HL2 restarts my PC

[ScottyB]

Hello all

New to the boards as youve noticed - and unfortunately Ive had to come out of lurking to post a problem Im having with HL2.

As the title states, HL2, usually (but not always confined to) while loading an area in the game, will result in a clean restart of my PC. Id say maybe 1 in 3 loads. Occasionally it'll do it during the game, but mainly on loads.

After restart, I just get the standard, useless error message 'Your system has recovered from a serious error' - the 102 - which could be construed as graphics drivers? I have the latest and greatest from ATI in the form of their 4.12 Catalyst drivers.

Any help/comments/similar problems/etc much appreciated.

System specs are as follows:

P4 2.6
1 GB XMS Corsair 400 RAM
128MB 9800 Pro (4.12)
120GB SATA HDD


Thanks in advance.
Cheers,

Scotty

 

[niLeGreatFun]

Sounds like a Virus :S

 

[Maxi]

Sounds like it's overheating, or memory errors. Is your comp doing this in any other equally heavy 3d application?

 

[zenith10]

i know it sounds stupid but i had the same problem on bf1942 and ran dxdiag and put my sound to basic acceleration and it never happened again try that m8 might be it

 

[_Cronik_]

probably a ram problem, i had the same with my old cpu and changed my ram... btw an other problem appeared BUT... lol... anyway try to change your ram, just to test it...

 

[duffers20]

Sounds more like an over heating problem or memory to me. If you are using 2 modules of ram, try taking one out and testing with that, to see if you can narrow it down to a specific module. Also, what sort of cooling do you have in your case, as your motherboard will restart your pc if the CPU gets too hot. Make sure you have a good air flow through the case.

 

[Phisionary]

try memtest86+. it runs off of a floppy, CD, or bootable USB-key. Run it for a couple hours at least.

if you are overclocking, or think it may be heat-realated, use a util to check your temperatures when doing something processor intensive, or have it log temps while playing the game.

if it's not that, I dunno. :\

 

[OmegaX]

Most likely bad RAM

 

[Spoonoop]

I get that error, the so called "blue screen of death" but it only happends when I mess around with my wireless network and I figured out it was a bad driver.

 

[gweedodogg69]

It could be the dreaded...LOOPING thing. My OLD Nvidia card does it with the newest drivers, so I installed the one that was released before it and haven't had a problem. If you are having the looping thing, check for heating and stuff. I know mine isn't heat because my PC has 5 fans (+2 one for processor and 1 for video card which is uneccesarily large for it). I overclocked the card some, but that was after the new drivers wouldn't work. So check heat, memory, and then drivers.

 

[ScottyB]

Cheers ALL for the great replies

Ive done virus scans/spyware scans etc. Nothing. The PC Im using is rarely on the internet anyway.

Ive used Speedfan to monitor temps in the PC. They vary, but not by more than an acceptible few degrees while playing. Doom 3 and other games dont have this restart problem though.

This afternoon I ran memtest (for about 90minutes) and it turned up no errors. I might leave it running overnight or something to be sure though.

I played HL2 through this afternoon for quite a few hours. And in fact, finished the game without it restarting once. Yet, yesterday it must have done it 5 times. Also restarted during an online match (no load error that time).

Once again, thankyou for all your help. I am using dual RAM modules, so might isolate them one by one and play more.

Cheers,
Scotty

 

[ScottyB]

BTW, Merry Christmas to all