Sudden System Shutdown

[King of Camelot]

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?

 

[damunzy]

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.

 

[King of Camelot]

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.

 

[starlifter]

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 .

 

[starlifter]

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.

 

[King of Camelot]

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.

 

[King of Camelot]

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

 

[Mechanical_Animal]

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.