How do you guys handle games that dont crash nicely to desktop?

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lozina

lozina

Lifer
Sep 10, 2001
11,711
8
81
So most of the time if I experience a crash in a game it's a typically CTD - the game goes bye-bye and I see my desktop with a popup about sending an Error Report to Microsoft. I can now restart the game or just say screw it and browse the web.

But sometimes the game just freezes and stays on screen. You can hit CTRL + ALT + DEL but the Task Manager window is blocked by the game - sometimes you can even see the game cursor turn to a windows cursor when you mouse over the area that the Task Manager window pops up and if you're some kind of clairvoyant you can even interact with it despite not having any UI to see what you're doing. I think one time I did memorize what hot keys to press to end task on a certain game that kept doing this...

Sometimes you can also hit the Window Key and the task bar pops up on the bottom over the game and you can right click the game's task/icon and click Close.

Is there an easier way to deal with this? Maybe a background utility that you hit a hot key and it comes brute force over on top of the game or whatever and kills the process?

just hate having to sometimes reboot my computer via the reset button on the case when all else fails

This is win XP by the way...
 
M

Martimus

Diamond Member
Apr 24, 2007
4,490
157
106
I hit the reset button. Walk away, and come back later and start over. Sounds like you do the same. Some times, that is just what you need to do.
 
S

skace

Lifer
Jan 23, 2001
14,488
7
81
I try to alt-tab to the error box and hit enter. Seems to be the easiest way to me.
 
TecHNooB

TecHNooB

Diamond Member
Sep 10, 2005
7,458
1
76
ctrl+alt+delete, alt+tab, etc. Sometimes, the screen is black except your mouse shows up where the invisible dialogue box is. I attempt to hit end program with the keyboard or mouse. sometimes the start menu shows up. in that case, try to end program using right click.
 
S

Schfifty Five

Lifer
Oct 20, 2005
10,978
44
91
Upgrade to win 7.

If you use ctrl/alt/del in Win 7 it brings up this new screen w/ options of what you want to do (task manager, shut down, etc).
 
Ika

Ika

Lifer
Mar 22, 2006
14,264
3
81
skace said:
I try to alt-tab to the error box and hit enter. Seems to be the easiest way to me.
Click to expand...

this. sometimes the screen goes wonky and won't show where my cursor is, but I can still see where the task manager is. In this case I tab/arrow key to the offending program and tab to end task.
 
S

Seero

Golden Member
Nov 4, 2009
1,456
0
0
lozina said:
So most of the time if I experience a crash in a game it's a typically CTD - the game goes bye-bye and I see my desktop with a popup about sending an Error Report to Microsoft. I can now restart the game or just say screw it and browse the web.

But sometimes the game just freezes and stays on screen. You can hit CTRL + ALT + DEL but the Task Manager window is blocked by the game - sometimes you can even see the game cursor turn to a windows cursor when you mouse over the area that the Task Manager window pops up and if you're some kind of clairvoyant you can even interact with it despite not having any UI to see what you're doing. I think one time I did memorize what hot keys to press to end task on a certain game that kept doing this...

Sometimes you can also hit the Window Key and the task bar pops up on the bottom over the game and you can right click the game's task/icon and click Close.

Is there an easier way to deal with this? Maybe a background utility that you hit a hot key and it comes brute force over on top of the game or whatever and kills the process?

just hate having to sometimes reboot my computer via the reset button on the case when all else fails

This is win XP by the way...
Click to expand...
is it a 32 bit XP? If so, CTD can occur if the total memory usage > 2Gb. There are no real fix to it other than upgrade it to 64 bit. Doing so requires a complete reinstall of the OS.

There is a switch within XP that may help a little, which is /3gb switch. Google it for more information. In simple terms 32bit xp reserve 2gb for hardware and 2gb for software. The switch allows user to increase the reservation to 3gb for software, and 1gb for hardware. It is however dangerous and may cause even more instability. Please read and understand each and every procedure before executing it.

