Getting booted out of games

I dont know if this is the right place to post this or not ....But here it go`s ....

I have a 733 mhz cpu.Win98se.8megs of video ...its onboard .....

The problem is when I am playing games after a bit it will boot me out of the game and back to the desk top ....I have tried everything I can think of to fix this but nothing seems to help ....If anyone can think of anything at all I am willing to try it ....

Thanks Shaman36

 

OK. First of all, what kind of games are we talking about. Are they high end graphics hogs? If so, then that 8MB onboard video isn't gonna cut it.

I am pretty sure that when a game runs out of video memory, it will use the RAM Memory for caching. Then if it runs out of RAM too, I think it will try to use the hard drive as well. If it does do that, & there isn't enough hard drive space to utilize, it would shut down, or freeze up. How big is your C drive, and do you have enough unused space on the C drive so the game can utilize it if necessary?

I am not absolutely certain that some of what I said above is correct, but I do know that when I enlarged my daughter's C Primary awhile back her game problem went away.

About a month ago my daughter was having problems with a game running on her computer. It would run for awhile, & then freeze the computer. She has 700Mhz, a 32MB Video card & 256MB of RAM, & it was still doing it. I went over to try to solve the problem. The system requirements on the game did not seem like it should have a problem, but it did, so I re-sized her C drive Primary partition, and the game ran fine after that.

In your situation of having onboard Video Memory, solving the problem may be difficult, if that is what the problem is.

 

I have a 10 gig hd and only have 2.75 used on it ...I have 256 ram The games i am talking about are Star trek empiores at war and star trek new worlds ......

 

I should have asked this before, but didn't.

Were you ever able to run these games satisfactorily on this machine, or did this happen right from the get-go after installing them? It could be a Windows resource problem somewhere if you were ever able to run these games satisfactorily at any time. Such as too many programs running in the background while you are trying to play the game.

Check in msconfig, & see how many things are running in the background that you can disable from loading on start up. You can disable a lot more stuff than you might think without causing problems.

Start\Run. Type in msconfig. Click the start -up tab. Take note of what programs the entries refer to, and if they can be disabled, do so. Such as graphics progs, office progs, task monitor, still image monitor, chat progs, printer entries, scanner entries, & probably a few others, but not your Firewall, Anti-virus entries, and entries that pertain to the crucial employment of the Operating System. Then re-boot. If this doesn't help post back.
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Check the games Sytem Requirements. Most games will specify how much RAM memory you should have to run them, & usually a reccommended amount of double that, but most will not specify how much Video Memory you should have to run them. Your RAM memory should be adequate, and so should the unused space on your hard drive.

High end graphics games require a lot more Video Memory, but if you were able to run them at one time & can't now, then that would suggest another problem.

I think there are ways to disable your onboard memory, & then install a separate bigger Video card, but I don't know how to do that. I have separate Audio & Video cards to begin with. If that becomes necessary, maybe someone else can give you a one-up on how to do that.

 

Have taken your post

I have done what you said to do and still have the same problem...I have played the games on a dif computer and it works fine...But on this new computer it isnt working right ....What else can I do ?

 

OK. I am not a computer Guru by any means. The things I suggest to people are derived from my own personal experiences. They are just that. Suggestions. Computers are strange critters. What works for one person, may not work for another, even on the same Operating System, or even identical computers. That's just the way it is with these contraptions.

What are the specs of the computer the games do work on? Does it have more Video Card memory, or a bigger CPU, or more RAM memory, than the one they don't work on. Any one, or maybe all of those.

Compare the two computers specifications, & if they are basically the same in those critical areas, then the only thing I can think of would be to un-install the games thoroughly from off the hard drive, & out of the registry, & re-install them. Sometimes an installation can get corrupted during the installation, however it is not likely it would happen to both games. Maybe it only happened to one, but is affecting both.

If you go the un-install & re-install route. Un-install the games through Add\Remove, then delete leftover folders on the hard drive for those programs, if there are any. Then Optimize your hard drive first before re-installing, by doing a Thorough Scandisk & Defrag. I always do that before installing programs. Especially big complicated ones.

If you are not familiar with the registry, trying to edit it manually is a very tricky situation, so I would suggest using a good Registry editing program after the un-installs, & before the re-installs. I have used the following beta version of EasyCleaner 2.0 for several months now, & it does a good job. http://www.toniarts.com/betas.htm . Scroll down the page a little for EasyCleaner 2.0 beta, & the download links. The only thing I use it for is cleaning the registry, and I've never had problems to arrise from deleting all of the entries it found that were leftover from either moving files, deleting files, or un-installing programs. However, it is a good idea to back up the registry before doing this, even though you can set EasyCleaner to back-up the files you delete for restoring if necessary. I never use any of EasyCleaner's other features, but it's free, so it is worth the price. It is also a stand alone program, which means you can run it from anywhere on your hard drive. It does not install to the operating system. At least mine didn't, & I don't think Toni has changed that. If you haven't been using any kind of registry cleaner, then even on a new computer where you have installed a lot of programs, & haven't un-installed very many, there will still usually be a lot of invalid entries pointing nowhere. This slows the Operating System down.
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If the specifications of the two computers are a lot different, with the one they work on having more Video Memory, RAM memory, or CPU speed, then you probably will have to upgrade some component. My guess is you would have to upgrade the Video Memory somehow. I recently installed a graphics program that was giving me response problems, even with my 512MB of RAM & it being installed on a Primary partition that was strictly for graphics work. I had an 8MB Video card. I upgraded my Video card to a 64MB one, & that program works much better now. Upgrading mine was simple. Pull out the old, put in the new, and install the drivers for it. With your onboard one, it won't be quite that easy, if that's what you have to wind up doing, but it can be done, so I've read.

I would welcome any other input for this from anyone else who wants to jump in here. I know there has got to be something I haven't thought of. Maybe a bunch of things.

Sorry this is so long again. Please post back good or bad.

 

I'm not a gamer so can't help with the in 'n out of the subject.

Only one comment.

I noticed when I go to windows update with my XP system, there is an update available for getting kicked out of games. I didn't even read the blurb on it but here's a thought. Maybe windows update for windows 98se has the same? You might give it a shot anyway.

 

Thanks

Thanks Del for all your help ....I think I need to Get a new Video card ...Sometimes onboard video isnt all that it is cracked up to be ...Again thank you ...


Bill

 

Shaman36: I'm not a gamer, so I didn't notice your thread until just now. The reason I noticed it now is that an hour ago I saw the same Windows Update notice that Bmoore1129 referred to and I thought of the same thing. Have you checked it out? Does it apply to you? Some particular games are listed, by the way.

Please get back to us so we'll know whether the suggestion does or doesn't apply, or if it does or does not solve your problem.