Crash to reboot?.

Water boy · 02-18-09, 04:20 PM

Ok so having had SH4 in the box for months finally decided to give it a go.
Installed Vanilla and started a career. Halfway through mission 2 my PC fell over big time. This resulted in wiping the HD reinstalling everything and basically starting again.
So I reloaded SH4, rebooted, d/l'd 1.4 patch, installed, rebooted, started the game.
It let me go through sub selection etc etc and off I went on my first mission.
I get the screen load up in the sub and about 3 seconds later it crashes. Not to desktop but forces a restart on the PC. No windows is shutting down or error mesages blah blah just grey screen then up comes the boot setups etc.
Never seen that before............
System specs are Win XP home edition V2002 SP3, AMD Athlon XP3000+, 2.17Gig with 1Gig Ram, NVidea GeForce 6600 card. I have a winxp pro upgrade I can install instead if it makes any difference.
I'm deleting it all again and will reinstall vanilla then patch to see if I can get it going again.
I trawled the forum but couldn't find anywhere else it rebooted as opposed to CTD.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

Water boy · 02-18-09, 04:41 PM

Forgot to mention..........
Not knowing what boat is what to start in I went for the museum, box opens asking me if I have a ticket?.

Said yes of course, waited while it loaded, up came the first ship, A bb IIRC, click subs and bye bye crash to grey screen + freeze. Had to hard start the PC to get out of it, again no message.

Arclight · 02-19-09, 03:46 AM

I quess first thing to do is make sure all the underlying stuff is up to date; install latest system drivers, DirectX and videocard driver. Defrag HD and install SH4 with at least the 1.4 patch.

Start with that and keep us up to date, hopefully we can figure it out.

GreyOctober · 02-19-09, 06:14 AM

Hey mate,

To deactivate the "automatic restart" miscrosoft bull$hit, right click on My Computer, choose Properties then select Advanced tab, then look for Startup and recovery and click the Settings button. In this window, uncheck Automatically restart checkbox under Sytem Failure.

If you get the crash again, please post the error here along with your system configuration.

Good luck.

Soundman · 02-19-09, 01:46 PM

I could be wrong here, but it seems I recall reading in a long ago thread that the "Museum" is broken. I don't recall if 1.5 or a mod caused this. What happens if you start without the Museum.

02-19-09, 03:18 PM

sounds like maybe your running out of memory so it dumps and reboots

run mem test and check your memory is still all there, it could be bad connections or dropping it fried something.

it wouldnt hurt to give your mobo a good exam to be sure its not damaged.

what kind of cpu cooler do you have? did you remove it and reseat your cpu and cooler? a big one or a heavy one can bend or break the cpu pin connections very easy when it gets dropped.

Seacuckoo · 02-27-09, 03:46 PM

As others have suggested, I'd start with trying to make sure that you have fully functioning hardware, after your box took its fall. We know it fell hard enough to damage the data that was originally on your HDD. You may have already taken these steps, but I mention them for completeness.

Open the case and examine all the connections between your power supply and the motherboard and other components. Make sure all the data cables are snug, as well. Check that all the cards are fully seated into the motherboard (e.g., video card and memory modules). As has been mentioned, make sure that the heatsink is still firmly seated on your CPU. However it is fastened to the MB, make sure that it is still secured.

Since we know that the hard drive took a hit already, download and run the diagnostics utility from your HDD manufacturer's website. You'll want to run the full scan that reads and writes to the whole disk (make sure you have a back up of any data that you don't want to risk losing, in case this test puts your HDD over the edge).

If the HDD seems fine, download and run MemTest86+ overnight, to make sure your RAM hasn't gone bad.

If the RAM seems fine, download and run the torture test of Prime95. Again, I'd let it run overnight. I'd suggest that you also have some utility to monitor the temperature of your CPU before letting this program run for very long. Or, at least boot up and go directly into the BIOS to check the BIOS hardware monitoring to see what temperature your CPU is at under moderate load. I either use the utility that came with the MB or SpeedFan for monitoring CPU temps during stress testing.

