Hi Matt,
Sorry to hear you're unsuccessful so far in avoiding those problems.
I sure hope it's not a hardware defect. Please try troubleshooting it.
Since your situation seems more hardware/driver related, start
with Step 5, then go through Steps 6 to 8 before anything else.
I hope this helps. Please post back if you have any questions!
1. To see if it's a software conflict: Temporarily disable Startup
programs one at a time, starting with Firewall, Antivirus, and ad
blockers using:
http://new.jtsoft2001.com/windows/startup.php
You can lookup what a program does before you disable it here:
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_pages/startup_full.htm
2. Run a virus scan at:
http://housecall.antivirus.com Afterwards
Download & Run Spybot from:
http://security.kolla.de to find any
Trojans, Adware, or Spyware which could clog up your system.
3. Click My Computer / Rightclick the Drive & Choose Properties
/ Run the "Disk Cleanup..." / Next Click the "Tools" Tab and run
the "Error-Checking" and "Defragmentation" utilities.
4. Go to the Windows Update site for everything under Critical and
Recommended:
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com
Except: Q811943 which reportedly may cause systems to slowdown.
5. 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
6. 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 Mainboard Monitoring Utility:
http://mbm.livewiredev.com
7. A faulty power supply can cause STOP errors, random reboots,
and black screen lockups. One way to test for that is to remove all
extra devices, network cards, extra RAM sticks, modem, scussi,
sound card, unplug CD drives (if not needed to verify CD), and then
try the game again. If the problem is solved look into a 400 watt P/S.
8. 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.
* Allow Windows to control your pagefile at a "system managed size".
Be sure there's enough space for the pagefile size to = 1.5 * your RAM
Bonus Tip: Set the pagefile to it's own partition or hard drive if possible.
References:
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php is a good site about this as is:
http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsXP/expertzone/columns/mcfedries/03june16.asp
9. Click Start / Control Panel /Administrative Tools / Event Viewer /
Click the Applications listing on the left / in the right pane look for
yellow or red symbols and doubleclick them to identify any problems.
10. Run Setup.exe on your Windows 98/Me/XP/2000 CD to reinstall
Windows over itself without erasing your programs and data. Once
everything works fine reinstall updates one at a time from:
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com test the game after each update.
11. If you have room on one of your partitions, use it to install another
clean installation of Windows which you can gradually update with the
appropriate chipset, video, and sound drivers, as well as Direct X, but
with no extras including themes, firewalls, antivirus, etc. You may have
to reinstall the game(s) for use with that partition, but it's well worth it.
12. If you don't have enough space for step 10 I suggest you at least
create a new administrators account with no themes, firewall, antivirus,
or any other software or startup programs installed for that account. If
this solves the problem, then you should switch over to the new account.
--
Cheers,
Jimmy S.
Additional Support Resources: My Zone.com Helpsite:
http://nibblesnbits.tk
Microsoft Online Tech Support:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=376
Game FAQ's:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
_________________________________________________________
|
| Nope, no luck.
|
| I played Asheron's Call for about 15 minutes until it
| crashed, then I played Battlefield 1942 for about 50
| minutes and then it crashed. I find that suprising
| because I think Asheron's Call would require less ram to
| run than Battlefield 1942.
|
| This is really getting annoying, I've been trying to get
| it fixed for the last week. I took it to someone, he
| updated my drivers and ran a virus check, no luck. I
| checked system temperature, normal. I've tried windows
| update, nope didnt work. I've tried all these little
| things and nothing is working!
|
|
|
|
| >-----Original Message-----
| >
| >Ahhh...system managed. Alright, I'll try that out and
| get
| >back to you if it worked or not.
| >
| >
| >
| >>-----Original Message-----
| >>
| >>
| >>I set initial to half my ram (256), and max to triple
| my
| >>ram (1532) like suggested. I'm still having my problem.
| >>
| >>I might have done it wrong though, Was I supposed to
| set
| >>my inital ram to 786?
| >>
| >>
| >>
| >>
| >>>-----Original Message-----
| >>>Hi Matt,
| >>>
| >>>That sounds like a BINGO!
| >>>
| >>>Follow the steps I gave you in my last post to set it
| to
| >>>a system managed size, which would be 786,xxx.
| >>>
| >>>--
| >>>Cheers,
| >>>Jimmy S.
| >>>
| >>>Additional Support Resources: My Zone.com Helpsite:
| >>
http://nibblesnbits.tk
| >>>Microsoft Online Tech Support:
| >>
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=376
| >>>Game FAQ's:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?
| >>scid=FH;[LN];gms
| >>>My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do
| >I
| >>confer any rights.
| >>>_______________________________________________________
| _
| >_
| >>>
| >>| >>>|
| >>>|
| >>>| Alright, it says:
| >>>|
| >>>| Total paging file size for all drives
| >>>| Minimum allowed 2 MB
| >>>| Recommended 766 MB
| >>>| Currently allocated 384 MB
| >>>|
| >>>| I'm not exactly sure what this means, but it says 766
| >>>| Recommended and 384 used....could that be my problem?
| >>>|
| >>>|
| >>>|
| >>>| >-----Original Message-----
| >>>| > 1.. Click Start, click Control Panel, click
| >>>| Performance and Maintenance, and then click System.
| >>>| > 2.. Click the Advanced tab, and then click
| Settings
| >>>| under Performance.
| >>>| > 3.. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Change
| >>>| under Virtual memory.
| >>>| > 4.. Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive
| >that
| >>>| contains the paging file you want to change.
| >>>| > 5.. Under Paging file size for selected drive,
| >click
| >>>| Sytem Managed size, and then click Set.
| >>>| > 6.. If you have 512MB of RAM then you want to be
| >>>| certain that you have at least 1 GB free on that
| >>>| partition to allow 786MB for the page file, and the
| >>rest
| >>>| for Temp files, etc.
| >>>| >To learn more about Virtual Memory though, read
| that
| >>2nd
| >>>| link in my previous post. d:^)
| >>>| >
| >>>| >--
| >>>| >Cheers,
| >>>| >Jimmy S.
| >>>| >
| >>>| >Additional Support Resources: My Zone.com Helpsite:
| >>>|
http://nibblesnbits.tk
| >>>| >Microsoft Online Tech Support:
| >>>|
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=376
| >>>| >Game FAQ's:
| >
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?
| >>>| scid=FH;[LN];gms
| >>>| >My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor
| >>do I
| >>>| confer any rights.
| >>>|
| >>>_______________________________________________________
| _
| >_
| >>>| >
| >>>
| >>>
| >>>.
| >>>
| >>.
| >>
| >.
| >
