shannonh89

Hi, I'm Shannon and this is my first post. I'm not sure if this message shoud be here or in the driver section, but here is my problem.

I have and eMachines T1120 (stop laughing, I know its an antique) and lately, within the last three to four months the computer has been freezing when playing games, nothing elaborate, MS Hearts, and a few other card games. A couple of times I got the "Windows has recovered from a serious error" message, and when I notified Microsoft, I got a message about updating the graphics driver from Intel to the final version, which I did, but I'm still having the same problem intermittently. I thought I could solve this problem by adding a cheap graphics card, but this model has no slot for a graphics card so that's out.

Anyone have any ideas (other than shooting the CPU?) Thanks in advance for any help.

Shannon

1 g0t 0wn3d

eMachines are not known for quality...well anything
but it may clear this up if you tell us the specs of your computer

1 g0t 0wn3d

i am sorry but i have to say 133mhz standerd ram is sad =) just a thought

Deleted090308

Hi!
Download and install the latest version of DirectX from Microsoft.

Nicholas

MaverickUK

Hello Shannon and welcome to TSF!

If you can, could you please boot your computer in safe mode with networking and then try playing your games - if this problem still occurs then it will more than likely be a driver issue, we will try and get you the correct driver version if this is the case.

shannonh89

Thanks for the responses. It is an Intel Celeron 1200 processer that came with 256 ram, but I updated it to 512 (the Maximum) As for the graphics, as far as I can tell it is Intel 82810e DC-133 System and Graphics Controller. I have installed every update from Microsoft via Windows Update including Direct X. The driver I am using is the Intel(R) 810/810E/815/815EM Chipset Graphics Driver Software, which is the latest and final driver according to the Intel Website.

I will try using the computer in Safe Mode over the next several days, but I'm not sure that will prove anything. As this problem is very intermittent, sometimes will not happen for days at a time.

dai

clean the dust from inside the computer with a can of air pay paticular attention to the heatsinks and fans
check your temps and voltages with this
http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php

shannonh89

UPDATE: I have tried the Safe with Networking mode and so far the computer has not frozen, I will keep trying this.

I Did clean the inside of the computer with canned air when I looked to see that there is no slot for a graphics card, and I did run the Temp scan as suggested, I have no idea what these mean but I did check the temxp and these are the results:
Processor 46 degrees C
Mainboard 39 degrees C
Hard Disk 40 degrees C

dai

all your temps are higher than you would expect,if you have a house fan leave the side off and point it in and see if they come down
are you in the middle of summer where you are

shannonh89

UPDate I went to Microsoft.com and downloaded the lastest DirectX downloads. I guess I didn't realize that they all didn't come on Windows Update. I'll be playing around with the computer to see if the problem persists or not and will report back in a day or two. Thanks to all.

shannonh89

Hi,

I've tried the suggestions, but the problem persists. I have not had it happen in Safe mode yet, but I haven't spent too much time trying it that way but I will continue.

Question: Is there a generic graphics driver that I could try? I suspect that it is a driver problem only because of the messages I received on the occasions that I reported it to Microsoft. Thanks again for any help.
Shannon

dai

if you have a free pci slot use a pci graphics card but
there is always a but
video and powersupply upgrades go hand in hand especially relevant to emachines

shannonh89

I think I'm going to go with the PCI graphics card, thanks. I'll let you all know what happens when it comes. In the mean time, does anyone know of a generic driver I might try? Thanks to all for your help.

Shannon

dai

http://www.omegadrivers.net/

shannonh89

I think I am getting in over my head here. I did get a PCI graphics card and tried to install the drivers, but it told me to install the hardware first, so I did. The good news is that the newly installed hardware automatically overrid the existing graphics so there was no signal to the monitor. The bad news is that the new card also sent no signal to the monitor. So I couldn't finish intalling the drivers. For now, I took out the new card just to get the computer to work. I really think I am going to shoot the CPU. Any suggestions?

Also Dai, I went to the site, but couldn't figure out which generic driver you are suggesting, can you tell me exactly which one?

Thanks again to all.

Shannon

dai

it is either nvidia or ati driver whichever card you have,you are better off starting off with the drivers that came with the card
disable onboard in the device manager
go into the bios and set pci to first detect
install the card
boot the computer tapping f8
for nvidia click on vga mode
for ati go into safe mode
when windows finishes booting and installing the card
disable a/virus
install your drivers
reboot the computer
if you receive no signal then you do not have enough power to run the new card

shannonh89

Thankyou again for all of your help. I do have one last question before I try this. If I follow the instructions you outlined and it does not work, will I be able to go back to the way things were once I disabled the onboard drivers?

In other words, do I run the risk of effectively rendering the cpu useless to me? Thanks again.

Shannon

pharoah

that shouldnt be a problem when you pull the new video card out.it should automatically revert to the onboard.