A few mid-games crashes are related to over-heating of the CPU or GPU. Run SH for about 10-20 min and check the temps.

CPU tem question
 

And exactly how does one check the CPU temp?

I have intermittent crashes to blue screen upon exit. I've recently installed a program that shows memory usage and CPU usage. This runs in the background and I've noticed by looking at the CPU graph (while at the game menu and before exiting) that the game has been running at 100% CPU usage during the patrol. It appears that the CPU usage begins coming down after exiting the patrol and going to the game menu.

Since watchng for this CPU usage graph to reduce and then going back to the menu to exit, I have not had any crashes. To early to tell but I think I may have found the reason for my crashes upon exit. Because I always clicked exit pretty quickly after exiting the patrol.

Cpu temp
 

You can in some bios versions check the temp of the cpu there.

or perhaps sniff around this site:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/143

they give some good pointers. :hmm:

Do virus check their software first though, just standard procedure as it is from the net.

For the GPU download 'ATI Tools' at http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/259

For a laptop GPU & CPU try downloading 'Notebook Hardware Control' from http://www.pbus-167.com/

For the CPU try downloading 'SpeedFan' at http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

Run these in the background for 10 min, then Ctr-Alt-Del and check out the charts out.

I found the best program to use for MSWindows games is 'MS System Configuration Utility', I disable all non-Microsft Service & all startup item and I can free up about 200-300MB of RAM. MSCONFIG.EXE is a useful little program.

:o thats a lot of info there!!!!! i couldnt be bothered messing around myself, so like i say fresh install, then defrag and run tune up utilities 2006 14 day free trial will sort out any errors

Checking your Video cards temp is fairly easy on most Nvidia cards as such:

Before ShIII
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y11...007_160106.jpg


After couple hours of SHIII
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y11...007_180436.jpg

Some of you play SHIII with a lot of unnecessary background stuff and one of those is the 'Internet'. Shuting off the internet, virus checker, firewalls and a bunch of other background stuff will speed up your SHIII and give your computer a break. Also when graphics start getting goofy colors and pics being out of line ( streaked ) your graphic card is more than likely overheated as a lack of ventilating fans,lots of dust in computer, etc.

Like I said turn off the Internet when playing solo for your e-mail will still be there when your done playing. ;)

I did that and....
 

Here was result - normal usage (like now - 116 - 123 F)
Post Game crash 152 - 155 F
Comments?

Errrr . . . that sounds awful warm to me.

Judging by the length of this thread, it's probably not the problem but...

... I had problems with overheating last year. I replaced all my four air fans except, the ones on the chip and the powerhouse, that really helped. Meanwhile I was thinking, nah, that can't make too much of a difference right?

:huh:

It did :cool:

Yep it was a heat issue
 

It was heat - installed motherboard monitor and put the machine through it's paces - recreated the problem and then took the side off of it and the temp dropped 15 - 20 degrees. Now my computer temp is 132 during game (after exiting vice 155).
Thanks to all that helped
Bravo Zulu!