Hello!

So i've played these games recently:

Splinter Cell: Double Agent
Tomb raider Legend
Planescape: Tourment
Command and conquer (The original)
Company of Heroes

... and i've noticed the cunning similarity that ALL of them have been crashing on me to lesser or greater degrees, with splinter cell being abandoned on the last level out of frustration after weeks of regular crashes. The final straw is my not being able to get past the tutorial on company of heroes due to a crash that always occurs after roughly the same amount of time in the game.

I'm swinging towards it being a RAM problem. I'm reminded of when i first built this computer about 6 months ago and it kept on restarting randomly on me untill i put the RAM into different slots; i've pretty much been experiencing game crashes ever since. I ran Memtest for about 20 minutes and it got to 130% or so before telling me there was indeed an error. Hmmm. So, before i rush out and buy new ram, does this sound like a RAM problem? Is it worth fiddling with timings, if so... eeer, how? Will it be in the SDRAM settings under my CPU setting in the BIOS? What should i set it to?

Any general advice would be greatly appreciated, i'm not sure what else i can say on the matter considering its such a universal problem my system seems plagued with.

Thanks,
Matt

Are you overclocking? Are you using Auto timings on the RAM?

To start with, you have told us absolutely nothing about your system. Listing your system specs would be helpful.

"I ran Memtest for about 20 minutes and it got to 130% or so before telling me there was indeed an error"

What memtest did you run? Most of us use memtest86 or memtest86+. I don't know where you're coming up with 130%?

I am not overclocking and as far as i know the timings are on auto. I've certainly never fiddled with them in any way because its a little bit beyond my knowledge of computers. I think i've found where you change the ram timings, but it seems to be under the CPU settings in the BIOS menu tree, is this right?

Sorry for the lack of system information! I'm running windows XP. My motherboard is an Asus M2N-SLI deluxe. MY CPU is an AMD64 X2 duel core 4200+ CPU. I am running 2GIG of RAM; one gig of which has just been put in but the problems were occuring before the new ram was put in. The Ram is 4 sticks of 512MB DDR2 at 667mhz. 2 sticks are from Corsair and the 2 new sticks are from OCZ; they are arranged properly so that the sticks running in dual core are by the same manufacturer. My graphics card is a Geforce7950 Ultra 512MB. I am running the latest graphics card drivers, sound drivers, cpu drivers as well as the AMD dual core optimiser program. Anything else that might be useful?

I used the memtest from here http://hcidesign.com/ though i will now try and find the two you mentioned. By 130% i assume it tested all the RAM and then started going over it again? That's just how it presesented the programs progress to me i guess.

I'm about to try switching RAM sticks in and out to see if it changes anything.

If the ram passes a complete memory test once, it should pass it again no matter how many times you run it. If you do get memory errors after it passes once, or even if it doesn't pass once, the contacts on the ram modules may have a poor connection.
See response 2 in this - try cleaning the contacts on the ram modules.
http://www.computing.net/hardware/w...
Then run a memory test again - in most cases you will no longer get any memory errors.

If you have the proper ram that is compatible with your mboard, and you are not overclocking the mboard, you should have no problems with the ram, other that possibly the above, unless the ram has been damaged by something external to it such as a faulty PS that is or was producing too much voltage, or a bad power spike or surge that your computer and everything that connects to it was not protected from, or a short of anything connected to the mboard.

If your ram settings in the bios are set to Auto or to by SPD or similar, you do not need to mess with latency settings.

If those games are the only things you have problems with, there can be all sorts of reasons for a game to crash, especially if it is a demanding recent one. You could try checking the web sites of the game makers for mentions of the problems you are having and suggestions for your game, or the video makers web site for special purpose drivers, or either place for settings you need to turn off or on for certain games.

If your computer also crashes when you do other demanding things such as burn a DVD, there is a possibility you're got an inadequate or defective power supply.
Restarting randomly can be caused by software problems (usually it blue screens)or by a defective power supply (usually it black screens).

Failing power supplies are common and can cause your symptoms.
Check your PS.
See response 4 in this:
http://www.computing.net/hardware/w...
....

Win XP is often set to reboot when it encounters an unrecoverable error.
Usually this occurs after a blue screen.

To have XP possibly display an error message instead of rebooting:

1. Click Start, and then right-click My Computer.
2. Click Properties.
3. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Startup and Recovery.
4. Under System failure, click to clear the Automatically restart check box.
5. Click OK, and then click OK.

Ok, it did indeed seem to be just a dirty RAM connection. All these problems i've been having for the past 6 months, ever since i built this computer, have been down to a tiny bit of fluff on the connection. It was probably where i was switching the RAM in and out so much while building, trying to sort out the restart problem, that it just got a bit of dirt on it.

An agonisingly simple solution to a very frustrating problem. I was all set up to buy new RAM and everything.

Cheers for the help people.

Good to hear!