Computer restarts while playing Sims--HELP!

[bluecatvon]

Is this supposed to be in the "Oops I broke it" board? I'm not quite sure, but if it is then feel free to move it and sorry for the inconvinience! I saw some posts refering to computer crashes, but figured every computer is different, so I'm writing a new post.

Help! I can't play The Sims 2 for more than 5 minutes! It's driving me crazy! Any Sims-addicted person would understand my frustration...

And just when I bought NL and OFB and am planning to have fun with cars, downtown, businesses, compatibility etc...sob...

It's like this: my computer will restart in the middle of gameplay, even sometimes while i'm online. I know a bit of computer (a bit only haha) but I still need some advice. Please throw in as much guesses you have that might help with my problem. I can't even defragment my drive as I'm afraid that it'll restart again and will screw my pc completely...

I have ATI Radeon 9100, 3.0 GHz, 2 Apacer ram sticks (a 500MB and a 1GB), Windows XP Professional (Service Pack 2 I guess, how do i really check?) anymore info I need to give out?

I currently have catalyst 6.14, the original driver I got from the cd. I tried to update my graphics card, but catalyst 6.5 doesn't support my windows (so it says) and the latest 6.9 needs to have microsoft dotnet frameworks 2.0 installed. When I try to install the frameworks it ALWAYS restarts during the process. I've tried it 4 times then gave up.

Thanks so much! I miss my families...

[bluecatvon]

Oh and I have to mention that my monitor flickers when the computer's doing stuff (eh...lack of words to describe...) doing stuff like opening programs, copying stuff etc.

This is a formated and newly installed computer. Was thinking of trying out every suggestions I can get before sending it to the shop...I'm seriously lacking Simoleans since I bought Nightlife and Open For Business...

[J. M. Pescado]

It sounds like you have some kind of hardware issue. Inadequate power supply or failing power supply would be a possibility. If you're short on money, we recommend selling your ass.

[bluecatvon]

Hmm..it's only 2 years old...I guess I'll have to I'll miss my ass...

but before i do sell it, are there any other reason? I will try anything! (I think)

[J. M. Pescado]

I honestly have no idea. All information hints at hardware problems, if this recently started. If you have no spare parts to randomly replace, then you're just SOL. The shop won't help you either, they'll turn it on, see that it works, declare it working, and charge you anyway for wasting their time.

[bluecatvon]

Really?! How screwed am I...

My dad's trying to get hold of a computer technician for me while in the meantime I've been searching on the net for information. I read up bout power supply. Maybe it's ailing...seriously hope a computer technician can sort these out...During the time I first posted this message my computer has restarted or freeze itself 8 times

Joy!

[J. M. Pescado]

Random restarts for absolutely no reason at all could be anything from driver issues to hardware failure. Try disabling "autorestart" in your system configuration settings to see if you get anything interesting in a BSOD.

[bluecatvon]

i've searched, but still can't find where to disable "autostart" ...hehe...

the 2nd time I formatted my computer, it was because I keep getting win32k.sys or atiqua3.dll (something, forgot the correct spelling) error. i can't update my driver back then. and now too. haha.

[Theo]

During the time I first posted this message my computer has restarted or freeze itself 8 times

Joy!

Maybe it's a long shot, but can you hear anything when the system freezes, like a hard drive spinning out, or a sudden click in a hard drive?

[J. M. Pescado]

I've killed a lot of hard drives, and hard drives dying generally freezes the system, rather than rebooting. If the system can reboot over and over, then the drive is functioning normally. A hard drive hiccup would freeze the system while it tries to read the drive, possibly indefinitely, and the drive would still hang on reboot. This sounds more like heat/drivers/power, likely drivers, if the computer already has had a past history of bad driver installation.

[bluecatvon]

Theo: eh...I do hear a sound, but I can't know for sure if it's a normal starting the computer sound or the ones you've listed.

JM: my computer does freezes itself sometimes. Sometimes the mouse won't move (completely freezed), sometimes the mouse could move, but nothing else is.

tried installing a catalyst 5.8, an old version which worked in the past. But it says I need dotnet frameworks to install it. currently downloading version 1.1 and praying that it'll install...

*played sims just now cause missed it too much. still couldn't break the 5 minute record...*

[Theo]

Granted, hard drive failure normally freezes Windows, and does not causes a reboot.

But in my recent experience, I've seen something remarkable: a loose or badly connected SATA cable would cause - when loosing contact on some pins - the normal freezing, but sometimes it caused Windows to BSOD and reboot.

Though in this case, the more frequent reboot seems to rule out that scenario.

[Bruce Banner]

  One of your errors is ' atiqua3.dll  ' so that sounds like your ATI card or drivers  And on the subject of graphic cards and drivers yours seems really odd to be honest  A Radeon 9100 isn't even listed when you look at the Drivers section of the ATI/AMD site and the latest drivers are the 6.12 's so only the 6.13's ( or 7's ) will be in beta so are you sure you're not mistaken about the 6.14's being on your cd ? 

[Sleepycat]

One of your errors is ' atiqua3.dll  ' so that sounds like your ATI card or drivers  And on the subject of graphic cards and drivers yours seems really odd to be honest  A Radeon 9100 isn't even listed when you look at the Drivers section of the ATI/AMD site and the latest drivers are the 6.12 's so only the 6.13's ( or 7's ) will be in beta so are you sure you're not mistaken about the 6.14's being on your cd ? 

