Need some help...

[Guest HepburnUGA]

Not sure which if this belongs here or in hardware, but I'll post here and trust it will be moved if need be.I'm having some new issues that cropped up with a reinstall of XP SP2. Last weekend, I reinstalled Windows XP Pro SP2, updated all drivers to the newest, reinstalled zonealarm, nod32 (virus scanner), fs9 and a few add-ons.I crank the PC up and it works great hour after hour. I loaded up FS9, and it was running smoothly when all of a sudden the PC completely powers off. I reboot, start over, and make it a bit farther when it happens again. My first thought is heat (although this has NEVER happened before) so I immediately go to my bios and check temps...48C CPU and 42C Mobo. That doesn't sound out of specs so I chalk it up a driver issue. I d/l and update the newest Mobo drivers, crank up FS9 and boom, it shuts down again after about 15 minutes.Anyone have any ideas?Here are my specs...P4 2.4 800Mhz FSB1GB crucial ram80GB SATA HD40GB IDE HDGeForce Fx5900 Fs9LDS 763Ultimate TerrainFE2004BevFSGS 38mNone of these are new except for BEV, but I can't imagine textures would cause a machine to completely power off...CTD seems more likely.Thanks!Jeff

[Guest firehawk44]

I have three suggestions:Have you checked the application event viewer to see if there were any error messages when your system shut down unexpectantly? Goto Administrative Services > Event Viewer and check for possible errors.Secondly, I hope you disabled your antivirus program during the reinstalls. Having your antivirus program operating while installing any program will create all kinds of problems.Lastly, it could be your memory modules - not seated properly, or going bad. Make sure your virtual memory is controlled by the system (system managed size) in the Performance Tab of System Properties.Ciao,Jim

[Guest kalas]

That does sound like a heat problem, most motherboards will shutdown when cpu or mb gets to hot.Have you tried any other games besides FS9? Also, do you have a windows temp monitor for mb or cpu? ALot of times after a shutdown or even a reset the cpu and mb will drop fast in temp. Maybe try running fs9 for about 10 minutes and go to desktop and check temps.

[Guest HepburnUGA]

Ok,I've ruled out heat and nothing is being written to the event log. One other thing I just thought of......I applied the following tweak to permanently assign FS9 to one of my virtual hyperthreaded processors...-------------------------------------------------An even better (permanent) way of constraining FS9 to run on a single virtual CPU on an HT CPU is using the Microsoft IMAGECFG utility (an older NT/2000 utility that works fine in XP -- do a google search). Command syntax (in a Command window):IMAGECFG -a 0x1 fs9.exe-------------------------------------------------Has anyone else used this on an XP SP2 installation? I will try and undo it (I think using Ox3 will set it to use both processors) and see if there is any difference.Thanks for the help!

[Cruachan 705]

Hi Jeff,If you can convince yourself that heat is not the issue I would next take a look at your PSU. Remember, the power supply powers the memory, and memory with inadequate power fails. And, of course, everything else from MB to HD rely on a stable power supply to function properly.Unfortunately the only way you can test is to install a replacement. Perhaps this would be the opportunity to justify the expenditure on acquiring a beefier high quality unit. Mike