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Computer freeze up in windows 2000?

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7 replies

by marcrph1

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I have a network server for home business use that my kids also play games on but the system will freeze on game screen during play and not respond to ctrl-alt-del? Here are some specifics:

1)Win 2000 dual cpu athlon 1.4Mhz, Giga-byte motherboardwith 1Gb ram(it is ecc registered ram), Verto 128mb video card,
one dvd-burner on its own ide and another dvd-reader on its own ide, 2 80Gb HD with Raid enabled,logitech opital keyboard and mouse. I think thats all the system specs that are important.

2)I updated to Win 2000 SP3, and also went to each component web site and got most recent drivers.

3)System prop shows all devices working properly with no exclamations showing.

My thoughts on the problem where:
1)games not compatible with 2 cpu?
2)too much memory?
3)video acceleration problem?
4)combo dvd/cd drives not reading a cd properly?

Any insight as too cause of this problem would be much appreciated.

7 replies

by dmiles

The type of file system could be part of the problem especially if it is NTFS

Most games are run in DOS mode being 16 bit applications and NTd may be using 32 bit application drivers

Vidoe compatibility could be another source of the problem if 3D is not supported or you may not have the correct version of fDirect X

Updating the Java Script files may help,along with checking the hardware compatibillity list on you video card

Were you having any problems before updating the system to SP3?

by phil.hall

Which games are they playing? Some games, like Quake 3: Arena, which are multi-cpu capable don't always like it if you have more than one cpu but that functionality isn't turned on in the game's configuration.

by timwalsh

Another issue to address is whether the games are Win2K compatible. If they were not written specifically to run on WinNT/2K/XP, you will usually run into problems eventually. Most likely this is the root of your problem.

Many games written forWin9x/ME make direct calls to system resources, especially video, memory, and hard drives. Win9x allowed this. WinNT/2K/XP specifically deny this behavior - hence the eventual problems. Sometimes the Compatibility Updates available on the WindowsUpdate site will address some of these problems but ot always.

Usually only those programs written to take advantage of multiple CPUs will even recognize more than one. Don't think that is an issue.

Usually, there is no such thing as "too muchmemory" with Windows (except Win98 will not work with more than 512MB RAM). Don't think that is an issue either.

Video acceleration probably isn't an issue if your card meets the minimum specs for the game.

Combo drives could be an issue, butthis would likely manifest itself immediately by not being able to read a CD at all. It's not likely that the drive could read part of the CD and not another part (assuming the CD itself is in good physical shape).

Couple of suggestions:
1. Check out the game publisher's website to see if there are any known compatibility issues (either hardware or software). Also look for any patches.
2. Get (or build) an inexpensive computer and load it with Win98 or WinME for use as a gaming machine. I usualy highly recommend that computers being used for business purposes NOT also be used for gaming by the rest of the family. If it breaks, your business loses money - the rest of the family only loses the opportunity to play games (my 2 cent's worth anyway)!

Hope this helps.

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