Vista Reboots when a game is launched

OS: Windows Vista 32.
CPU: INTEL Core 2 Duo (E6600)
RAM: 4x1GB (4GB) Kingston KVR800D2N5K2
MOBO: INTEL DG965WH
CARD: Sapphire X1950XT 256MB GDDR3
DRIVER: 7-1_vista32_dd_ccc_enu_41241
ISSUE: Computer Hangs & Reboots
MONITORS: DUAL Samsung 204BW 20" Screens
MONITOR SETTING: Extended Desktop
-------------------------------------

No matter what Game I run, Company of Heroes, Battlefield 2, even old games
like Asheron's Call, the computer will show garbled graphics for about 3
seconds, then the screens go black and my computer reboots.

I can get it to work, properly. Every time I turn on my computer, I have to
re-install the ATI driver from scratch (choose to overwrite existing driver).
After the install, I can play games no problem.

This is frustrating and I'm sure it has a lot to do with Vista and not my
graphics card, because IMO Vista is not stable. If you have an insight,
please advise.

In article <10296B56-F869-45B5-8A2C->,
acidbox says...
> OS: Windows Vista 32.
> CPU: INTEL Core 2 Duo (E6600)
> RAM: 4x1GB (4GB) Kingston KVR800D2N5K2
> MOBO: INTEL DG965WH
> CARD: Sapphire X1950XT 256MB GDDR3
> DRIVER: 7-1_vista32_dd_ccc_enu_41241
> ISSUE: Computer Hangs & Reboots
> MONITORS: DUAL Samsung 204BW 20" Screens
> MONITOR SETTING: Extended Desktop
> -------------------------------------
>
> No matter what Game I run, Company of Heroes, Battlefield 2, even old games
> like Asheron's Call, the computer will show garbled graphics for about 3
> seconds, then the screens go black and my computer reboots.
>
> I can get it to work, properly. Every time I turn on my computer, I have to
> re-install the ATI driver from scratch (choose to overwrite existing driver).
> After the install, I can play games no problem.
>
> This is frustrating and I'm sure it has a lot to do with Vista and not my
> graphics card, because IMO Vista is not stable. If you have an insight,
> please advise.
>
Firstly try pulling out 1GB RAM and see if that solves it. Secondly,
you don't mention what your PSU is rated at.


--
Conor

Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright
until you hear them speak.........

"Conor" wrote:

> In article <10296B56-F869-45B5-8A2C->,
> acidbox says...
> > OS: Windows Vista 32.
> > CPU: INTEL Core 2 Duo (E6600)
> > RAM: 4x1GB (4GB) Kingston KVR800D2N5K2
> > MOBO: INTEL DG965WH
> > CARD: Sapphire X1950XT 256MB GDDR3
> > DRIVER: 7-1_vista32_dd_ccc_enu_41241
> > ISSUE: Computer Hangs & Reboots
> > MONITORS: DUAL Samsung 204BW 20" Screens
> > MONITOR SETTING: Extended Desktop
> > -------------------------------------
> >
> > No matter what Game I run, Company of Heroes, Battlefield 2, even old games
> > like Asheron's Call, the computer will show garbled graphics for about 3
> > seconds, then the screens go black and my computer reboots.
> >
> > I can get it to work, properly. Every time I turn on my computer, I have to
> > re-install the ATI driver from scratch (choose to overwrite existing driver).
> > After the install, I can play games no problem.
> >
> > This is frustrating and I'm sure it has a lot to do with Vista and not my
> > graphics card, because IMO Vista is not stable. If you have an insight,
> > please advise.
> >
> Firstly try pulling out 1GB RAM and see if that solves it. Secondly,
> you don't mention what your PSU is rated at.
>
>
> --
> Conor
>
> Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright
> until you hear them speak.........
>

PSU is a Corsair 620 watt nVidia SLI certified. 3 12V rails @ 18AMPs. my
ram is dual channel so I'd have to pull out 2 gigs of ram. I shouldn't have
to do this?

