Games closing or and freezing

[Guest]

Two of my games The Sims and Sim City 4 keep freezing or closing on me and it is on a new computer with 111GB, 1GB RAM, GeForce 4 MX 440 (128mb), Hyper Threading and Windows XP Home and the games still freeze or close on me.
Can anyone suggest what to do. My old computer which wasn't anywhere near as good as this computer ran the sims perfectly well with no problems. Sometimes when SimCity 4 closes the speakers crackle or squeak. Thanks

 

[Jimmy S.]

Hi William,

Hardware issues can cause freezing, black screens and other
errors. Also, your drivers should always be kept up to date.

Try the following steps one at a time to try and resolve the issue.
I hope this helps. Please post back if you have any questions!

1. Update DirectX and your Chipset, Sound, &Video Drivers:
For all Video / DirectX / Game and Hardware Issues, I have a
Checklist of Solutions at: http://NibblesNbitsVideo.tk

2. Dust your fans, vents and components using a 1/4" paintbrush
and a hose vacuum. Use compressed air for hard to reach places.
Set a housefan to blow cold air into your case to expose an over-
heating issue.. If it works add more fans or replace defective ones.
Use this Motherboard Monitor Utility: http://mbm.livewiredev.com

3. A faulty power supply can cause STOP errors, random reboots,
and black screen lockups. One way to test for that is to check the
wattage sticker on your power supply and then calculate your need
http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/ (Min. 350 for gaming)

4. Test your RAM using: http://www.memtest86.com/memt30.zip
after you extract that zip file, click on the README.txt file for the
instructions on how to create the boot floppy to test your RAM.

--
Cheers, Windows XP MVP Shell / User
Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

Game FAQs: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite: http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call / Contact
MS Support at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=sz;en-us;top
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
_________________________________________________________

| Two of my games The Sims and Sim City 4 keep freezing or closing on me and it is on a new computer with 111GB, 1GB RAM, GeForce 4
MX 440 (128mb), Hyper Threading and Windows XP Home and the games still freeze or close on me.
| Can anyone suggest what to do. My old computer which wasn't anywhere near as good as this computer ran the sims perfectly well
with no problems. Sometimes when SimCity 4 closes the speakers crackle or squeak. Thanks

 

[Guest]

That is alot of information for me Jimmy thanks. Although I haven't done much with the information yet i have run (and still running) a memory test. It is about 11:20 am here and The memory test is coming up to about 14 hours 21 minutes and it has found 42 errors and 0 ECC errors. Could you tell me what this means?

 

[Jimmy S.]

Hi William,

Good news, you found the problem. Now for the bad news about the errors:

That means that one of your RAM sticks is generating error and needs to be
replaced. If you have more than one stick, run the test with only one installed
at a time to determine if only one of the RAM sticks is defective.

--
Cheers, Windows XP MVP Shell / User
Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.com


Game FAQs: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite: http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call / Contact
MS Support at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=sz;en-us;top
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
_________________________________________________________

| That is alot of information for me Jimmy thanks. Although I haven't done much with the information yet i have run (and still
running) a memory test. It is about 11:20 am here and The memory test is coming up to about 14 hours 21 minutes and it has found 42
errors and 0 ECC errors. Could you tell me what this means?

 

[Guest]

Thats great, well not really but at least i know the problem. Just wondering, the computer has 1GB memory, how long is the test meant to take? Because it is up to 19 hours and 20 minutes and has found 68 errors.

 

[Jimmy S.]

Hi William,

It does take an extraordinary amount of time to complete the tests. However, it's
not important to determine how many errors there are, so you can cancel the
test at this point, and restart it using only one RAM stick at a time as I suggested.

--
Cheers, Windows XP MVP Shell / User
Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.com


Game FAQs: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite: http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call / Contact
MS Support at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=sz;en-us;top
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
_________________________________________________________

| Thats great, well not really but at least i know the problem. Just wondering, the computer has 1GB memory, how long is the test
meant to take? Because it is up to 19 hours and 20 minutes and has found 68 errors.

 

[Guest]

Thanks alot Jimmy this is going to be lots of help. Becuase it is a new computer, its still under warranty so I'll take it back to the shop and show them what you said and they can fix it. This has been a probelm ever since I turned the thing on at christmas and the shop didn't say anything about ram either did my friends father, and he builds computers for the navy.

 

[Jimmy S.]

You're welcome William. Glad I could help!

Cheers,
Jimmy.

| Thanks alot Jimmy this is going to be lots of help. Becuase it is a new computer, its still under warranty so I'll take it back to
the shop and show them what you said and they can fix it. This has been a probelm ever since I turned the thing on at christmas and
the shop didn't say anything about ram either did my friends father, and he builds computers for the navy.

 

[Guest]

I did all this and i still have the same problem

 

[Jimmy S.]

Hi Adam, your problem might be different than William's.
Please start your own thread (make your own post) to
describe the problem and the steps you've taken in detail.

That will help the people in the newsgroup help you as well.

--
Cheers, Windows XP MVP Shell / User
Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.com


Game FAQs: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite: http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call / Contact
MS Support at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=sz;en-us;top
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
_________________________________________________________

Make a
| I did all this and i still have the same problem
|