Calling all Kitty-Geeks!

[Igihstehr]

I need {/help}!

My computer keeps crashing. I can't play for more than 20 minutes at a time. I thought it might be a corrupt file or a bad Windows XP service or something... So I backed up my data files, took a deep breath, crossed myself and did a full system restore. I've re-installed the game twice now and it still crashes.

It's also crashed a couple of times now while I wasn' playing the game.

My guess now is perhaps a bad power supply (box is 6 years old...). Can anyone confirm/dispute my suspicions?

[ScarlettPheonix]

Huh, I was going to suggest that if it was only crashing when you were only playing the game that you might have some corrupt game files.

[Ambrey]

If the box is 6 years old, Id say its definately a possible hardware issue, whether it be a power supply or even graphics card related. Doesnt sound like software to me. Though I could be wrong, Tiva prolly has more knowledge on this than I do as of right now tho.

[Sugami]

It only FFXI that crashes? Try turning off the music, I know a few people with music issues.

[Kintrra]

Nah Sug, it's the whole comp. 6 year old system tho, Altana only knows what all could be going wrong, I'd be happy it lasted that long to be perfectly honest. Power Supply could be a great deal of it, like others mentioned. Hard Drive might be going bad also (I had that problem with one, ended up reinstalling Windows and FFXI 5 times in as many days).

[MittensValefor]

My first guess would be the CPU fan. Few months back my CPU fan began to slow down. If it had stopped completely I'd have figured out what the problem was right away, but nooo... it slowed down so it LOOKed like it was working fine. Good way to tell if it's an overheating CPU is if time is a factor. For example: turn on computer, play for 20 minutes, computer dies. Reboot and 5 minutes later computer dies. Reboot and 7 minutes later computer dies. Get frustrated, turn off computer for an hour, computer cools down, turn it back on and it works fine for 30 minutes then it dies again.

Could also be the power supply. I had very similar symptoms on a brand new power supply. Took it to the shop and it passed their tests with flying colors. Replaced it anyway, and the problem disappeared.

Hope that helps. One more thing. Don't buy your replacement parts online. Took 1/2 a year before I finally got my replacement CPU fan.

Edit: Radio Shack may be expensive, but they have a "no questions asked if returned within 30 days" policy. Great way to diagnose problems without too much monetary risk - replace the suspect parts and return them if the problem persists.

[Fiye]

Definatley hardware.

I'd say take a trip to Fry`s, if they have one in your area, and dump a few hundred on a new system. However... FFXI is a directx8.1 game so you don't need to spend alot. A Geforce Ti4600, 2 ghz, a 400 watt power supply, and 1 gb of Ram will do you great. I myself have a 512mb Geforce 7600 GS card, 2gb of ram, and 5.2 GHZ of AMD 64 bitx2 processing power although, I did have a few, now fixed, problems with viruses, my computer kept on using too much Ram and crashed on me one a day.

Typing with the WII is tough.

@,@

[Kintrra]

My first guess would be the CPU fan. Few months back my CPU fan began to slow down. If it had stopped completely I'd have figured out what the problem was right away, but nooo... it slowed down so it LOOKed like it was working fine. Good way to tell if it's an overheating CPU is if time is a factor. For example: turn on computer, play for 20 minutes, computer dies. Reboot and 5 minutes later computer dies. Reboot and 7 minutes later computer dies. Get frustrated, turn off computer for an hour, computer cools down, turn it back on and it works fine for 30 minutes then it dies again.

Could also be the power supply. I had very similar symptoms on a brand new power supply. Took it to the shop and it passed their tests with flying colors. Replaced it anyway, and the problem disappeared.

Hope that helps. One more thing. Don't buy your replacement parts online. Took 1/2 a year before I finally got my replacement CPU fan.

Edit: Radio Shack may be expensive, but they have a "no questions asked if returned within 30 days" policy. Great way to diagnose problems without too much monetary risk - replace the suspect parts and return them if the problem persists.

Good lord, where did you go online for that part that it took that long for a freakin fan? o.O; Newegg has always had me and my friends' stuff to use within a week at most. My computer was rebuilt with all parts from there.

[Igihstehr]

Sounds more like the fan than the power supply from what all of you have been saying. I've been considering just buying a whole new box, but maybe I'll try a new fan first...

Thank you!

When I can fit into my budget I'll let you know how it turns out.

[Igihstehr]

Good News!
I opened up the box, cleaned all the dust off of the CPU and power supply (five years worth! Yikes!) and have been crash free thus far.

also... {/blush}...
I had placed a box up against the ventilation holes so it only worsened the situation.

I don't know what I was thinking...

[Okuza]

Funny that you just cleaned it and it's now working. Number one cause of computer failure is .. DUST. I have a friend that works in a HW tech-support kind of position. Typical PC-fixing is just blow the dust off and power it up.

[Igihstehr]

Well....

The game has stopped crashing my computer. Now it just freezes it...

I am SO frustrated. I reinstalled the game again and am letting it update the files while I am at work. We'll see what happnes tonight.
{/sigh}

[Igihstehr]

I finally fixed my problem...
...completely.

The cleaning of the processor fanand PS fan was enough to stop the crashing - I didn't really need too reformat.

XP installed the default drivers for my graphics card - that was what was causing the game to seize up. I installed and updated the drivers and the game actually looks better than before! {/hurray}!

...no more DT's.

[MittensValefor]

Yay! Glad to hear ya fixed it!

Now read this article and protect your PC from viruses:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=44525

(Re-installed Windows on my dad's PC and it got an irremovable system virus within the week 'cause I was 2 lazy to set up some security.) ;.;

[Igihstehr]

Thankfully, I get free anti-virus software made by CA free from my ISP. One of the first things I installed after re-installing Windows.

[MittensValefor]

Did you run windows update? Biggest security safeguard you can do after a reinstall.

[Alya Mizar (Tsybil)]

Did you run windows update? Biggest security safeguard you can do after a reinstall.

Second biggest.

The biggest would be Linix.

[Kintrra]

Did you run windows update? Biggest security safeguard you can do after a reinstall.

Second biggest.

The biggest would be Linix.

[MittensValefor]

Is there a way to play FFXI on Linix? If so I'm switching over. I've had it with Windows.

[Tivia]

You can through the Wine emulator, but it is not very effective, unless you have a machine that can absorb the burden.

Other options are
PS2
Xbox 360
Ps3.

I believe both the 360 and PS3 allow you to easily connect up a mouse and keyboard and operate just like the PC version. PS2 might, unsure never really played around with connecting a mouse and kb to it.

However mittens, I seriously have to say."You ran a PC for a week with no Security? and you are suprised?"

Comon...you know better then that. XP while it has its problems is not all that bad, you would find the Linux/Wine combo far more irritating. I like Linux but I rather hate the windows emulators. However if you "Insist" on putting forth as little security setup as possible, get yourself a good router with a good hardware firewall built in. Netgear or Linksys are the ones I recommend. The hardware firewall will protect you decently against the more common flavors of stuff, provided you or your dad do not go our surfing "Free Porn" and Cracks you should be ok. Do not waste your time or your money on software firewalls. But get some form of security installed on the PC, especially if anyone using it is a novice user.

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