New games crash computer

Chips203 · 01-02-2009, 10:56 PM

I'm running Windows XP, 2GB ram, Pentium 2.6 processor, DirectX 9.2c (should be the most current version), and a Radeon X1650 graphics card.

After playing certain games for a while, the game will crash and my computer will reboot. However, if I have firefox up or an unsaved document it will still stall for a few seconds asking me to save them before I restart.
If I don't respond after about 4 seconds, the computer will automatically select "no" and reboot. It seems to happen at places where there are a lot of graphics or enemies or terrain to load. I can recall this happening on Gears of War 2 before fights, or in Fallout 3 when just travelling the city and looking at things like water and looking long distances, or when I look at my wrist computer thing for a long time (like 5 minutes).

I tried turning down graphic settings and screen size (full screen to windowed, to different size windows...) which does not change anything.

Other games I have that work fine: Battlefield 2 (demo), Counter-Strike Source / Half-Life 2 / Team Fortress 2... FEAR, Morrowind.

PROBLEM 2: During random times during these games, sometimes my monitor will flash green about 5 times while the physical COMPUTER (not speakers) makes a "Beep" noise simultaneous with the flash.

Is this a problem with the graphics card? That would be my guess.

Laurie52 · 01-03-2009, 04:44 AM

Could be. Check Computer Beep codes for specific meanings.

When was the last time you opened the case to clean out the dust? And/or checked the card? If it has a fan, it might be going out.

Chips203 · 01-03-2009, 11:53 PM

I just de-dusted my computer. I removed a lot of dust that was blocking airflow from some warm areas. My graphics card is screwed in pretty well, it was very difficult to remove so I just left it. I am pretty confident that thing is going nowhere anytime soon. The problem still seems to persist, however.

Also, I seemed to have a hard time finding the beeping codes for my custom built PC but I will try to find those as soon as I can...

Chips203 · 01-04-2009, 02:13 AM

I checked beep codes, and for my motherboard I guess the beep I had was due to a memory problem. I removed, blew, and put back in the RAM and it doesn't seem to beep or flash anymore.

However, I am still getting random shut downs. They seem to be more frequent, I'm not quite sure why. In Fallout 3, They tend to occur during battle with many enemies, or when I haven't had a battle in a while.

Mcninjaguy · 01-04-2009, 03:59 AM

you'll want to rum memtest86 for at least 3 passes on each stick of ram indvidually installed to check for ram errors
http://www.memtest86.com/

Chips203 · 01-04-2009, 10:19 PM

I tried all day to get memtest86 working. My CD burner isn't working, I don't have a floppy drive, and formatting the flash drive wasn't working either. On top of that, it seemed pretty confusing without the added stress anyway.

I did however try playing with only 1 stick of 1gb ram at a time (2 sticks = 2gb) and alternated their slots. It still crashed after not much time, however. And I noticed the green flashes/beeping again. Maybe they were just hiding when I have the 2 sticks in because I didn't activate them since I cleaned. Both sticks acted this way.

Mcninjaguy · 01-05-2009, 05:00 AM

can you try testing the ram in another working computer?

Chips203 · 01-05-2009, 12:51 PM

I can't, as I happen to have the only known desktop for hundreds of miles it seems; everybody else has laptops! Also, it's custom built.

Is there another way to test ram I could do? I was just doing some Googling to see if there's some sort of log program I could be running in the background as sort of a "black box" to catch the error as I crash. No success yet though...

**koala** · 01-05-2009, 01:22 PM

Event Viewer is the nearest thing Windows has to a black box recorder.

Chips203 · 01-05-2009, 03:40 PM

Ah, yes. Thanks Koala.
After looking through a lot of things I discovered this. It was the first event listed at the time of the crash.

System:
WARNING / ATI HotKey Poller / "System is forced to be shutdown because graphic card in unexpected high temperature."

