Gaming/Network problem

Gig · 02-26-2009, 12:16 AM

Hi all

, I'm kinda new here, and I'm not exactly sure where to post this.
First off, this should make some more sense if I introduce myself first. I'm Zak, I'm 15 years old and am in a family of 7. We have 7 computers. One is currently not being used, another is my sister's personal computer, and 3 others are meant specifically for my and my sister's virtual schooling. The final two are family computer and family laptop.
We use satelite internet, run by a wireless belkin router.

Anyways, recently my family bought 2 ethernet crossover-cables to allow us to play computer games together. When playing 2 player games we would connect 2 of the computers together with the crossover and play just like that. When playing with 3, we hooked the crossover cables into the wireless router and hooked those into the router, which was plugged into the 3rd computer.

The first problem we had was while using a 6 year old - I think - Windows XP computer connected to a 3 year old - again, I think - Windows XP. Both computers were running with Service Pack 2, not 3. The problem here was we plugged the crossover cable into each machine, and then started up our game, Age of Empires 2: Age of Conquerors. The older machine - used by me - started up the lobby, and began setting the game up while my brother started to connect to the lobby. After the usual 10-20 second wait his computer beeped and then restarted. We didn't take this as a sign of anything bad, maybe just a brief glitch or something got unplugged. After checking all the connections and making sure everything was secure we retried the same exact way as before. After the 10-20 second wait the newer computer was in, everything seemed fine. When I launched the game, my computer got in fine and I received a message to wait for his to connect. After a few seconds his just restarted. We decided at this point to drop the idea for the night and safely turn off the newer computer once it had restarted. That was when the problem started. His computer turned on OKay but then restarted, and again, and again, probably a total of 2-3 times before we just unplugged it. Once plugged back in it would do the same thing, except when turned on it would just beep loudly over and over till it was turned off.
We eventually took the problem to a computer repair shop and it was fixed. We were told the problem was the RAM. I guess the problem and question here is.....What's good RAM? What's bad RAM? I know how to check it, but as far as gaming via a crossover cable when is it OKay and when is it not? Does RAM go down for any particular reasons? If so, why? I know I ask a lot of questions and I'm sorry. Basically I just need a brief overview of RAM I guess. I came here because I have searched and searched and searched and only ever found one similar problem.

The other problem is the one that's tricky. Using a Windows Vista laptop and one of my sister's school computers. They're Windows XP, about 80 gb's available, and not too old. The Vista laptop was only 4 months old. We used our belkin router for this one. We plugged one crossover cable directly from the laptop into the router, and one crossover cable from the school computer to the router. We were playing Age of Mythology this time. I launched the lobby and he got in fine. We played the game for 3-4 hours with no problems whatsoever. But then....The laptop just turned off. It would not turn back on and there were no noises or any sign of life coming from it. Luckily the warranty was still usable and we sent it in to Microsoft. Unfortunately from there they could not tell us what was wrong with it. The only thing they could tell us was that nearly every part of the laptop was damaged in some way. The video card, audio card, motherboard.....you name it, they claimed to have fixed it.
The question here is.....What was the problem? Was it just a coincidence that one computer died because of RAM and the other just blanked, both while using the crossover cable? Or could there be some other answer out there?

.......

Well thanks if you made it all the way down here! It's been a good 15 minutes of typing and I know it's too long. Sorry, I'm very long-winded when I try to explain things

Thanks for any help that can be offered! And if you need ore specifications on anything just say and I'll be able to tell you. I just didn't want to make it any longer than it already is.....

Mcninjaguy · 02-26-2009, 02:12 AM

usually ram is bad right off the bat or it takes a a long time for it to develop

RAM
there's generic and good ram
not much of a price difference really since ram DDr2 ram and below is really cheap nowadays

High density RAM usually reads around 1024mb per 1 gb stick
Low density (usaully generic stuff) reads around 954mb or something like that for a 1gb stick

RAM = Random Access Memory
its the short term memory of a computer
Hard Drives being the long term memory

you can rum Memtest86 with 1 stick of ram installed at a time to see if your ram is fine. thats most likely what the computer store used
http://www.memtest86.com/

just some useful links

I don't recommend playing games on laptops without a good laptop cooler
your sister's laptop may have just had a poor cooling system and fried.

Do the three desktops work now?
did you ever try playing with the 2 desktops?

Can you run Coretemp so I can see your Sister's CPU temp? Idle and under load (game)
http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

same with GPU-z (can see Graphic card temps)
http://www.filehippo.com/download_gpuz/

I mean you don't need to do any of this but the seriously laptops get way too hot when playing games and a good laptop cooler can lower the temp of the laptop by around 12C

Gig · 02-26-2009, 11:35 PM

Ahh, okay. Thanks for all the defining of RAM. That makes a lot more sense now. Also thanks for the link. I'll probably use it on all the computers to see.

"Do the three desktops work now?
did you ever try playing with the 2 desktops?"

All the desktops work fine now. The oldest never had any problems, and neither did the schooling one. The 'new computer' as I call it was sent to a technician and now works OKay. It is slower than before, but servicable.
We did play with just the 2 desktops for a time. We ended up switching to the laptop-desktop because the laptop is probably our fastest computer.

Yea I'll run both of those soon and let you know. Thanks for the quick response and your help!

EDIT: Okay, so I've downloaded both and am running them.....My only question is, how is it that I'm supposed to share them with you?
Sorry for my ignorance....

Mcninjaguy · 02-27-2009, 01:44 PM

well for Memtest 86 the only thing that you should be worried about

-(the test will show false results if ore tha one stick of ram is installed)
-do around 5 passes for each computer
-IF there's any errors then the ram is bad (make sure only 1 stick of ram is in there)and post back with the ram error

the laptop is slower eh?

you could try running CCleaner and clean out all the temp files
http://www.ccleaner.com/

and do a disk cleanup like this
right click C: drive
properties
Diskcleanup

go to more options
(only if you're comfortable get rid of the extra restore points) this should take around 5 - 10 minutes
Then go back to first tab and get rid of all the rest of the temp files

02-26-2009, 12:16 AM	#1 (permalink)
Gig Registered User Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 2 OS: Windows Vista	Gaming/Network problem Hi all , I'm kinda new here, and I'm not exactly sure where to post this. First off, this should make some more sense if I introduce myself first. I'm Zak, I'm 15 years old and am in a family of 7. We have 7 computers. One is currently not being used, another is my sister's personal computer, and 3 others are meant specifically for my and my sister's virtual schooling. The final two are family computer and family laptop. We use satelite internet, run by a wireless belkin router. Anyways, recently my family bought 2 ethernet crossover-cables to allow us to play computer games together. When playing 2 player games we would connect 2 of the computers together with the crossover and play just like that. When playing with 3, we hooked the crossover cables into the wireless router and hooked those into the router, which was plugged into the 3rd computer. The first problem we had was while using a 6 year old - I think - Windows XP computer connected to a 3 year old - again, I think - Windows XP. Both computers were running with Service Pack 2, not 3. The problem here was we plugged the crossover cable into each machine, and then started up our game, Age of Empires 2: Age of Conquerors. The older machine - used by me - started up the lobby, and began setting the game up while my brother started to connect to the lobby. After the usual 10-20 second wait his computer beeped and then restarted. We didn't take this as a sign of anything bad, maybe just a brief glitch or something got unplugged. After checking all the connections and making sure everything was secure we retried the same exact way as before. After the 10-20 second wait the newer computer was in, everything seemed fine. When I launched the game, my computer got in fine and I received a message to wait for his to connect. After a few seconds his just restarted. We decided at this point to drop the idea for the night and safely turn off the newer computer once it had restarted. That was when the problem started. His computer turned on OKay but then restarted, and again, and again, probably a total of 2-3 times before we just unplugged it. Once plugged back in it would do the same thing, except when turned on it would just beep loudly over and over till it was turned off. We eventually took the problem to a computer repair shop and it was fixed. We were told the problem was the RAM. I guess the problem and question here is.....What's good RAM? What's bad RAM? I know how to check it, but as far as gaming via a crossover cable when is it OKay and when is it not? Does RAM go down for any particular reasons? If so, why? I know I ask a lot of questions and I'm sorry. Basically I just need a brief overview of RAM I guess. I came here because I have searched and searched and searched and only ever found one similar problem. The other problem is the one that's tricky. Using a Windows Vista laptop and one of my sister's school computers. They're Windows XP, about 80 gb's available, and not too old. The Vista laptop was only 4 months old. We used our belkin router for this one. We plugged one crossover cable directly from the laptop into the router, and one crossover cable from the school computer to the router. We were playing Age of Mythology this time. I launched the lobby and he got in fine. We played the game for 3-4 hours with no problems whatsoever. But then....The laptop just turned off. It would not turn back on and there were no noises or any sign of life coming from it. Luckily the warranty was still usable and we sent it in to Microsoft. Unfortunately from there they could not tell us what was wrong with it. The only thing they could tell us was that nearly every part of the laptop was damaged in some way. The video card, audio card, motherboard.....you name it, they claimed to have fixed it. The question here is.....What was the problem? Was it just a coincidence that one computer died because of RAM and the other just blanked, both while using the crossover cable? Or could there be some other answer out there? ....... Well thanks if you made it all the way down here! It's been a good 15 minutes of typing and I know it's too long. Sorry, I'm very long-winded when I try to explain things Thanks for any help that can be offered! And if you need ore specifications on anything just say and I'll be able to tell you. I just didn't want to make it any longer than it already is.....