Well, I have the X1900XTX and I play BF 1942\ 2 \ 2142, FEAR, Warcraft3,
Doom3, FarCry, The Sims life story, HL2. So I wouldn't say it's completely
Vista's fault or ATI's at this moment.

I see that you're running dual monitors, have you tried with running just
one ? I have a dual monitor config going as well, so it should work.

Have you checked your DEP settings to make sure it's set to Essintal
programs only, Have you tried turning off your firewall, Windows Defender
and User access control ?
Disabling any anti-virus programs ?

What do you have going for your sound card ? Tried pulling or disabling it ?

I find Vista to be faiely stable, just fairly picky and at the moment, a tab
cubersome.


"acidbox" <> wrote in message
news:10296B56-F869-45B5-8A2C-...
> OS: Windows Vista 32.
> CPU: INTEL Core 2 Duo (E6600)
> RAM: 4x1GB (4GB) Kingston KVR800D2N5K2
> MOBO: INTEL DG965WH
> CARD: Sapphire X1950XT 256MB GDDR3
> DRIVER: 7-1_vista32_dd_ccc_enu_41241
> ISSUE: Computer Hangs & Reboots
> MONITORS: DUAL Samsung 204BW 20" Screens
> MONITOR SETTING: Extended Desktop
> -------------------------------------
>
> No matter what Game I run, Company of Heroes, Battlefield 2, even old
> games
> like Asheron's Call, the computer will show garbled graphics for about 3
> seconds, then the screens go black and my computer reboots.
>
> I can get it to work, properly. Every time I turn on my computer, I have
> to
> re-install the ATI driver from scratch (choose to overwrite existing
> driver).
> After the install, I can play games no problem.
>
> This is frustrating and I'm sure it has a lot to do with Vista and not my
> graphics card, because IMO Vista is not stable. If you have an insight,
> please advise.

"acidbox" <> wrote in message
news:E6FEEB5E-2157-4C90-B0EB-...

> my
> ram is dual channel so I'd have to pull out 2 gigs of ram. I shouldn't
> have
> to do this?

It's a quick way to rule out a memory problem.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User.
http://www.windowsresource.net/

*Remove nospam. to reply by e-mail*

Why shouldn't you?

One of the basics of computer troubleshooting is test the hardware before
blaming the software.

So what's so wrong about systematically ruling out what is causing the
issue?

Also what does it being dual channel have to do with how many sticks you
run?

You can run 1, 2, 3, or 4 sticks in that rig. It will automatically switch
being dual and single channel modes depending upon what memory you have in
which slots.

I would say that the odds are in favor of you having at least one bad stick
or that PSU isn't working properly.

I've never seen consistent reboots of the kind you're describing ever being
the fault of the OS, and I've been doing this for a very long time.

If you need any more pointers or info please ask


"acidbox" <> wrote in message
news:E6FEEB5E-2157-4C90-B0EB-...
>
>
> "Conor" wrote:
>
>> In article <10296B56-F869-45B5-8A2C->,
>> acidbox says...
>> > OS: Windows Vista 32.
>> > CPU: INTEL Core 2 Duo (E6600)
>> > RAM: 4x1GB (4GB) Kingston KVR800D2N5K2
>> > MOBO: INTEL DG965WH
>> > CARD: Sapphire X1950XT 256MB GDDR3
>> > DRIVER: 7-1_vista32_dd_ccc_enu_41241
>> > ISSUE: Computer Hangs & Reboots
>> > MONITORS: DUAL Samsung 204BW 20" Screens
>> > MONITOR SETTING: Extended Desktop
>> > -------------------------------------
>> >
>> > No matter what Game I run, Company of Heroes, Battlefield 2, even old
>> > games
>> > like Asheron's Call, the computer will show garbled graphics for about
>> > 3
>> > seconds, then the screens go black and my computer reboots.
>> >
>> > I can get it to work, properly. Every time I turn on my computer, I
>> > have to
>> > re-install the ATI driver from scratch (choose to overwrite existing
>> > driver).
>> > After the install, I can play games no problem.
>> >
>> > This is frustrating and I'm sure it has a lot to do with Vista and not
>> > my
>> > graphics card, because IMO Vista is not stable. If you have an
>> > insight,
>> > please advise.
>> >
>> Firstly try pulling out 1GB RAM and see if that solves it. Secondly,
>> you don't mention what your PSU is rated at.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Conor
>>
>> Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright
>> until you hear them speak.........
>>
>
> PSU is a Corsair 620 watt nVidia SLI certified. 3 12V rails @ 18AMPs.
> my
> ram is dual channel so I'd have to pull out 2 gigs of ram. I shouldn't
> have
> to do this?

