Random crashing

[Timormi]

While playing PS, my computer will freeze, or reboot itself completely randomly. I could be walking, running, shooting, standing still (not usually) and the game will freeze and with it so does my computer. I have no idea why this happens. I shut down my virus software, and all other non-necessary programs. Here are my specs:

ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
AMD Athlon XP 1900+ 1.6 GHz
512 MB SDRAM DDR-SDRAM
Mem. Bus speed = 2x 134MHz(268MHZ data rate)
Total of 70 GB of HD space
Windows 98 OS


I really need this fixed, cuz its damn annoying.

[Lise]

Windows 98 OS

That's it right there. Win98 doesn't really know how to handle more than ~190MB of RAM. The Radeon drivers for WinXP are more stable too. Get WinXP Home - you can score the upgrade for $100 (less if you're in college, yay student discounts.)

[Hunter83]

Windows 98se can handle up to 512MB w/o problems, it's only over that it starts getting odd. While Win98 certainly doesn't help, I'd bet it's the newest patch that's causing it.

Before the last patch, I'd crash only a couple times a week. Since the patch, I'm crashing many times daily. After crashing for the 6th time today, twice being within 15 mins, I gave up and won't try again until tomarrow.

[malikai3k]

mine does the same thing i run win xp, it only happens in planetside. It's a planetside thing.

I'm running a gf4

[OneManArmy]

yea I crash a lot too I have XP and a radeon.... damn planetside, its unfinished...

[Agathon]

Hello,

I've crashed a ton since the last patch, and before it they were rare. I'm hoping this is an issue they resolve. It is definitely a PS thing. Other games do not crash on me, and my system is very stable otherwise. I use win2k. I concur that win98 should be fine and works with 512 RAM, but upgrading wouldn't hurt. If you do upgrade to a flavor of XP or to win2k, make sure you disable ACPI by hitting F7 during the initial installation where it asks if you need to install any specific drivers to press F6 (It is a hidden feature only experienced people would know to hit F7 there). If you missed this in the beginning though, you can always revert back to it once the machine is installed by going to device manager and changing the Computer driver from an ACPI to Standard PC.

The original poster, check device manager and list your devices by connection. Tell me if you have devices sharing IRQ's. for example, for gaming you need your video card, sound card, and your Internet connection (either modem or NIC) to have separate IRQ's. Try turning off sound. Do you still lock up? Does the computer lock up in other games? Does it lock up or have problems when it is doing something other than games like an office product? I've dealt with tons of problems like yours, but I'd need more information to help you further.

Good luck,

[Timormi]

Alright with the whole device manager thing, dont know how to find out if any of them are connected to each other. Second part. It only does it for PS. I have played other games lil DoD and SW: JKII and did not happen to them. I listen to music when I play, but I have tried playing without it, still crashed. The only programs I have running are my virus software (Norton), ZoneAlarm, my joystick controller software, and MBM 5 (shows mother board temperature.) That should be all you asked. Hope it helped to decide wtf is wrong with this thing :)

[NoSurrender]

turn off norton that takes up quite a bit of resources... and if that doesnt work i still crash to with P4 1.9ghz 1gig of PC2100 DDR 5400rpm 60gig Radeon 9500pro and Windows XP

[Agathon]

Hello,

Right click on My Computer
Click Properties
Click Hardware
Click Device Manager
Click View
Select Resources by Connection
Expand Interrupt Requests (IRQ)

Look at the list and tell me if you have a bunch of stuff sharing either IRQ 9 or 11. Then also tell me if you have IRQs listed that go beyond 16, like 21-25, etc. This will tell me if you have ACPI installed. It is a gamers worst nightmare, so you need to be sure it is not installed.

If it is installed, back up your data, and then follow the below instructions:

Go back to device manager
Click View
Select By Type
Expand Computer
Right click the ACPI listing there.
Click Update Driver
Select chose from a list
Select show all devices
Select "Standard PC"
Reboot your computer
Go into your BIOS

Disable Com ports, parallel ports, and IDE channels not being used to free up IRQs and disable USB in the BIOS if you don't use it.

Reboot again

This will reinstall your drivers, so you might need to either have your installation drivers ready or redirect windows to various system folders. It is often easier for the non-technical person to just have the CDROMs and drivers downloaded on the HD though than trying to search through your system folder for the already installed copies. Sometimes this switch over works fine, but other times drivers can cause problems. Make sure you backup your windows profile (documents and settings) before doing this in the event that you have to reinstall windows.

You shouldn't have any problems, but if you do try hitting F8 at boot up of windows and reverting back to the last good login.

Good luck,

[Timormi]

A couple problems:
First I followed your instructions, except mine is different. I am running Win98, which you must not or it would be the same. All I know is that I have ACPI installed, and under "View Devices by Type" there is no computer, just a list of all the shit I have installed, set in groups. So I don't know what I want to do, but im probably gonna deal with it until the next patch comes along.

[NoSurrender]

i think you should really update to XP and stop norton antivirus from running while playing

[Timormi]

Right sorry for not answering right away, but the IRQ thing is not a problem at all. There are none on 9 and 11 and I dont even have a 21 and on. There are 4 sharing 10, but they are USB. So that aint the problem :doh: