Multiple games crashing

[fangs2000]

Hey all,

Firstly, specs:

AMD XP Athlon 3200+
ATi Connect 3D 9800 pro (128mb)
2x512mb corsair value ram
Windows xp Pro
MSI motherboard, can't recall actual model.
350 watt power supply

Nothing is overclocked, and everything is adequatly cooled.

Caesar 4, Company of Heros, Star Wars Empire at war (and x-pack) and Neverwinter nights 2 all crash to desktop reporting the same windows error (internal message, send/don't send)

All drivers updated to latest, hard drive defragged, virus and spyware scan. DirectX is latest version, and has been checked for errors.

I do have ATi Catalyst Control center running in the background which has been logging the crashes. I have been looking through the event viewer and there are similarities. The fault address changes each time, but the data shown at the bottom, with all the numbers, is the same each time for each game. ie nwn2 shows the same data, CoH shows same data.

I have no idea what these numbers are. I would like to know if they come from hardware or software side, and if software side, if it's the games themselves or win XP.

I am planning to upgrade near Xmas and will do a full format then, until then, i would like to know how to address the problem, and IF a format will actually fix it.

Here is an example of what is meant by "data" There are two methods of display, Bytes and Words


BYTES
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 46 61 69 6c ion Fail
0010: 75 72 65 20 20 6e 77 6e ure nwn
0018: 32 6d 61 69 6e 5f 61 6d 2main_am
0020: 64 78 70 2e 65 78 65 20 dxp.exe
0028: 31 2e 30 2e 31 2e 38 30 1.0.1.80
0030: 37 20 69 6e 20 6e 77 6e 7 in nwn
0038: 32 6d 61 69 6e 5f 61 6d 2main_am
0040: 64 78 70 2e 65 78 65 20 dxp.exe
0048: 31 2e 30 2e 31 2e 38 30 1.0.1.80
0050: 37 20 61 74 20 6f 66 66 7 at off
0058: 73 65 74 20 30 30 31 63 set 001c
0060: 64 36 65 30 0d 0a d6e0..

WORDS
0000: 6c707041 74616369 206e6f69 6c696146
0010: 20657275 6e776e20 69616d32 6d615f6e
0020: 2e707864 20657865 2e302e31 30382e31
0030: 6e692037 6e776e20 69616d32 6d615f6e
0040: 2e707864 20657865 2e302e31 30382e31
0050: 74612037 66666f20 20746573 63313030
0060: 30653664 0a0d

These seems very compicated to me, but I am hoping someone will be able to understand what these numers mean, and at least tell me their origin.

 

[Law]

Try this, go to the Catalyst Control Center, click View and select Advanced View. Select SMARTGART, set AGP speed to OFF and turn off FASTWRITE.

See if that does anything to help.

Also, make sure you get a better power supply and make sure your computer case is cooling properly.

 

[Ste]

All games crashing. Mmmm
Run memtest86. Just google it, also BEFORE buying a new Power supply he should get a DMM and check the rails and Amperage on it.

 

[Dup84]

If you got some value ram, maybe it's down clocked because your BIOS don't recognise it.

Just go in you're BIOS, Set manual overclocking and set the ram speed to the one it's supposed to be.

 

[fangs2000]

Law- I have turned off fast write, no success. When you said turn AGP speed off, do you mean the slider with off- 1x - 2x - 4x - 8x.
Cooling should not be a problem, both processor and Graphics card have 3rd party coolers and i can feel loads of heat coming off. I also have the case side off the double check it's staying cool

Ste- I will run memtest86 as soon as I get some floppy disks, or cds. I only have DVDs atm. Also, what is a DMM and where could I get one? considering I live in the UK.

It could be the power supply since it came with the case and i think the brandname is "Eagle" whom I have never heard of. Also reading about how importent a high-quailty power supply is now, maybe I will buy a new high-quality one. Will probably make a post about that.

Dup84 - I cannot change the Ram settings on my motherboard, they seem to be locked in. I can check what they are set to, I will post those next time I boot up and check to see if their correct.

It also seems with games, that if I play the game again streight after a CTD, it will crash again within a few mins. If I power down, wait, and power up again, some games can last much longer, even a few hours.

I belive it COULD be the ram, does anyone know what the warrenty is like on Value Ram?

 

[Ste]

Digital Multimeter, any electronic store, radio shack or even a discount store should have them.

 

[fangs2000]

ok, sorry for the slow reply. Been trying to run Memtest86 and unable to find a Floopy disc or CD.

I have run Memtest, only for 3 hours, and got errors:

Test 5, Total erros 46720.
Shown are 10 errors ranging from 1022.0MB to 1022.9M

As for memory timings, I checked to what my MB has set against what the memory is designed to run at, and it is a match. Memory is not under/over clocked.

Also, it seems I have also been getting blue screens instead of a freeze. The message is rare but reports a "hardware failure".

Thanks

 

[Dup84]

Your ram is defect, return it ASAP to the store you buyed it!

 

[fangs2000]

yeah, I know that now. Removed one stick and games worked fine, if quite a bit slower (running on 512mb).

Trouble is the ram is 2 years old, and although it DOES have a lifetime warranty, it will take time to send it off to the US and have it replaced. In the mean time, I will be lucky to get a 256mb ram stick to run the PC off.

Unless Ebuyer will replace it for me, save on delivery costs. Must have a look.

OK, Case closed. Thanks for all your help.