"Shane Nokes" wrote:

> I would say that the odds are in favor of you having at least one bad stick
> or that PSU isn't working properly.

I'm not so sure about that. I can boot up and it won't work. However if I
install the ATI drivers again when I first boot up. I could play games all
day long or any other 3D intensive application with no hiccups whatsoever.

So in any event, I took out 2GB of RAM and it does the same thing. No
change. So I put the 2GB of RAM back in to the system.

The fact that it only screws up if I don't install the ATI drivers again
would indicate that something is getting screwed up in the configuration or
something. Maybe some security setting? I've had the issue before where an
application worked but not properly until I had to "Run as Administrator".
Maybe when I install the drivers, one of the 500 pop-ups I have to click to
allow it to install is opening some security channel that gets reset each
time I reboot?

The sound card is an on-board soundcard. I did update the drivers from the
Intel website to the latest Vista drivers when I first got it. I also
flashed the Motherboard BIOS to the latest version as soon as I got it.

"Dale M. White" wrote:

> Well, I have the X1900XTX and I play BF 1942\ 2 \ 2142, FEAR, Warcraft3,
> Doom3, FarCry, The Sims life story, HL2. So I wouldn't say it's completely
> Vista's fault or ATI's at this moment.
>
> I see that you're running dual monitors, have you tried with running just
> one ? I have a dual monitor config going as well, so it should work.
>
> Have you checked your DEP settings to make sure it's set to Essintal
> programs only, Have you tried turning off your firewall, Windows Defender
> and User access control ?
> Disabling any anti-virus programs ?
>
> What do you have going for your sound card ? Tried pulling or disabling it ?
>
> I find Vista to be faiely stable, just fairly picky and at the moment, a tab
> cubersome.
>
>
> "acidbox" <> wrote in message
> news:10296B56-F869-45B5-8A2C-...
> > OS: Windows Vista 32.
> > CPU: INTEL Core 2 Duo (E6600)
> > RAM: 4x1GB (4GB) Kingston KVR800D2N5K2
> > MOBO: INTEL DG965WH
> > CARD: Sapphire X1950XT 256MB GDDR3
> > DRIVER: 7-1_vista32_dd_ccc_enu_41241
> > ISSUE: Computer Hangs & Reboots
> > MONITORS: DUAL Samsung 204BW 20" Screens
> > MONITOR SETTING: Extended Desktop
> > -------------------------------------
> >
> > No matter what Game I run, Company of Heroes, Battlefield 2, even old
> > games
> > like Asheron's Call, the computer will show garbled graphics for about 3
> > seconds, then the screens go black and my computer reboots.
> >
> > I can get it to work, properly. Every time I turn on my computer, I have
> > to
> > re-install the ATI driver from scratch (choose to overwrite existing
> > driver).
> > After the install, I can play games no problem.
> >
> > This is frustrating and I'm sure it has a lot to do with Vista and not my
> > graphics card, because IMO Vista is not stable. If you have an insight,
> > please advise.
>
>

Ok. Normally most BIOSes let you disable the on-board sound card.

Have you tried running 3dMark06 ? I mention it, because it doesn't have any
sound involved and it's a typical game, but it is pretty demanding. You can
get it at www.futuremark.com


"acidbox" <> wrote in message
news:8C2E2091-6C40-47DD-ABD5-...
> The sound card is an on-board soundcard. I did update the drivers from the
> Intel website to the latest Vista drivers when I first got it. I also
> flashed the Motherboard BIOS to the latest version as soon as I got it.
>
> "Dale M. White" wrote:
>
>> Well, I have the X1900XTX and I play BF 1942\ 2 \ 2142, FEAR, Warcraft3,
>> Doom3, FarCry, The Sims life story, HL2. So I wouldn't say it's
>> completely
>> Vista's fault or ATI's at this moment.
>>
>> I see that you're running dual monitors, have you tried with running just
>> one ? I have a dual monitor config going as well, so it should work.
>>
>> Have you checked your DEP settings to make sure it's set to Essintal
>> programs only, Have you tried turning off your firewall, Windows Defender
>> and User access control ?
>> Disabling any anti-virus programs ?
>>
>> What do you have going for your sound card ? Tried pulling or disabling
>> it ?
>>
>> I find Vista to be faiely stable, just fairly picky and at the moment, a
>> tab
>> cubersome.
>>
>>
>> "acidbox" <> wrote in message
>> news:10296B56-F869-45B5-8A2C-...
>> > OS: Windows Vista 32.
>> > CPU: INTEL Core 2 Duo (E6600)
>> > RAM: 4x1GB (4GB) Kingston KVR800D2N5K2
>> > MOBO: INTEL DG965WH
>> > CARD: Sapphire X1950XT 256MB GDDR3
>> > DRIVER: 7-1_vista32_dd_ccc_enu_41241
>> > ISSUE: Computer Hangs & Reboots
>> > MONITORS: DUAL Samsung 204BW 20" Screens
>> > MONITOR SETTING: Extended Desktop
>> > -------------------------------------
>> >
>> > No matter what Game I run, Company of Heroes, Battlefield 2, even old
>> > games
>> > like Asheron's Call, the computer will show garbled graphics for about
>> > 3
>> > seconds, then the screens go black and my computer reboots.
>> >
>> > I can get it to work, properly. Every time I turn on my computer, I
>> > have
>> > to
>> > re-install the ATI driver from scratch (choose to overwrite existing
>> > driver).
>> > After the install, I can play games no problem.
>> >
>> > This is frustrating and I'm sure it has a lot to do with Vista and not
>> > my
>> > graphics card, because IMO Vista is not stable. If you have an
>> > insight,
>> > please advise.
>>
>>

Ahhh, should have read this post first.

I would agree, sounds like something is unhappy in your config. When you
first boot, does it come up with the Windows WDDM driver instead of the ATI
?

Have you tried pulling the ATI drivers out altogether, and then using
something like nasty file remover to remove any traces of those drivers ?

I had a problem getting FRAPS and SANDRA to install correctly, turns out I
had somehow turned on DEP to run on all programs, instead of essential
services only. Once I set it back to the default, they installed and ran
correctly


"acidbox" <> wrote in message
news:C80E12A2-7A98-4212-871D-...
> "Shane Nokes" wrote:
>
>> I would say that the odds are in favor of you having at least one bad
>> stick
>> or that PSU isn't working properly.
>
> I'm not so sure about that. I can boot up and it won't work. However if
> I
> install the ATI drivers again when I first boot up. I could play games all
> day long or any other 3D intensive application with no hiccups whatsoever.
>
> So in any event, I took out 2GB of RAM and it does the same thing. No
> change. So I put the 2GB of RAM back in to the system.
>
> The fact that it only screws up if I don't install the ATI drivers again
> would indicate that something is getting screwed up in the configuration
> or
> something. Maybe some security setting? I've had the issue before where
> an
> application worked but not properly until I had to "Run as Administrator".
> Maybe when I install the drivers, one of the 500 pop-ups I have to click
> to
> allow it to install is opening some security channel that gets reset each
> time I reboot?