn't crash to desktop, crashed to a blue screen of death ;<

Tried everything, in teh end was faulty motherboard. Had to replace, now everything works fine...

 

[Kami]

sounds like you've only got the CPU and motherboard to swap out, tricky though especially the mobo if you've no similar one around

 

[jnh]

the windows reinstall was a full format wasnt it? because just reinstalling windows causes even more problems :\

oh, and download and run ad-aware from www.lavasoftusa.com, might help

 

[Bishibosh]

I've no idea if this will work for you, but my daoc used to disappear from desktop randomly, roughly every 10-30 mins. Someone suggested FreeRAM XP Pro which optimises memory in the background, and this stopped my crashing, as it was due to lack of free ram... although I only had 512MB at the time and so I doubt this is ur problem... Mayb try neway :S Sorry if that was noobish advice and would never work lol, just worked for me.

 

[the_hermit]

This is exactly what is going on with my wife's computer... Sometimes DAoC just vanishes, leaving you sitting and staring at the Desktop, and other times, the screen goes blank, then the Memory Test comes up as it restarts the computer.

Like you, we've tried everything, reinstall, full reinstall, changing and swapping bits here and there, even took off the sides and sat a house fan blowing into it incase it was a heat issue! We've got it down to motherboard/processor - so we got a new one yesterday, and are rebuilding her machine today!

 

[Kalid]

Also never rule out some cheap (read shitty) NICs that can make your life quite miserably...

 

[Bolds]

Take a look at what it says the next time you get a bsod, sometimes you can get a hint of what the problem is. Here is some info on what different parts that are in a bluescreen, and here are some common stop-messages, or try to search for the stop-code (STOP 0x000000D8 for example) on google or microsoft.com.

 

[Graknak]

Had the same, bought a heatsink for the Graphics card and CPU and installed a few extra coolers on the case itself, no more problems now.

Xp just stinks when it comes to heat, soon as the heat is too high it reboots and if ya disabled that it shows a nice bsod.

 

[Naetha]

I've sorted the BSOD problem by removing my soundcard, I'm still getting the crashing to desktop - it usually comes up with an error message saying Camelot has encountered a problem (which is in game.dll) and has been forced to close, but sometimes there's no error message, and it just vanishes. I tried the Free RAM XP optimiser thing, but it made no obvious difference, and certainly didn't stop the crashes. I'm pretty sure its not overheating as there's no obvious reduction in crashes since I installed the fans.

the_hermit - if rebuilding your computer works, can you pm me as that might be the only option I have, although the computer is brand new so I'll send it back before trying it myself

 

[Tasslehoff]

My computer just restarts sometimes when playing, frustrating on bigger raids, where everybody either have to wait for you, or have run away from you

 

[Naetha]

ToA is still crashing to desktop every day - sometimes I get one crash a day, sometimes I get 12. I've had a look at the error logs, it means nothing to me really, but this is (I think) the important part is this: Version 0.1.5.2, fault address 0x00244ecd.
if that means anything to anyone

Please help meh!

 

[Kalid]

Please give the whole error code, usually there's more to it.

Example of what a log might contain:

3/31/2004 9:45 AM Application Error Faulting application updmgr.exe, version 1.5.2.0, faulting module mfc42.dll, version 6.0.8665.0, fault address 0x00001351.


I've heard some people with these kinda problems are using Kazaa, and when they remove it they didn't get any more errors.......

 

[Naetha]

05/06/2004 19:30 Application Error Faulting application game.dll, version 0.1.5.2, faulting module game.dll, version 0.1.5.2, fault address 0x00244ecd.

 

[Kalid]

Open eventviewer/applications and check for ALL errors (if there are more than one).

 

[Naetha]

There are just the single errors when it crashes. I've formatted my hard drive, and I've stopped getting BSODs, but my computer now just randomly restarts for no apparent reason, and there's no error log or anything. I'm also still getting ToA crashing to desktop. Done full virus scan again and I'm clean as I had about 50 people suggest that I had the sasser worm

 

[the_hermit]

There are just the single errors when it crashes. I've formatted my hard drive, and I've stopped getting BSODs, but my computer now just randomly restarts for no apparent reason, and there's no error log or anything. I'm also still getting ToA crashing to desktop. Done full virus scan again and I'm clean as I had about 50 people suggest that I had the sasser worm

I will put my money on the RAM (unless you've got some new sticks, then my money is going back in my pocket!)... Memory problems don't always generate an error report, and I suppose it would cause problems with a specific part of the DAoC code.

On another note - it COULD be the Power Supply... Odd but true - after getting a complete new motherboard, processor, graphics card and RAM, a complete format and reinstall of WinXP Pro - DAoC and UT2004 STILL crashed for no reason. Turned out to be a problem with the switching power supply - 3d games increase the power needed, and if there's a problem with the PSU, then too much power or not enough can cause all kinds of problems.

So after replacing virtually everything, it was the bloody power supply!

Good luck!

 

[Naetha]

Would a buggy power supply cause the crash to desktop or just the random rebooting/BSODing?

 

[Naetha]

I'm also trying to see if the computer crashes with any other similar games - as I really have no interest in playing anything other than daoc for any period of time longer than about 20 minutes is there any way I can test this? Most games crash after they've been idle for any period of time - I've been told that running 3DMark on loop should test it - think this will work?

 

[Sparda]

he could be right you know, those new gfx cards that require there own power conector chew the power big time. If theres not enough going about then the PC would just "disable" the device till there was more power available. That would explain random crash's. No new pc should have less then 400w psu.

 

[Maleg]

Had issues with game crashing to desktop / rebooting. Always with a memory error with the Nvidia driver. I play the game 1280 x 1024 I think but my desktop resolution was 1600 x 1200. I reduced the resolution of the Desktop down to 1280 x 1024 and everything has been stable since.

Wierd I know, but might be worth a try if you have similar settings.

 

[Naetha]

Bingo I think we might have found the problem - its got a 300w PSU with a sticker on it that says suitable for Pentium 4 (mine's an Athlon). I've checked the resolution, and both daoc and desktop resolution are the same.

Incidentally, would the crappy PSU cause the crashing to desktop, or just the rebooting?

 

[Kalid]

300w is enough to run athlon system.

The error message indicates a memory problem, do you have any DAoC friends you can borrow a memory module from? If the memory module is known to be good and only crashes on your computer, then my next guess would be a faulty motherboard.

 

[CliffyG]

I have similar problems but too lazy to update drivers. I do find that i don't get any reboots when playing in windowed mode for 5 hours plus but as soon as i go standard mode i crash every 30 odd minutes.

 

[Naetha]

I'm sorry my computer has me absolutely flummoxed

I formatted the hard drive yesterday, and just installed the basic things I need to run it - WindowsXP Home, ToA and DirectX, as well as motherboard drivers and gfx card drivers.

Since then, whenever I run daoc it randomly reboots - it doesn't give any error messages, or BSOD, just a simple reboot. I then installed 3DMark to see if that would cause any crashes, and its crashed on nearly every run of the 3DMark demo, in random places. I also encountered one of the crashes to desktop while running DAoC - same crash to desktop as I had previously. This is the error: 07/06/2004 20:54 Application Error Faulting application game.dll, version 0.1.5.2, faulting module game.dll, version 0.1.5.2, fault address 0x00001115.
. I know its not exactly the same, but seems similar at least.

As for memory, I've tried swapping over memory modules in different slots, running on one stick of memory etc, so either all 3 of my memory slots are faulty, or both of my memory sticks are faulty (both good quality branded memory sticks). Also no errors came up in memtest 86.