Windows 7 Brand new computer - no games will run

[EgonTowst]

Hey everyone. I hate doing this when I know there are already other similar discussions, but I haven't found any solution to my problem and since it sounds like most others who have experienced this problem have done so after upgrading to Windows 7 from a previous OS, which is no the case with me, I thought I should ask.

So I've got a brand new Dell studio laptop. It is not even 24 hours out of the package, so I haven't played around with overclocking my CPU or anything like that. I've done nothing to the computer at all but install firefox, a few games, and update my video and sound drivers. It came with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit installed on it, and I'm having some strange problems with it.

First, all games I try running end up crashing. A few of my older games, such as Homeworld, don't even make it past the intro movies. I'm not sure if this has something to do with compatibility issues (the game was released in 99) ... please be patient with me, I'm not particularly computer savvy. The one game I've tried that I was actually able to play any was The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, but it too crashed about 5 or 10 minutes in, at the moment I tried slashing someone open . It will work fine if I just let it sit there. But once I pull out a weapon or try interacting with a character, it freezes for about 10 seconds, then the screen goes black and soon I'm sent to Desktop with an error message saying the program had to close.

Like I said I've updated my video and sound drivers. I tried running the games before and after doing so, but no change. DirectX 11 came on the machine so I assumed I didn't need to mess with that.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Below are my specs. I can't imagine that it would be a CPU or memory issue if the PC is at stock settings, but again, I'm not very computer savvy so I'm not even sure how to check that stuff. So any help would be much appreciated.

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System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 3/27/2010, 12:07:21
       Machine name: SCOTT-PC
   Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_rtm.090713-1255)
           Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
       System Model: Studio 1558
               BIOS: Ver 1.00 BIOS A04 PARTTBL
          Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU       M 520  @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
             Memory: 4096MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 3956MB RAM
          Page File: 1679MB used, 6231MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\Windows
    DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
   User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
 System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
    DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
     DxDiag Version: 6.01.7600.16385 32bit Unicode
          Card name: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4500/5100 Series

I don't know how to check CPU temp and all that, so if more info is necessary I could use some pointers there.

 

[cybercore]

When the game crashes, does it show the error summary pop-up ?

Have you tried running the game in XP or Vista compatibility mode ?

Like I said I've updated my video and sound drivers. I tried running the games before and after doing so, but no change. DirectX 11 came on the machine so I assumed I didn't need to mess with that.

Make sure to update DirectX (it won't hurt DX 11 at all):

Download details: DirectX End-User Runtime

 

[ickymay]

right click computer\properties and post a screenshot of your Windows Experience Index please ?

 

[EgonTowst]

When the game crashes, does it show the error summary pop-up ?

Yes, here's an example from one of the older games:

Problem signature:
  Problem Event Name:    APPCRASH
  Application Name:    CATACL~1.EXE
  Application Version:    0.0.0.0
  Application Timestamp:    39a61d6c
  Fault Module Name:    rgl.dll
  Fault Module Version:    0.0.0.0
  Fault Module Timestamp:    39a61b3d
  Exception Code:    c0000005
  Exception Offset:    00004fbf
  OS Version:    6.1.7600.2.0.0.768.3
  Locale ID:    1033
  Additional Information 1:    26ba
  Additional Information 2:    26baa0e2096e78e7cd66ec9bcce33618
  Additional Information 3:    1f1e
  Additional Information 4:    1f1eadf5ad518ade92838985385d50dc

Have you tried running the game in XP or Vista compatibility mode ?

How do I do that? They all run fine on an older laptop with XP, but no I haven't tried that on this one.

And I updated DirectX but essentially no change. It just takes the games a little longer to crash now.

ickymay, I've attached the screenshot.

