• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

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

lozina

lozina

Lifer
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...
 
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.
 
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.
 
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).
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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:
 
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.
 
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'.
 
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.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top