Help: Computer crashes on exit from SH3

I'm running SH3 with Grey Wolves 1.1 and SH3 Commander 2.6 and FS AutoStart.

Problem: I go completely through the exit process of SH3 and instead of going to the desktop, the computer shows the dreadful blue screen with random letters on it. Then, my computer reboots and everything is normally fine. I do get a message stating that I had some kind of terrible problem and do I want to report it to Microsoft.

This occurs intermittently but it seems to be happening more frequently. This has not been a problem until tonight when I lost my audio after this recent occurance. It obviously corrupted my audio driver. I was able to do a system restore and my audio is now back. I'd like to find a sollution to this if I could.

Has anyone experience anything similar to this? Suggestions would be appreciated.

[johnno74]

Check the stop code (the first number) on this page http://www.aumha.org/win5/kbestop.php

Most likely culprit is a problem with a problem with a driver. Download and re-install the latest drivers for you video card, audio card etc.

Thanks for the suggestion.

But there's never any message with a stop code. The screen goes blue with random letters for a second or two, then the computer reboots. Was never a real problem until it corrupted a audio driver last night. Did a restore and I back up with sound.

[AVGWarhawk]

Sounds like a possible soundcard issue? Soundcards have been known to mess with games. Reduce the soundcard excelerations with in the sound card program and see if that helps.

[Sailor Steve]

I have had occasional crashes on exiting from day one. It doesn't seem to affect anything else, so I stopped worrying about it.

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

I have had occasional crashes on exiting from day one. It doesn't seem to affect anything else, so I stopped worrying about it.

I never worried about the occasional crashes until last night when I lost my audio.

I'm gonna play SH3 with GW but without using FS Auto Start and without SH3 Commander to see if there is any improvement. Then I plan to add back Commander to see if crashes continue. May also reinstall Commander and/or GW.

All of this might be of little importance because I plan to go with GWX as soon as I can. But, I am curious to see if Commander or FS Auto Start is the cause of the crashes because I'd like to use them with the new GWX.

[danlisa]

Originally Posted by von Zelda

I never worried about the occasional crashes until last night when I lost my audio.

I'm gonna play SH3 with GW but without using FS Auto Start and without SH3 Commander to see if there is any improvement. Then I plan to add back Commander to see if crashes continue. May also reinstall Commander and/or GW.

All of this might be of little importance because I plan to go with GWX as soon as I can. But, I am curious to see if Commander or FS Auto Start is the cause of the crashes because I'd like to use them with the new GWX.

Do you have on board sound or a PCI card?

I ask because I used to have on board sound & use FS Autostart. The first couple of times everything was fine then all of a sudden the sound drivers were corrupted by FS AutoStart and I experienced what you describe.

I tried for a long time to fix/reinstall the drivers but it would not work, I only managed to fix the issue by a full format & reinstall windows.

I never used FS Autostart again and continued to use the on board sound for a couple of months without any problems. If you can get a PCI Sound card, your system will thank you for it. I noticed a huge jump in performance after I changed.

[theluckyone17]

Originally Posted by von Zelda

Thanks for the suggestion.

But there's never any message with a stop code. The screen goes blue with random letters for a second or two, then the computer reboots. Was never a real problem until it corrupted a audio driver last night. Did a restore and I back up with sound.

The BSOD should be listed in the Event Log (assuming WinXP here)... Off the top of my head, go to the Control Panel, open the Administrator's Tools, then the Event Log. You'll be looking in the System category. Might be easier to sort the events by the first column, and look at the red errors. Somewhere there should be an error with the same time as the BSOD occurred, and that'll give you the details.

Darn MS for that default "reboot on a BSOD" behavior...

I wouldn't blame SH3, SH3Commander, FS Autostart, etc. Usually (at least in XP), BSODs tend to be more driver or O/S related than higer level applications.

[Corsair]

FS Autostart doen't corrupt anything, as it basically stops and restarts programs and services before launching a program and after finishing it, plus defrags memory. You define yourself what you want to stop and restart. One time I had this no sound problem. Since I restart PC in between two different programs, never had it again and I use FS Autostart for all games.

[johnno74]

Originally Posted by theluckyone17

The BSOD should be listed in the Event Log (assuming WinXP here)... Off the top of my head, go to the Control Panel, open the Administrator's Tools, then the Event Log. You'll be looking in the System category. Might be easier to sort the events by the first column, and look at the red errors. Somewhere there should be an error with the same time as the BSOD occurred, and that'll give you the details.

Darn MS for that default "reboot on a BSOD" behavior...

I wouldn't blame SH3, SH3Commander, FS Autostart, etc. Usually (at least in XP), BSODs tend to be more driver or O/S related than higer level applications.

Quite right, the event log probably has details of the BSOD error. Also, if you get a message "your computer has rebooted from a serious error" after the bsod you can normally click the link to send it to MS and you may get a webpage telling you exactly what caused it. Otherwise If you go properties on my computer -> advanced -> startup and recovery settings and you can disable the automatic reboot, and then you have time to copy the 1st number down.

and theluckyone is also quite right, it won't be sh3 or any other app you are running that is causing the crash. XP is pretty damn stable, my pc at home here gets rebooted only about once a month or so, normally because of an OS patch or something.