If you ain't on 32 bit, or total memory usage < 2gb, then recreate the pagefile. You can do it by disabling pagefile, reboot, defragment the drive, and enable pagefile again.
 
P

power_hour

Senior member
Oct 16, 2010
779
1
0
Yeah, I hear ya. I don't get CTD usually but if I do and can't regain the desktop I will see if I can remotely reboot from another PC (psshutdown remotely). Cold reset is last resort and I hate it. There is always a chance that not shutting down can lead to corruption but the risk is relatively small and if you have to hit the reset bottom so be it.

You need to try to nail this problem down. Review your logs, note any recent changes. Video drivers are a common problem. Excessive memory usage in 32bit programs is another. There are programs (free) from MS (Sysinternals) that can help you monitor program crashes by creating dump files and help you analyze the reason. That can be overkill for many people as usually a driver update fixes most things.

Just a quick note about the /3gb switch. It can be good in certain circumstances but before you do this try and find out the reason for the CTD.

Best of luck and feel to post back with any questions.
 
exar333

exar333

Diamond Member
Feb 7, 2004
8,518
8
91
Seero said:
is it a 32 bit XP? If so, CTD can occur if the total memory usage > 2Gb. There are no real fix to it other than upgrade it to 64 bit. Doing so requires a complete reinstall of the OS.

There is a switch within XP that may help a little, which is /3gb switch. Google it for more information. In simple terms 32bit xp reserve 2gb for hardware and 2gb for software. The switch allows user to increase the reservation to 3gb for software, and 1gb for hardware. It is however dangerous and may cause even more instability. Please read and understand each and every procedure before executing it.

If you ain't on 32 bit, or total memory usage < 2gb, then recreate the pagefile. You can do it by disabling pagefile, reboot, defragment the drive, and enable pagefile again.
Click to expand...

Good point, but 64-bit XP is a nightmare for drivers, etc. If you want 64-bit, go with Win7.
 
BD231

BD231

Lifer
Feb 26, 2001
10,568
138
106
I just log off the user account I'm on then log back on, no need to restart. That's a sure fire way to shut down all apps, at least, it has been for me. Never really had the problem that often though so your results may vary.
 
C

CP5670

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2004
5,660
762
126
If you know the name of the exe, you can close it down blindly. Press ctrl-alt-del, type the first two or so letters of the exe (this will select it), followed by alt-E and enter. I had to do this with Fallout 3 many times.
 
Maximilian

Maximilian

Lifer
Feb 8, 2004
12,604
15
81
Schfifty Five said:
Upgrade to win 7.

If you use ctrl/alt/del in Win 7 it brings up this new screen w/ options of what you want to do (task manager, shut down, etc).
Click to expand...

This! This is one of the major improvements over XP and hardly anyone mentions it :( probably because microsoft didnt name this feature, vista had this as well. If the menu with "task manager" dosent show up then it will when you alt+tab a bit. Ive never used the reset button since ive had windows 7 :thumbsup:
 
shortylickens

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
80,287
17,081
136
Maximilian said:
This! This is one of the major improvements over XP and hardly anyone mentions it :( probably because microsoft didnt name this feature, vista had this as well. If the menu with "task manager" dosent show up then it will when you alt+tab a bit. Ive never used the reset button since ive had windows 7 :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Actually Windows XP did that too, at least with SP2 and beyond. Cant recall if SP1 had it.
 
Elcs

Elcs

Diamond Member
Apr 27, 2002
6,278
6
81
Why has no-one mentioned Ctrl + Shift + Escape?

It's the shortcut to open Task Manager :) It can occasionally save you from the regretful action that is 'pushing the reset/power button'.
 
P

pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
14,926
9,831
136
Sometimes get this not with a crash, but with zone-alarm's pop-up boxes.
Game starts, tries to access net, zone alarm pops up a warning box asking for a response, but dialog box is behind the game screen so you can't see it. Very annoying. Have to click randomly to try and hit the right response.

Don't know why windows doesn't behave nicely and put the box that has the focus on top where you can actually see it.
 
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