Given that your problems started with your system taking a good jarring, this is where I'd start the process of elimination, before focusing in on software issues. Good luck.

Water boy · 02-27-09, 05:42 PM

Ran the test, results below, did the driver upgrade - already running the latest drivers.

CPU Minimum: Pentium 4 or Athlon or better You Have: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 3000+

PASS

CPU Speed Minimum: 2 GHz You Have: 2.17 GHz Performance Rated at 3.00 GHz

PASS

System RAM Minimum: 1 GB You Have: 1023 MB

PASS

Operating System Minimum: Windows XP / Vista (Only) You Have: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (Build Service Pack 32600)

PASS

Video Card Minimum: 128 MB RAM DirectX 9-compliant video card capable of rendering Pixel Shader 2.0 (NVIDIA GeForce 6200+ / ATI Radeon 9600+) You Have: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 (GeForce 6600)

PASS Video Card Features - Minimum attributes of your Video Card

Video RAM: Required - 128 MB , You have - 256 MB

Video Card 3D Acceleration: Required - Yes , You have - Yes

Video HW Transform & Lighting: Required - Yes , You have - Yes

Vertex Shader Ver.: Required - 2.0 , You have - 3.0

Pixel Shader Ver.: Required - 2.0 , You have - 3.0

Video Card Driver Version (DirectX) Your driver version number is: 6.14.11.8206

FYI: Your video card driver version is provided for your information, but it is not part of this analysis. But proper video card driver versions are important to the proper operation of your product.

DirectX Version Minimum: DirectX 9.0c or later (included on disc) You Have: 9.0c

PASS

Sound Card Minimum: Yes You Have: Microsoft LifeChat LX-3000

PASS

Sound Card Driver Version Your driver version number is: 1.0

FYI: Your sound card driver version is provided for your information, but it is not part of this analysis. But proper sound card driver versions are important to the proper operation of your product.

Free Disk Space Minimum: 6 GB You Have: 81.8 GB

PASS

DVD Minimum: 4x or faster DVD drive You Have: ATAPI DVD A DH20A4P

PASS, but the Speed could NOT be analyzed.

As you may have guessed I'm not particularly IT profficient, when I said it 'fell over' I meant crashed not literally - apologies for the confusion this may have caused. I'll see if I get the card upgrade and show the guy - who is way more IT literate the results and see what he makes of it. Thanks for all the help and I'll keep you posted on how I get on.
Thanks again.....

Water boy · 02-27-09, 05:42 PM

Ran the test, results below, did the driver upgrade - already running the latest drivers.

CPU Minimum: Pentium 4 or Athlon or better You Have: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 3000+

PASS

CPU Speed Minimum: 2 GHz You Have: 2.17 GHz Performance Rated at 3.00 GHz

PASS

System RAM Minimum: 1 GB You Have: 1023 MB

PASS

Operating System Minimum: Windows XP / Vista (Only) You Have: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (Build Service Pack 32600)

PASS

Video Card Minimum: 128 MB RAM DirectX 9-compliant video card capable of rendering Pixel Shader 2.0 (NVIDIA GeForce 6200+ / ATI Radeon 9600+) You Have: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 (GeForce 6600)

PASS Video Card Features - Minimum attributes of your Video Card

Video RAM: Required - 128 MB , You have - 256 MB

Video Card 3D Acceleration: Required - Yes , You have - Yes

Video HW Transform & Lighting: Required - Yes , You have - Yes

Vertex Shader Ver.: Required - 2.0 , You have - 3.0

Pixel Shader Ver.: Required - 2.0 , You have - 3.0

Video Card Driver Version (DirectX) Your driver version number is: 6.14.11.8206

FYI: Your video card driver version is provided for your information, but it is not part of this analysis. But proper video card driver versions are important to the proper operation of your product.

