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Midway through a single-player skirmish game, crashes out either to  
  
desktop or forces a straight reboot. It seems quite a common problem,  
  
though no fixes that seem to work. Have downloaded and installed all  
  
the game patches. Have downloaded and installed latest graphics card  
  
drivers. Have downloadeed and installed latest motherboard chipset  
  
drivers. Have posted on numerous AOE forums. Nothing works.  
  
Spec as follows:  
  
Windows XP Professional SP2  
  
AMD ~1822 Mhz  
  
BIOS: Award Software, Inc. ASUS A7V8X-X ACPI BIOS Revision 1014 Beta  
  
002, 6/23/2005  
  
Total Physical Memory	1GB  
  
Nvidia GEFORCE 660GT

Hi cprelude,  
  
Your system is most likely restarting as a result of a STOP error.  
  
To stop this behavior go to Control Panel / System / Advanced /  
  
Click the Startup and Recovery Settings button / Uncheck the box  
  
labelled "Automatically restart"  under the System Failure section.  
  
To analyze the error, try the steps in: http://aumha.org/win5/kbestop.htm  
  
--  
  
Cheers,                                *Windows_XP_MVP_Shell/User*  
  
Jimmy S.                               http://mvp.support.microsoft.com  
  
Visit my MSN Games and Windows Gaming Help Site: www.msce.mvps.org  
  
MS Games Help and Support Center: http://support.microsoft.com/?pr=gms  
  
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty;  nor do I confer any rights.  
  
_________________________________________________________  
  
cprelude Wrote:  
  
=================

Hi Jimmy,  
  
Thanks for the advice. I have done what you said and thankfully at  
  
least caught a stop screen now, rather than the dreaded reboot.  
  
I am not equipped to diagnose the stop screen, though I have enabled  
  
in-depth logging in the event of a crash. However, after the last stop  
  
screen there was no updated memory.dmp file on my system to look at or  
  
to send to anyone.  
  
I am wondering if this could be related to cpu or gpu temperature? I  
  
have noticed that the problem was worse during a heatwave here in the  
  
UK.  
  
However, one has to say that NOTHING ELSE CRASHED during the heatwave,  
  
nothing else came close to crashing...This is what frustrates  
  
me...Could it just be some rogue code lurking away in AOE III, and  
  
shouldn't somebody be doing the debugging instead of us folk?  
  
Another possibility I am following up is that DEP (Data Execution  
  
Prevention) could be interfering with the programme. Very unlikely  
  
indeed, but I am in the mood to chase everything down at the moment  
  
(though why Microsoft are not paying me for this I do not know!), and  
  
have disabled it as a test.  
  
I have no idea whether it will prevent the problem, or what but am now  
  
in "try anything" mode.  
  
Jimmy S. wrote:

Hi cprelude,  
  
1. I think you're on the right track, the system could be overheating.  
  
2.  Dust your fans, vents and components using a 1/4" paintbrush  
  
and a hose vacuum.  Use compressed air for hard to reach places.  
  
Set a housefan to blow cold air into your case to expose an over-  
  
heating issue.. If it works add more fans or replace defective ones.  
  
Use this Motherboard Monitor Utility: http://mbm.livewiredev.com  
  
3.  A faulty power supply can cause STOP errors, random reboots,  
  
and black screen lockups.  One way to test for that is to check the  
  
wattage sticker on your power supply and then calculate your need  
  
http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/  (Min. 350 for gaming)  
  
4.  Test your RAM using: http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp  
  
--  
  
Cheers,                                Windows_XP_MVP_Shell/User  
  
Jimmy S.                               http://mvp.support.microsoft.com  
  
Visit my MSN Zone.com and Gaming Help Site: http://mvps.org/nibblesnbits  
  
MS Games Help and Support Center: http://support.microsoft.com/?pr=gms  
  
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty;  nor do I confer any rights.  
  
_________________________________________________________  
  
cprelude Wrote:  
  
=================

That's interesting to hear Adam: my problem has now returned with a  
  
vengeance. I am now fairly sure it is NOT overheating but simply a  
  
matter of the coding game. There is a bug in there somewhere, and it's  
  
not been found yet. I have to say that is my reluctant conclusion.  
  
Whether they will ever be able to fix it, or have the inclination to, I  
  
strongly doubt. Maybe time for us to take up other games by more  
  
reliable software houses?  
  
adam wrote: