Problem With System Rebooting right at Takeoff

[ViperPilot 81]

Hello!1st of all I hope I'm posting this in the right Forum, and if I didn't I apologize for the error.2nd of all, I want to warn you that this question pertains to an older system that I'm using FS 2002 on, so please be gentle on me; I'm really hoping someone can help me out.I have a PowerSpec model 8925 with the following:Pentium 4 3.0 GB HT processorBiostar VMA-M Motherboard2GB PC3200 DDR2 RAM (2 x 1GB sticks)160 GB Samsung HD PNY GeForce 6200 AGP 512MB Video CardOCZ 500w PSUACER 23" flat screen monitor - DVI plugWindows XP 32bit with SP3 Installed The Video Card & the PSU were recently installed, along with the most recent nVidia driver (260.99) and a vanilla install of FS 2002. Under normal operating conditions this system is solid as a rock. No hiccups, doesn't miss a beat, resolution set at 1900 x 1080, nVidia CP shows up. Here's what happens with FS 2002:I start the simulator, and select the default flight; C-172, Meigs, System Time.I start the takeoff roll, and right as I rotate off the runway the screen goes black, and the computer reboots. I would also get an intermittent BSOD which would call out BAD_POOL_HEADER or IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, but those have seemed to have stopped in favorof the automatic reboot. When the system reboots, I get a Reporting Error box that says the system has recovered from a serious error.On the helpful advice of Bob Scott (wk6d) I followed his instructions for un-installing the nVidia driver with the tool he recommended and re-loaded a clean copy of the driver. I restarted the simulator under the same conditions and got the same result; an automatic reboot right at lift-off.I have looked through ALL of the posts in this forum and many others including other computer forums looking for an answer, and unfortunately all of the suggestions that had been posted did not meet with success. Here's the thing... I know that in a world of FSX and everything some may wonder "why's this guy asking a question about FS 2002, for pete's sake? Well... it's all I can manage right now, to be honest. I'm appealing to you folks because someone might be able to take a look at this with a fresh pair of eyes, and possibly come up with a solution for me. There seem to be a group of very knowledgeable people here from what I can see, and I know Bob personally so I think I came to the right place.Sorry to be such a windbag, but this is the only system I can manage with right now and I have limited resources to throw at this. My whole Flight Sim experience is on hold here; if anyone can help I'd be most grateful.Just as an afterthought... my previous system was a Dell Inspiron 9200 laptop with a Pentium M 1.8 GB chip, 60GB HD, and 1GB of RAM. It ran FS 2002 flawlessly with all of the sliders set to the right, loads of add-on aircraft and scenery. I know the PowerSpec should handle FS 2004 pretty well, let alone FS 2002!! Thanks for looking!Alan :Praying:

[David Roch 1,968]

Hi Alan,You really don't have to be sorry and you indeed came to the right place :--)I sincerly hope that someone will come with an answer to your problem.I'll try checking your two RAM modules first.

[Kosta 122]

Check the Event Viewer in Administrative Tools in Control Panel - there should be a generated event when computer reboots. Rebootiong usually happens due to BSOD or heat.Those BSOD messages are quite worrying though. Did you ever really check for temperatures? Dusting off everything and cleaning it?How did you clean up the GPU driver? They point to some bad driver as it seems. Is XP reinstallation a way to go for you?I'd recommend you start installing fresh drivers of every component you have, start with chipset, over audio, network etc...

[ViperPilot 81]

Word Not Allowed,Thank you so much for the reply! I opened the Event Viewer, saw an error report, and clicked on Properties to look at it. There's info on the Error, like what type, date, event #, etc. There's also error codes there, too. Could someone here read those and determine a potential cause? The case seems to be cool, and the card hasn't been warm to the touch when I've inspected it.System ErrorCategory (102)Error code 00000019, parameter1 00000020, parameter2 89472960,parameter3 894729e8, parameter4 0a11001aWould a total re-install of XP be in order here? I have never done it before, nor have I ever re-installed chipset drivers, etc.. is there a process to follow?David,Thanks for the reply, and the welcome! I read about RAM modules that are 'matched'. I don't think mine are. Could this have an effect?I knew I came to the right place... :)Thanks again!Alan

[Alex Sarfati 0]

Hi Alan,I have a slight suspision that you could easily test. I see you are running a very old and very slow AGP graphics card. Go ahead and turn down that resolution a bit. The errors are probably because thats passed the cards max resolution. Give it a try. Try a resolution like 800x600, if no errors, keep going up till you get an error. If you do get errors at 800x600, then it must be something else.