I have a radeon card and use the  6.14 driver, it's actually an older driver...had a look at the site and I see what you mean, it's the stupid way they are naming them -

the "Catalyst Software Suite" is named 6-12 and my older suite is 6-5 (or 6-8 I have copys of both) but the driver listed every where on my computer is 6.14

[bluecatvon]

Bruce Banner: yes that file sounds like the one. I don't know why but the more i look at the name the more i think it's another spelling...could be that my mind is failing i tend to remember words by the way they look, so it somehow seemed unfamiliar to me the way you write it.

it says version 6.14 on the driver details found in the preferance (right click on desktop > settings > advanced) thought i'm not sure which version it would be in terms of 6-x or 5-x .

speaking of which, i tried installing catalyst 5-8 and failed. it needed microsoft dotnet frameworks 1.1 at least. downloaded it, tried to install but an error came out. no idea what it meant (i almost always have no idea what those error messages are trying to tell me). installing 2.0 results in a reboot. haha. i'm screwed. as JM says, i'm gonna have to sell my ass if no one can come up with some solutions..

[blubug]

Mine used to do that, but later I discovered it could also restart during a normal windows task, and I had some trouble installing windows the last time; so I reinstalled windows *again* after formatting, but still had the random restarts. It was giving a driver error even after a fresh format with no drivers installed.

The problem turned out to be: I have 3x512MB Ram sticks. And one was slower, so I put that one on the last slot (or was it the first? can'ty remember, did a lot of research back then) and that was messing it up. I tried all combinations possible, and turns out, the slow one works best in the middle slot, the latest fast one I got in the last, and the one I bought in-between (also fast) works in the first slot. That's pretty stupid I guess, but I swear it's the truth and I haven't had ANY problems since then. No errors either.
But if you don't know anything about it, I suggest you send it to the shop. I couldn't because the only shop here ripped me off big-time and had my PC in for a motherboard change for 3 months!

[J. M. Pescado]

Mismatched RAM would *DEFINITELY* cause this kind of error. If you have a mismatched RAM problem, as in you bought your RAMs at seperate times, insert your RAMs seperately and check your BIOS for what it detects as timings for each RAM. One of your RAMs may detect as being slower than the others, but if both RAMs are installed, your BIOS may autodetect the faster RAM. In this case, you must manually set your RAM timings back the speed of the slower RAMs. More information about a prior case of this has been documented here.

[wes_h]

the slow one works best in the middle slot, the latest fast one I got in the last, and the one I bought in-between (also fast) works in the first slot.

Makes sense to me. I just did a memory upgrade on my PC, and it had 4 memory slots, two blue and two grey, laid out like BGBG. The original RAM was two 256 Meg sticks, each in one blue slot (0 and 2). I placed a 1 GB stick in slot zero (first blue one), and put the two matched 256's in slots 1 and 3 (the grey ones).

[KatEnigma]

http://www.memtest86.com/

Burn it to a disk, make your computer boot from CD, and then let it run overnight. If you get back lots of things highlighted in red, it's a memory problem.

You also do not NEED to have catalyst installed, you can install just the drivers (just not the latest one, apparently *sigh*). Uninstall your ATI drivers/catalyst through add/remove programs. Then go to http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/xp/previous/radeon/radeonxip-cat65-xp.htmll and install just the display driver.

It could also be a heat problem. Make sure all your fans are working and that there's nothing blocking the air vents to your tower. If you have a desk with a cubby for the the tower, pull it out of there, into the open, where air can circulate around it away from any heat sources. I've also been known to pop a side off and point a room fan at it.

Or it could be a power supply problem. *shrug* But the only way to test THAT is to buy a new one, so make it your last resort.

[bluecatvon]

Thanks guys!!

I'm gonna try taking out my ram. I'm guessing I can check the "latency timing" or "latency frequency" to determine the speed of the 512MB ram, then test run it. If nothing goes wrong, I will insert the 1GB ram in and set both the same latency timing/frequency. And pray hard.

And I'm gonna try switching the rams too, blubug.

katennigma, i've downloaded the memtest86. i'll use a floppy disk. gonna check it tonight and hopefully can find a solution to it. For now I have the basic driver that came with the motherboard in the cd. not planning to update it as it's such a hassle...i think i can rule out heat problems. i tried pointing a fan at the open cased cpu but it restarted again.

and once again thank you all!

[ZiggyDoodle]

My curiosity has been sparked:  Does your computer crash and burn with all apps or just TS2? 

[miros]

I think the person said that it crashed with just a Windows Explorer window open...

[ZiggyDoodle]

Saw the reference to the monitor flickering, but nothing about Explorer.   

Ziggy gets out reading glasses and looks again...

No matter; the system clearly is bugged.

[nectere]

I have experienced restarting (not crashing) from the battery going out while using heavy programs. I have also seen it with faulty power supplies.

[bluecatvon]

ZiggyDoodle: it crashed everytime i play Sims2, install microsoft dotnet frameworks, crash sometimes while surfing the net, copying large amounts of files, and watching a movie in windows media player. It has NEVER restarted itself while playing Theme Hospital and while idle.
Edit: OK I take it back. Now after hours of gameplay, I have my first restart while playing Hospital and while idle. Damn.
Formated the computer, not sure if it's a system problem but it's unlikely.

I checked with Memtest86, it scanned bout 18 hours without any errors. But then i had to cancel the program cause my friend came over to help with my problem. No clue at all. So it's official, I'm sending my computer to the shop tomorrow...worst case scenario is, I may not see it for 3 whole weeks...

anyhow, thank you all! hope it won't get to that worst case scenario. i can't imagine spending 3 weeks away from my dear computer...