 

[EgonTowst]

sorry, double post

 

[ickymay]

Yes, here's an example from one of the older games:

Problem signature:
  Problem Event Name:    APPCRASH
  Application Name:    CATACL~1.EXE
  Application Version:    0.0.0.0
  Application Timestamp:    39a61d6c
  Fault Module Name:    rgl.dll
  Fault Module Version:    0.0.0.0
  Fault Module Timestamp:    39a61b3d
  Exception Code:    c0000005
  Exception Offset:    00004fbf
  OS Version:    6.1.7600.2.0.0.768.3
  Locale ID:    1033
  Additional Information 1:    26ba
  Additional Information 2:    26baa0e2096e78e7cd66ec9bcce33618
  Additional Information 3:    1f1e
  Additional Information 4:    1f1eadf5ad518ade92838985385d50dc

How do I do that? They all run fine on an older laptop with XP, but no I haven't tried that on this one.

And I updated DirectX but essentially no change. It just takes the games a little longer to crash now.

ickymay, I've attached the screenshot.

thnx for the screenshot and WEI shows your pc should handle games easily, I suspect your problems are either permissions or they are game specific ?

sticking with the game from the posted error have you updated with Link Removed due to 404 Error ?

can you navigate to the executable for the game and right click properties and select the compatibility tab then tick the box and select NT 4.0 sp 5.0 , apply that then run the game and let us know how it goes ?

 

[EgonTowst]

Yea I ended up finding the compatibility tab earlier and tried playing around with that a bit, but no change. I tried NT 4.0 sp 5.0 and XP sp 2 and 3, but still the same problems. As for the games themselves, I've got all the patches I know of.

 

[EgonTowst]

Well Oblivion seems to run OK in compatibility mode now - no crash after 25 minutes at least. As for the graphics though, I'm seeing a bunch of flashing red spots . But other games, no change yet.

 

[ickymay]

do all your games with issues rely on an internet connection ?

 

[EgonTowst]

Nope, I've only tried single player ones. Speaking of, however, my internet connection is awfully slow on this computer as well, despite the fact that I've got a better wireless network card than I had in my older laptop. Not sure if that has anything to do with Windows 7 as well or not.

I might try reverting back to Windows XP if all these problems persist. Windows 7 is pretty to look at but it's just frustrating. Any other thoughts on the game crash issues? Now and again Oblivion will freeze up and minimize itself (though not crash) and I'll get a little alert message in the bottom right of the screen saying the AMD Display something or another stopped working. All I do is maximize the game again and it continues running fine for a few minutes until it decides to do the same thing. I don't remember exactly what the message said but I'll make a note of it if it happens again.

 

[EgonTowst]

I just noticed this laptop is very warm to the touch, warmer than my older one. Is it possible the CPU or video card is just running too hot and causing the crash?

 

[cybercore]

Yes, here's an example from one of the older games:

Problem signature:
  Problem Event Name:    APPCRASH
  Application Name:    CATACL~1.EXE
  Application Version:    0.0.0.0
  Application Timestamp:    39a61d6c
  Fault Module Name:    rgl.dll
  Fault Module Version:    0.0.0.0
  Fault Module Timestamp:    39a61b3d
  Exception Code:    c0000005
  Exception Offset:    00004fbf
  OS Version:    6.1.7600.2.0.0.768.3
  Locale ID:    1033
  Additional Information 1:    26ba
  Additional Information 2:    26baa0e2096e78e7cd66ec9bcce33618
  Additional Information 3:    1f1e
  Additional Information 4:    1f1eadf5ad518ade92838985385d50dc

How do I do that? They all run fine on an older laptop with XP, but no I haven't tried that on this one.

http://windows7forums.com/tweaks-guides-howtos/28594-compatibility-mode-standard-drivers.html

I suggest compatibility mode for games like Oblivion - for games developed before 7.

