Starting games crashes my PC

[Bimmo]

Hey People,

Sometimes when i load a game the game will run for about a minute then my computer will restart, after it restarts the computer will boot back up fine and the game will then run no problem as well. It was doing this a while back but formating my PC seemed to fix it, it was has been fine for about 4 - 5 weeks but suddenly yesterday it started doing it again however this time when i formatted it to try and fix the problem it didnt work and is still restarting every now and then when i launch a game. as mentioned though it will restart fine then the game will run fine but its still a pain in the ass.

there are no error messages before it restarts or when it reboots either

I dont think its an Overheating issue as the game doesn't even run long enough for the GPU to heat up and i only have this issue with games, nothing else.

System Specs:
Pentium 4 3.0Ghz
1Gb Ram
Asus P5VD1 - X Motherboard (with intergrated sound)
ATI Radeon X850 (Catalyst 7.4 drivers)
160Gb IDE HDD
250Gb External HDD
500 Watt PSU

Any Suggestions would be greatly appreciated!! THANKS

[TotallyRandom]

Sounds like you have some Nice Blue screens happning causing the system to restart.
To Veiw the Blue screen errors that every one loves do the steps below and let us know what you get from that.
how many sticks of ram you got?


----
1.Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2.Click the Advanced tab.
3.Under Startup and Recovery, click Settings to open the Startup and Recovery dialog box.
4.Clear the Automatically restart check box, and click OK the necessary number of times.
5.Restart your computer for the settings to take effect.

[ZX7R]

conflicting/old driver perhaps? ensure you are fully updated with directx and drivers. I've used driveragent.com a couple of times and it's been great.

[neo2810]

Bimmo, it's always nice when new joiners read the rules and post the first in the intro section........... nevermind... But you might want to do that before any of our bouncers see this.

You problem is more likely to be a GFX issue than anything else. Try a different GFX card if you can. If not, check all connections on the card and ensure it's secure in it's slot, reinstall the latest drivers for it, check the support for your card to see if it has any issues with particular games or gfx settings (if it's an older card and doesn't support 2x antialias for example) ...

[Bimmo]

well the first sugestion didnt work, it still restarted when i changed the My Computer Properties. im running the latest drivers now and im not convinced its my graphics card because its dont this before then i formatted and it stopped doing it, now all of a sudden its doing it again, but formating didnt fix it this time. if it was a problem with the Graphics card, wouldnt it do it every time i tried to play not just selected times?

the only game i play regularly is counter strike source and my card ( ATI radeon x850) is more than enough to play this game

[inspectercoley]

Could be overheating.
Could be a problem with the ram.
Could be onboard gfx confusing things.

What is the bsod error if you have time to read it?

Also check event viewer for errors.
control panel-->administrative tools-->event viewer
Look for red crosses.

Sounds gfx card related to me though

try running dxdiag (start-->run "dxdiag")
Its a long shot but that can sometimes identify problems.

[rIKmAN]

Do you have the latest version of DX and is it working fine?
I had a similar issue on a PC (although it would always crash, not crash once then work liek you). Re-installing DX fixed the problem.

I also used www.ccleaner.com to get rid of any unwanted shite and clean up dead / conflicting registry values etc.

Also, I`d recommend you try the Omega Drivers for your card, without all the .Net shite.

[Bimmo]

tried all the above and no results, but ive found out something interesting, which is it only seems to do the whole restarting thing if i try playing a game as soon as i turn on my computer, if i leave it for 10 - 15 minutes or so it works fine which is wierd. its not overheating as i run ATI tool and log all temps and its only reaching a max of around 55 degrees, got all latest ati drivers and direct x and ive never had a problem with these drivers before. did a ram check on both my 512Mb stick and there fine. so i really am baffled............to put it nicely i dont have a f*****g clue and feel like just putting my big size 14 foot thru the bloody thing. lol

[ZX7R]

Have tried searching to see if there's a bios update for your motherboard?

[inspectercoley]

Even if both of your ram sicks are fine they may have incomparability issues with your motherboard. Try running with each ram stick individually then you can identify if 1 is faulty of if they are incompatible with each other.
If possible try ram from another machine...

[Bimmo]

well ive been running this machine for just over a year now and ive had no compatibaility issues, its the same ram and motherboard BIOS ive always had, and its done this before then it stopped when i formated, and its just started again, i moved the machine about a total distance of a foot the other day and everything is still in, securly in place. i dont get why it would just suddenly become incompatible. the strangest thing is it only happens if i try playing a game as soon as i turn on the machine .
leave it for a while then try and its fine??????

[TotallyRandom]

When you done the OS reinstall what order did you to the drivers in?

[Bimmo]

installed the motherboard drivers first then the graphics drivers

[TotallyRandom]

Mmmm Search about for some system testing tools Test all your periferals out with the OS.
I am thinking Power Supply if the system is just resetting without any Blue screen errors. Got any swaps parts?

[Bimmo]

a

[Bimmo]

yeah maybe the psu, unfortunatly i dont have a spare one, but if the PSU is faulty wouldnt it restart every time i try to play a game not just every now and then? why would it work most of the time then every now and then not work?

not trying to sound unapreciative here as im thankful for all suggestions just shaing my thoughts to the suggestions.

cheers

[rIKmAN]

Sounds like the old 360 GPU problem to me.

Could be that your gfx card has warped slightly (due to weight in the case or whatever) and now has 1 or more dry joints, so if u try a game straght away the card is cold, connections aren`t made and then - reboot!

If you leave it on for a while, then card warms up, the dry joints swell and connections are made on the card where the dry joints are, so it works normally.
This is how the 360 towel trick works.

Have you tried a different gfx card in the machine?

As for the PSU, it`s possible, maybe spiking or not enough power when it comes to running the card for a game - does it have a molex on the gfx card?
As you say though last time a reformat sorted it, so that doesn`t point to the PSU.

[Bimmo]

yeah it has a 4 pin molex connector which is why i dont think its a problem with the PSU sending enough juice or a dodgy connection. the dry connections sounds more likely. unfortunatly i dont have a spare GFX card but is there any way i can see this on teh card if i take it out of the machine and if so is there a way to fix it?

[Bimmo]

i dont think its the connections on the card now, i just installed ghost recon and tried to play it an my machine instantly restarted, i have had this game since the day of its release and never had this problem with it before. now im completely baffled!!

[Bimmo]

my computer just restarted a second ago when trying to laod ghost recon again and the following two errors were logged in the system section of the events manager when i restarted :

the first:

Generate Activation Context failed for C:\WINDOWS\system32\CRYPTUI.dll. Reference error message: The operation completed successfully.
.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

the second:

Resolve Partial Assembly failed for Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls. Reference error message: The parameter is incorrect.
.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

any one know what this means?