All games crash - help

[Eck]

On the system I've sold to a friend (eck.cjb.net), we tried to put games on it and every single game crashed. We've tried about 4 games: Splinter Cell, Return To Castle Wolfenstein, and two I can't remember. All of them would run, but some would freeze before we even got to the menu like Splinter Cell, and Wolfenstein would sometimes actually get into the game and a couple minutes later freeze up. The picture just stays on the screen and nothing else happens. We have to reboot.

I'm using VIA 4.51 Hyperions with the video driver 53.03. I'm thinking the problem is either of those drivers, or bad RAM?

 

[koko]

does this happen with applications like ms word or others? if it does, that would rule out an opengl problem.

 

[Eck]

No, it just happens in games.

 

[GoNz0]

i think you should sort the problem in the 1st thread you did rather than try to carry it on in here. there is a hardware issue on your pc, removing 1 memory stick didn't resolve all of the problems. have you tried the memory / CPU from your new system ? you know it makes sence

http://www.ntfs.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=41842

that thread should be merged with this one imho. get the problem back on track.

 

[Eck]

Yeah, they're likely caused by the same hardware issue, but they are different subjects. XP is fine now, but the games aren't. I made a new thread so people would help me out with the games issue. Someone that might have had the same problem with all games crashing might not read a thread titled "Problems Installing XP".

Also, the system with the problem has an idle CPU temp of about 48C. That seems a bit high to me. I touched the heatsink while Wolfenstein was running and crashed, and it didn't get too hot to touch.

 

[GoNz0]

a games issue can point to a load issue, go grab sisoft sandra and do some benchmarks. (u got a spare power supply eck ?)

i figure, if they read up on whats happend it will help get a result, being as though we know memory may be an issue, its far better than chasing a million drivers round your system when theres a strong chance its nothing to do with drivers.

 

[Eck]

Well, I doubt the power supply is an issue. I had the system running fine before, playing all the games. Only things that are different:

1) It has no modem
2) It's using onboard sound rather than an SB Live! PCI card
3) It's got a different harddrive
4) It has no DVD-ROM

One thing I didn't mention though -- when I was installing SP1 on it, I was doing some other stuff and explorer crashed. Then the SP1 install never finished, so I had to restart. I restarted and everything acted like SP1 was fine, and I think it was. It just left the temp files behind.