the type of graphics card is fine. i've had this system for about 12 months now. i can't think of anything out of the ordinary i've been doing in the last few weeks. i've been mainly playing an online game & the last time i played a graphics intensive game was about may/june, and it worked fine then. i've tried 3 different games now & 3dmark and all crash.

Hey.. do graphic cards use amps?? trying to think now.. Hmm.. it might be interferring with the amps in some way..

RAHVIN666: what do you remember doing shortly before this started happening..

and yes.. actually it sounds like it could be.. perhaps settings aren't set properly.. or.. just not the card you need

update on situation. still crashing. checked with 2 virus checkers ( avg & macafee). tried to run 3dmark and it crashes on that also, aswell as games. is this leading to my graphics card???

ScarletRose: nah. already checked that. auto restore is enabled, but there are no restore points saved.

RAHVIN666: can you do an automatic restore? Just go back a few weeks ..

thanx for your replys. i got my pc up & running again. i got out the motherboard manual & reset cmos.

now back to my original prob. the pc only crashes when i play games. there's no warning, it just resets & reboots back to desktop with no error message or anything. i had directx 9b & with the game i bought this weekend, i now have 9c installed. i've run a full virus check with AVG free & nothing comes up. I'm currently running macafee online scan to see if that finds anything.

PC specs are:

Abit KV7 motherboard
athlon 3000XP processor
2 x 512mb ddr 400mhz ram
geforce4 5950 256mb graphics card

i've put the latest drivers in from nvidia(june'05) to see if that made any difference.

this problem has only started in the last few weeks.

*edit* macafee hasn't found anything either!

RAHVIN666: You have overclocked your processor for sure.
It´s fine to have latest version of bios but I Think it is not always necessary. What typie of motherborard do you have?

Now, you have one more possibility to return bios of your motherboard on default status.
You have to clear CMOS on motherboard and than you will be able to boot to windows or bios, whatever you want.
Also, the common rule or tenet is to not play with BIOS when you are realy not for sure what happens and what you has changed. :)

And sometemis, it´s better to format disk (or partition where your systems is installed) and make a new instalation. But before that, back up all things you wish and are important for you (documents, photos, mp3) and that reinstall everything with new drivers if available.

And if the problems with booting of your system will persist, that ask some of your friends, if he can scan your harddisk and then make backup of thing you wish.

Let us now how you have solved a problem.

It seems to me that the problem could be one of hardware. If the CPU was running at 3 GHz and now it shows as 1GHz, then the CPU was overclocked. In cases like this problems can arise if gthe CPU is overheating. It is summertime, so at this time of the year computers can overheat. It is possible taht the graphics card might be overheating too. I have a computer program that runs from DOS. It can test all your hardware for potential problems. If you send me your e-mail in a private message, I will send the program to you. Then you can scan your PC.

After eliminating the hardware problem, then the next step is to make sure that the BIOS of your computer is the latest version. For that you will need to know who the manufacturer of the motherboard is so you can go to their website and download the latest BIOS version. Then you can flash the BIOS into the BIOS ROM. If you have the manual for the PC, it will tell you what motherboard you have. If you don't have the manual you can also open the computer and look at the manufacturer and the model number of your motherboard. If you don't want to open the computer have another small program that will read the BIOS and tell you the motherboard manufacturer and model. After that you can update the BIOS with the utilities that the manufacturer provides.

Well, let me know if you want the programs, I am sure they can help at least to diagnose any potential problems. One more question, is the computer crashing only when playing games, or when doing other tasks? If it is doing it only when playing games you can also install the latest version of Direct X from the Microsoft website. Direct X tends to interact directly with the graphics card GPU, and if Direct X is causing a problem because of a bug then the latest version can help too.

RAHVIN666: That was no problem. I wish I could be more help.

reza: thanx for that. i'll look into whats causing my pc to crash once someone tells me how to get back on the thing :)

RAHVIN666: I am no computer engineer but once I had the same problem and it was a virus or a worm, I don't remember. I had my pc scanned with Norton, quite up to date at that time, and it found it. I think also some adwares and pieces of junk that are automatically installed on pc's can do that too.

Just what I think though.

i've been having problems with pc for the last few days. it's keeps crashing when i'm playing games.

i've tried doing disk cleanup, installed new drivers for graphics card & even turned off anti virus & firewall. nothing seems to work. after a few mins of play on the last 3 games i've tried, the pc just resets. it loads as normal back to desktop with no error message or anything.

in my efforts to try and fix this, i went into bios & tried changing a few thing around to see if that did anything. but my last attempt seems to have killed my pc. i changed the setting in bios to "safe" (i think thats what it was called, the option next to optimal settings), and now my pc won't even boot. all thats on screen is the bios version at the top, then the processor (which shows around 1000mhz instead of 3000+) and it does memory test, but then it freezes. i can't even access bios to change the setting back.

have i totally messed it up, or is there a way to sort it out?

please help.

