problem when polayin games

[wiz kid]

here's my specs:

Case:COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel, SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
PSU:XCLIO XClio 450BL ATX 450W Power Supply 115/230 V UL, CUL, TUV, CB, VDE, FIMKO, DEMKO, NEMKO, SEMKO - Retail
mobo:ASUS A8N5X Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
CPU:AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 1GHz FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor - Retail
RAM:CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail
Optical drive:NEC Silver 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE DVD Burner - OEM
HDD:Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST380817AS 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM
OS:Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2 - OEM
GPU:AOpen 91.05210.45H Geforce 6800GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail


ok well heres my proplem. i got it up and running just fine, installed a few new games i got (Call of Duty 2, Civ. IV, and Age of Empires) i start civ 4 and start playin the tutorial, after a while the game just stops and closes and sends me to the desktop. would that be a problem with my game?also i tried playin the others and its the same thing.

also i bought a Logitech WingMan Cordless Rumblepad (from amazon.com) and when i put the CD in it goes through the installing process and on the last page it says the setup was interupped and that it couldnt install. i was thinkin i could just go to logitechs website and get the software from there (my uncle did it for our printer so i think it might be the same concept) would that work?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me out

[gtucker329]

The software from the logitech website would essentially be the same as what is on the disk. You may not have problems though. Definitley give it a try and see what happens.

As far as the game crashing do you have the most current drivers for your video card and updates for the game? If not I would update those first then try the game out. If you still have problems it could be hardware related.

[wiz kid]

would there be a way to check to see if i have the latest drives and stuff?

[gtucker329]

For the game the easiest place to look is the official website and look in the download section. It should list the patches/updates. The version of the game currently installed on your system can be found in several places. Usually on game startup the version is listed.

For the GPU, right-click on your desktop and select "properties". Then choose the settings tab and click on "Advanced", and a new window will come up. Choose the Adapter tab and click "Properties". A third window will come up. Choose the Driver tab and all the driver info for your GPU is displayed. Compare this with the Nvidia website to see if you have the latest driver.

[wiz kid]

i tried the video cards website and it didnt tell me anything about the driver version. i dont think its that anyways. i was tryin to play AOE a bit ago and it restarted the whole computer during the middle of my game. then while it was starting up it restarted a few more times. one time when it was startin up it got to the desktop then restarted again. help plz

[grievingexistence]

Try uninstalling your current video drivers and getting the latest Nvidia drivers http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_81.98.html

Might want to test your ram too with a bootable floppy or bootable cd http://www.memtest.org/

[wiz kid]

ok. now all i need is a modem. do modems need anything special (like the case and mobo are both ATX) or can u just put any modem in? is that the same for floppy drives? also any good brands for those two?