Games causing computer crash...

[Pellinore]

Hi. I have a prob and I'm not too good at computer issues. All of a sudden, whenever I start a game (any game it seems) it runs for a few moments and then crashes, restarting the computer. Any ideas what could be causing this? I am almost finished with a run-through of Baldurs Gate and can't finish it now, lol...

Thanks in advance.

[DesR85]

Have you tried updating audio drivers? I know certain recent games tend to crash if your audio drivers are not up to date.

[galraen]

Have you installed any new software recently? Or upgraded an existing program, Anti-Virus for example?

[Pellinore]

I recently reinstalled audio and video drivers. I also had to remove a large amount of spyware and had to do a system recovery.

[galraen]

Sounds like either Des was on the right track or your OS is up the creek. Cleaning out spyware can do that, it did it to me once, the removal programme removed something it shouldn't have, and by the time I realised it was too late, and I had to do a complete reinstall.

Were the drivers the originals, or did you download the latest ones?

[Pellinore]

I simply downloaded the drivers suggested by my computer. I have tried uninstalling but something strange happens when I do. It won't fully uninstall and leaves behind a small portion of the program and will not let me uninstall or reinstall afterwards. Only things affected by the system restore was the audi and video drivers which I guess had spyware attached to them.

[galraen]

Definitely seems like your registry is corrupted, system recovery won't always correct this. Cleaning out spyware usually entails removing entries from the registry, and anti-spyware has been known to mis-identify legitimate entries as mal or spy ware. I suspect going by what you've written that this is the case with you. What anti-spyware were you using by the way, when it happened to me I was using Spy Stormer, needless to say I've never used it since.

Do you still have the original installation discs? If so, and you can't find any other solution the last resort is to wipe the drive and do a complete new re-install. I wouldn't do that just yet though, someone else might be able to offer a better solution. If it comes to the worst, back up all the data you have onto CD's, keeping a list of the relevant directories and folders that they came from so that you can put the data back in the correct place.

I hope you, or someone else can find a less traumatic solution, having had to do the above myself I know it's a real pain in the backside.

[Pellinore]

Well, I don't have installation discs. I am within a few months of getting a new pc so maybe I can wait if I don't get any less drastic suggestions, lol...

Thaks for your help...

[Pellinore]

Well, I managed to uninstall all of the games and I reinstalled them as well as updated the drivers... Games are still causing the computer to crash. I'm thinking it is the OS...

[Pellinore]

Hey, I got it fixed. Thanks for the replies...