ComputerBB

How's it going, this is my first post. But to the problem ...
Every time I enter into a graphics-sensitive game (SimCity 4, Hitman Contracts, Morrowind, and several others), my computer automatically restarts. I went into system properties and made it so the computer would not restart on error, and it simply hangs now. This only occurs in certain games, though I've played more graphically intensive before. My system specs are below.

AMD 2200+
Windows XP
640 MB DDR RAM
40 GB Seagate HD
ATI Radeon 9200

This is a eMachines, W2247. I have no idea what my Motherboard is.

Has anyone ever seen this problem before? I should be able to play these games pretty easily on my system.

Yeah.. This might be a heat related problem.. Go into your bios and check out what your CPU tempature is... ALso, change your shutdown tempatures.. I think that might be the problem..
Also, welcome to the forums!

It is either that the PSU is too weak or your video drivers are bad.

I have a 300 watt PSU, just upgraded because I thought that may have been the problem. My drivers are the newest ATI catalyst drivers, so I don't think they are bad. I'll check the BIOS for temps, though.

Yeah.. Does it completely shutdown or restart... And, are you overclocking?

I am not overclocking anything. The computer immediately restarted upon entering gameplay, so I unchecked the Automatically Restart icon in Startup and Recovery. Now, when I encounter this problem, the game simply hangs. When I press alt-tab to escape the frozen game, the system still responds.

What is your CPU... What is your graphics card interface?(AGP or PCI) If AGP 8x?

Processor is an AMD Athlon XP 2200+, and (I think) my video interface is 4x AGP.

What are your CPU tempatures.. And in the BIOS tell me what the shutdown tempature is

How do you get into BIOS again?

When you boot up press delete(It might vary becuase of your motherboard)

Temps are 43* C and 51* C.

What is the shutdown tempature.. It might be set to low

Where would this be located in the BIOS?

I am guessing RAM if this is not it.
I suggest getting Corsair.

What does this have to do with the post?

My computer's BIOS does not show that Temperature Shutdown you were talking about, though when I ran the Hitman: Contracts demo again it encountered the same problem. This time, the screen showed the Stop Error message.

What is you Video Aperature size (sharing of ram)?
You said you bought a 300Watt PSU.. what brand is it.. and how many other devices are plugged into it?

Possibly try using an older driver. A friend of mine told me that the aTi 9200 doesn't get along to well with directX9 games. (I have used older nVidia drivers to solve minor issues before, but never a reboot/hang prob).

Here get this program. http://www.memtest86.com it instals onto a floopy and loads before windows and runs a stress test on your memory. It wil tell you if your memory is giving errors, If so, then that is liekly the cause of your problems. If not, we will have to search else where. Also, what brand power supply did you buy?

I bought an ULTRA power supply. I will try that program you posted.

Who is the manufactor?

My aperture size is 128 MB, matching the 9200's 128.

What is the CPU shutdown tempature?

I tried to get to the CPU shutdown TEMP thru PC Health in BIOS, but it isn't in there.

You have to check every settings..

Lol yeah I did but for somereason it wasn't in there. Is there any other way to check it?

I think that is the only way to check.. Let me go check something for you..Stay on

I cannot find a program inwhich you can view your BIOS settings in Windows.. Try doing some research on it

Its not related to the CPU being to hot and shutting down. If that were the case, the system would not "hang", the system would just turn off, as if you unplugged the power supply.

I enabled the S.M.A.R.T thing on my system and received no error messages before my system shut down. This time when it shut down I noticed a filename, portcls.sys. This file has something to do with sound, could this problem be caused by a cheap-ass sound card included with my motherboard?

Curious: zI just noticed this was an emachines, then i noticed you had an odd amount of ram. This is getting me thinking that you upgraded the video card and you did have integrated video. This could very well be your problem if this is so, If you do have integrated video then you need to disable it in BIOS, there are two possible ways to do this (that i know of) and that is, A) there is an option in your BIOS to disable integrated video or B) You have to set its RAM amount 0 or none.

Yes, it did have integrated video. I will try that.

Turned off integrated video, there was no change. Ran a system test (BurnIn Test) and encountered no errors.

This is very odd

The only explanation I can come up with is that my Motherboard is incapable of handling the memory load my RAM puts on it in certain situations, which in turn forces it to shutdown. I think my components are very capable, but my backbone is weak. It was, after all, an eMachines computer....

you should have gotten a computer from http://techmine.zapto.org

Or I could just buy a bad-ass MoBo from Newegg for like 50 bux.

Well if you change your motherboard, you might have to change your RAM.. It all depends on what that motherboatrd supports... Do you know which socket CPU you have, becuase ill go find a nice mobo for you

Its a socket A processor (462 pins) running on a 133FSB (DDR266, PC2100 for RAM)

Did you upgrade the memory? Perhaps your system is picky about mixing different RAM type/brands. Try using just one stick of RAM (that is if you have two or more of course).

Also, turn integrated video on in BIOS again, boot into windows, then remove it from the device manager tab. Rebbot and disable it in BIOS.. Open Control panel, go to system, open that, find Device Manager, and make sure it isnt listed under display deivces. Use Driver Cleaner (found here http://www.driverheaven.net/cleaner ) and reinstall the latest video card drivers. Actually, for the Radeon 9200 try Catalyst 3.4-3.7.

My 512 MB Ram may be 2700... I don't have the packaging for it anymore so I really don't know. I think that the most logical thing to do right now is to move on beyond the mobo that came with it and build a better backbone for the system. I saw a good deal on newegg ...
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDe ... ory=BROWSE

Whaddya think?

Yeah, I built a system with that mobo for Aggressor Prime, it is working great.

I think I'll go ahead with the buy, then. We'll see if that fixes the issue, though I'm sure this mobo will boost performance really well.

I like the dual channel ddr concept that it employes.

I like that it's 55 bux and there's no shipping cost. LOL.

Are you sure that is ur socket CPU

Socket A

Alright.. How much are you willing to spend? I could get you a better mobo than this

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDe ... 150&depa=1

Take a look at this motherboard.. It is worth the extra money

Seems to me that board has pretty much the same stuff as well as integrated video, something I just want to avoid seeing as how this comp is mostly for gaming. Thanks for the link tho, you guys have been a great help.

Make sure it will fit into your case, especially being an emachine, its probably not a standard ATX size case