WindowsXP Pro resets when running games - help!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jason Sayer
  • Start date Start date
J

Jason Sayer

I've recently built a PC with XP Pro. It has the latest DirectX installed
and the system ran fine for over a week with no problems. Games were being
played for a few hours at a time with no problems (i.e Black Hawk Down, Call
of Duty etc.)

However, now when playing games, after a couple of minutes when playing it
suddenly resets the system and reboots back up to Windows with no prior
warning.

There are no problems or crashes when working in Windows normally so I can't
understand what could be the problem.

I have SP1 installed for Windows and the PC has never been connected to the
Internet so i'm assuming that there can't have been a virus downloaded from
anywhere.

It has an ATI Radeon 9200 AGP card & AthlonXP 2.6 processor & 512mb PC2700
Ram.

Can anyone help??

Thanks
 
Hi Jason,

Your system is most likely restarting as a result of a STOP error.

To stop this behavior go to Control Panel / System / Advanced /
Click the Startup and Recovery Settings button / Uncheck the box
labelled "Automatically restart" under the System Failure section.

To analyse the error, try the steps in: http://aumha.org/win5/kbestop.htm

If the error indicates a file name that begins with ati, or nv (nVidia)
the most likely solution would be to install the latest drivers using
the instructions at: http://mvps.org/nibblesnbits/Video.html#drivers

--
Cheers, Windows XP MVP Shell / User
Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.com


Game FAQs: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite: http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call / Contact
MS Support at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=sz;en-us;top
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
_________________________________________________________

| I've recently built a PC with XP Pro. It has the latest DirectX installed
| and the system ran fine for over a week with no problems. Games were being
| played for a few hours at a time with no problems (i.e Black Hawk Down, Call
| of Duty etc.)
|
| However, now when playing games, after a couple of minutes when playing it
| suddenly resets the system and reboots back up to Windows with no prior
| warning.
|
| There are no problems or crashes when working in Windows normally so I can't
| understand what could be the problem.
|
| I have SP1 installed for Windows and the PC has never been connected to the
| Internet so i'm assuming that there can't have been a virus downloaded from
| anywhere.
|
| It has an ATI Radeon 9200 AGP card & AthlonXP 2.6 processor & 512mb PC2700
| Ram.
|
| Can anyone help??
|
| Thanks
|
|
 
Jason Sayer said:
Games were being played for a few hours at a time with no problems
(i.e Black Hawk Down, Call of Duty etc.) []
However, now when playing games,
after a couple of minutes when playing it suddenly resets the system
and reboots back up to Windows with no prior warning. []
There are no problems or crashes when working in Windows normally
so I can't understand what could be the problem.

Do as Jimmy suggests with disabling the auto-reboot so you get
to read the bluescreen. Please mark down the error message
and 0x0000xxxx code that appears and post it in here.

If you have recently changed the performance settings on the
"cache" / pagefile then I recommend setting it to "windows manage"
and check that the pagefile is all on one drive (not split over 2 drives)
since games will swap several hundred mb of graphics/sounds etc
in there and usually people set the cache waaay too low. Plus if
windows manages the cache...it will keep it cleaner.

Possibly (longshot) if you picked up some corrupted file/bits inside
the pagefile...set it to "clear at shutdown" then it will be rebuilt
fresh and anything jammed in there will be removed. good to do

If a new catalyst driver was installed recently (plus/minus few weeks)
then let us know the previous CAT version and current one in use.

Also...let us know if you changed any setting in the BIOS recently,
or installed new hardware. Those can cause errors also.

Main thing is to get the error msg and "stop" code posted.

(please also note if amd or p4 processor in case a heat issue)
 
I took your advice and unticked the 'Automatically restart' option in
StartUp & Recovery.

The system has not rebooted once or dropped out of a game since (after a few
different periods of play). So all would seem cured so far. No blue screens
or error messages have come up at all.

Do you think that as the crashes were previously happening randomly I have
just been lucky so far or could it possibly be that just by unticking the
box it has been enough to stop Windows re-booting for a maybe a minor error
that now doesn't cause the game to stop running?? Is this possible or would
the errors still come up?

I have looked at the Event Veiver and it seems that the previous errors that
occurred were 2 things. One was marked up as 'ati - not quite sure what the
rest was' so I guess that is the graphics card (have now also installed the
latest catalyst drivers from Ati - although the system was back to running
fine before I installed them). The second error was showing as 'cdrom'. Both
error had a red circle with a white cross through so i'm assuming these
would have previously caused the re-boots? Not sure what the second error
means but could it possible the drive had a problem reading the disc and
caused the error and re-boot? (would the system have re-booted for something
like that?!)

It would also seem that the errors occurred only on games where some data
was read from CD-Rom. The free WindowsXP games run fine from the Hard Drive.

The only other possible problem I see is that upon a clean install of the
Radeon 9200 graphics card (AGP), Windows detects 2 entries:-

1. Radeon 9200
2. Radeon 9200 - Secondary

When the drivers for the card are installed it happily installs them for
both entries with no errors. If I delete the 2nd entry from Device Manager
it always re-finds it again upon re-boot and re-installs the drivers ok.

I'd be grateful for your advice on these findings.

Thanks
Jason




Jimmy S. said:
Hi Jason,

Your system is most likely restarting as a result of a STOP error.

To stop this behavior go to Control Panel / System / Advanced /
Click the Startup and Recovery Settings button / Uncheck the box
labelled "Automatically restart" under the System Failure section.

