Neilo

Join Date 04/2006

+128

Need help from GalCIv 2 community

Save me...Please!!!

Hi all,

For about 6 months now (maybe longer) i have had many crashes when playing, it has occured across many patches and in DA too. The crashes range from CTD's with error reporting, CTD's w/out error reporting,, lockup's and restarts which result in about 50% of those being BSOD's.

I have used Smart-Ex often and submitted many logs to Cari and she has deterrmined that it it not galciv crashing but rather a problem with my system. Now on some occasions after a BSOD i get the "this system has recovered from a serious error" message and after reporting to microsoft they believe it is a driver causing it to happen.

With that in mind i checked all drivers and the only unsigned driver was for, at the time, my FX 5200 graphics card, which i turfed and bought a 7600 gt hoping to cure the problem, it hasn't. I have had at the worse 36 crashes in a 45 minute period, though this is not the norm, but i would say for every 7mins of play i get a crash, sometimes i barely start a game and it will crash and at times i can play for 6-7 hours and it will run fine.

my specs are, P4 3.06 w/hyper enabled, Gigabyte 8S648FX-RZ M/Board, 1.5gig ram with 6gig page file, Palit 7600gt AGP graphics card, 320g + 120gig HDD's, Soundblaster Audigy 2 running XP Home, Software that runs in the background at all times would be, ZoneAlarm Security Suite, WindowBlinds 5.0.

Possible issues i thought were/are a power supply problem, it is old and the fan a little rattly plus a bit hotter than it used to be. It's a Omni 400w.

Plus maybe the age of the M/Board + CPU, they are about 3 years old and probably have seen there day.

The strange thing is that i have no issues with any other games, these include, Rise of Nations, Rise of Legends, Age of Mythology, C+C Generals + Zero hour, Trainz 2006, Zoo Tycoon 2, Star Trek Legacy among others, you get the point.

Any thoughts/reccomendations youo guys/gals may have would be helpful as a new pc is some months off. Any info anyone needs, please ask and i will be happy to give it.

Thanks,
Neilo.

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Hi!
I can offer you just a few suggestions that could more precisely locate your problem:
- get memtest86 and let it run for two hours to find if you have a faulty memory;
- get Speedfan program and check if your comp if overheating;
- physically open your box and touch different components to find if they're very hot;
- get a hard disk test program from the disk's manufacturer web site and let it run in full mode to find disk errors;
- get the latest drivers from the net and reinstall them;
- reinstall Windows (reformat the disk, make new install) to get rid of possible faulty programs / drivers;
- get new comp

.

BR, Iztok

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Neilo

Join Date 04/2006

+128

Thanks Iztok, i have re-installed a number of times to no avail, The 320gig drive which is where Xp and galciv are located is brand new, only installed in the last month or so.

The power supply and the cpu heatsink are hotter than i would expect and i will get and run those progs you suggested.

- get new comp

I'm counting the days.....

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Most BSODs are hardware related, and if you have done a completely clean install of Windows (not a re-install over the top of the existing OS) then this seems to be the most likely cause. Bad RAM would be the most likely, so the MEMTEST program is a must - and I would suggest leaving it running overnight.

Other possibilities are chipset / CPU problems that have been caused by overheating - are all fans working correctly, and do you have enough?

also, have you googled the error code reported on the BSOD (or in the event log)?

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The power supply and the cpu heatsink are hotter than i would expect

Well, I can't help out with any of your issues necessarily but I do know for a fact that the 7600GT needs a minimum of 450 watts from the psu. There was a debate regarding this in another thread in here when I was going through upgrades on my PC so it ultimately depends on if you really think you need one as I have had techs from HP and nvidia tell me two completely different things with regards to power supplies and the necessary wattage for a specific card. If the psu you have now is getting 'hotter' than seems normal it may be due to the power draw against it when the graphics card is demanding more power. Hope this helps as well.

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Neilo

Join Date 04/2006

+128

also, have you googled the error code reported on the BSOD (or in the event log)?

I never see it, it flashes up and restarts so quick i cant catch what one it is, could you tell me where the event log is located please.

but I do know for a fact that the 7600GT needs a minimum of 450 watts from the psu.

Ok, well one of my thoughts was that the PSU being old and all was not up to the task and as such working hard to maintain voltage and as a result creating far too much heat. I will try and throw in a 500w in the next week or so.

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I never see it, it flashes up and restarts so quick i cant catch what one it is, could you tell me where the event log is located please.