**RockmasteR** · 01-05-2009, 04:39 PM

your graphic seems to overheat, try to clear the dust from it and from its fan...
you can also use GPUz to check the temps of your video card, you can download it from my sig

**koala** · 01-05-2009, 04:48 PM

Go to Start > Run, type services.msc and hit OK to bring up the Services windows. Right-click ATI HotKey Poller and select Properies. Stop the service and disable it. It's only needed for changing the display using the keyboard and is a waste of resources if you don't need this feature.

Make sure the graphics card fan is spinning, free of dust and unobstructed by cables. If you need to clean it, be careful not to bend or snap any of the fan blades.

Check your graphics card temperature with ATITool.

EDIT: sorry, didn't see you there, Rockmaster. You beat me to it

Chips203 · 01-05-2009, 08:47 PM

I just took out the graphics card, blew out the dust in the fan and in the socket and put it back in. Then I went to a movie for about 2 hours or so, turned on my computer and tried to play again. It still crashed.

I downloaded ATITools. My GPU was at 90C after the computer restarted (after the last crash) and has been declining (now it's at 81C).

Mcninjaguy · 01-05-2009, 11:20 PM

how many case fans do you have and which directions are they blowing

a temperary fix is to leave the side of the case open and have a fan blow on the insides of the comp

Chips203 · 01-06-2009, 01:35 AM

I will try opening my case and leaving it open next, then.

Here is a picture of my computer

There are several fans inside which should be fine I thought. The graphic card's fan is underneath it, so maybe it's not getting the best fresh airflow. There's not much more I can do for options on adding fans. I have one extra [the one I'm pointing at] which I tried to clip to the graphics card (as there was no where else to put it) but it didn't do anything, so I took it out.

Tiber Septim · 01-06-2009, 02:05 AM

If it was still 90C after a restart then there could be a problem.
Most new cards can operate around ~100C before you have any issues. I think the newer ATI cards have something called VPU recover or something that shuts the card down at 100C.

However, for an older model card such as yours it really shouldn't be that high.
It still looks like there is a lot of dust on and around your motherboard so try and clean that out. Also try and tidy up the cabling a bit to improve airflow.

How exactly did you clip that other fan onto the Graphics card?

Mcninjaguy · 01-06-2009, 04:26 AM

you could've damaged the video card you have by putting the fan there.

like Tiber Septim said your video shouldn't go that high, it could be at the end of its life, you want me to make a eulogy if it is dead?

**RockmasteR** · 01-06-2009, 04:53 AM

I have a Geforce 9400 GT with passive heating and I got a temp of 60 to 65 C after gaming, so you really got a problem there. maybe the Video Card's Fan isn't working? just open your case and leave it open, and check the VGA's fan if it's working or not.

01-02-2009, 10:56 PM	#1 (permalink)
Chips203 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 8 OS: Windows XP	New games crash computer I'm running Windows XP, 2GB ram, Pentium 2.6 processor, DirectX 9.2c (should be the most current version), and a Radeon X1650 graphics card. After playing certain games for a while, the game will crash and my computer will reboot. However, if I have firefox up or an unsaved document it will still stall for a few seconds asking me to save them before I restart. If I don't respond after about 4 seconds, the computer will automatically select "no" and reboot. It seems to happen at places where there are a lot of graphics or enemies or terrain to load. I can recall this happening on Gears of War 2 before fights, or in Fallout 3 when just travelling the city and looking at things like water and looking long distances, or when I look at my wrist computer thing for a long time (like 5 minutes). I tried turning down graphic settings and screen size (full screen to windowed, to different size windows...) which does not change anything. Other games I have that work fine: Battlefield 2 (demo), Counter-Strike Source / Half-Life 2 / Team Fortress 2... FEAR, Morrowind. PROBLEM 2: During random times during these games, sometimes my monitor will flash green about 5 times while the physical COMPUTER (not speakers) makes a "Beep" noise simultaneous with the flash. Is this a problem with the graphics card? That would be my guess.