To analyse the error, try the steps in: http://aumha.org/win5/kbestop.htm

If the error indicates a file name that begins with ati, or nv (nVidia)
the most likely solution would be to install the latest drivers using
the instructions at: http://mvps.org/nibblesnbits/Video.html#drivers

--
Cheers, Windows XP MVP Shell / User
Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.com


Game FAQs: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite: http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call / Contact
MS Support at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=sz;en-us;top
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
_________________________________________________________

| I've recently built a PC with XP Pro. It has the latest DirectX installed
| and the system ran fine for over a week with no problems. Games were being
| played for a few hours at a time with no problems (i.e Black Hawk Down, Call
| of Duty etc.)
|
| However, now when playing games, after a couple of minutes when playing it
| suddenly resets the system and reboots back up to Windows with no prior
| warning.
|
| There are no problems or crashes when working in Windows normally so I can't
| understand what could be the problem.
|
| I have SP1 installed for Windows and the PC has never been connected to the
| Internet so i'm assuming that there can't have been a virus downloaded from
| anywhere.
|
| It has an ATI Radeon 9200 AGP card & AthlonXP 2.6 processor & 512mb PC2700
| Ram.
|
| Can anyone help??
|
| Thanks
|
|
 
Hi Jason,

Unchecking the automatic reboot option usually does not have
the great effect of solving the original problem. Count yourself
lucky, and don't change a thing if it continues to work especially
now that you've updated your drivers based on the ati*** error.

If you experience more errors on a regular basis, righ-click and
disable the Radeon - secondary entry, and try using another CD
Rom player and cable to determine if that is causing the issue. :-)

--
Cheers, Windows XP MVP Shell / User
Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.com


Game FAQs: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite: http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call / Contact
MS Support at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=sz;en-us;top
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
_________________________________________________________

| I took your advice and unticked the 'Automatically restart' option in
| StartUp & Recovery.
|
| The system has not rebooted once or dropped out of a game since (after a few
| different periods of play). So all would seem cured so far. No blue screens
| or error messages have come up at all.
|
| Do you think that as the crashes were previously happening randomly I have
| just been lucky so far or could it possibly be that just by unticking the
| box it has been enough to stop Windows re-booting for a maybe a minor error
| that now doesn't cause the game to stop running?? Is this possible or would
| the errors still come up?
|
| I have looked at the Event Veiver and it seems that the previous errors that
| occurred were 2 things. One was marked up as 'ati - not quite sure what the
| rest was' so I guess that is the graphics card (have now also installed the
| latest catalyst drivers from Ati - although the system was back to running
| fine before I installed them). The second error was showing as 'cdrom'. Both
| error had a red circle with a white cross through so i'm assuming these
| would have previously caused the re-boots? Not sure what the second error
| means but could it possible the drive had a problem reading the disc and
| caused the error and re-boot? (would the system have re-booted for something
| like that?!)
|
| It would also seem that the errors occurred only on games where some data
| was read from CD-Rom. The free WindowsXP games run fine from the Hard Drive.
|
| The only other possible problem I see is that upon a clean install of the
| Radeon 9200 graphics card (AGP), Windows detects 2 entries:-
|
| 1. Radeon 9200
| 2. Radeon 9200 - Secondary
|
| When the drivers for the card are installed it happily installs them for
| both entries with no errors. If I delete the 2nd entry from Device Manager
| it always re-finds it again upon re-boot and re-installs the drivers ok.
|
| I'd be grateful for your advice on these findings.
|
| Thanks
| Jason
|
|
|
|
| "Jimmy S." <Private> wrote in message
| | > Hi Jason,
| >
| > Your system is most likely restarting as a result of a STOP error.
| >
| > To stop this behavior go to Control Panel / System / Advanced /
| > Click the Startup and Recovery Settings button / Uncheck the box
| > labelled "Automatically restart" under the System Failure section.
| >
| > To analyse the error, try the steps in: http://aumha.org/win5/kbestop.htm
| >
| > If the error indicates a file name that begins with ati, or nv (nVidia)
| > the most likely solution would be to install the latest drivers using
| > the instructions at: http://mvps.org/nibblesnbits/Video.html#drivers
| >
| > --
| > Cheers, Windows XP MVP Shell / User
| > Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
| >
| >
| > Game FAQs: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
| > Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite: http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call /
| Contact
| > MS Support at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=sz;en-us;top
| > My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any
| rights.
| > _________________________________________________________
| >
| | > | I've recently built a PC with XP Pro. It has the latest DirectX
| installed
| > | and the system ran fine for over a week with no problems. Games were
| being
| > | played for a few hours at a time with no problems (i.e Black Hawk Down,
| Call
| > | of Duty etc.)
| > |
| > | However, now when playing games, after a couple of minutes when playing
| it
| > | suddenly resets the system and reboots back up to Windows with no prior
| > | warning.
| > |
| > | There are no problems or crashes when working in Windows normally so I
| can't
| > | understand what could be the problem.
| > |
| > | I have SP1 installed for Windows and the PC has never been connected to
| the
| > | Internet so i'm assuming that there can't have been a virus downloaded
| from
| > | anywhere.
| > |
| > | It has an ATI Radeon 9200 AGP card & AthlonXP 2.6 processor & 512mb
| PC2700
| > | Ram.
| > |
| > | Can anyone help??
| > |
| > | Thanks
| > |
| > |
| >
| >
|
|
 
Back
Top