games cause shut-down

[roy]

I have a HP Pavillion (refurbished)with Vista Home Premium,
1.00 gb of ram
Athlon 64 x 2 dual core 4400+ at 2.30gz
nvidia geforce 6150 se nforce 430 video card
asus A6203w motherboard
80 gig hard drive

My computer will shut down in the middle of playing simple games. I have a
Hidden expeditions game that in certain scenes the fan in the computer goes
into high gear. I thought it might be a memory problem, but not sure as I am
a novice at this. This problem also happened on one of the games that came
preloaded on the computer. I know Vista is supposed to take up alot of
memory( so I am told), but I would have thought 1 gig was enough. When I was
going thru some of the details on the nvideo card, it said it had no on-board
memory but was using a page file. the page file has 1193 mb. Is this enough
memory to run programs, if not, what would you recommend.

 

[Mick Murphy]

1 Gig of RAM is the minimum for Home Premium to operate Aero, etc.
Add Games, and that is your problem!

Any of the Game sites, or the box it comes in, will tell you how much RAM
the game requires.
Simple solution, upgade your RAM to a Minimum of 2Gigs.

And your page file, virtual memory is normally, by default, 1 and a 1/2
times your RAM memory.

 

[Steve Thackery]

My computer will shut down in the middle of playing simple games. I have

a
Hidden expeditions game that in certain scenes the fan in the computer
goes
into high gear.

To be honest, 1G is a bit on the low side for Vista. You'd be better off
with 2G.

But low memory doesn't cause the computer to shut down. Sudden shut-downs
like you report are almost always due to a hardware problem - in your case,
almost certainly overheating of the processor.

The high fan noise is a further clue.

Games really hammer the processor and usually make it run much hotter than
other, less demanding applications. Hence you finding this problem only
when playing games.

I can't guarantee that this is the problem, obviously, but the chances are
high. Other things that can cause a shut-down are faulty memory (although
this normally causes a blue screen halt) and an overheating or underpowered
power supply.

I would start by fitting a better CPU cooler. If you don't feel confident
about doing this yourself, take it to a local computer shop. They should
have better diagnostic tools anyway, and should be able to diagnose the
problem with complete confidence.

SteveT

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have a HP Pavillion (refurbished)with Vista Home Premium,
1.00 gb of ram
Athlon 64 x 2 dual core 4400+ at 2.30gz
nvidia geforce 6150 se nforce 430 video card
asus A6203w motherboard
80 gig hard drive

My computer will shut down in the middle of playing simple games. I have a
Hidden expeditions game that in certain scenes the fan in the computer goes
into high gear. I thought it might be a memory problem, but not sure as I am
a novice at this. This problem also happened on one of the games that came
preloaded on the computer. I know Vista is supposed to take up alot of
memory( so I am told), but I would have thought 1 gig was enough.

No. How much memory you need for good performance varies, depending on
what apps you run, but almost everyone needs at least 2GB for Vista.

But that shouldn't cause the computer to shut down. I don't know
causes the shutting down problem, but my first suspicion would be
overheating.

When I was
going thru some of the details on the nvideo card, it said it had no on-board
memory but was using a page file.

I don't understand that sentence at all. It makes no sense, I'm
afraid. Can you quote it verbatim, please?

 

[Lester Stiefel]

No. How much memory you need for good performance varies, depending on
what apps you run, but almost everyone needs at least 2GB for Vista.

But that shouldn't cause the computer to shut down. I don't know
causes the shutting down problem, but my first suspicion would be
overheating.




I don't understand that sentence at all. It makes no sense, I'm
afraid. Can you quote it verbatim, please?

Most action games that are intensive will cause the system
to enter "processor overclock mode" not all pcs can do this
under windows, and it is dangerous to do overclocking in
general unless the manufacturer of the Board/PC says this is ok.

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

I have a HP Pavillion (refurbished)with Vista Home Premium,
1.00 gb of ram
Athlon 64 x 2 dual core 4400+ at 2.30gz
nvidia geforce 6150 se nforce 430 video card
asus A6203w motherboard
80 gig hard drive

My computer will shut down in the middle of playing simple games. I have
a
Hidden expeditions game that in certain scenes the fan in the computer
goes
into high gear. I thought it might be a memory problem, but not sure as I
am
a novice at this. This problem also happened on one of the games that came
preloaded on the computer. I know Vista is supposed to take up alot of
memory( so I am told), but I would have thought 1 gig was enough. When I
was
going thru some of the details on the nvideo card, it said it had no
on-board
memory but was using a page file. the page file has 1193 mb. Is this
enough
memory to run programs, if not, what would you recommend.

The integrated 6150 graphics card is not good for gaming. Try turning the
detail down on the game, or get a decent graphics card.



--
Mike Hall - MVP
How to construct a good post..
http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups..
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=newswhelp&style=toc
Mike's Window - My Blog..
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx

 

[Phillips]

You can try closing any programs and services you don't need during playing
games to get some extra juice - from Task Manager
What is your Vista Graphics score?
Michael

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

You can try closing any programs and services you don't need during
playing games to get some extra juice - from Task Manager
What is your Vista Graphics score?
Michael

You answered the wrong person..

Also, the nVidia 6100/6150 cannot sustain a heavy game load for long and
will just close the system down if pushed too hard. It is best to reduce
game detail or get a video card more suited to games..


--
Mike Hall - MVP
How to construct a good post..
http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups..
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=newswhelp&style=toc
Mike's Window - My Blog..
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx