Computer restarts or programs stop - why?

[Ulf Vulcan]

My computer is behaving erratically. At times win98se restarts itself and other times when I'm playing games they get interrupted and either freeze or you simply "pop out" of them to the desktop.
Also there are problems installing several games (for example Baldur's Gate 2, Diablo 2 expansion). They give me error after installing. I had no problem with BG2 some months ago and I've not changed the system except adding a CD-RW and another 128 MB.

I realize that it's likely impossible to tell me what's wrong, but could you give me some indication as to where I should start looking and what I can do to find the fault, please?

 

[DodgyDoug]

Dude, your right... not much to go on at all. All i can say is that if it was me.. I'd be thinking about re-installing windows.. At a total guess i'd say it was a memory problem. Perhaps even a swapfile problem but really i'm being to specific with the info you've given.

A complete re-install is about all i can recommend if you cant work out what the offending item is. At least then you can start from scratch and when you add something (hardware or software) you can test it for a bit to make sure theres no conflicts

 

[DJFuji]

try a) memtest86 (www.memtest86.com) to check ram, b) install an NT Kernel-based OS (preferably XP), or c) (as a last resort), reinstall windows. Also, check your video card drivers. Are you using beta drivers or soemthing?

 

[Ulf Vulcan]

Ok here is what I just did:
Removed CR-RW and put the 48x CD player back in as slave to the HD.
Removed one of the 128MB RAM sticks so there is only one stick left now.
Previously I had the HD as primary master and CD-RW as secondary master, with no slaves.

I installed BG2 with Throne of Bhaal and it worked fine - which it did not do before this change.
When browsing the saves to start playing it "pops" out and I believe it says there is a "CRC-error" or something similar. What is this? Does that mean anything to you guys?

 

[sandgroper]

CRC is cyclic redundancy check. It is usually something to do with IP packets, maybe ethernet packets also. It validates whether the packet has been received clean,(or with errors).
Does'nt seem to relate to yr pbm though.