Defcon causes spontaneous system resets........

[broadcloak]

The game loads fine, I can log into a game no problem, but once the match actually starts, the game will inevitably at some random time, cause my entire system to reset. I've got all the system specs I need to run the game (1800Ghz, 512 RAM, Radeon 9200) , I've tried updating my video drivers, sound drivers, and still it keeps doing it. And this is the only game it happens on. Any ideas?

[Weps]

'spontaneous' system resets often are caused by one or more components overheating.

What are the other games you play?

[xander]

...1800Ghz...

Damn, that's pretty fast, there.

When Defcon is started, it creates a file called debug.txt. If Defcon is the problem, and not the computer overheating, or something, debug.txt should help us narrow down the issue. The next time your system crashes, could you post the debug log?

xander

[Ace Rimmer]

I'd have to agree with Weps, from the very little information given, sounds like overheating. Even if its not, it might be a good idea to clean out the dust bunnies and make sure your heat sink fan is still working (properly). ATI 9200 and (presumably) 1.8Ghz proc with random resets during Defcon sounds like an old PC filled to the brim with fuzz and dust and worn out fans getting too hot. System shutdown/resets are a good way to keep that processor from buring up and dieing.

I have a pretty efficiently cooled PC that I put together and when Defcon is running, it puts out a noticeably increased amount of heat.

[Rogviler]

...when Defcon is running, it puts out a noticeably increased amount of heat.

I second that. I use a laptop with fans that only come on when it gets hot and Defcon usually makes them run all the time, sometimes even going into overdrive, which nothing else seems to do. Even Halo, the only 3D game I can manage to get it to take, doesn't affect it like that.

There's just a lot of stuff for the game to keep track of, and it seems like a majority goes to the processor, especially if you have little or no video card.

Everyone's right, definitely clean it out. Canned air is the best or a soft brush with NATURAL bristles and along those lines- don't use a vacuum cleaner. Static is bad for computers. I lost some RAM that way once.

That being said, the only time a similar crash happened to me, it was a crash related to the internet connection. It bluescreened for about half a second, so I didn't get any details, but that might be another thing to try to rule out. I haven't been able to reproduce it, but it happened when I was hosting a threeway with one spectator.

I'd vote for heat though. Open the case and put a fan blowing on it, if it still does it, then it's something else.

Good luck.

-Rog

[broadcloak]

Well it seems like overheating may have been the problem. I didn't realise that Defcon was by default set to the highest possible resulution, which I don't usually use on other games, so I'm guessing that was causing the system to overheat. I turned it down a couple of notches and it seems alright now. Cheers for the advice.

[Ace Rimmer]

If it truly was overheating, I sincerely hope you take a few moments to clean up that PC and make sure that all the fans running in it are working as they should.

[twstd]

hey, is anyone still having this problem? im playing on a c2d macbook pro running XP and like the other people have described its the only game which puts the fans straight into overdrive. i find if i get past the first 15min i'm fine but theres a pretty good chance that it will overheat and reset in that time. i love defcon and i can cope with the resets but im worried i'm fucking up my hardware by letting it overheat that frequently. what do u guys think?

[xander]

hey, is anyone still having this problem? im playing on a c2d macbook pro running XP and like the other people have described its the only game which puts the fans straight into overdrive. i find if i get past the first 15min i'm fine but theres a pretty good chance that it will overheat and reset in that time. i love defcon and i can cope with the resets but im worried i'm fucking up my hardware by letting it overheat that frequently. what do u guys think?

If you have a MacBook pro, you should probably be using the Mac version of Defcon.

xander

[shinygerbil]

I doubt it'll make much difference though. I highly suggest one of the following:

-Clean out your MacBook, especially the fans (yes, even laptops and -shock horror- even Macs get dirty!!)
-Turn down some of the settings

My laptop gets cleaned out regularly (although not regularly enough, really) and I can testify to its effectiveness. Sometimes I'm amazed how quiet my room is just after I've cleaned it out, because I'm used to the fans going constantly!

[torig]

I doubt it'll make much difference though. I highly suggest one of the following:

-Clean out your MacBook, especially the fans (yes, even laptops and -shock horror- even Macs get dirty!!)
-Turn down some of the settings

My laptop gets cleaned out regularly (although not regularly enough, really) and I can testify to its effectiveness. Sometimes I'm amazed how quiet my room is just after I've cleaned it out, because I'm used to the fans going constantly!

BEWARE!
I know nothing of Macs and by the name can't tell if it's a pretty new one or not. And I admit to being too lazy to look it up for you.
However, point I want to make is you can void the waranty of your new(ish) laptop by opening it up

Shiny actually, if he's emulating windows and then running a game on top of that, that would be more of a pain for the hardware than just running the vanilla mac version.

[twstd]

yeah i'm not planning on voiding the warranty by opening up, and i doubt dust is the problem.. the laptop is only a month old. i'm not emulating windows, it runs natively on macs thesedays.

i play all my games in xp, and i dont really want to have to buy the game again to fix the problem but i'll grab the ambrosia demo and see if it runs better in mac os... cheers guys

[torig]

yeah i'm not planning on voiding the warranty by opening up, and i doubt dust is the problem.. the laptop is only a month old. i'm not emulating windows, it runs natively on macs thesedays.

i play all my games in xp, and i dont really want to have to buy the game again to fix the problem but i'll grab the ambrosia demo and see if it runs better in mac os... cheers guys

But that's only if you have intel processors in it, right?
Anyways, that's the part I didn't bother looking up. The only message was, beware not to void your warranty

[twstd]

i will, thanks

[shinygerbil]

I just use an airgun and blow into it a bit, that's all. It won't need it if it's only a month old, anyway. (Compressed air, that is, not an air gun!)

Also, I sort of assumed it wasn't running under virtualization