My games crash new Dell PC w/ Pentium-D

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Guest

I have a new Dell Optiplex GX620, Pentium-D, 2.8 Ghz, 1GB RAM, XP-Pro.
Display adapter is integrated Intel 82945G chipset. Direct-X 9.0c. I've
installed two games (Rise of Nations, Age of Empires) I used on my previous
system. Both games cause system crash (reboot) 20 to 90 seconds after
gameplay starts. Video trailers and menus at start of games run OK; problem
occurs only after start of gameplay. Microsoft Game Advisor indicates both
games are compatible with my system. All drivers are latest shown on Dell
and Intel websites. System passes DXDIAG tests. Dell can't (won't) help.
My initial thought was video hardware, but I'm now wondering about the
Pentium-D. Anyone have any ideas?
 
BRW said:
I have a new Dell Optiplex GX620, Pentium-D, 2.8 Ghz, 1GB RAM, XP-Pro.
Display adapter is integrated Intel 82945G chipset. Direct-X 9.0c. I've
installed two games (Rise of Nations, Age of Empires) I used on my
previous
system. Both games cause system crash (reboot) 20 to 90 seconds after
gameplay starts. Video trailers and menus at start of games run OK;
problem
occurs only after start of gameplay. Microsoft Game Advisor indicates
both
games are compatible with my system. All drivers are latest shown on Dell
and Intel websites. System passes DXDIAG tests. Dell can't (won't) help.
My initial thought was video hardware, but I'm now wondering about the
Pentium-D. Anyone have any ideas?
Click to expand...

It's probably more likely to be the video hardware rather than the CPU.

First thing would be to check in the Event Log in Admin Tools in the Control
Panel see if you can find any errors that match up. If not.

Second thing to do do troubleshoot it would be to stop the system from
automatically rebooting - so we can get an error screen.

You can do this by right-clicking My Computer then selecting Properties,
then go to Advanced and Startup and Recovery settings, uncheck Automatically
restart. Next time it crashes it should present you with a blue-screen, jot
down any error codes and files (usually ending with .dll).

Post back here with the error details and we can work out what's causing it.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User.
http://www.windowsresource.net/

*Remove 'nospam.' to reply by e-mail*
 
i am having the same issues with my dell inspirion notebook. i checked the
event log and it says application hang alot of these errors are on there.
under system there are alot of timeout errors . is there anything i can do
or what does this mean.
thanks
cg
 
cg said:
i am having the same issues with my dell inspirion notebook. i checked the
event log and it says application hang alot of these errors are on there.
under system there are alot of timeout errors . is there anything i can
do
or what does this mean.
Click to expand...

Post the error messages. 8-)

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User.
http://www.windowsresource.net/

*Remove 'nospam.' to reply by e-mail*
 
Event log shows evidence of re-booting but nothing to indicate cause. I'll
attempt to stop the auto-reboot and reply with the results.

One symptom I neglected to list in the initial post: I have my windows and
button appearance property set to "Windows Classic style". About one time in
four, the appearance will be reset to the default "Windows XP" style after
reboot.
 
Automatic restart checkbox was not checked. I turned it on, then turned it
back off, with no change -- system still reboots after crash. System failure
"Write event to system log" and "Send an adminstrative alert" boxes are
checked.

As indicated in previous post, event log shows only evidence of restart, no
indication of any event causing shutdown.
 
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