C&C Generals: Causing BSOD

[MalRic]

I can no longer play Generals on my machine. When I do the machine either freezes, the game shuts down, but more often then not I get the BSOD and the machinie restarts. It only happens when playing Generals and the machine runs fine otherwise. I have already uninstalled and reinstalled the game, i have defragged the partition where my games are installed. Any suggestions.

My Specs:
XP3200
1GB Corsair XMS PC3200
Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
MSI k6TV MB
Win2K

[Dennis Bacon]

i've got your exact system other than the operating system.. and generals used to freeze for me all the time until i updated with the new patch and installed Zero Hour, after doing that it ran fine, maybe you could try just installing the new patch?

[MalRic]

Thanks, but I have all the latest patches as well as zero hour and I have the same problem regardless which version I am playing. However, I am considering upgrading to WinXP since everyone says is better for gaming:)

[Vampiel]

If you have the stock radeon9800 fan, then more than likely it's overheating. The stock fan on the 9800 is more than lacking unfortunately.

[Imperion1]

Did you install anything new (software or drivers) before the problem started happening?
Such as the newer Video card driver. Motherboard drivers.

[MalRic]

I though it may be software related, so I did a clean formatted my machine and did a clean install, but the problem remains. Also I've noticed is happening when I do any gaming and suspect it may be the video card. In regards to the video card overheating, does anyone know how I can find out about the temp?:t

[Imperion1]

Try running 3dmark 2003, if the system locks up or video starts slowing down quite a bit, then the video card is getting hot.

Make sure you the adequate amount of case fans installed and the cpu isn't getting too hot.


Do the newer ATI cards have a temperature monitor in the display settings? Similar to what Nvidia has.

[Vampiel]

nope:(

[MalRic]

Well i swapped video cards with my room mate and the problem stays with my machine. At this point my testing is pointing to the Mobo crapping out on me. Check this I have an 2 SATA ports with one SATA HD installed. If I disable the SATA drives in the BIOS, my computer will no longer recognize any other devices installed on MB.:eek:

[MalRic]

Also with regards to 3dMark 2003 is one of the few things that does not seem to crash my system.:x

[Vampiel]

disable the SATA drives in the BIOS, my computer will no longer recognize any other devices installed on MB

You mean it does not recognize the cd-rom? That's odd but im not shocked. SATA drives do weird things to a computer sometimes as the standard is new and ive seen them do alot of odd thing's like, stop working all of the sudden, make drive's dissapear, etc...

I have to enable the RAID controller on mine even though im not using RAID, b/c if I dont, it wont boot off the SATA drive.

Now that you have cancelled out the video card, let's go down the list.

1. Test your memory for at least 2 hours with this
www.memtest86.com

2. Re-install your motherboard driver's with the latest version

3. Flash your BIOS with the latest version

4. Re-install all drivers (sound card, directx, video card, in that order)

5. Download this and let us know your temp's.
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

[rmanet]

try and check again the video card compatibility with the game (did you try to uninstall and reinstall the drivers?), dumb down your sound and video resolutions, you may have a heat problem, PSU or RAM stick going bad?

sorry Vampiel - banging thru threads and you'd already given him same advice ;)

[MalRic]

I tried all these suggestions and no luck. I got a new MB coming in a couple of days to see.:mad:



PS. The games were working well for a long time before this started happening!:)