Computer Crashing When Playing Games

[Mikal]

Hey,

I am pretty confused as to why my computer is crashing whenever I play games, mostly Football Manager 2008, which if you have it, know it isn't a very demanding game.

I'm not sure if you need to know my computer specs but here they are:

Windows Vista Ultimate x64

CPU: QuadCore Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450

Motherboard: Asus Striker II Formula

Graphics Card: nVidea 9800GTX 512mb

RAM: 4GB

Can't remember what my power supply is, but i'm sure it's like 900 watts.

As you can see I should have no problems at all running most games.

So does anyone have any ideas why it crashses so often when playing games?

Appreciate any reply

[Mimsy]

If you ever grow tired of that computer I will be happy to take the CPU off your hands

Have you checked temperatures when the game crashes? Game fully patched? Since you're in Vista, try running the game in XP compatibility mode (it came out in 2007 after all).

That computer should not crash while playing any games available on the market right now.

[Mikal]

At this rate you may have a CPU on your hands quicker than you think!

The game is fully patched and everything. How do you run something (everest?) in the background which shows the temperatures? Surely though somethings wrong if my computer over heats with the spec I have?

Thanks for the reply

[Mimsy]

Originally Posted by Mikal

At this rate you may have a CPU on your hands quicker than you think!

SWEET! I'll get you a PO Box address here in a little bit...

Originally Posted by Mikal

The game is fully patched and everything. How do you run something (everest?) in the background which shows the temperatures? Surely though somethings wrong if my computer over heats with the spec I have?

Yes, something is absolutely wrong if your computer over-heats, regardless of specs.

My favorite temperature monitor is SpeedFan. There is a bit of a sharp learning curve to it, and if you have never used it before I definitely recommend checking out the Help documentation on how to configure the program. Once you have it configured though, it is very good. It runs in the background with minimum fuss, and gives you continuous temperature updates.

I don't have it installed on this laptop (yet!), but if I remember right, there is a link within the application, that takes you to a website where you can register and then download configuration profiles for a large number of motherboards on the market.

On my currently comatose gaming PC, SpeedFan was always running while I was gaming. Better safe than sorry.

[Mikal]

Thanks I shall give that a go and see what happens!

I've also realised that the majority of the time it crashes is during online play? Offline I can usually play for a lot longer but online play is where most of the trouble happens. No idea if that will effect anything though?

[Fred_G]

In addition to what Mimsy suggested, you might want to install RivaTuner. The link on MajorGeeks shows it is not compatable with Vista http://www.majorgeeks.com/download737.html. This site is supposed to have a Vista compatable one: http://downloads.guru3d.com/RivaTune...nload-163.html (not sure about the difference)

RivaTuner will let you crank up your video card's fan up as high as it will go. I have had problems with ATI and Nvidea card's fans not cranking up for some reason. I have one card that dropped 20C just by increasing the fan speed.

GPU-Z is good for monitoring the video card temps. http://www.majorgeeks.com/download5796.html

Post up some temps!

E