EQII causes unprovoked shutdown... ?!

[Criss]

<p>Hi guys,</p><p> Recently made the move from EQ1-EQ2 and been harrassed with a number of problems. I've had a decent glance @ the tech forums and where I can find similar problems, none match mine exactly...</p><p>Running Vista Home Ultimate, 64-bit edition (dont hate me!), Quad-Cpu @ 2.6ghz, Nvidia Geforce 8600GT 1024mb, 4gb RAM w/Creative Soundcard. Vista SP1 installed.</p><p>got the 3 EQ files running as admin, and it logs into the game fine - logs into the world fine...I can then play for anywhere from 5-20 minutes before my computer simply switches itself off, no warning, no error, just what seems to be a powercut. Only indication is when I start comp up I get the 'windows recovered from a serious error' and choice of SAFE/NORMAL OS boot. Power leads are all OK.</p><p>Assassins Creed, Gears of War, Crysis and other next-gen games all work absolutely fine, along with mem-intensive software like autocad / photoshop no prob whatsoever. Im also updated on pretty much everything....</p><p>Also im in the UK so SOE Support is...urm...questionable hehe - thanks in advance for the help <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> what a pain !</p><p>So..any ideas ?!</p><p>Cheers,</p><p>Chris</p>

[Wingrider01]

<cite>Criss wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Hi guys,</p><p> Recently made the move from EQ1-EQ2 and been harrassed with a number of problems. I've had a decent glance @ the tech forums and where I can find similar problems, none match mine exactly...</p><p>Running Vista Home Ultimate, 64-bit edition (dont hate me!), Quad-Cpu @ 2.6ghz, Nvidia Geforce 8600GT 1024mb, 4gb RAM w/Creative Soundcard. Vista SP1 installed.</p><p>got the 3 EQ files running as admin, and it logs into the game fine - logs into the world fine...I can then play for anywhere from 5-20 minutes before my computer simply switches itself off, no warning, no error, just what seems to be a powercut. Only indication is when I start comp up I get the 'windows recovered from a serious error' and choice of SAFE/NORMAL OS boot. Power leads are all OK.</p><p>Assassins Creed, Gears of War, Crysis and other next-gen games all work absolutely fine, along with mem-intensive software like autocad / photoshop no prob whatsoever. Im also updated on pretty much everything....</p><p>Also im in the UK so SOE Support is...urm...questionable hehe - thanks in advance for the help <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />" width="15" height="15" /> what a pain !</p><p>So..any ideas ?!</p><p>Cheers,</p><p>Chris</p></blockquote><p>From your description of the issue, it sounds like something is overheating and the box it shutting down to protect itself. The Windows recovered message is shown because it is going shutting down hard and not a controled shutdown. EQ2 pushes a box fairly hard on all facets of the system. Gut feeling is that the processor fan or video card fan might be clogged with killer dust bunnies.</p><p>Might want to pull the side cover off the machine and give it a clean up, and at teh same time verify that the fans are running correclty.</p>

[Bloodfa]

Sounds like heat.  <a href="http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php</a> Try cranking the fans to max, or running with the case open, as suggested above.  If that fixes it, you'll know.  Also, the EVGA website has a graphics card tool that lets you tweak the cards settings.  Turning cooling to max on the card might also help.

[TSR-TrevorG]

Great suggestions, I have nothing more to add!

[EnderBeta]

<p>I agree your CPU (s) are probably overheating or if you over clock not totally stable.</p><p>Every now and then my over clocked desktop will crash out like that when its doing several things at once that are intensive. My machine with two monitors can play WoW and EQ 2 at the same time and keep the frame rate for both above 24 fps. However after about thirty minutes of this the machine crashes hard and reboots. lol thankfully I'm not in the habit of playing both at the same time unless I'm using one as a glorified chat room to talk with a friend, but usually we just use xfire.</p><p>Any who, it sounds like you need to get the cooling system of your machine checked out. Is this an OEM computer or did you build it. Check to make sure your air flow is not obstructed. Make sure the ambient temperature is not overly warm. If your case supports it consider additional intake and outtake fans to help get the hot air out and cool air in.</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

Are you getting any type of visible artifacts before the crash?  If the images start to distort shortly before the crash then it is very likely a heat problem like others have mentioned.  The power supply could also be causing the problem.  Did you recently upgrade any part of your computer?  If so, the new component may be using up more power than your computer is capable of supplying.Let us know if there's any update.

[EnderBeta]

<cite>TSR-DanielH wrote:</cite><blockquote>The power supply could also be causing the problem.  Did you recently upgrade any part of your computer?  If so, the new component may be using up more power than your computer is capable of supplying.</blockquote>That is a good point. And it is not just the total combined wattage of your power supply but also how much watts per rail. If your graphics card requires additional power then its slot provides I suggest using it's own seperate power rail (ie cord coming from the psu) if possible.

[Criss]

<p>Awesome stuff, thanks for the feedback, </p><p>No change to the setup been made, its how I bought it ( the comp ) - ...and it does need a clean. No visible residual anythin on the monitor - just goes clean off. Have had EQ setting on very high - will turn them down too</p><p>So i'll get to that and get back here, hopefully with good news ! <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p> Thanks again</p>

[Criss]

<p>...opened up the computer. Motherboards Fan was massively clogged - to the point where it was failing to move.</p><p> All cleaned now and EQ ran for 5+ hours no fail, max graphic settings, comp performance marked improvement all over</p><p> Guess I wont be making that mistake again...hehe</p><p> Thanks again !!</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<cite>Criss wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>...opened up the computer. Motherboards Fan was massively clogged - to the point where it was failing to move.</p><p> All cleaned now and EQ ran for 5+ hours no fail, max graphic settings, comp performance marked improvement all over</p><p> Guess I wont be making that mistake again...hehe</p><p> Thanks again !!</p></blockquote>Glad to hear that its working for you now.I lost a graphics card that way once.  Didn't realize the fan on the card got clogged.  At least you found it before there was any real damage

[Wingrider01]

<cite>Criss wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>...opened up the computer. Motherboards Fan was massively clogged - to the point where it was failing to move.</p><p> All cleaned now and EQ ran for 5+ hours no fail, max graphic settings, comp performance marked improvement all over</p><p> Guess I wont be making that mistake again...hehe</p><p> Thanks again !!</p></blockquote><p>Killer dust bunnies! The need to put in a epic x4 in the game by that name, they have killed more players then VS, Mage P'Tasa, Ire and Malice combined.</p><p>A good weekly regime is</p><p>1. Spyware scan</p><p>2. adware scan</p><p>3. AV scan</p><p>4. defrag</p><p>5. killer dust bunnie hunt</p><p>Glad to see you got it working again.</p>

[EnderBeta]

Lets take a moment and give thanks to the engineers that put thermal sensors in their devices to protect them from heat.

[TSR-TrevorG]

Amen