Tom's Guide | Tom's Hardware | Tom's Games
 |
 |
 |
Hi, my son's brand new computer keeps crashing when he tries to play Half Life 2. It's an Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core Processor 4200+ with an Nvidia GeForce 7900GS graphics card and an164 GB hard Drive. Weaved for a long time in order to be able to affors this system and are bitterly disappointed. Any help would be much appreciated
Yes, will call Alienware tomorrow. They're not open at weekends. We just really needed help!
Yes, I didn't know which forum to use as I'm a first timer. Is help from various quarters not allowed then?
0 
Probably bad ram, run memtest you can get free at microsoft.com, I was using ram for 3 years not until i put a higher end video card did it start to fail. But then again, alienware should fix it all!
0
its alienware, alien's hardware, Made in Space. it should be a great machine. what about other game? do other games crash as well or just HL2? if its only HL2, then just upgrade the game and upgrade the video card and upgrade the sound card.
0
i have a problem too, ever since i have installed my new vid card a nvidia geforce 7300gs my computer has been freezing can anyone plz tell me why or a solution to fix this problem?
0
First - if your system crashes and its not due to badware then its usually the psu. Alienware should use a good psu. the 7900 card you mentioned is good enough to run the games you stated. Seeing as dell bought alienware maybe they went cheap on the psu.
Mem test is difficult for newbies and you need a floppy you can test your system with free performance test and stability test (google them).
Load free antivirus (avg) or antispyware programs (adaware se) and see if the system has badware. Sometimes you can get badware that is not detected by the standard antivirus or antispyware - i doubt that's your problem unless you surf kaaza or limewire. 90% of the down loads are infected on those shareware sites.
You can test your memory by swapping sticks in slot 3 - most systems have 2 sticks (dual channel) remove one and run each separate in the 3rd slot.
90% of pc techs blame lack of system resources for problems - that is you have too many programs in start up. You need to access the start up menu from "msconfig" from the run box at the start menu.
Go to "run" and type "msconfig" go to start up (last tab) and turn off everything except your antivrus and antispyware. or better yet turn off everything and test the game with interent disconnected. Then, in services (second to last tab) hide microsoft (check the box)and check for excessive programs running you can turn off all programs except the antivirus and spyware.
You should check your task manager too to see how much resourses you have.
If you are low on ram - go to mycomputer>properties>advanced>performance>advanced>virtual memory. set the min and max to same amount 2.5 times your true memory - if you have 1 gig or less. If you have 1 gig memory then 2500 and 2500 in the min and max box.
Since you have a dual core processor you cpu should not be over loaded.
Are you crashing online only? - if you are using dial up or a slow broad band like dsl your crashing can be from that.
Lastly have your system provider walk through your system. I suspect a bad psu. You return that system to dell and get one from us - look on ebay!
0  |
 |
 |
This post is quite old and has been locked from receiving new replies. Please create a new posting instead.
| Ads by Google |
