System crash

tj218 · #1 03-05-2011, 09:16 AM

My friend is having problems with EQ (and other games) at any random point his system will just restart. No error messages or anything.

This happens in other games besides EQ (Age of Empires 3), but it doesn't happen in Counterstrike: Source (something that would tax the video card) or surfing the net.

His laptop comp:
Dell Inspiron 9300
WinXP
Graphics: Geforce 6800 Go.

We first thought it was a heat problem...but the temp is fine. We have tried new gfx card drivers to no avail.

Any thoughts about where to start troubleshooting this?

Koota · #2 03-05-2011, 09:56 AM

With for sure ruling out the temperature issue, it could be quite a bit of things. The things I would probably check for first are:

The power supply. It could be going bad.
Some part of the power cord/battery is having issues.
Memory is going bad.
Motherboard Issues
Infected with a virus

Considering it's a laptop, I wouldn't necessarily advise you to open it up and reference some links on the web on what you'd need to do. Because that would just be asking for a disaster. I would however, go with tackling my last bullet there. Install Malwarebyte's program, and run it. Additionally, run a virus scan. This being a software route of troubleshooting is at least a start. If there is no improvements after doing that, I'd suggest having someone comfortable with laptops and their hardware take a look at the aforementioned bullet list, or take it to a repair place. All and all, if its the power supply, it could run him up to ~100$. The cord/battery will vary in price, but probably less than the power supply. Memory is going to be a bit more than the power supply, and the mobo is going to be a huge price range.

Hope this gives you some direction

tj218 · #3 03-05-2011, 10:18 AM

Thanks for the reply. We will try Malwarebytes

Any repair really is cost prohibitive (it's cheaper to build a new mid-end desktop)

I just find it weird it will run Counterstrike (a more graphic intensive game) for hours on end without problem. But EQ will reliably crash 5-10 minutes in, and Age 3 will crash randomly (usually within a half hour). Age of Kings (Age 2, circa 1999) will also cause the system crash and that is not graphic intensive at all....

My only thing I can guess at this point is the video card drivers, but even then it doesn't explain why Counterstrike runs w/o issues or streaming video works fine.