While playing CivIII today my computer suddenly shutdown. It did not seen to be a power surge because the TV and lights were on and the TV picture didn't even blink. Anybody know why?

What OS?

If this isn't an ongoing problem I would just attribute it to the OS having a problem with the game. It happens to everyone's systems. Even with the fabled Linux. ;)

Running Windows 98 but it was odd for the game had been running several hours and it has never just actullaly shutdown although it has frozen alot.

While playing CivIII today my computer suddenly shutdown


Given almost no details, my first inclination is to say that you have an unstable version of a video driver and/or Civ3 makes certain incompatible video calls. Both of these things can cause what you observed.

General guidance for anyone posting a problem:

1. State the OS and any updates (e.g., Win2K service pack 2)

2. Motherboard (MB) make and revision number. (e.g., ASUS P5A, rev 3)

3. MB BIOS & revision, and if you have flashed the latest BIOS revision.

4. Video card maker & (very important) the video driver revision.

Example usng Win9x:

Use Control Panel ---> System ----> Device Manager to look at it

Alternatively, use Display Properties ---> Settings ---> Advanced Properties ----> Display Adapter

5. Is your hard drive free from all errors (use MS's disk check, or a 3rd party's such as Norton's Speedisk).

6. Describe what was going on in detail, including any errors that MS reports.

The above will help give a better starting point to help you :).

Running Windows 98 but it was odd for the game had been running several hours and it has never just actullaly shutdown although it has frozen alot.

Very likely a video driver issue :). You might want to back up your registry, then download and install the latest video driver.

To your first questions I just wanted to see if there was a simple answer but I'm not that interrested in knowing and I'm too lazy to get all those specs for you anyway.:D

Also are you gonna tell me if I'm right or not in the Quiz thread?

Your power supply or motherboard may be misbehaving. If it keeps happening and doesn't seem to be caused by any single program then this is a probable cause. If it happens fairly rarely its shouldn't be too much of a problem, just very annoying.