Booting Out My XP Machine

[JackRussellTerror]

hi all.
HAVE HAD eeeNUFF !!!!!!
i built my present XP Desktop in 2006 (i can't live without it, BUT.....). Am at the stage now where i can't finish a tournament in here. This week at Quail i used up all my restarts, in an Arcade Event......3 restart penalties. My Desktop randomly reboots without warning......mostly only when playing Links. I installed new Corsair PSU and RAM last year. That solved the random reboots for a while, but now the problem is back.

i only use my PC Online for Links tournaments, Email, Dr. Google, Professor Google, Banking & eBAY on a Live Linux DVD at boot. So you can see (and as i'm on a restrictive budget), i don't need the latest wizz bang Gaming/Performance Desktop.

Was thinking of perhaps buying this Win 7 machine ($AUD). i5 CPU, 8Gb RAM, Integrated HD4600 Graphics, Win 7 Home Premium......
http://www.ddcomputer.com.au/prod-sys28-proddes_Intel_SOHO_4th-Gen_i5_PC_Intel_Core_i5-4590_3.3GHz_Quad_Core.html

what do you think ?
would i have any problems running Links on that rig with Integrated HD4600 (instead of a dedicated Graphics Cards) ?
Do i need Win 7 PRO ?
Does Links run on 64 bit Win 7 ?

thanks

[Armand]

Based on other people's experiences with Intel HD graphics and Links, I would add a dedicated graphics card to the machine from the options listed below it, or buy a system that has a dedicated video card already included. You may be able to get Intel graphics to work just fine, but I'm guessing you may have to drop the quality settings in Links a bit and even that might not work. For your other questions:

You don't need Win7 Pro.
Links runs fine on x64 (64-bit) operating systems.

I don't know your current configuration or exact symptoms, but does the Event Viewer indicate what the issues were when random reboots occur? You may wish to investigate that before purchasing a new system. I haven't played a game of Links on my nearly 12-yr old XP machine in about a year, but it has never given me troubles running Links. There might be something in the Event Viewer system or application logs that provides a hint to resolving the problems you're experiencing. It might not as well, but it's worth looking into if your computing needs are not too demanding.

If budget is tight, I might suggest a new hard drive. I upgraded my 7-yr old Vista laptop to Win7 a couple years ago and was experiencing random BSODs - not frequent, but any are too many - along with a few random reboots as well. I had hoped that re-formatting of my existing drive and re-installing Win7 and all software would help, but it didn't. I decided to buy a new hard drive, rather than toss the whole laptop and it now seems to work fine. I don't know if this would help your situation or not, but if you're reasonably content with your older system, this might help. If it doesn't help, then you'll have wasted the cost of the new drive plus the time to re-install the OS and other software and still have a malfunctioning computer.

[JackRussellTerror]

thank you VERY much for your extensive reply Armand

here is my XP Desktop's specs built in 2006, with a new Albatron IDE mainboard installed by computer shop in 2010.
1. CPU is an Intel Celeron D 330 2.66GHz. Socket 478.
2. 1Gb Corsair PC3200 DDR RAM. One stick.
3. Win XP 32 bit Service Pack 3 fully updated to April 2014.
4. Mainboard Albatron I915 Series
5. 350 watt Corsair PSU
6. Video Card: Nvidia GeForce FX5500, 256Mb.
7. HDD: 160Gb Western Digital WD1600AAJB Caviar. 64Gb Allocated in 2 Partitions. Purchased 2006.
8. DVD Burner Drive
9. Soundblaster PCI Card
10. Epson Printer
11. ADSL Internet. Realtek, Ethernet wired connection to LinkSys AM300 modem.

i take your point on getting a vid card if i purchased a new Desktop with Win 7.

trying a new ide HDD..........i don't really want to go down that track. I have actually done 2 clean reinstalls of Win XP and all my programs during the past month (thinking that it would clean out any lurking malware )

however, i finally located Event Viewer >>>>>>> right-click My Computer/Manage/click on Event Viewer in left pane.

Question: am i looking for "an Event" in Event Viewer (either in Application, Security or System) that occurs at exactly the same time, when my PC randomly reboots playing Links ?

thanks

[JackRussellTerror]

funny thing, just remembered something.......
When the PC reboots without warning, its nearly always whilst playing Links. The symptoms are: monitor screen suddenly goes black, the familiar post "beep" is heard at post, then nothing else happens.....it doesn't boot. The monitor's ON light goes from green to orange. I then have to press and hold for 4 seconds, the PC's ON button at the front of the tower to turn the PC off. Then i go make a coffee (or whatever), and come back 20 minutes later and turn the PC ON and it boots right into Desktop !

? ?

[gibby]

We mentioned some about the Intel here
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=10075&p=82812&hilit=nvidia#p82812
Think I spent about $350.00 for a Dell/Win 7 with keyboard and mouse then added the G210 card for $35.

[Armand]

Ideally, yes the event log would capture something at the time Links/your computer crashes. There may not be anything entered if there isn't a specific hardware or software malfunction/interrupt/conflict, though, and then you're back to square one.

Does dust/dirt in the PSU or case cause heat increases with your system? You may wish to run a utility like Speccy or CPUZ or GPUZ to monitor your hardware temperatures and see if they get too high to run.

It may be power fluctuations (high or low) from the wall. I know you bought a new PSU and I would think a bit of power fluctuations wouldn't cause an issue. I could easily be blowing smoke, but you might try changing the seeting in your BIOS to remain turned off after a power failure, rather than trying to reboot. If your computer then just turns off, it might suggest a power anomaly somewhere from your wall to your computer. If so, you could try an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) that hopefully you can borrow from work or a friend. A bit of a wild guess, though ....

[JackRussellTerror]

Does dust/dirt in the PSU or case cause heat increases with your system? You may wish to run a utility like Speccy or CPUZ or GPUZ to monitor your hardware temperatures and see if they get too high to run.

hi Armand, thanks for your fantastic input. You have given me some ideas........
the inside of my box is fairly clean and dust free......i regularly do clean the Celeron's HSF of dust etc.

i do indeed use HWMonitor.
The reason i installed a NEW PSU last year was that HWMonitor (and another monitor) were reporting 4volts on the 5v rail. Thinking THAT was the probable cause of my sudden reboots ('Power Good' signal withdrawn), i bought the new 350w Corsair PSU. BUT HWMonitor STILL reports 4v on the 5v rail, as can be seen in the pic taken this morning during an Arcade Links game. ALSO, the HWMonitor picture below, shows the CPU Temp at 62 degrees Celsius (143F) during Links game play this morning, and in a room with the temperature at around 13 degrees Celsius (53F ?).......a crisp Autumn morning at 8am.

During summer however, the CPU temperature in HWMonitor during Links game play is usually around 72 degrees Celsius (148F ?). I think that's way too hot ? Most of my random reboots in Links occur when the room temp is warm/hot.

this now makes me think that the CPU is overheating and there is a need for the Celeron's HSF to be removed and new thermal paste applied. Perhaps the paste that's on there now is worn. I could take the PC to a shop and let them renew the CPU's thermal paste (?)


Picture of HWMonitor taken this morning during Links Arcade game play in a cool/cold room. I completed that game with no reboots or crashes.......

UNTITLED.JPG (86.67 KB) Viewed 29509 times

thanks, regards
Rob

[Armand]

Rob,

I don't know if 65°C is too hot, but it might be for the hardware you have. I think it's obvious that cooler is better, though. I think my CPU gets up to almost 60°C when I play Perfect Golf, but I'm going to run CPUID to see what the maximum it gets to (Speed Fan was configured only to give me a chart). I'll let you know what it reaches.

For information, CPUZ tells me the max. temperature for my CPU is 100°C. I am going to use Speed Fan to monitor the CPU and GPU temps. I am using GPUZ to log my GPU temps; it runs at 74-77°C under near full load (the GPU fan runs at less than 60%). With my new computer, I do have the occasional crash when I play too many rounds of PG in a row without exiting the program. I believe it's a video issue, according to the Win 8.1 BSOD, but I am still trying to diagnose if it's the temperature or perhaps the driver that causes the BSOD. I'm using a non-Dell driver on this new Dell computer, so maybe that's an issue. You see, I have my issues as well. Thankfully, it hasn't been too problematic.

[JackRussellTerror]

but I am still trying to diagnose if it's the temperature or perhaps the driver that causes the BSOD.

hi,
i have made some (sort of) progress, regarding my rebooting problem. I now have a BSOD happening, WITH writing !
in XP's System Properties/Advanced/StartupAndRecovery/Settings i have unchecked Automatic Restart (under System Failure). I have just had another random reboot while playing Links this morning, but instead of a reboot, i was presented with a BSOD with all this white writing on it.........


the Message said: Error "Driver_IRQL_Not_Less_Or_Equal"
etc etc blah blah blah........
"beginning of memory dump"

is this a general error message or one that means something more sinister If/When the BSOD happens again, what should i be looking for in the message

thanks

[Armand]

Rob,

You can download a BSOD viewer so you don't really have to record anything. It will show you the BSOD and what caused the issue. It is available here:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

The BlueScreen Viewer should open and read all of the minidump files on your computer from BSODs. From the screen, you can right-click on the error and Google the issue directly (kind of handy, if you don't mind using Google).

I learned about this software from Tom's Hardware - http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-1653 ... ndows.html - after I searched for the error that you mentioned. There is more to the BSOD than just the IRQL error; it would give all details (in some code that I can't generally understand) of what occurred. With your error, it seems the problem comes down to a corrupt or incorrectly installed driver or possibly faulty hardware. The "easy" part in that is removing and re-installing the latest/oldest (?) drivers, you decide!

