A problem I'm having :(

[Littlefoot Fan]

I don't really know when this started happening, but it just suddenly started for no apparent reason X.X

Basically whenever I play a pretty big game (eg: F.E.A.R., Sims 2, etc.) after about 5 minutes or so, it will stall. After doing so, there is no way possible to get back to the desktop, even the keyboard doesn't work when I press the Caps Lock key (The little green light doesn't come on) so I am forced to shut off my computer by switch.

My first assumption was that I had too much installed, so I tried uninstalling alot of things. It still does it X.X, and I almost have nothing left! Now even though most people say that F.E.A.R. is such a big game that it "eats" most people's computers, this started happening waaaayyyy after I installed F.E.A.R. My only real guess now is that it might be the new game I just installed. It's really only about 1 gig or so, but it seemed to happen a bit after that. However it wasn't right when I installed it so I don't know

Another strange problem I'm having now is the control panel...all of the programs are messed up on that list. It's reading F.E.A.R. as 50.28 MB or something, when it really is 5 gigs O.o Also I uninstalled a game but it's still on the list with no filesize there, and when I click to remove it, it just doesn't do anything and stays on the list X.X

Now these aren't really bad problems or anything, but it's still just the question, why does it do that?

I ran Norton Anti-Virus and it said no infections but I know that's not a very dependable program. It doesn't seem like a virus, it just seems more like it's "overworked"

But anyway, this game problem is really bad :unsure: I can't play anything anymore since I know it will happen. I don't know what to do :cry2

[Cyberlizard]

Maybe you should take your computer in to get it looked at.  This type of thing has never happened to me before.  But whenever there is an unusual thing going on with my computer, taking it in to the repair shop always helps.

[action9000]

I don't really know when this started happening, but it just suddenly started for no apparent reason X.X

Basically whenever I play a pretty big game (eg: F.E.A.R., Sims 2, etc.) after about 5 minutes or so, it will stall. After doing so, there is no way possible to get back to the desktop, even the keyboard doesn't work when I press the Caps Lock key (The little green light doesn't come on) so I am forced to shut off my computer by switch.

I like to think I know computers fairly well, though I admit I'm no expert.  I have seen similar problems in the past, but I never did actually successfully repair them.  They went away when I got my next computer :

My last experience with severe instability was with my old Pentium 3, about 6 years ago.  Whenever I ran Diablo 2, my computer just spontaneously restarted itself after 5 - 10 minutes of playing (not shut off.  Just reboot)!  When I got my new computer (same hard drive, so it wasn't a software problem), the problem went away.  I attributed the problem to either an unstable power supply or an unstable stick of RAM on the old computer.  That computer was Really cheaply-built, grrr :mad

To this day, I'm not sure whether either diagnosis is correct, but my point is, the problem could *possibly* be a part of your computer is wearing out, and heavy applications may be forcing some component in your computer to overwork itself.  Another option: Format your hard drive and see if it helps.  Remember to back up all unreplaceable data (like music, saved games, artwork, wallpapers, any projects you have going, etc) before you do that.

It's reading F.E.A.R. as 50.28 MB or something, when it really is 5 gigs

A number of my programs do that, too.  I'm not exactly sure why, but Windows just doesn't report the size of some programs accurately.  When you actually do uninstall it though, it removes the entire application.

A few questions:
1) Do you use any programs other than games, that use a lot of computing power?
(Converting audio or video files, compiling programming code, graphics editing in Big programs like Photoshop, etc etc)
If so, are they equally unstable?  For example, if you convert a full-length movie into another format, does your computer become less stable?

2)Does your computer have a Power light on the case?  If so, when you do something that requires a fair amount of computing power (like playing or loading a game, or encoding a sound file) does the power light flicker at all?  If so, a problem could possibly be a weak or unstable power supply.  Power supplies DO wear out over time, as I've found out.  I've had one die on me, and my Grandparents have had one die on them.
My computer does this light-flickering thing when I'm doing anything intensive, and I know I need to replace my power supply (my 300 W P/S isn't *really* big enough for a Pentium IV 3.0 GHz, 3 hard drives, a CD drive, and a Radeon 9550 : )

3) Does your computer seem to load or work slower than it used to?

4) Do you have any anti-adware programs, like
http://www.lavasoft.com Ad-Aware?

5) Have you defragmented your computer recently?

(I know, I know, I'm going into "housekeeping" procedures a bit .  I'm just going through a little checklist to try to figure out why your game would be crashing so badly.)

If I think of anything else, I'll get back to you, but I'm out of thoughts for now.

[Petrie.]

I'm going to make some blind assumptions here but they might help.  I don't know what you have in your computer, nor do I even know about this game, though if its 5 gigs, it's probably one of those really large computer games like Halo or something.

My number one question: do you even meet the system requirements?  I know that sounds so blunt and mean, but its a fact--can your graphics card and processor keep up with what the game computes?  I've had games that hardly take up much of anything, and yet my computer still couldn't play them well, if at all because of all the system processes and memory it took, it eventually ran out of RAM left, and then you have to restart.

This game sounds huge, whatever it is....unless you have a top of the line, $2,500 gaming computer, anything less will probably have a hard time running this.  There's a reason companies make gaming computers with mind-blowing specs.


But I think action is correct too: a little spring cleaning on your computer couldn't hurt either.  I do all that stuff he mentioned at least once a week, and I've one of the healthiest computers around.    It might help, but I won't make that assumption without knowing what your computer has in it, and what type of game this is.

[Littlefoot Fan]

1) Do you use any programs other than games, that use a lot of computing power?
(Converting audio or video files, compiling programming code, graphics editing in Big programs like Photoshop, etc etc)
If so, are they equally unstable? For example, if you convert a full-length movie into another format, does your computer become less stable?

I don't really commonly use them, but the last time when I converted that .avi movie to a .mpg that took about 7 hours, it had no problems. I think that was before this started happening however...

2)Does your computer have a Power light on the case? If so, when you do something that requires a fair amount of computing power (like playing or loading a game, or encoding a sound file) does the power light flicker at all

Yep, it has always done that whenever a game was loading or anything...but I thought that was normal for it to do that? O.o I could check to see if it does it when I play the games.

3) Does your computer seem to load or work slower than it used to?

I don't think so. It doesn't seem to be affecting the computer itself at all.

4) Do you have any anti-adware programs, like
http://www.lavasoft.com Ad-Aware?

Yes, I actually bought one in a store a while back called "Spy Sweeper". When my computer had to get restored a while back, I forgot to install it back. Not like it matters, the thing never really worked X.X it always said it found spyware but never actually removed them...

5) Have you defragmented your computer recently?

Huh?

it's probably one of those really large computer games like Halo or something.

Yep, alot bigger. Halo was only about 1.something gigs on my computer. But if it was this particular game then why would it be starting just now?

do you even meet the system requirements? I know that sounds so blunt and mean, but its a fact--can your graphics card and processor keep up with what the game computes? I've had games that hardly take up much of anything, and yet my computer still couldn't play them well, if at all because of all the system processes and memory it took, it eventually ran out of RAM left, and then you have to restart.

I'm pretty sure...I don't have it on super high graphics or anything, just medium, but I imagine it does take up ALOT of virtual memory, or whatever : Could this all really just be a ram problem?

What I really don't understand is why does it all of a sudden start happening now? All this time F.E.A.R. ran fine with no problems at all, so I don't see how it could be that particular game O.o