[ViperPilot 81]

Hi Alan,I have a slight suspision that you could easily test. I see you are running a very old and very slow AGP graphics card. Go ahead and turn down that resolution a bit. The errors are probably because thats passed the cards max resolution. Give it a try. Try a resolution like 800x600, if no errors, keep going up till you get an error. If you do get errors at 800x600, then it must be something else.

Hello, Alex!Just by chance, I was looking at an online ad for another card, and in the comments someone mentioned that they had a 24" monitor and turned down their screen resolution. I decided to try it out and dropped it from 1900 x 1080 to 1600 x 900. I fired up the sim and it didn't lock. I flew for about 20 minutes and landed ok with no problems. I've been tweaking the game display settings and can get from 25 to 40 fps at night over Chicago with some of the sliders all of the way to the right (locked @ 50) but if I go over then it locks up.I presume this could be what you were talking about... exceeding the card's max resolution. I'll do some more testing but I think I'm on the right track here.Would it be advisable to get a pair of 'matched' 1 GB RAM sticks for better stability? I don't think mine are matched.Thanks for your suggestions and help... I'm feeling better! :Whew: Alan :Praying:

[Alex Sarfati 0]

Hi Alan,Glad things are working out. I would upgrade that card before upgrading anything else. That's clearly your bottleneck at the moment. I'm sure any PCI card will be an improvement over an AGP card. Does your motherboard have a PCI 2.0 slot?

[ViperPilot 81]

Hi Alan,Glad things are working out. I would upgrade that card before upgrading anything else. That's clearly your bottleneck at the moment. I'm sure any PCI card will be an improvement over an AGP card. Does your motherboard have a PCI 2.0 slot?

Hey, Alex!I have one open PCI slot left. I don't have PCIe slots on the motherboard.Should I stick with a 512 MB, or move up to a 1 GB?Cautiously optimistic,Alan :Nail Biting:

[Alex Sarfati 0]

Have a look around. Get the best card that your motherboard supports. It won't be anything fancy or expensive, but it will be an upgrade.

[TechguyMaxC 516]

Video RAM amount rarely contributes to speed, especially at the low-end and mid-range of the market. You should look for a higher model number before you consider video RAM size, especially running FS2002. With AGP your options are extremely limited. On the Nvidia side the best AGP card they ever made was a 7800 GT, and that hasn't been manufactured for several years now. ATi has AGP cards as recent as the 4000 series, I believe the 4670 was as high as they ever went, though technically the previous generation 3850 would be a bit faster. However, availability is going to be your biggest stumbling block, and it looks like right now the best AGP card on Newegg is a 4650, which isn't fantastic but still a huge improvement over your 6200. Check it out.

[Alex Sarfati 0]

I agree with Max. Unfortunately, your hardware type has retired. As Max said, that ATI AGP card will still be a massive improvement over your current card.

[Alex Sarfati 0]

Just found this on microcenter:http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0335522That's the best you can get with your hardware I'm affraid. The card still has pretty good clocks considering it's AGP.

[TechguyMaxC 516]

Just found this on microcenter:http://www.microcent...duct_id=0335522That's the best you can get with your hardware I'm affraid. The card still has pretty good clocks considering it's AGP.

You're likely correct in that this is the fastest AGP card the OP will be able to find. It's also $100 more than a 4650. For such an old version of FS running on such an old PC I'd say get the cheaper card.

[ViperPilot 81]

Alex & Max,Thanks for the replies, and the information. I will definitely take a look at the 4650 for an AGP card. If I had an open PCI slot (not PCIe) would there be an option?I appreciate it greatly!Alan

[TechguyMaxC 516]

PCI isn't worthwhile. The fastest PCI card is about the same speed as the card you have now.