Every Single game CTD

Discussion in 'Software' started by dragamex, Mar 9, 2011.

  1. dragamex

    dragamex Private E-2

    Alright, so I noticed this starting to happen a couple of days ago. I've been playing SimCity 4 and Jade Empire, both are crashing between 15 minutes to an hour of play. I've checked my temps, they seemed high, so I cleaned the heatsink and fan. Brough the temps down, but still CTD. I've scoured the internets, searched through DXdiag and event viewer, nothing. There's nothing pointing to what my problem could be.

    Now here's a bit of a kicker. A few weeks ago, I upgraded to Flash 10.2, and Chrome kept crashing, and several other programs started acting... strange. I uninstalled and reinstalled 10.2, but I haven't had an opportunity to test due to not having internet on that rig (using wifi only, currently, and waiting for wifi card for desktop). Anyways, I don't think it's my PSU, there'd be more things going crazy. It's not my memory, I test it once a month because I'm always suspicious of it, and honestly this is Simcity 4 and Jade Empire, not the most graphically/ system intensive games in the world.

    Anyone suggest a way to log the ctd, or a fix would be awesome.

    Specs:

    P4 3.0ghz running non-overclocked
    ATI Radeon HD 3400 Pro
    2gb HP DDR2 ram
    2 IDE hdd
    1 Sata
    Windows XP Pro sp3

    So, let's hear whatcha got. I'll post anything you might need, it just might take a bit for me to load it onto a memstick so I can get it here

    P.S. I apologize deeply if this is in the wrong section.
     
  2. Nedlamar

    Nedlamar MajorGeek

    Sim City etc are not graphically intensive but Sim City 4 will push a P4, games like that are CPU hungry more than graphics. You said your temps are fine, may I ask what software you took the temps with , what the temps were before and after and what method did you use to take temps....
    Example, the method I use is....

    Note temps on idle
    Fire game and play for 5 minutes the note temps again.

    Having said that, high temps don't normally cause CTD's, they normally crash OS.

    Also does this happen with any other games you try? If so some examples of games would be good.
    I'm also assuming your drivers are all upto date?

    I would also try un/reinstalling the game.
     
  3. dragamex

    dragamex Private E-2

    Speedfan and CPUcool both to take temps. I usually note my temps on idle, then note temps while watching a movie or other mundane thing, then fire up game and wait 5-10 mins. Temps are idling at 34C and at highest are getting to 45C.

    It's been happening with Jade Empire, as well. I'll try Fable, too once it starts.

    All drivers up to date, reinstall didn't fix when I tried earlier. :[

    Also, something to note is that once it starts CTDing, everything CTDs more frequently.

    IE: Fresh reboot, will get an hour playtime or so, then CTD. Restart game, half amount of time. Restart game, half that. Just noticed it a couple of hours ago.
     
  4. Mimsy

    Mimsy Superior Imperial Queen of the MG Games Forum

    You said your drivers are up to date, how about your DirectX and .Net?
     
  5. dragamex

    dragamex Private E-2

    DX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904), .net v4.0.30319

    I'm almost 99% those are the right versions. I could be horribly, horribly wrong. However, I usually update nightly.
     
  6. dragamex

    dragamex Private E-2

    Okay, so I double triple checked my drivers, and everything was okay except for my video card driver, which JUST had an update right before I moved. I updated it, and....

    Still CTDing.

    Really, even if I could find a way to log what was going on that would be insanely helpful.

    ALSO! I should note this is ONLY happening in games. I can watch movies, program flash, play flash, use graphics programs, edit video etc all without crashes.

    I just wanna play games til I get my wireless card :cry
     
  7. Mimsy

    Mimsy Superior Imperial Queen of the MG Games Forum

    Would you by chance have access to a different videocard you can install and try your games with? You might just have a faulty video card.
     
  8. dragamex

    dragamex Private E-2

    I don't unfortunately. However, there's a couple of factors that lead me to believe it's not a faulty video card:

    1) Nothing else video related seems to be acting up
    2) why, after faithfully providing me with awesome graphics for 2 years now, would it pull minor ctds and not system crashes or othe graphical glitches?
    3) The games pull off flawless graphics rendering (even Bioshock, which I also remembered I had installed and tried), without so much as a framerate drop.

    I dunno. The signs, to me, are pointing to a software issue. I have a sinking feeling that a clean reformat and install of windows will do the trick.. I'm just incredibly wary about doing it not only because of the time and prep involved, but also because of the lack of internet currently.

    Decisions, decisions...
     
  9. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    Hi

    When you get a CTD check Event Viewer for errors in System or Applications list at the exact time of the crash and attach a log of the errors as a text file, can use notepad for this.



    How to attach your log to your next post as per these instructions HOW TO: Attach Items To Your Post

    Also attach a list of your startups as well as per the below

     
  10. dragamex

    dragamex Private E-2

    David:

    Thanks for the response. I've checked my event viewer everytime a CTD occurs, unfortunately, there is nothing in ANY of the categories that comes up at time of crash. The only events that occur, in fact, are at time of computer startup, and Google Update informing me that it can't find the server (Wonder why? lol)

    I'll post my startup list in ~1 hour. I have to go pick someone up from work quick. rolleyes
     
  11. dragamex

    dragamex Private E-2

    and here's my startup log. Everything looks like normal startup procedure from here.
     

    Attached Files:

  12. dragamex

    dragamex Private E-2

    So as an update, I ran SimCity 4 last night, played it for a bit, then went to bed. Woke up this morning and

    *dramatic music*

    It was still open.

    I don't know why all of the sudden it started to work. I'm going to test some other stuff, give it a reboot, etc.

    I'm... frightened.
     
  13. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    Hi

    What I would do is to disable all startups (daemon tools could be a cause) and then see if you gain the same issue, if not then its a startup that is causing the issue, to narrow this down enable one at a time and reboot until you find the app thats casuing the issue.

    If frightened do run some anti malware apps to double check that malware is not the cause, I dont think it is but never a waste of time to check anyway.
     
  14. dragamex

    dragamex Private E-2

    Okay, so I switched games after simcity stayed open all night, and it CTD after about 5 minutes of play. This time, however, when it did, the area I was in (was playing Jade Empire) turned into my desktop background minus all character models. Icons in place, start menu in place. it just replaced the last frame as my bg. After opening another window, it switched back to my original bg.

    I'll try disabling startups right now.
     
  15. dragamex

    dragamex Private E-2

    Disabled all startup programs except exshow95. It just CTD after about 30 minutes :/
     
  16. dragamex

    dragamex Private E-2

    Alright, so here's an update. I let my pc chill out for a few days as I was frustrated with it and didn't even wanna look at it. I get bored day before and decide that I've had enough of her being pissy. I give her a reboot, a fresh cclean, a defrag, spybot, memtest, the works. screwed around with the bios a bit (didn't realy change anything except turned on quiet fan and disabled floppy controllers as I don't have a floppy drive.)

    Anyways, it seems to be working fine now. games have been running for 2 days straight with no crash or lag or anything.

    I'm hesitant to say it's fixed, though. I'm gonna run some more tests to see if I can still make her ctd. Jeez I wish I knew exactly what it was I did that made it work if it did, though xD
     
  17. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    Hi Cheers for the update and glad X-Fingers it seems to be ok so far, as to the cause I have no idea as its a curious one, but I just wonder if your cleanup and defrag helped.
     
  18. dragamex

    dragamex Private E-2

    The only thing I can think that would have caused it is maybe a bad registry entry or possibly something evil lurking within my temporary internet stuff.

    Who knows.

    But this definitely brings validity to using a cleaner once a week or so :major
     

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