01-03-2009, 04:44 AM	#2 (permalink)
Laurie52 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 226 OS: WinXP Home SP2 My System	Re: New games crash computer Could be. Check Computer Beep codes for specific meanings. When was the last time you opened the case to clean out the dust? And/or checked the card? If it has a fan, it might be going out.

01-03-2009, 11:53 PM	#3 (permalink)
Chips203 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 8 OS: Windows XP	Re: New games crash computer I just de-dusted my computer. I removed a lot of dust that was blocking airflow from some warm areas. My graphics card is screwed in pretty well, it was very difficult to remove so I just left it. I am pretty confident that thing is going nowhere anytime soon. The problem still seems to persist, however. Also, I seemed to have a hard time finding the beeping codes for my custom built PC but I will try to find those as soon as I can...

01-04-2009, 02:13 AM	#4 (permalink)
Chips203 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 8 OS: Windows XP	Re: New games crash computer I checked beep codes, and for my motherboard I guess the beep I had was due to a memory problem. I removed, blew, and put back in the RAM and it doesn't seem to beep or flash anymore. However, I am still getting random shut downs. They seem to be more frequent, I'm not quite sure why. In Fallout 3, They tend to occur during battle with many enemies, or when I haven't had a battle in a while.

01-04-2009, 03:59 AM	#5 (permalink)
Mcninjaguy Temporarily Banned Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Posts: 10,422 OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit My System Blog Entries: 1	Re: New games crash computer you'll want to rum memtest86 for at least 3 passes on each stick of ram indvidually installed to check for ram errors http://www.memtest86.com/

01-04-2009, 10:19 PM	#6 (permalink)
Chips203 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 8 OS: Windows XP	Re: New games crash computer I tried all day to get memtest86 working. My CD burner isn't working, I don't have a floppy drive, and formatting the flash drive wasn't working either. On top of that, it seemed pretty confusing without the added stress anyway. I did however try playing with only 1 stick of 1gb ram at a time (2 sticks = 2gb) and alternated their slots. It still crashed after not much time, however. And I noticed the green flashes/beeping again. Maybe they were just hiding when I have the 2 sticks in because I didn't activate them since I cleaned. Both sticks acted this way.

01-05-2009, 05:00 AM	#7 (permalink)
Mcninjaguy Temporarily Banned Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Posts: 10,422 OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit My System Blog Entries: 1	Re: New games crash computer can you try testing the ram in another working computer?

01-05-2009, 12:51 PM	#8 (permalink)
Chips203 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 8 OS: Windows XP	Re: New games crash computer I can't, as I happen to have the only known desktop for hundreds of miles it seems; everybody else has laptops! Also, it's custom built. Is there another way to test ram I could do? I was just doing some Googling to see if there's some sort of log program I could be running in the background as sort of a "black box" to catch the error as I crash. No success yet though...

01-05-2009, 01:22 PM	#9 (permalink)
koala Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: UK Posts: 12,405 OS: XP/7/Ubuntu My System	Re: New games crash computer Event Viewer is the nearest thing Windows has to a black box recorder. __________________ New members: Subscribe to your thread (Thread Tools) to receive an instant email notification when you get a reply. TSF Folding@Home Team 85015 - details here

01-05-2009, 03:40 PM	#10 (permalink)
Chips203 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 8 OS: Windows XP	Re: New games crash computer Ah, yes. Thanks Koala. After looking through a lot of things I discovered this. It was the first event listed at the time of the crash. System: WARNING / ATI HotKey Poller / "System is forced to be shutdown because graphic card in unexpected high temperature."

01-05-2009, 04:39 PM	#11 (permalink)
RockmasteR Moderator, Games Team Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Lebanon Posts: 3,180 OS: Vista Ultimate 32bit My System Blog Entries: 1	Re: New games crash computer your graphic seems to overheat, try to clear the dust from it and from its fan... you can also use GPUz to check the temps of your video card, you can download it from my sig __________________ CPUz GPUz Nvidia Drivers ATI Drivers System Information for Windows (SIW) Revo Uninstaller RivaTuner ATITOOL Directx 9.0C !!Please don't PM me for Tech Support!! Last edited by RockmasteR; 01-05-2009 at 04:42 PM.