DirectX Version Minimum: DirectX 9.0c or later (included on disc) You Have: 9.0c

PASS

Sound Card Minimum: Yes You Have: Microsoft LifeChat LX-3000

PASS

Sound Card Driver Version Your driver version number is: 1.0

FYI: Your sound card driver version is provided for your information, but it is not part of this analysis. But proper sound card driver versions are important to the proper operation of your product.

Free Disk Space Minimum: 6 GB You Have: 81.8 GB

PASS

DVD Minimum: 4x or faster DVD drive You Have: ATAPI DVD A DH20A4P

PASS, but the Speed could NOT be analyzed.

As you may have guessed I'm not particularly IT profficient, when I said it 'fell over' I meant crashed not literally - apologies for the confusion this may have caused. I'll see if I get the card upgrade and show the guy - who is way more IT literate the results and see what he makes of it. Thanks for all the help and I'll keep you posted on how I get on.
Thanks again.....

02-18-09, 04:20 PM	#1
Water boy A-ganger Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 71 Downloads: 7 Uploads: 0	Crash to reboot?. Ok so having had SH4 in the box for months finally decided to give it a go. Installed Vanilla and started a career. Halfway through mission 2 my PC fell over big time. This resulted in wiping the HD reinstalling everything and basically starting again. So I reloaded SH4, rebooted, d/l'd 1.4 patch, installed, rebooted, started the game. It let me go through sub selection etc etc and off I went on my first mission. I get the screen load up in the sub and about 3 seconds later it crashes. Not to desktop but forces a restart on the PC. No windows is shutting down or error mesages blah blah just grey screen then up comes the boot setups etc. Never seen that before............ System specs are Win XP home edition V2002 SP3, AMD Athlon XP3000+, 2.17Gig with 1Gig Ram, NVidea GeForce 6600 card. I have a winxp pro upgrade I can install instead if it makes any difference. I'm deleting it all again and will reinstall vanilla then patch to see if I can get it going again. I trawled the forum but couldn't find anywhere else it rebooted as opposed to CTD. Any assistance would be appreciated.

02-19-09, 03:46 AM	#3
Arclight Navy Seal Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Land of windmills, tulips, wooden shoes and cheese. Lots of cheese. Posts: 8,467 Downloads: 53 Uploads: 10	I quess first thing to do is make sure all the underlying stuff is up to date; install latest system drivers, DirectX and videocard driver. Defrag HD and install SH4 with at least the 1.4 patch. Start with that and keep us up to date, hopefully we can figure it out. __________________ Contritium praecedit superbia.

02-19-09, 06:14 AM	#4
GreyOctober Sonar Guy Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Bucharest, Romania Posts: 394 Downloads: 30 Uploads: 0	Hey mate, To deactivate the "automatic restart" miscrosoft bull$hit, right click on My Computer, choose Properties then select Advanced tab, then look for Startup and recovery and click the Settings button. In this window, uncheck Automatically restart checkbox under Sytem Failure. If you get the crash again, please post the error here along with your system configuration. Good luck. __________________

02-19-09, 01:46 PM	#5
Soundman Commodore Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Orlando, Fl Posts: 617 Downloads: 60 Uploads: 0	I could be wrong here, but it seems I recall reading in a long ago thread that the "Museum" is broken. I don't recall if 1.5 or a mod caused this. What happens if you start without the Museum. __________________ RVAH-9 RA-5C Vigilante at NAS Sanford, Fl 1966 The coolest plane few have heard of!

