Arcanum Causes Complete Computer Shutdown?

Hey all,

I'm having a really bizarre problem with Arcanum. I haven't played it in maybe eight months, but I had an urge to play again. When I started up the game, I was able to play for about a minute before my computer completely shut down - no error messages or anything. When I turned it back on, it started up perfectly - again no error messages.

No other program I use causes this shutdown. I tried reinstalling Arcanum, updating directX, installing the newest unofficial patch...but nothing seems to work. Has anyone ever run across anything like this before? Any help or suggestions are much appreciated!!

 

Well, Arcanum does use a lot of processor power, so perhaps you're overheating the processor? If you can run other games then it's obviously not an overheating problem, since they'd overheat the processor as well. But you didn't specify what type of programs you had no problems with - most programs I know of don't use a lot of processor power. Well, most of the time anyway.

If you can run other games, then they would most likely have overheated the processor as well, and since they haven't, overheating shouldn't be the problem. But I don't know what it might be. I've run Arcanum just fine on both Windows 98, ME and XP, without having compatibility problems.

 

Yep, sounds like a cpu or a mem issue.

 

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I tried another memory-intensive game (Jedi Knight II) and it did the exact same thing. I have a Pentium M 1.73 Ghz, 512 MB RAM system that I've played many games on over the three years that I've owned it. Any idea what could cause a problem at this point?

Thanks!!

 

Straight off, I'd said buy more RAM. I went from 512 MB to 2 GB and now I don't know how I did without it!

 

Yeah, dam, I really need to get more RAM (I have less than a Gig).

Ehh... is it true that certain computers can only have so much RAM or is that a myth?

 

RTFM of the mainboard, I am pretty sure it has detailed info about the memory slots.

 

lol...i have only 256MB ram...i can play it,but with minor lag

 

That's a weird issue there because you're supposed to be able to play Arcanum even with those specs. I remember playing Arcanum on my old rig (2.0 GHz P4, GeForce2 64MB, 128 MB RAM) and it was runnning pretty fast. But I was using windows 98 Special ED then. But now I'm using XP with a more powerful rig and Arcanum has done nothing but crash and go haywire. :-x

 

If you want to test your memory, download this, and burn it to cd. It's a free download, and works amazingly. If your memory checks out, try running this and see if your computer crashes. I've run both of these on my home & work computers (I'm a computer tech), and have never had it give a system any issues/viruses/etc.

If you want to know how much memory your system can handle, and the max speed it can, try this.

 

Have you checked the processor fan? I let mine collect so much dust that it'd overheat, but those problems largely went away after I blew that dust away. Unfortunately I didn't replace the cooling paste after the first time I removed the fan from the motherboard, so my processor wasn't ok until I had cleaned it and reapplied cooling paste again. Nowadays I just blow on the fan, or rather the heatsink, at an angle, without removing the fan, so as to not have to reapply cooling paste. That makes enough of the dust go away for the air to reach the heatsink. Didn't have any heat problems with my old 700 MHz processor, with or without cooling paste, but apparently a 3 GHz processor will actually overheat and shut down if I'm not careful.

You can install Intel Active Monitor to keep an eye on your computer's temperature. If it's really high even when the computer isn't doing much, then you have a problem.

 

Could it be also an issue with OS that is being used? :-?

 

Once than while Morrowind will CD cask on me so I do than cold boot which clear it up for awhile.

 

Arcanum runs just fine with XP and a few people have gotten it to work with Vista.

 

Try playing the game in safe mode. Right-click a shortcut to the EXE, put -no3d in the target line and run it from there.

I had a problem like this. It turned out my cooling system was screwed, but I doubt that's what's wrong if you can play games with actual 3D acceleration without problems. Plus, my computer would only shut down after a half-hour of play-time at least.

 

Arcanum Drops Video Output

I've experienced a video crash caused by Arcanum. The first three or four times it has occurred, my display flashed black and then my monitor's lack-of-input-signal message was displayed. Disconnecting and reconnecting the video cable to my video card registered as a change in input to my monitor, but my monitor could never recover the video signal.

I lose control of my PC as I cannot exit Arcanum with the appropriate keystrokes, nor can I log out of my Windows account. The only form of recovery I have is to reboot my PC.

The last time this happened, the audio for Arcanum skipped a couple of times before my display was dumped.

Has anybody encountered anything similar?

 

Since no one has answered this yet...

You need Windows Vista or a 64 bit operating system (ie. Vista32, Vista64 or XP64) in order for your computer to recognise and use more than 3Gb of RAM. Anything up to and including 3Gb will work fine on any 32 bit operating system. If you're using anything older than a 32 bit operating system then frankly I'm amazed you're reading this. :lol:

 

Re: Arcanum Drops Video Output

No, god dammit! Quit grave digging threads! If you're'ving issues, please MAKE A NEW THREAD and detail your problems there, after doing a search/reading relevant threads. If an old thread relates, link to it. Don't dig the damn thing up! Usually, in cases such as this, most/all of the involved parties have left the forum.
*sigh*
Since you've already dug this thread up. I'll help you. What's your system specs, what version/patch are you running, and all that jazz?

 

Wow... a week constitutes a grave dig now? Things got a little more strict in the last 5 years.

 

Not too long ago it was a month.... :/