Exception Code: c0000005 is straight from the CPU and kernel of the operating system. Update your system, and as already mentioned get latest game updates if available.


~~~~~~~~~~~


Just a note, pirated/cracked games often crash this way, which is not necessarily your case.

 

[EgonTowst]

Yea I don't use any pirated software. But like I said I've got the game updates, I'm running them in compatibility mode, and as far as I know I've got all the latest drivers and updates for my computer. All it seems to have done though is (sometimes) extend the game playing time by a few minutes before it decides to crash. And worse, now the crashes sometimes freeze the computer and force me to reset it, as I can't even get it to respond through alt + tab or ctrl + alt + del.

 

[ickymay]

Yea I don't use any pirated software. But like I said I've got the game updates, I'm running them in compatibility mode, and as far as I know I've got all the latest drivers and updates for my computer. All it seems to have done though is (sometimes) extend the game playing time by a few minutes before it decides to crash. And worse, now the crashes sometimes freeze the computer and force me to reset it, as I can't even get it to respond through alt + tab or ctrl + alt + del.

are you confident you have the latest bios for your motherboard, and all the latest drivers for your chipset and soundcard and Network Card etc ..... ?

 

[EgonTowst]

Pretty sure yea. I went to dell.com, entered my service tag number and downloaded every driver that was listed for my machine. About half of them installed and updated, the other half gave me an alert saying I already had a newer version on my PC. No yellow flags under Device Manager either. I also downloaded one of Uniblue's tools, Driver Scanner, and had it run a scan and it came back claiming all my drivers were up to date. I may try running a few of the games again in a few minutes on low graphic settings and see if that makes any difference.

 

[ickymay]

Pretty sure yea. I went to dell.com, entered my service tag number and downloaded every driver that was listed for my machine. About half of them installed and updated, the other half gave me an alert saying I already had a newer version on my PC. No yellow flags under Device Manager either. I also downloaded one of Uniblue's tools, Driver Scanner, and had it run a scan and it came back claiming all my drivers were up to date. I may try running a few of the games again in a few minutes on low graphic settings and see if that makes any difference.

so far everything suggest you should be able to run games easily so let's look at permissions, the first thing is what antivirus and or third party firewall are you using , and do you have any other issues with accessing files on your PC ?

 

[EgonTowst]

I was using McAfee, but I uninstalled it because I suspected it might have something to do with the painfully slow internet speeds I've also been experiencing. I haven't noticed any issues with accessing files. The only other odd thing that's happened was when trying to copy about 4gigs of my music collection onto this machine I got an error saying there was not enough drive space, despite the fact that I've got a 300gig harddrive in this. But after a reboot I didn't have the problem again.

 

[EgonTowst]

If it is of any additional help, here's the error I receive when Oblivion crashes:

Problem signature:
  Problem Event Name:    APPCRASH
  Application Name:    Oblivion.exe
  Application Version:    1.2.0.416
  Application Timestamp:    462392c7
  Fault Module Name:    Oblivion.exe
  Fault Module Version:    1.2.0.416
  Fault Module Timestamp:    462392c7
  Exception Code:    c0000005
  Exception Offset:    0036e7a2
  OS Version:    6.1.7600.2.0.0.768.3
  Locale ID:    1033
  Additional Information 1:    27c8
  Additional Information 2:    27c8ce5af7a07bedf550bd9c573901b3
  Additional Information 3:    e56e
  Additional Information 4:    e56e9cfaf3cd1084b6b4c016d12ce64c

 

[EgonTowst]

Perhaps this may be of even more help. I was looking around in some of the diagnostic tools that came on this PC and found this message in the Event Viewer:

Event 4101, Display
Display driver amdkmdap stopped responding and has successfully recovered.

The time listed was from earlier today when one of the games I was experimenting with froze for a few seconds and minimized, but then continued running smoothly again after I maximized the window (only to then crash a couple minutes later).

Here's a couple other messages I found in the Event Viewer, recorded while a game was running, just prior to crashing:

Event 37, Kernel-Processor-Power
The speed of processor 0 in group 0 is being limited by system firmware. The processor has been in this reduced performance state for 2 seconds since the last report.

(This one occurred about 15 minutes before the last game crash. I'm not positive I had the game running at that time.)

Event 7026, Service Control Manager
The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load:
RxFilter

Event 7000, Service Control Manager
The SessionLauncher service failed to start due to the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified.

(This one and the above one only appear during the time of one of the crashes so I don't know if they're related)

Event 4101, Display
Display driver atikmdag stopped responding and has successfully recovered.

Does any of that mean anything to anyone? What would cause display drivers to stop responding?

 

[ickymay]

I am still convinced this is a game specific crash and can you try by deleting the oblivion.ini file (where game settings are held) then restart the game at a lower resolution such as 1024x768 ?