I stumbled across a forum where at least one person seemed to be able to diagnose and point people in the right direction.
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/ ... ual-error/

I'm not sure how much help I'm providing for you, but perhaps just talking it out will lead to some solutions. :dunno:

[Armand]

...BUT HWMonitor STILL reports 4v on the 5v rail, as can be seen in the pic taken this morning during an Arcade Links game. ALSO, the HWMonitor picture below, shows the CPU Temp at 62 degrees Celsius (143F) during Links game play this morning, and in a room with the temperature at around 13 degrees Celsius (53F ?).......a crisp Autumn morning at 8am.

During summer however, the CPU temperature in HWMonitor during Links game play is usually around 72 degrees Celsius (148F ?). I think that's way too hot ? Most of my random reboots in Links occur when the room temp is warm/hot....

I've been running HWMonitor for a couple of days now with the following results (I don't know if voltages or temperatures would be different with Win 8.1 vs. Win XP, but I wouldn't think so):

Clipboard01.jpg (94.4 KB) Viewed 29398 times

I would guess the low voltage is when my computer goes to sleep/hibernates.

[JackRussellTerror]

I'm not sure how much help I'm providing for you, but perhaps just talking it out will lead to some solutions. :dunno:

you have been most helpfull Armand
this afternoon, i pulled my nVidia card out and reverted back to the onboard motherboard graphics, installing the latest video drivers. THEN i uninstalled Microsoft NET Framework 4 - which i installed for some strange reason a month or so ago, and hadn't finished updating that program (NET Framework 4) with Windows Critical Updates.

rebooted, started Links, and played first round (only) of Ammy at Quail as a test run. The round went quick and without a hitch !

not counting my chickens yet, but it looks promising

i did run BlueScreen Viewer and 3 random reboots (while playing Links earlier this morning) showed a fault with NTosKrnl .

we'll see what happens playing Links tomorrow hey !

thanks....

[JackRussellTerror]

Based on other people's experiences with Intel HD graphics and Links, I would add a dedicated graphics card to the machine from the options listed below it, or buy a system that has a dedicated video card already included. You may be able to get Intel graphics to work just fine, but I'm guessing you may have to drop the quality settings in Links a bit and even that might not work. For your other questions:

You don't need Win7 Pro.
Links runs fine on x64 (64-bit) operating systems.

Hi Armand,
well, i ended up buying a new Win7 Home Premium 64 bit white box PC. An i5 4690 cpu, 8Gb RAM, onboard Intel HD 4600 grafics, 1Tb HDD, 550Watt PSU and this Gigabyte mainboard...... Gigabyte B85M-HD3 Ultra Durable.

Links2003 runs fantastic on it Redraws are almost instantaneous with grafics slider on full ! However, in Top View Cam, where i place the aiming marker, the marker doesn't show, and no ball flight movement (in Top View Cam). Love Win 7 !

would i need to install a dedicated video card ? i was thinking of a 2Gb nVidia GT730 to overcome the aiming marker problem in Top View Cam ? (have a 15pin VGA monitor connection).

thanks

[Armand]

Rob,

Congrats on the new purchase (I think). Hopefully, you aren't getting the random BSODs/restarts anymore with the new machine!

Most players with on-board Intel graphics suffer from some type of anomaly. I can almost guarantee (but not 100% positive) that a dedicated video card would resolve the top view issue. Or you could learn to play the game without the top view and save the money you would have spent on the graphics card.

Recall that if you are playing Elite (and is it Champ as well, or just Elite?), the ability to aim in the top camera is removed, but the ball flight should be shown. For Links (and Perfect Golf), I only use the top camera occasionally to see the hole layout - like the little books you sometimes are given or buy when playing real golf courses.

Your new system should be able to handle Perfect Golf (PG) reasonably well, too, if that was of any interest to you. The minimum and recommended specs for that game can be found here:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/288140
Although PG is in early access on Steam, I find it's very good considering the ±$20 USD price tag. There are only 7 courses available at the moment because their course designer (Course Forge, or CF) won't be released until the game is finalized. I'm hoping that is before the end of 2015, but that is a guess on my part. Andrew Jones (Mogulbasher), Mike Jones, Rehit , and many others from the Links 1.07 background are heading up that game.

Anyway, if you do purchase a new graphics card, keep in mind the potential new software/games that you might run in the next 5+ years (or whatever the life of that computer will be).

[JackRussellTerror]

Rob,

Congrats on the new purchase (I think). Hopefully, you aren't getting the random BSODs/restarts anymore with the new machine!

thanks Armand. The new toy is going great.........no random reboots or shut downs Love Win 7 too........

i'll persevere at the moment with no video card. The "no aiming marker problem" in Top View Cam is a minor inconvenience.

regards