If you are comfortable swapping hardware and the like why can you not figure out memtest?

Sure the machine are built identical, but is eveyrthing installed ont hem identical aswell?
Long story short, it could be software or hardware, thats what diagnosis is for. And Ironclad/Stardock will not replace the cd if it is proven to work on a machine as you have stated.. if you really want to iron out any other software then back up, format the computer install windows and fresh drivers and then just install and load sins nothing else.
If it still does it it is hardware and you will have to diagnose more or take it to a shop for troubleshooting.

The 2 possible reasons that are likely after software are allready stated, Memory and Power.
get Ultimate boot cd - http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ download the .iso image, burn it to a disk with Nero or something and restart your machine witht he disk in.. it is a bootable cd so will load up before windows starts.. just tell it to do memtest and sit and wait

It can also test your CPU and hard drives, do them all.
Then tell us what you find.

I know you have successfully ran Call of Duty and other latest games...but have you try running them recently? What if your computer was just fine, until recently something happen? Go play some other video card heavy game ONLINE OR LAN for an hour, see if it crashes.

The problem is your running vista.

Ok, lets try this again, which download should I get, there are about 50.

Just get the ultimate boot cd..
burn it to a disk and reboot your pc with it in..
It has memtest on it, it will load up like a bios screen and ask what you want to run.



If i remember it is on mainboard tools. there are 4-5 different memory tests, choose memtest86+ and just run it on default settings, this will take some time to run, and will halt on any errors.Might be worth running Prime also.

There is also some boot level anti-virus/malware programs on there, run them also to see if it finds anything (Can find stuff window sbased scanners can't)

Unless the hardware is EXACTLY identical all but gfx card, dvd/cdrom(though this can cause problems too) HDD, ram, PSU, and sound card(though if moving from machine WITH creative sound card to machine WITHOUT, this can also cause problems), IE: Same bios version, same CPU model, exactly the same mobo etc, it will almost certainly cause problems. And since its vista theres a pretty good chance it won't work too well if anything at all is different. XP is not AS picky about its drivers, but can be a bit anal at times as well.

That said, I wouldn't use that as a diagnostic step at all to begin with... start swapping out components, RAM, GFX card, try running with just 1 stick of ram if you have 2 installed.

Theres a literal plethora of things random shut downs could be... most of the time its a cooked PSU or a cooked windows install, but then theres a pile of other things it could be too. And yes, even though your playing other games, your PSU could be cooked. Sins when loading slams everything to the wall, and sucks more juice than any other game on the market is likely to. The only other one I can think of off hand that MIGHT come close is medieval 2: total war, when loading up a large battle. nothing else really comes close to throwing as much data at the computer as fast as sins does.

To give you an idea on the PSU btw, a 1 year old PSU thats been on 24/7 with heavy use will have an aproximate max load of 85-90% of what it could originally do, 2 years and its down to around 70-75%, 3 years and its usually cooked, or down to around 65%. These are general numbers of course, and actual performance will vary by brand name/model/pure luck. NOTE: Modular cable PSUs have a tendency to degrade even faster, they're down to the 85-90% mark after 6 months, max. This is not true for ALL modular PSUs, but it is true for most, which pisses me off b/c modular cables was the best thing I've seen in a long time :/. Also note that actual stock max wattage is usually +/-15 to 25% of stated/branded max, depending on brand name/model. Enermax has a good track record of generally going into the + side.

Want to hear something odd? The first time I installed Sins on my computer, and ran it, I got the blue screen of death. Then after trying to restart my computer, it could not find the hard drive??? After hours of trying to restart it, it finally "saw" the hard drive, and the computer started again. Out of paranoia, I tried starting/playing several of my other games, which all worked fine. Then I ran Ad-aware, Spy-Bot, and Nortons Antivirus, all which came up negative. So when I tried to play Sins again finally (crossing my fingers and flinching), I get TBSOD again??? But the computer did reboot right up. I tried registering my copy of Sins then, but was unable, so had to write tech support. They said they "fixed" it, and low and behold I could register my game. Then when I started it, it worked fine, with no BSOD, and I've NEVER had that problem since (or before, for that matter).

A friend of mine swears up and down it's all because of some copy protection program they use (he told me the name of it, but I forget what he said), but I thought Sins had no copy protection???

But anyway, no problem since (crosses fingers).

Sins has no copy protection, correct. So either your friend is paranoid (justified given most gaming companies behavior, see next option...) or he's thinking of another game, like BioShock (rootkit based DRM), Crysis (crippling disk DRM), etc etc etc.

There is no copy protection on the disk, or on the program. Merely teh requirement for a "CD Key", and you can install it to all of your own computers if you want.



And extremely odd. Technical support is usually pretty good about things like that.

Same here - except worse. I am almost certain it was the video card and SINS working together (NVidia, of course). I am also running Vista. What happened to me is that the game kept stalling, and then it would just pick right back up after the computer resolved whatever conflict there was. When I quit the game, I saw the NVidia error messages - there were several as the game stalled several times.

When I shut down my computer, that is the last time I saw it in that form. I tried to turn it on again in the morning, and it could never get to the OS again. The blue screen of death. So, I had to erase everything and reinstall Vista. Total PIA.

So, after reinstalling everything, I updated the NVidia driver - but not with the latest beta driver. That one tells me I am either running 64bit (which I am not), or tells me that it has "found no compatible drivers" for my OS. Regardless, the game still works in single player mode. Have never tried multiplayer. I still get the stalling in game - sometimes several stalls in a row, but the game never crashes, and my computer has never been screwed like the first time it happened - know on wood.

Anyway, the game is at least working for now, but I still get the stalls and error messages. SINS definitely pushes my computer to its limit - but it's worth it. Freaking great game, but if it caused a reboot, then that would suck. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. But I thought I would share my nightmare as well.

When I started this thread, my computer was turning off in the first couple minutes of the game every time I tried to play a LAN game...this has not happened since last weekend when it occurred about ten times. I have no idea what was causing it, I did not touch the hardware, but I'm not complaining.
We were able to get through about 3hrs 45mins of a Sins game with 6 people until I eventually got the mini dump that we have always been getting around this time. This has at least remained consistent.

I have an nvidia 8600GT and I will be honest with you I have researched sli and non sli mode for months and the nvidia latest drivers are terrible atm, the top notch cards are getting fixes but the budget ones arent. I know thats a bold statement but my friend has a top notch card and gets minimal problems and I had to use the NGO drivers to solve various bugs in games. (Thankfully thus far sins seems to be running fine though). Im actually into software development but still class myself as a newbie with lots to learn but I have also run memtest and lots of other things to verify memory is okay, also in games I have found the realtek HD audio drivers to be buggy and the cause of many problems , fact is tracking down the causes can be a major hassle and take a long long time with some of the more stubborn ones. I bought a new machine a few months back and am just starting to get acceptable all round stability now, the fact I play many games and apps I put the drivers through their paces and some of them still need work, just to mention and slightly offtopic I noticed the sins devs mentioned about the sync issue and stated words to the effect "if you have problem x,y and z its not your network , drivers etc. Thats the first time Ive seen a company not immediatly telling users they all have faulty hardware so I would try and get some more advice on these forums because other places will have you buying components that may not fix the issue )

I hope you get your problem fixed and I may be off the mark but honestly Ive had nothing but trouble from the most recent nvidia drivers and yes I can run the vast majority of my games flawlessy as well but nvidia drivers in the past were much more stable in my opinion.