Right-click My Computer, choose 'Properties'.
Select the 'Advanced' tab, click the 'Settings' button in 'Startup and Recovery'.
In the 'System failure' section uncheck 'Automatically restart'.

And you will find the Event Viewer in Control Panel-Administrative Tools

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Yup, back when I was working with some real ratty used hardware (before I could buy the good stuff) Me and the BSOD where common advasaries. It sounds like bad memory or PSU. B

But then again what brand of RAM are you using? Some RAM doesnt always play well with certain other pieces of hardware. Perhaps try checking for known conflict issues between that and your mobo?

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Ain't that the truth.

I first bought a stick of Crucial ram when I went up to 3GB on my HP, and it didn't work. In fact, it didn't work to the point that I had to clear the CMOS (after removing the ram) to get the machine to boot again. I forget what brand I ended up getting, but it worked without a hitch.

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Neilo

Join Date 04/2006

+128

Thanks Moose, and i am using 3 sticks of 512 Kingston ram. Always have used that brand and never had a problem, thought like i said this machine is getting on in age. I have memtest running all tonight, and will post results here.

Thanks all, keep the suggestions coming.....

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If you do go in search of a new psu I would highly recommend the OCZ Gamextreme 700 watt. More than enough connections for you to add-on down the road, well put together and no problems whatsoever installing it into my HP tower. I believe it was around 160.00 from Newegg with a twenty dollar rebate, but that was a few months ago. When I find a good product I like to tell people and I believe the OCZ Gamextreme is awesome for what you get for the money, plus the warranty is decent as well (can't remember the exact coverage, but it wasn't bad). They have a few different flavors, all the way down to 500 watts or so... so you should find something in your price range if you're interested.

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Neilo

Join Date 04/2006

+128

Thanks Evil, though i won't go to that extreme just yet, i'm still using AGP and will be building a new PCI-E system in about 6 months...so i wont go overboard with the PSU.

I used Memtest last night for about 13 hours and the results are not encouraging. Not sure how to interpret this info but here is some what was there,

Test 6, Pass 40% errors 5120.

Im sure any errors are course for concern so some new ram it is

I will run it again tonight, is there anything in particular i should be looking for?

Thanks again guys, knew i could count on the Galciv community for some help.

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Try reseating the ram before you buy more. Sometimes it is just oxidized contacts.

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Hi!

Test 6, Pass 40% errors 5120.

Run a test for each RAM separately. A full test for 512MB on your comp will probably take about 30 minutes. If there are serious errors, they'll show in a first minute or two of the test. If you find errors, try installing that RAM in a different slot and test again. Moosetek's advice is good, reseating will physically remove the oxydized layer on contacts.

But in my case at home the failing RAM was the second sign of motherboard's progressive fatal disease.

BR, Iztok

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I will run it again tonight, is there anything in particular i should be looking for?

Not really--it's basically as simple as red = bad.

As advised by Iztok, test each stick you have individually to see if it's just one bad stick. If more than one are bad, then that may indicate some other issue caused the damage (flaky motherboard or dirty power, for example).

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Neilo

Join Date 04/2006

+128

Found it!

One of my sticks was faulty, 6 hours of memtest and a few more hours of gameplay and no errors or crashes. I guess i have to play with just 1gig for a while..at least i can play

I would really like to thank you guys, as always a great help

And Evil, i picked up a 500w psu today just to be on the safe side, thanks.

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And Evil, i picked up a 500w psu today just to be on the safe side, thanks.

If you don't mind my asking, what did you end up getting and how much? Just curious.

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Good news - hope it runs well from now on.

For good, reliable & affordable PSUs, Xclio are a good brand. Their 700W modular ultrquiet is available for £65 in the UK (about $130). Ideal for a new PCI-E based PC.

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Neilo,

All Kinston memory has a lifetime warranty (at least in US). You should be able to contact them directly and get the bad memory exchanged for good memory.

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Neilo

Join Date 04/2006

+128

Thanks Purge, i will look into that. Maybe a little harder here in Australia, but worth looking into.

Evil, i got a Thermaltake Purepower 500W, got it for $85au found it originally on newegg though and tracked it down from there. It's price on there is $65us.

Runs fine, nice and quite. Will see me through to my Pci-e machine comes to fruition

Thanks again guys, hope i can help all of you out one day

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I have a Thermaltake 460W in mine. They are good power supplies.

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Neilo

Join Date 04/2006

+128

I was tempted by some of the Thermaltake cases too. Plenty of drive bays and really good cooling, pretty sure i will go with them for the new pc.

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Thermaltake cases are well worth the money. I have built several pc's using them, and the quality is first rate.

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