HePl! please....

Addonnicus · Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2004 10:27 pm Post subject: HePl! please....

I am computer challenged - just to get that out of the way...

I have been playing some Madden '04 on the PC. I have updated my video drivers, audio drivers, installed the latest version of directx 9, etc.

My problem is that at random times the game blacks out and the computer reboots itself. this ONLY happens in Madden!!! I can leave the computer on for hours with no trouble at all doing anything else, but if I turn on this game, it may or may not occur. Sometime I can play for 90 minutes with no trouble, sometimes I get through 20-30 minutes...

Any thoughts, old wise Shiloch???

Thanks in advance!

Add

ElSancho · Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2004 11:17 pm Post subject:

What do you have in your box? (hardware)

Why did you upgrade from the older versions? (problems?)
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Addonnicus · Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2004 9:51 am Post subject:

Um...I have some parts and stuff...

Did you miss the part where I know nothing about computers?? Very Happy

If you tell me what you want to know, and how to find out, I will be happy to try it.

I updated my drivers because of the game problems.

Add

ElSancho · Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2004 10:24 am Post subject:

was it doing the same thing?

who made your PC? Dell, HP, Compaq?
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Cirrobin · Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2004 10:48 am Post subject:

I had a similiar issues a while ago. I would be in EQ and when some big graphics event occured,, I.E. SoS landed, my system would reboot, then tell me it recovered from a fatal error (as if I should be proud of it).

I found it was a combination of the refresh rate on my graphics card and my AGP driver (fancy term for faster video driver).

Try setting your refresh rate to 60 hz, if it already is at 60, I don't know what else it could be, and I can't offer advice on what I guess.
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Lythinin · Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2004 12:47 pm Post subject:

Well....I'm not a comuter wiz, but I have a suggestion - Madden MAY have been installed wrong for some reason...perhaps you should try re - installing it....or another thing I can think of is that Madden possibly has something in its progams that dosen't work well with your comuter. And the last reason could be that you don't have enough room on the hard drive? Not sure about that possibility.

I will ask my mother and step father Lorieannaie and N'ral to look at your post. My mom knows alot about comps and N'ral is a programer, so they will know alot more than I do. And you might want to wait till they say something before doing anything I suggested. I probably hit 100 miles off the problem. lol I will let them know asap Hope you can get some help. Good luck

Addonnicus · Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2004 10:10 pm Post subject:

I have uninstalled it and reinstalled it about 3 times now.

The refesh rate IS set at 60, so I guess that's right.

It also does the same type of thing on Warcraft 3, which I installed to test this afternnon, so there goes my theory that it was just a Madden problem.

My computer was built by a guy in Tampa, it isn't a Dell or E-machines or anything like that. If I go to "My Computer" and check it, it says:

AMD Athlon (TM) XP 1800+
1.15GHz, 512 Ram

Thanks for taking the time to help - I am willing to try whatever you guys suggest!

Add

Lythinin · Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 10:39 am Post subject:

You are most welcome. I only regret that I can't be of more help. Sad

I hope your problem is fixed soon. /salute

ElSancho · Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 9:47 pm Post subject:

First things first.

Do you know if your PC has onboard video or an actuall AGP/PCI card? (does your moniter plug in near your keyboard and mouse ports at the top or is it more towards the bottom of the case, wher eyou would plug your internet cable in?)

If you know you have a AGP card heres what I would try, it could be a 100 things but this should help narrow it down if nothing else.

Go here http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=2
You want chipset and graphic drivers, they are called 4in1
(restart)

I'm not sure what kind of card you have but its either ATI or Nvidia so here are the links for them:

http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html (ATI)

http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp (Nvidia)

download but don't install quite yet (if you havent already got hte new drivers) make sure they are unzipped and put it in a temp folder on your C: drive

Go to your device manager and remove your video card. Completely remove the device from your PC then restart.

When you restart it will detect the vid card and prompt for drivers (assuming you have XP) point the browser to the new vid drivers you downloaded and placed int he C: drive. PRESTO!

If your still having problems I would update DX9 again and try running a defragment. You should be ok but theres 100 things that it could be.

Hope this helps a little.
Cheers!
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Addonnicus · Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 10:31 pm Post subject:

I have a NVidia GeForce3 Ti video card. I went to the site when this all first started and downloaded the latest drivers. Then I uninstalled Madden 04, re-loaded DirectX 9 and the latest driver updates, then reloaded.

Do I need to do that again???

Sorry if I seem dumb, but, um...well...when it comes to computers I am.

Embarassed

ElSancho · Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2004 1:47 am Post subject:

Alternative?
Give it up, some games just dont do well on some systems. I can't play Halo on my pc /shrug

Also..

Your CPU or GPU could be overheating, insufficent memmory(or bad/overheating) Graphics settings are too high, registry errors, etc...

No real easy way to test it unless you have the extra parts laying around =p I would see if you can trade that in for the xbox or ps2 version anyway =p 36" is so much better then 19 Laughing

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