This is the post i've been spamming around several tech forums over the last couple weeks:
"First, my specs (Self built);
Core 2 Quad Q9550 OC'd to 3.4 (Temps; 27 average idle, 59 average prime95 torture test)
Corsair 800mhz DDR2 XMS2 8GB
Asus P5Q-Pro
Nvidia GTX280 1GB
Zalman 750w PSU
Antec 1200
Windows 7 64bit RC
Before posting here i've checked everything I can possibly think of, right down to opening my machine and checking all the wiring and a reformat. All drivers, directX etc are up to date.
Basically, during two games that I know of, simply executing them causes my machine to lose power, as if someone yanked the cable out. These games are STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl and the recently released Darkest of Days demo. When I lose power, my machine then starts up on it's own and i'm asked whether or not to boot normally or in safe mode.
Back when I built my machine in January, STALKER would do this maybe 5% of the time, and at random intervals, but was still playable (I was on Vista 32 at this time). Now, I get a glimpse of the menu screen before losing power.
Darkest of Days cut off instantly the first time I executed it, the second time I managed to play it through and have it cut off at the end credits, the third time I got past the menu and into loading the first level, and now it cuts out immediately. The only time it doesn't cut out, is sometimes it bugs out on me and opens in a tiny window (maybe 640x480) and during this time I cannot click or interact with the program in any way, but it doesn't cause my machine to pack in either.
Any google search I try simply yields people who are losing power due to using systems that are too weak to cope with the game they're trying to run, having insufficient cooling or an insufficient power supply.
I should also note that I can quiet easily run every other game I own on this machine with no problems (Half Life 2, TF2, CSS, DODS, Empire Total War, The Last Remnant, Velvet Assassin, Wolfenstein, Mafia, Max Payne, Company of Heroes, Call of Duty 4/5, Bioshock, GTA4, Crysis etc) so I believe I can rule out any hardware problems or surely they would present themselves in these games.
Any ideas?"
After many responses, none of which worked, I concluded that as STALKER ran on Vista, Win 7 64 must be the problem, so I reinstalled it.
No dice.
So, time to spot check for problems. Is it at all possible that my PSU is bugging out but still works with other games? Failing that, how do I go about checking individual components?
"First, my specs (Self built);
Core 2 Quad Q9550 OC'd to 3.4 (Temps; 27 average idle, 59 average prime95 torture test)
Corsair 800mhz DDR2 XMS2 8GB
Asus P5Q-Pro
Nvidia GTX280 1GB
Zalman 750w PSU
Antec 1200
Windows 7 64bit RC
Before posting here i've checked everything I can possibly think of, right down to opening my machine and checking all the wiring and a reformat. All drivers, directX etc are up to date.
Basically, during two games that I know of, simply executing them causes my machine to lose power, as if someone yanked the cable out. These games are STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl and the recently released Darkest of Days demo. When I lose power, my machine then starts up on it's own and i'm asked whether or not to boot normally or in safe mode.
Back when I built my machine in January, STALKER would do this maybe 5% of the time, and at random intervals, but was still playable (I was on Vista 32 at this time). Now, I get a glimpse of the menu screen before losing power.
Darkest of Days cut off instantly the first time I executed it, the second time I managed to play it through and have it cut off at the end credits, the third time I got past the menu and into loading the first level, and now it cuts out immediately. The only time it doesn't cut out, is sometimes it bugs out on me and opens in a tiny window (maybe 640x480) and during this time I cannot click or interact with the program in any way, but it doesn't cause my machine to pack in either.
Any google search I try simply yields people who are losing power due to using systems that are too weak to cope with the game they're trying to run, having insufficient cooling or an insufficient power supply.
I should also note that I can quiet easily run every other game I own on this machine with no problems (Half Life 2, TF2, CSS, DODS, Empire Total War, The Last Remnant, Velvet Assassin, Wolfenstein, Mafia, Max Payne, Company of Heroes, Call of Duty 4/5, Bioshock, GTA4, Crysis etc) so I believe I can rule out any hardware problems or surely they would present themselves in these games.
Any ideas?"
After many responses, none of which worked, I concluded that as STALKER ran on Vista, Win 7 64 must be the problem, so I reinstalled it.
No dice.
So, time to spot check for problems. Is it at all possible that my PSU is bugging out but still works with other games? Failing that, how do I go about checking individual components?
