Having Problems running PC games?

The majority of game crashes are caused by an unstable system. Now I know what your saying, "I can play or use app X with no problem why does game Y cause a problem?" Different game engines stress your system in different ways. Your system may appear to be stable running a less memory intensive game or one that does max your CPU at 100% for the whole game, but that doesn't mean that it is.

Most of us here use a few apps that can greatly help you troubleshoot system stability problems.

1) memtest86, this is one of my favorites. memtest86 will detect errors that no other test program will. You will need to runn memtest86 for a minimum of an hour. Some people suggest 24 but that seems a bit excessive. I have run it for 12 to 24 hours but all problems are usually found in the first hour.

2) prime95. prime95 gives your CPU a nice workout. It has a built in CPU torture test mode that will find stability problems with your CPU if they exist. Like memtest86 this should be run for over an hour.

3) 3DMark2001 or 3DMark2003 if your card supports it. Both these apps are video card benchmarking suites but when set to looping they make good video card stress testers. Usually 30 to 45 minutes is enough to verify the video card is stable.

4) Folding. Not only is it a good cause but it severly stresses your system. It can be run as a command lin with SSE extension turned on and configured to run two clients simultaneously for P4 Hyper Threaded CPUs. The longer you run it the better. I have all my systems running folding 24 hours a day. This is good so you can see how your system runs even when the room temperatures change through out the day.

Finally a few quick fixes:
- Update to the newest version of DirectX available.
- Update your motherboard's bios if a newer one exists.
- Update Video Card, Sound Card, and chipset drivers.
- Check to see if the game devlopers has released any patches for the game.

Also if a game or benchmark is repeatedly crashing back to the Windows desktop your memory is probably to blame. Try either giving it more voltage, relax your memory timings, or ease back on the amount of overclock.

NICE

Just trying to help out where I can. I had noticed a high number of threads basically all saying the same thing just using different games.

per your comment "Try either giving it more voltage, relax your memory timings, or ease back on the amount of overclock", how can i increase voltage / relax my memory timings?

i try to play CoD with an amd 2400/1800, 512, and the ATI IGP 320 (64MB DDR). it crashes to desktop whenever i start playing. (it worked for the "training" mission, but won't play mission one +)

it's a laptop, so i assumed my problem was the ati integrated. i know it's not a gaming system... but after reading your thread, i thought it was worth a question.

any ideas?

Cheers,
MF

upgrade your video card the 9800 pro's are cheap now so look into one of those preferably 256mb but if you cant afford it the 128mb one will do just fine

while we are on the subject of running games, i wonder if my system is capable of running any half decent games.
my system is as follows

cpu: AMD 2800+
video: Nvidia Geforce 5600
ram: 768Mb (512mb + 256mb)
HD's: total of 160Gb
OS: winXP prof SP1
I gather that this should be pretty much up to todays standards for gaming, but i wonder if the RAM is the problem.
I updated my video cards drivers, cleaned out my registry and did a complete defrag of both my hard drives.
I can run max payne 2, GTA Vice City and halo without a problem. the only game i ave trouble with is black and white.
It just doesnt seem to want to work (although it doesnt say it will run on XP anyway). After searching for patches and fixes
for the game, i have come to a complete stand still, even running the game in any compatibility mode wont work.
So...... is there any sort of performance configuration or whatever that can make a system into a more "gaming friendly"
piece of equipment?

please help

info is greatly appreciated.....

i would like to say something, when a game continiously stucks (so when you have to reboot your pc) it can also be a cooling problem. when you want to test this you can open your case and put a giant ventilator on it, you'll see. (btw nice but bit old topic)

sorry to bring up an old thread, but i've been having trouble runnin bf1942: DC. i've updated everything, and have done fresh installs, but the game still drops to 4 fps sometimes. so i want to try running memtest86 but i don't know how you use it. i download the 3.1a revision and extracted it, but all i get is a BOOT folder with 2 files in it? do i need to put that on a floppy and load from there? please help me, i hate lag.
shouldn't be my hardware, since it ran fine before. my specs are below

Sorry for the very late reply. I'd forgotten I had put this thread here. I've since signed up for notifications from it.

Anyway, yes you do need to extract memtest86 to a floppy

Any solution on how to run the ER game?

Probably a corrupted installation file, scratched CD....

I have a problem with Call of Duty 4. Whenever I try to play online, it locks up and I have to restart my computer. But, with single player, it never does that unless I'm downloading something. It also crashes when I'm playing C&C3, Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, and C&C Generals.

I don't think it's DirectX because I have 9.00c (I have Windows XP).

And sometimes it works (last night it did), but I tried a few minutes ago and it locked up on me.

Here's my computer properties:
Micro-Star International Co., LTD
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual
Core processor 6000+
3.00 GHz, 2.00 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS Version # 6.14.11.6921 (with DirectX 10)
RealTek HD Audio Output Version #5.10
Plug and Play Monitor
Microsoft XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600)

Also, my brother told me my video card could be becoming glitchy. Is this possible?

i need to get a new graphics card for my hp pavillion dv2000 because its not good
i think its the card NVIDIA GeForce GO 7200 with 128 MB of video memory cache Turbo
i play computer games ocassionly and would like to know what graphics card i should get, its not urgent so can wait about 2 months and ill have about £100 or so to spend on 1

any suggestions?

oh and would i have to send it to an engineer to be fitted?

I googled the hp pavillion dv2000, it's a laptop and probably cannot ever be updated with a video card that would play games better.