What causes mid-game crashing besides overheating?

[ih8regs]

abit ip35-e
kingston 800mhz 2x1 gb DDR2
Intel E2200
Antec 500w basiq


so first i had a radeon 3450 in there....running CoH on high would last maybe 2 min

now i threw a geforce 8600gt and it lasts a bit longer but still crashes

i minimize while im playing and CoreTemp shows 40 degrees. so i duno.

 

[myocardia]

Are you just crashing to the desktop, or is it restarting or shutting down on you?

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

There are at least 10,542 different causes that I have documented for game crashes....but I'll give you the biggest ones for me.

1) Heat (you know)
2) Memory issues (bad hardware)
3) Issues with the video card either from HW, SW or both
4) Over Clocking -- I had a consistent BF2 crash that was fixed by right clocking my CPU
5) Hard disk errors
6) Game bugs
7) Drivers

THe hardest part is figuring out what is really causing the issue. The best is if you can repeat the problem. Most Games would have some type of Debug mode that might let you or support help you figure out what is happening...after a while...

I would first, make sure that you have the latest drivers for your system (sound, Video, esp). Then I would run a couple passes of memtest (FREE). I would get a heat meter program like Everest to see what the system is doing from a heat perspective when the crash occurs. Then I would check your system error logs to see if the OS is reporting anything. Then check the game specific forums.

It's a long road, that bigins with a single step...

good luck and god speed.

 

[IL2SturmovikPilot]

Perhaps one of your parts are junk ones? That and/or both those video cards are junk (Second one unlikely)

 

[TC91]

ah ... company of heroes, i had a similar problem before, it randomly crashed on me (bsod) after every 2-10 minutes. after lots of playing around i found out it was my ram actually. it appears coh is a bit harder on ram than other games IMO. i had my ram at the time at stock (667mhz CL5 - 2T) and it crashed!!! i decided to bump the ram voltage from 1.9v to 2.0v and it was stable. later on i decided to tighten my timings to CL3-1T @ 667mhz (now 672 because of the fsb: ram ratio) and increased the voltage one notch to 2.1v which has been rock solid ever since.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

if you've properly switched out the video cards, then its likely a ram/mb problem, or OS corruption problem

 

[TheJian]

Originally posted by: Cr0nJ0b
There are at least 10,542 different causes that I have documented for game crashes....but I'll give you the biggest ones for me.

1) Heat (you know)
2) Memory issues (bad hardware)
3) Issues with the video card either from HW, SW or both
4) Over Clocking -- I had a consistent BF2 crash that was fixed by right clocking my CPU
5) Hard disk errors
6) Game bugs
7) Drivers

THe hardest part is figuring out what is really causing the issue. The best is if you can repeat the problem. Most Games would have some type of Debug mode that might let you or support help you figure out what is happening...after a while...

I would first, make sure that you have the latest drivers for your system (sound, Video, esp). Then I would run a couple passes of memtest (FREE). I would get a heat meter program like Everest to see what the system is doing from a heat perspective when the crash occurs. Then I would check your system error logs to see if the OS is reporting anything. Then check the game specific forums.

It's a long road, that bigins with a single step...

good luck and god speed.

What is Right clocking? How do I left clock a cpu? Or would that just be Wrong Clocking it?...LOL.

J/K. I just read that and chuckled...Thanks

 

[TheJian]

Originally posted by: ih8regs
abit ip35-e
kingston 800mhz 2x1 gb DDR2
Intel E2200
Antec 500w basiq


so first i had a radeon 3450 in there....running CoH on high would last maybe 2 min

now i threw a geforce 8600gt and it lasts a bit longer but still crashes

i minimize while im playing and CoreTemp shows 40 degrees. so i duno.

Is this a new build? Other games crash too (No? check for game patches from company website)? Does the OS/browsing etc work fine (yes? Update all drivers, chipset which could be the case since both vids crapout and neither known to have probs with that game, sound (disable in the game and if stable hmmm....), and especially vid though doubtful on the vid since ATI AND Nvidia died so fast)? Chipset is a biggie on considering two very new vid cards but still not likely.

Can you pass memtest or prime stable?

Video is not your problem (well, could be but, I'd bet money against it).

Up the mem .1volt if you're not already at 2.2v or higher. All memory will run fine for 2 minutes without blowing at 2.2v I'm guessing new build maybe, and at 1.8v when it needs a bit more for whatever timings it's defaulting to. If you're 1.8v you could go straight to 2.0-2.1v no problem just to check for stability. Naturally I'd try 1.9 if stable at 2.0v etc to get it lower after stable.

If you don't know anything about memtest/prime try swapping modules real quick and see if it changes in your game. If it does yank one and test stable. still not? Change them still having just one. Stable now? You just found the bad one (assuming you did the volts above first ruling out timing crap probably). Since they are the same modules changing slots should not affect anything if it's NOT the modules. These are the quick/easy changes without much work.

You got another game you can toss at this system? Before we go screwing around any more we really need more info. When was PC built, is it just a new vid update, whats the whole system. Help us help you Describe the crash better. Feel free to long post

Cr0nJ0b did a pretty good job of telling you where to look, I think I just repeated him with a bit more depth on his points.

 

[40sTheme]

Mine was a PSU issue. Does it crash with an nVidia driver error (display stopped working)? Mine did on a Cooler Master eXtreme (CRAP) Power. Primarily in CoH. Turns out it had pretty unstable 12V voltage and it wasn't juicing my card properly and it was shutting down. Got a Seasonic S12 and it runs like a dream now.