Civ3 resets my computer half the time I run it...

[Kibler]

Ok I had Civ3 running fine on WinXP Home. I formatted and reinstalled for unrelated reasons. (New HDD).

Anyway I reinstall Civ3 and now the new patch is out so I went and got that before I played. I run the game, screen goes blank and my computer is booting back up! Ahhh wtf! I try running civ3 again, same thing, it resets!

So I completed uninstalled Civ3, deleted the dir. Then I reinstalled and this time I didnt apply the patch, it was the only thing that was different. And it does the same thing, run the game, computer resets!

BUT this time, the 2nd time I tried to run it, it worked! I was very happy, played for hours! I sorta forgot about the problem, quit the game and when I went back in bam! my computer reset! Ahhh....

So then its not the new patch, so I apply it again just for sh*ts and giggles....and it doesnt reset when I run it, it works fine and I get a few more hours in :-). But of course its not fixed and now I dont know what to do. It will just reset when I run it, about half the time. Its really quite annoying as you can imagine! I cant play my favorite game....hell my only game!

I am using the same nVidia drivers as before, only difference is that its a fresh install on a new hdd. Dont try to blame this on the hdd lol I know its not that!

This is just so strange, a crash, a bsod I can understand, but just reseting like that is weird!

I cant find any other posts like this, so does anyone else have this problem? Know of a fix?!?

Thanks for any help!

Kibler

[TonyW]

I hope I'm not stating the obvious but are you sure everything is the same. I'm particularly thinking about Windows updates here - I have ME but I think XP works in a similar way in this regard.
The only other thing could be other factors relating to the hard disk thing. If you went into the innards of the machine for any reason are you sure you didn't disturb a cable or something.
If this is no good, try a surge protector on the plug or you might need a hardware test as small voltage changes can cause this sort of thing.

Have a think about what might have changed. I would do it in this order.
1. Windows/Direct X/Driver updates if applicable.
2. Check internals for loose or not quite seated connections.
3. XP reinstall?/ Surge Protector
4. Hardware test - unless you have the kit you will have to pay someone for this.

Good luck.