Games freezing

T4i

spendaholic wrote:

If I break the seal on my pc box, I invalidate the lifetime warranty.

Thanks for this thread, btw. I've been having problems with every single RPG game since upgrading to Windows XP Professional. I'm reliably informed (i.e. from several sources) that XP is one of THE biggest problems in the history of Windows. But I don't think there's much light at the end of the tunnel for me. My pc crashes (or freezes) just reading this website. Frequently.

Who said XP is a big problem? XP is stable for windows....its a nightmare to try get a BSOD. I've not seen one in years because if XP.

If your p.c freezes/crashes just from browsing i'm not suprised you have trouble in games. Whats a lifetime warranty is your p.c doesnt actual work in the 1st place.

spendaholic

T4i wrote:

Who said XP is a big problem? XP is stable for windows....its a nightmare to try get a BSOD. I've not seen one in years because if XP.

What's BSOD (I'm sure it'll come to me the minute I post this reply!)?

Quite a few people I've mentioned my freezing problems too have asked what operating system I'm using and they always shake their heads - including in PC World. Two people have installed ME over their XP cos they hate it.

T4i wrote:

If your p.c freezes/crashes just from browsing i'm not suprised you have trouble in games. Whats a lifetime warranty is your p.c doesnt actual work in the 1st place.

It's only on THIS site that it crashes. Er ... touch wood.

Actually, I've been trying out Netscape and I find that this is far less reliable than IE. I don't think it's crashed in IE ... yet ...

So you think I should pop my box and get the hoover out? The lifetime warranty's less use now that we've moved from Brum to S Yorks as the supplier's still in Brum. Very inconsiderate of them not to follow us. Tsk!

T4i

spendaholic wrote:

What's BSOD (I'm sure it'll come to me the minute I post this reply!)?

BSOD is a blue screen of death. 98 & ME were big fans of the BSOD.

spendaholic wrote:

Quite a few people I've mentioned my freezing problems too have asked what operating system I'm using and they always shake their heads - including in PC World. Two people have installed ME over their XP cos they hate it.

M$ ME was a complete mess, it was released as a 'filler' operating system at that time. Possibly the worst OS i've ever used, even worse than 95... PC World arn't the best guys to ask, they will tell you anything to get money out of you.

spendaholic wrote:

So you think I should pop my box and get the hoover out? The lifetime warranty's less use now that we've moved from Brum to S Yorks as the supplier's still in Brum. Very inconsiderate of them not to follow us. Tsk!

Thats upto you, I don't think you have a heat problem if the only time it freezes/crashes is on this site. Thats a software problem.

nm63uk

Spendaholic. Dont know what your system is but crashing whilst just browsing is very likely a bigger problem than overheating. If you have a warranty, I suggest you use it. Its very likely that your system is doing something else as you browse, you could be a victim of a virus or more likely, spyware. Do you check for spyware? Do you get random popups by any chance? Not trying to scare you, its not that bad really and is usually easily fixed, though it may take a few hours. BTW, check your warranty cos taking the side off shouldnt (IMHO) be grounds to void it, how else could you clean it, change your memory, put in a new hard disk/gfx card/fan/heatsink etc etc?

Renee, its quite normal for a cd/dvd to get hot in any player. Heat is mostly a problem for your CPU, memory and hard disk. If YOU cant take your side off then perhaps you should try the Prime95 tip from earlier in this thread.

Good Luck all

Cheers NM

spendaholic

Thanks guys.

I've been looking at this all day and it's been crashing all day. It got better once I uninstalled the XP service pack and switched off the automatic updates, and it got better again when I did a scan disk with fix all errors. But when I came to update my website I got a proxy error message - and when I tried a check disk I got a blue screen message that said my caching and/or shadow needed attention, and that alcan5win (whatever that is) was faulty, before it switched off and rebooted.

I'm completely confused now.

So, as we go on holiday this weekend, and as I start my new job when we get back, I'm going to call up my supplier and arrange a run down to Brum shortly after with box in boot and get them to sort it. I'll be able to visit the humans while I'm there.

There's a seal they put on the back of the box so they know if I've been tampering inside. Last time I took one back I'd had broadband installed and because they knew me quite well, they let it go.

spendaholic

PS I've got Kerio firewall and AVG virus checker that are both updated daily.

Was worried if I wrote too much in one go I'd crash again.

EDIT: Oh, and I don't have spyware protection but the random popups stopped popping up once I installed the above.

T4i

aaaah. You use the USB speedtouch modem? This takes me back to the good old days......these drivers are bab!

Also, in BIOS (press del on POST) you need to be looking for an option called "BIOS Caching and shadow cache" forget the proper names.....Disable them both.

Are you using the drivers that came with your modem cd? You may be better going with newer drivers off the net (thompson website i think).

http://www.speedtouchdsl.com/support.htm

Renee

I've managed to install 3 TB games. I kept having a go at the setup options,
I had a look at Prime 95 and it went completely over my head.
I still can't get AOD to run but I'll keep trying

Thanks

T4i

Whats AOD?

http://sp2004.fre3.com/sp2004exe_050330.cab This is a easier version of Prime95. Unpack it to the desktop or C: temp folder and run the SP2004.exe

It should state 'IDLE' in blue.

Click start and see if it halts, if it does come across errors it will tell you in the empty box below 'CPU Speed'

If it halts, copy the info it gives you and paste it here. Even though it wont tell us much we can identify hardware faults with it.

Renee

AOD is Tombraider Angel of Death.
I downloaded SP2004 and it's still running after 6 hours Is this normal!
Every test it's done has passed but how long does it test for.