Hrqls: Well due to 'Acronis True Image' it was rather easy. Though I lost a lot of informations (email addresses, web sites) because I was too upset to note it before.

I am very happy to have bought 'Acronis True Image' easy and reliable program, up to now (up to now because I am excessively carefull, too often disappointed in the paste).

Spirou: *phew* .. you you formatted and did a new install ? nasty errornous device :(

ah well you are back ;)

OK! I have reinstall my disk C:. All seem normal now :-)

Pedro Martínez: LOL, kind of you :-)))

Spirou:

Hehehe, sorry, I could laugh if I was not so upset. Though I could yet make a smile :
:-)))

It is very embarrasing you know.

Pedro Martínez: LOL

Pedro Martínez: lol .. the director is named Paul as well :)

http://www.cook-islands.gov.ck/ministries.php

Spirou: Are you from Cook Islands? :0)

http://www.mfem.gov.ck/

Hrqls: Anyway, I thank you for trying to help :-)))

Spirou: hmm ... as it happens in several programs i am at a loss .. sorry ...

maybe someone else has had the same problem happen before ?

does it happen in all programs ? did you also try notepad and any other programs (preferably non microsoft :)) ?

Hrqls: I use Windows XP with SP2.

"Wintasks" displays a bunch of programs. They seems normals, though I am not a specialist.

I never had used that word "MFEM".

Spirou: hmm thats true ..

(i meant the feature could see 'paul' as an abbreviation or code for MFEM .. in some programs you can enter any code to be replaced by anything while typing)

what system are you on ? can you look at your running processes and services ? appearently something is running to change this

did you use the word 'MFEM' lately in any texts ?

Hrqls: I use Increditmail for years without problem.
I don't use any abreviations.

The problem seems not to be in the emailer because here also with messages the difficulty arise.

Spirou: what program do you use to write your emails ?

in word there are options to automagically replace abbreviations or code by the full word .. maybe something like that has been turned on ?

Well here also the same difficulty. My first name is "P-a-u-l" without the "-" of course.

Help, help, please!

For several days, I don't know when that had started, when I write an email, my computer change my first name "MFEM" to "MFEM"!!? Though my copies about emails send stay correct.

McAfee anti-virus says my computer is clean.

Any ideas where that come from and how to fix that weird problem?

ty..that is a good link a download site that not only lists programs ,but also has reviews on them...anyone know anymore that does this?

BerniceC: I´m not sure, but think that SNAGIT is shareware.
Just look here and maybe you´ll find some suitable for you.

I use SNAGIT to save screen shots and also a lot of other things.....also free...well it was when I got it....it is just great

nobleheart: In Linux/KDE: ksnapshot

In Windows: Print-Key for whole Windows => Paste in MS Paint or another painting program
Print + Ctrl => Only the specified Windows

(But ksnapshot has more capabilities than screen capturing in windows :-) )

BIG BAD WOLF: thank you so much mr.wolf and everyone else for your advise.
can I ask one more question?
I find my self exporting a lot of favorites(bookmarks) to files.
does a utility exist that can convert a "bookmarks.html" file to a .txt or a .doc file?

After capturing the screen with the "Print Screen" key, the image can be pasted into any graphics program, so I don't see the need for a dedicated screen capture utility.

As for browsers, I suggest Opera.

I have used PrintKey 2000 for a long time. The people who make it I believe stopped support on it and such - but is free and can be found here:

>http://www.webtree.ca/newlife/printkey_info.htm


From the screen shot on that page, it's nice free program which lets you do a few different things.

*edit: yea, just looked - the company no longer support freeware, but now supports a paid version called PrintKey-Pro. But you can still get the old freeware version from the link above.

nobleheart, or were you looking for something with more features?

nobleheart, I just checked...Control-PrintScreen even captures on dual monitors.

nobleheart, Ctrl-PrtScn...Then just paste it into something like MS Paint.

you people sem very knowledgable..does any one know a good FREE screen capture utility?

Furbster, open this page where you can download the latest version of firefox(1.0.6).
Then install is, just follow instruction during installation and try it.

furbster: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

i don't know what that is? lol

furbster: Have you tried Firefox instead?

Well it didn't work i stil haev teh crosses
:o( Makes the games bit less enjoyable when its like this so i'll cut back i think

Ok, thanks i'll try that.

Some simple things to do is to clear your browser cache - do a full reload of a page. (In internet exporer - hold down shift while you hit reload or hold down shift while you hit F5)

furbster: have you properly installed all drivers and system on new hardware configuration?
Maybe problem is in net connection, your browser, firewall....etc
You have to be more concrete...

Hi, i just had a new moetherboard installed in my pc( woohoo ) lol but since i have come back on brainking, a few of my graphics now have teh white box with a x in agian, i've not had this for a while any1 know the cause to this rpoblem and how i can prevent it?