02-26-2009, 02:12 AM	#2 (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: Gaming/Network problem usually ram is bad right off the bat or it takes a a long time for it to develop RAM there's generic and good ram not much of a price difference really since ram DDr2 ram and below is really cheap nowadays High density RAM usually reads around 1024mb per 1 gb stick Low density (usaully generic stuff) reads around 954mb or something like that for a 1gb stick RAM = Random Access Memory its the short term memory of a computer Hard Drives being the long term memory you can rum Memtest86 with 1 stick of ram installed at a time to see if your ram is fine. thats most likely what the computer store used http://www.memtest86.com/ just some useful links I don't recommend playing games on laptops without a good laptop cooler your sister's laptop may have just had a poor cooling system and fried. Do the three desktops work now? did you ever try playing with the 2 desktops? Can you run Coretemp so I can see your Sister's CPU temp? Idle and under load (game) http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/ same with GPU-z (can see Graphic card temps) http://www.filehippo.com/download_gpuz/ I mean you don't need to do any of this but the seriously laptops get way too hot when playing games and a good laptop cooler can lower the temp of the laptop by around 12C

02-26-2009, 11:35 PM	#3 (permalink)
Gig Registered User Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 2 OS: Windows Vista	Re: Gaming/Network problem Ahh, okay. Thanks for all the defining of RAM. That makes a lot more sense now. Also thanks for the link. I'll probably use it on all the computers to see. "Do the three desktops work now? did you ever try playing with the 2 desktops?" All the desktops work fine now. The oldest never had any problems, and neither did the schooling one. The 'new computer' as I call it was sent to a technician and now works OKay. It is slower than before, but servicable. We did play with just the 2 desktops for a time. We ended up switching to the laptop-desktop because the laptop is probably our fastest computer. Yea I'll run both of those soon and let you know. Thanks for the quick response and your help! EDIT: Okay, so I've downloaded both and am running them.....My only question is, how is it that I'm supposed to share them with you? Sorry for my ignorance.... Last edited by Gig; 02-26-2009 at 11:50 PM.

02-27-2009, 01:44 PM	#4 (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: Gaming/Network problem well for Memtest 86 the only thing that you should be worried about -(the test will show false results if ore tha one stick of ram is installed) -do around 5 passes for each computer -IF there's any errors then the ram is bad (make sure only 1 stick of ram is in there)and post back with the ram error the laptop is slower eh? you could try running CCleaner and clean out all the temp files http://www.ccleaner.com/ and do a disk cleanup like this right click C: drive properties Diskcleanup go to more options (only if you're comfortable get rid of the extra restore points) this should take around 5 - 10 minutes Then go back to first tab and get rid of all the rest of the temp files