Unknown problem!!

[Attakorn]

Hi,

Firstly let me list my specification:

CPU - Intel Pentium 4 2.4B
M/B - Aopen [sis650] MX46-533V i think
RAM - 256mb x2 DDR
H/D - 40GB x2
Sound card - Creative Sound Blaster Live! Value
VGA card - Spark GeForce Ti4200 128mb AGP 4x
Others - Firewire PCI, ASUS TV Tuner, Tornado 800 USB ADSL modem.
OS - WinXP SP1
VGA Driver - 56.72 (latest)
Sound card driver - latest
Windows Update - latest
DirectX - 9.0b

Ok. The problem is that there was a time i didn't play any games at all except Yugioh POC: YTD cuz i had exams and stuffs. Once they are all finished i installed GTA Vice City with the 'modern mod'. I tried playing it for around 5min and a blue screen appears and the only thing i could do is press the restart button.

I tried playing again and the same thing happens. However Yugioh POC: YTD is fine. So i tried installing and playing Deus Ex: Invisible War and yes, a similar blue screen appears (only 1 line which is different) after a few seconds of gameplay.

I noticed that the scan disk of windows only scans my Windows XP drive (my game drive is on another drive) when i'm entering the desktop cuz i pressed the restart button, so i tried installing both GTA and DX2 in WinME. However the same thing happens. Sometimes, in DX2, the computer just restarts. The driver of nVidia is 56.64 in WinME, which is also the latest.

So i thought it was my windows. So i ghosted my WinXP to the place where WinXP and my programs are installed (no games installed yet). I then installed both games but the same thing happens.

So i tried formatting my WinME drive and reinstalling WinME. I then installed both games and tried playing them but no change.

I then ghosted my WinME back to the place where WinME and my programs are just installed. Then i unplug my VGA card and used the on-board graphics chip (32mb shared). I then played GTA and this times it works! But Deus Ex is too powerful for the on-board chipset to run. So i plugged in my VGA card back and tried playing GTA. It works! So i tried Deus Ex, but it doesn't work. But this time, when the map is loading the loading screen appears for around 2 secs and everything goes black (HDD LED still beep but not continuous).

What's wrong??!!! I tried removing the firewire and tv tuner card and the ADSL modem too but same thing happens.

Thank you so much...

[Attakorn]

Hey the Deus Ex loading screen doesn't go blank but actually, the system just restarts when the map finishes loading. Sorry.

Thank you for helping, anyone.

[Morpher]

You said you formated and ghosted winXP and winMe back but did you format and reinstalled everything from the original disks? Also try going to run and type "chkdsk <drive>" (without the quotes) where <drive> means c: or d: (just an example), you can also add "/r" (without the quotes) to the command to check and repair bad sectores on the hd but in a big drive it will take a while.

[Attakorn]

Hi Morpher,

I don't hav any bad sectors. Thanks for the tip though. I don't quite get what you might by "did you format and reinstalled everything from the original disks?" I have 4 partitions. C: = WinME. D: = WinXP. E: = Data 1. F: = Data 2. What i did exactly was:
1. Ghost D: (WinXP) back to my ghost file. This point is where i just installed Windows XP and the other programs i use.
2. Installed Deus Ex + patch 1.2 and GTA Vice City with Modern Mod (in F: Data 2)
3. Tried playing. Both, blue screen appears.
4. Formatted drive C: (WinME).
5. Installed just WinME.
6. Same as no. 2.
7. Tried playing. GTA ok. Deus Ex auto restart.
8. Ghost drive C: (WinME) back to my ghost file. This point is where I just installed WinME and my programs that i use.
9. Same as no. 2.
10. Tried playing. GTA ok. Deus Ex freezes after 2 seconds when map loads. Sound repeats.

That should be clearer. I don't understand whats wrong. I thought it was hardware conflict but it isn't because i tried unplugging all devices except graphics card and sound card and tried using graphics renderer of my mainboard.

Anybody plz help me!!! Thank you.

[Morpher]

With "did you format and reinstalled everything from the original disks?" i mean if you did "format c:" and after that inserted your WinXP cd-rom and installed winXp from there

[Attakorn]

When i formatted drive C:, yes i installed windows ME from my cd. Then installed DX:IW.

[essexman]

i'm not to sure if it is this patch but there is a patch like this to fix problems with XP and direct 3d. i had to get it when i got GTA myself
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=516ac7c6-1704-4631-afcf-652154534800&DisplayLang=en

[Attakorn]

Hmm... I have already installed this patch cuz i have a problem with GTAIII as well... Thanks anyway.

P.S. NFS:Underground also has a blue-screen error.

[Attakorn]

Works fine now... thanx everyone... i downloaded an update from microsoft.com

Thanks