02-27-09, 05:42 PM	#8
Water boy A-ganger Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 71 Downloads: 7 Uploads: 0	Ran the test, results below, did the driver upgrade - already running the latest drivers. CPU Minimum: Pentium 4 or Athlon or better You Have: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 3000+ PASS CPU Speed Minimum: 2 GHz You Have: 2.17 GHz Performance Rated at 3.00 GHz PASS System RAM Minimum: 1 GB You Have: 1023 MB PASS Operating System Minimum: Windows XP / Vista (Only) You Have: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (Build Service Pack 32600) PASS Video Card Minimum: 128 MB RAM DirectX 9-compliant video card capable of rendering Pixel Shader 2.0 (NVIDIA GeForce 6200+ / ATI Radeon 9600+) You Have: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 (GeForce 6600) PASS Video Card Features - Minimum attributes of your Video Card Video RAM: Required - 128 MB , You have - 256 MBVideo Card 3D Acceleration: Required - Yes , You have - YesVideo HW Transform & Lighting: Required - Yes , You have - YesVertex Shader Ver.: Required - 2.0 , You have - 3.0Pixel Shader Ver.: Required - 2.0 , You have - 3.0Video Card Driver Version (DirectX) Your driver version number is: 6.14.11.8206 FYI: Your video card driver version is provided for your information, but it is not part of this analysis. But proper video card driver versions are important to the proper operation of your product.DirectX Version Minimum: DirectX 9.0c or later (included on disc) You Have: 9.0c PASS Sound Card Minimum: Yes You Have: Microsoft LifeChat LX-3000 PASS Sound Card Driver Version Your driver version number is: 1.0 FYI: Your sound card driver version is provided for your information, but it is not part of this analysis. But proper sound card driver versions are important to the proper operation of your product. Free Disk Space Minimum: 6 GB You Have: 81.8 GB PASS DVD Minimum: 4x or faster DVD drive You Have: ATAPI DVD A DH20A4P PASS, but the Speed could NOT be analyzed. As you may have guessed I'm not particularly IT profficient, when I said it 'fell over' I meant crashed not literally - apologies for the confusion this may have caused. I'll see if I get the card upgrade and show the guy - who is way more IT literate the results and see what he makes of it. Thanks for all the help and I'll keep you posted on how I get on. Thanks again.....

02-18-09, 04:41 PM	#2
Water boy A-ganger Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 71 Downloads: 7 Uploads: 0	Forgot to mention.......... Not knowing what boat is what to start in I went for the museum, box opens asking me if I have a ticket?. Said yes of course, waited while it loaded, up came the first ship, A bb IIRC, click subs and bye bye crash to grey screen + freeze. Had to hard start the PC to get out of it, again no message.

02-19-09, 03:18 PM	#6
Webster Stowaway Posts: n/a Downloads: Uploads:	sounds like maybe your running out of memory so it dumps and reboots run mem test and check your memory is still all there, it could be bad connections or dropping it fried something. it wouldnt hurt to give your mobo a good exam to be sure its not damaged. what kind of cpu cooler do you have? did you remove it and reseat your cpu and cooler? a big one or a heavy one can bend or break the cpu pin connections very easy when it gets dropped.

02-27-09, 03:46 PM	#7
Seacuckoo Nub Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 4 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	As others have suggested, I'd start with trying to make sure that you have fully functioning hardware, after your box took its fall. We know it fell hard enough to damage the data that was originally on your HDD. You may have already taken these steps, but I mention them for completeness. Open the case and examine all the connections between your power supply and the motherboard and other components. Make sure all the data cables are snug, as well. Check that all the cards are fully seated into the motherboard (e.g., video card and memory modules). As has been mentioned, make sure that the heatsink is still firmly seated on your CPU. However it is fastened to the MB, make sure that it is still secured. Since we know that the hard drive took a hit already, download and run the diagnostics utility from your HDD manufacturer's website. You'll want to run the full scan that reads and writes to the whole disk (make sure you have a back up of any data that you don't want to risk losing, in case this test puts your HDD over the edge). If the HDD seems fine, download and run MemTest86+ overnight, to make sure your RAM hasn't gone bad. If the RAM seems fine, download and run the torture test of Prime95. Again, I'd let it run overnight. I'd suggest that you also have some utility to monitor the temperature of your CPU before letting this program run for very long. Or, at least boot up and go directly into the BIOS to check the BIOS hardware monitoring to see what temperature your CPU is at under moderate load. I either use the utility that came with the MB or SpeedFan for monitoring CPU temps during stress testing. Given that your problems started with your system taking a good jarring, this is where I'd start the process of elimination, before focusing in on software issues. Good luck.