01-05-2009, 04:48 PM	#12 (permalink)
koala Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: UK Posts: 12,405 OS: XP/7/Ubuntu My System	Re: New games crash computer Go to Start > Run, type services.msc and hit OK to bring up the Services windows. Right-click ATI HotKey Poller and select Properies. Stop the service and disable it. It's only needed for changing the display using the keyboard and is a waste of resources if you don't need this feature. Make sure the graphics card fan is spinning, free of dust and unobstructed by cables. If you need to clean it, be careful not to bend or snap any of the fan blades. Check your graphics card temperature with ATITool. EDIT: sorry, didn't see you there, Rockmaster. You beat me to it __________________ New members: Subscribe to your thread (Thread Tools) to receive an instant email notification when you get a reply. TSF Folding@Home Team 85015 - details here Last edited by koala; 01-05-2009 at 04:50 PM.

01-05-2009, 08:47 PM	#13 (permalink)
Chips203 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 8 OS: Windows XP	Re: New games crash computer I just took out the graphics card, blew out the dust in the fan and in the socket and put it back in. Then I went to a movie for about 2 hours or so, turned on my computer and tried to play again. It still crashed. I downloaded ATITools. My GPU was at 90C after the computer restarted (after the last crash) and has been declining (now it's at 81C).

01-05-2009, 11:20 PM	#14 (permalink)
Mcninjaguy Temporarily Banned Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Posts: 10,422 OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit My System Blog Entries: 1	Re: New games crash computer how many case fans do you have and which directions are they blowing a temperary fix is to leave the side of the case open and have a fan blow on the insides of the comp

01-06-2009, 01:35 AM	#15 (permalink)
Chips203 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 8 OS: Windows XP	Re: New games crash computer I will try opening my case and leaving it open next, then. Here is a picture of my computer There are several fans inside which should be fine I thought. The graphic card's fan is underneath it, so maybe it's not getting the best fresh airflow. There's not much more I can do for options on adding fans. I have one extra [the one I'm pointing at] which I tried to clip to the graphics card (as there was no where else to put it) but it didn't do anything, so I took it out.

01-06-2009, 02:05 AM	#16 (permalink)
Tiber Septim Asst Manager, Games Team Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Queensland, Australia Posts: 2,871 OS: Fedora 11 / Windows 7 My System Blog Entries: 5	Re: New games crash computer If it was still 90C after a restart then there could be a problem. Most new cards can operate around ~100C before you have any issues. I think the newer ATI cards have something called VPU recover or something that shuts the card down at 100C. However, for an older model card such as yours it really shouldn't be that high. It still looks like there is a lot of dust on and around your motherboard so try and clean that out. Also try and tidy up the cabling a bit to improve airflow. How exactly did you clip that other fan onto the Graphics card? __________________ First Steps - System Specs - SIW Help TSF beat Cancer and other serious Illness.

01-06-2009, 04:26 AM	#17 (permalink)
Mcninjaguy Temporarily Banned Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Posts: 10,422 OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit My System Blog Entries: 1	Re: New games crash computer you could've damaged the video card you have by putting the fan there. like Tiber Septim said your video shouldn't go that high, it could be at the end of its life, you want me to make a eulogy if it is dead?

01-06-2009, 04:53 AM	#18 (permalink)
RockmasteR Moderator, Games Team Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Lebanon Posts: 3,180 OS: Vista Ultimate 32bit My System Blog Entries: 1	Re: New games crash computer I have a Geforce 9400 GT with passive heating and I got a temp of 60 to 65 C after gaming, so you really got a problem there. maybe the Video Card's Fan isn't working? just open your case and leave it open, and check the VGA's fan if it's working or not. __________________ CPUz GPUz Nvidia Drivers ATI Drivers System Information for Windows (SIW) Revo Uninstaller RivaTuner ATITOOL Directx 9.0C !!Please don't PM me for Tech Support!!