computer crashes with steam games

mdaw

mdaw

mdaw

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Joined
18 Apr 2013
Posts
606
Hi there,

My computer is old but I do have the recommended system requirements for the games I play and probably a bit more GPU wise.

I mainly play CIV 5 and the football manager series both of which run through steam, so hardly high end gaming I'd assume. The thing is both these games have crashed. I expect that occasionally but with CIV 5 its a regular occurrence.
Especially when it starts getting later in a campaign when the game would obviously have more processes to make. The other thing with it is sometimes it will crash within a few minutes of playing other times over an hour. It doesn't make much sense to me.
Originally I thought maybe it was my graphics card not being particularly good as I had a nvidia 9500gt which was around 4 years old and that running 32 bit xp probably didn't help as I couldn't use the the full 4 gb of ram. So I'm now running windows 8 pro 64 bit and an MSI AMD 7850 1gb OC edition. That should be more than good enough to run these games from what I've seen but it still crashes.

The only other two things that spring to mind what I think could be doing this is faulty ram (still only running DDR2 1066MHZ ram) or I don't have a stable connection to steam when playing these games as I don't get fast broadband where I am (if that is needed at all). I would try replacing the ram but DDR2 1066 is mega expensive and would be a big whole in the pocket if it didn't solve the problem.

Any help would be great
 
Oh thought I'd put my computer spec on here in case it might help.

Intel C2Q 9650
ASUS P5QL mobo
XFX pro 550w PSU
MSI AMD 7850 1GB OC edition
4GB OCZ platinum 1066mhz RAM
Enermax t40 heatsink
 
Should I check that in MSI afterburner? Also what should it be?

I left it on stock settings and haven't played around with it at all.
 
Looking in MSI afterburner it appears to be set at minimum voltage unless you choose to unlock it and start playing around with it.
 
I know i haven't made enough posts to use the MM but I was just wondering if anyone here did have some 1066mhz ddr2 ram for sale or know if there is somewhere you can pick it up cheap.
 
just tried getting memtest and cant get it to work. Im probably being stupid but I downloaded it from the site and also downloaded a free iso burn as recommended.

I clicked on open after the download and saved it in where ever was recommended.
I then opened the iso burner and found the file and burnt it direct to the disc as instructions recommended on a site that recommends 5 free memory tests.

I cant open it from the disc so I looked around and turns out that you need to set your computer to boot from disc drive and then restart the computer and you should get an option to boot from disc by pressing any key somewhere on restart if you have something in the drive.
Sounds simple. My computer is already set to boot from the disc drive. I restart and never get this option.

What have I done wrong?
Did I need to extract the files somewhere? If I did I cant find the icon to extract it from.

Is there not a more simple download that you can just run from your desktop screen rather than creating discs. I've never really bothered with burning stuff onto discs so I dont know if Im doing it correctly. Last time I burnt anything onto a disc was about 5 years ago.
 
mdaw said:
I know i haven't made enough posts to use the MM but I was just wondering if anyone here did have some 1066mhz ddr2 ram for sale or know if there is somewhere you can pick it up cheap.
Click to expand...

You'll have to configure your trust for that! (click the trust button and go from there).
 
Still cant get it to work. I don't know if I don't get the same options on windows 8 but I cannot get an extract to here option. I have tried downloading using google chrome which shows the folder at the bottom of the screen and only lets me open the file and with internet explorer which only gives open or saved file. I tried with open file should I make it saved file instead. I can extract the file but I cant see where it is going.

I did get an option to burn image onto disc so I tried that. burnt it on and still looks like its just burning the whole file onto the disc that's downloaded and not the image file. I really don't know what I am doing as the instructions that are there I don't seem to be able to follow. Not sure if its still me being stupid or if the instructions are not clear for win 8 users. Probably the later.
 
One thing I have tried is the windows memory diagnostic which you can use straight up with no messing about as its already in the administrative tools section. I ran a standard test yesterday and it did not show any errors on boot up on the little message that popped up when I loaded the desktop.

Is this test particularly reliable?

Should I run the longer test as this test only took around half hour?
 
Both of those games become resource hogs at later stages especially civ5, could be hitting the ram cap hence your lock ups.
 
Giggz said:
Both of those games become resource hogs at later stages especially civ5, could be hitting the ram cap hence your lock ups.
Click to expand...

Would this mean I need more ram or quicker ram?

Seeing as my ram is no longer available the only stuff I can see around at a half decent price is g.skill 1066 MHz at around £57 for 2x2gb sticks. Would I be able to run two of these sticks along side two OCZ sticks?
 
mdaw said:
Is that in the game or on windows?
Click to expand...

In Windows, it records all your system events. So if you can remember the times of the crashes, they will be logged. It may help identify the problem(s).
When the games crash, do you get any onscreen messages?
 
Yes as it crashes it comes up with various error codes and then my computer normally restarts automatically.
 
mdaw said:
Yes as it crashes it comes up with various error codes and then my computer normally restarts automatically.
Click to expand...

That will be recorded in your Event Logs, so worth having a look.
You could also download and install BlueScreen Viewer and try playing one of the steam games, this will give you a bit more info when it crashes.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html
 
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