Hynkel

Join Date 02/2008

Sins makes computer turn off

When trying to play a LAN game, one of the computers turns off within .5-3 minutes. The same computer turns off everytime. No other game crashes with this computer. Call of Duty 4, among many other games, works flawlessly with this computer. The computer is about a month old. It has a dual core 2.66GHz processor, NVIDIA 8800GT, 2GB RAM. It is running Vista 32 bit. We have tried with the antivirus disabled, so this is surely not the problem. This problem did not occur with version 1.02, so I am inclined to think that it may have something to do with 1.04. We have uninstalled and reinstalled Sins with no change. Again, this problem only occurs when playing Sins and happens in the first few minutes of starting a game. The computer has been blown out to remove dust, and all components of the computer were checked to be sure they were in properly.
Is this heard of? Any idea how to fix this?

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turning off as in your power instantly shuts down when you play sins?

that sounds a lot like a damaged or too weak power supply.

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Its a 650W PSU. It does not crash when doing anything else.

And it actually goes through the whole vista shut down process. It does not simply turn off as if there was no longer power.

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you tried reinstalling the game? else it really sounds like a power problem or it might be a heat problem.

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yes already reinstalled. Fans are working, as is the PSU, like i said, how could that be the problem, the computer runs for hours playing many other games.
Even when the computer has first turned on, we try to play the game,yet there is the same problem.

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what happens if you play the game in window mode?

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Sounds like bad ram, I had a machine with a bad ram stick, would crash at random, sometimes not at all. I suggest taking out one of the sticks, and try playing it with one or the other. If you discover that its a ram stick then most company's have a good warranty program.

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RonLugge

Join Date 05/2004

+50

I don't know how to get to the control in vista, but make sure "Automatically Reboot" under "System Failure" is turned off -- its in startup and recovery, under computer -> properties -> advanced in XP.

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Okay, this is really wierd...

what happens if you play the game in window mode?

It worked...however, when we tried to make sure this was the problem, we played in full screen, and it worked then also.????

Sounds like bad ram, I had a machine with a bad ram stick, would crash at random, sometimes not at all.

In this case, it is random to an extent, this problem only occurs in Sins, so it is not completely random. If it were truely random, it would happen anytime with any program, wouldn't it?

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Hynkel,

Try running downloading and running the program memtest 86+ to check for memory errors.

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Hynkel, Try downloading and running the program memtest 86+ to check for memory errors.

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It could be the ram.
I play with a G15 and sins loads 95% into the ram on starting a game (2gb 1150 OCZ overclocked) and doesnt move past or below 95% all the way to the end of a huge map, so it could very well be read/write on the ram as it loads.
As Mystic said try memtest, if your good with computers do a google for Ultimate Boot CD, downlaod and burn that off and use that to do a memtest, should take a couple hours to run through.

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Double post ftl, couldn't even correct my typo :/

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We just ran the windows memory diagnostics. It found no errors.

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We just ran the windows memory diagnostics. It found no errors.

Run memorytest 86+ not windows memory diagnostics.

http://www.memtest.org/

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I know this sounds ignorant, but we couldn't figure it out.

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so it worked in window mode? cool, then you might have the "nvidia driver problem" as many other 7800 and random cards have as well.
A good friend of mine told me that the new 174.74 32bit drivers fixed it.
Let me know if this fixes the problem

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We are already using this driver

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RonLugge

Join Date 05/2004

+50

We just ran the windows memory diagnostics. It found no errors.

Correct me if I'm wrong (I've never used it before), but thats not memtest -- its a windows utility that runs while windows is booted.

Ergo, its no good for actually checking if your ram is good -- it can't check the entire stick. Why they included it with windows in that form I have no clue.

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Not exactly true.

Windows Memory Test

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Its a 650W PSU. It does not crash when doing anything else.And it actually goes through the whole vista shut down process. It does not simply turn off as if there was no longer power.

it still might be your PSU.
if the error only occurs playing sins then your other games don't eat up all your cpu / gpu and ram power like sins.

i would say that after startup and the first minutes ingame sins uses 100% of your cpu, 100% of your gpu loads up tons of ram and makes your disk sweat.
of course that depends on your visual and effect settings.

other games might not.
usually the cpu is unchallenged with typical gaming because 90% of the job is done by the gfx.

also check what Ron Lugge wrote.
if there really is such an automatic reboot option under vista then try shut it off and see what happens.

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We are using another computer that has the same hardware than the one we are having the problem with. Both are built identically, having the same PSU, CPU, GPU, RAM, etc. We have no problems with the other computer, one the one I have mentioned.

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yes, so it's pretty obvious you have a hardware issue on that computer.

i was reffereing to the psu as beeing damaged, not underpowered.
even if that's not the case - something clearly must be wrong.

computers don't just shut off when they're in the mood

last possible explenation that comes to my mind is a virus or trojan that fires off when sins is beeing run.

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RonLugge

Join Date 05/2004

+50

Bad motherboards can also produce intermittent failures like this. The sheer variety of things that can cause problems is shocking, sometimes... its why "diagnostics" like this are hard to do.

You said that you have a second machine, thats hardware is identical to the first? Try swapping parts around, and see if you still get the same issue.

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I guess when I get the chance next weekend I will swap parts between computers and isolate the problem, and if the problem continues then would that show it is a software problem?

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Like I've said, if it were a hardware problem, would this not happen with the dozens of other games that are played on this computer? Sins is hardly the only game that is played with this computer. We have played LAN games with many other games with no problems. I find it hard to believe that Sins is the only game that would cause hardware to fail.

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