Help ?

[TrainzLover09]

i have windows vista and it keeps shutting it self down after playing Trainz 2004 for a while . iv just lost my job and have no money , but im also classed as disabled so to many employers im a lost cause , trainz is really only think i love apart from football , iv had many computers over the years but XP works the best ? can i downgrade my windows vista to XP ? would that stop the Crashing ? thanks .

 

[paulzmay]

There is a specific way that Trainz has to be installed on a Vista machine in order for it to work properly (installed as administrator etc.) there are several threads on the forum on the subject with precise instructions if you search for them. If you have a copy of XP, that may be the best bet, but obviously EVERYTHING has to backed up and re-installed.

Paul

 

[whitepass]

Sound more like over heating, check your CPU fan.

 

[TrainzLover09]

Sound more like over heating, check your CPU fan.

last time i opened my tower i nearlly sliced my finger off :hehe:

 

[fran1]

Use a screwdriver instead of a knife and turn the power off as well. :hehe:

 

[lewisner]

If you download SpeedFan it gives you a running check on the temperatures inside your PC and it is free.Bit scarey when you see the little "ball of fire" symbol next to your CPU though!

http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

 

[TrainzLover09]

Use a screwdriver instead of a knife and turn the power off as well. :hehe:

i did the side of the tower decided to fly off and hit me

 

[fran1]

Ok then, hard hat and safety glasses as well. You seem to be a little accident prone.

 

[JCitron]

i did the side of the tower decided to fly off and hit me

This sounds like your pc has an attitude!

There's a few things to check, seriously...

Ensure that your fans are spinning and not clogged with dust. A can of canned air, or highly recommended compressed air from a compressor is better to blow out the dust out of the case and from the video card and CPU. Just put a pencil or stick into the fan before you blow at it with a very strong air current otherwise you'll blow-out the bearings and bushings, which will wreck the fans.

Ensure that the power supply is giving adequate voltage. There are different PS and temperature tools available such as CPUz, which is free. A new PS can be purchased for under $50 if you really nead one.

Run memory tests. A free one is memtst86, which is available from the net. You put it on a CD and run it at boot time. It'll go through some cycles and display any memory problems if there are any.

Good luck, and put on your safty glasses and chainmale gloves before you open your case again.

John

 

[jonj]

sorry to hear about your job.hope things work out for you .dont know much about computers. good luck any way.:wave:

 

[TrainzLover09]

If you download SpeedFan it gives you a running check on the temperatures inside your PC and it is free.Bit scarey when you see the little "ball of fire" symbol next to your CPU though!

http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

i have downloaded this and fan 1 and fan show up with ball of fire at 51c that bad ? i cleaned my fan .

 

[robin_hoods]

51 c thats mega hot =128 Fahrenheit you need to make sure your vents are clear and there is no blockage and your PC has a good air flow round it and nothing is blocking it.

Last time I had a look at my fans there was a load of dust/ lint blocking the exhaust vents which I had to remove.

 

[TrainzLover09]

51 c thats mega hot =128 Fahrenheit you need to make sure your vents are clear and there is no blockage and your PC has a good air flow round it and nothing is blocking it.

Last time I had a look at my fans there was a load of dust/ lint blocking the exhaust vents which I had to remove.

stick my tower outside its cold enough out there

 

[fran1]

If removing the dust from the fan and the cooling vanes below doesn't do it you could try putting some fresh heat sink paste between the CPU+and the cooling unit.

 

[lewisner]

Traizlover, one obvious question is "what is the ambient temperature in the room where your PC is?" If it was 75 degrees F it would mean your PC would never be less than that temperature and would struggle to stay cool.
Regarding the CPU and Heat Sink, think long and hard before you touch them.
I had the same problem you did (PC cutting out when I played Far Cry) and on looking inside I found the fan and indeed the whole PC - which I had for 2.5 years - was full of dust. I dismantle the fan/heat sink and found the sink was packed with dust almost like cotton wool. I cleaned and reassembled them and everything seemed to work fine.However I checked things by shutting the PC down and then powering up and going into BIOS to check the heat.It was alarmingly high,so I ran the PC with the side off and found that the CPU fan wasn't spinning. I removed it and tested it on a 9 volt battery and it ran fine.
I searched on Computerhope.com and was advised that the Speed Sensor on the fan was probably fried.
I then bought a replacement fan (about £15 UK) and fitted it.It didn't move.
I left the PC for about 6 months as I had simply got tired of trying to repair it. Finally I did more searching and on another forum found the probable cause of the problem - when I cleaned the fan I had to unplug it from the motherboard and it seems likely I disturbed the soldered joint, hence the fan was getting no power! :'(

 

[4ndylloyd]

If removing the dust from the fan and the cooling vanes below doesn't do it you could try putting some fresh heat sink paste between the CPU+and the cooling unit.

You can also improve things by making sure that there is adequate ventilation around your tower, especially at the back. Make sure that its not pushed up tight against a wall on the floor under the desk

Andy

 

[lewisner]

Also have a look at this guide to "safe" CPU temperatures -

http://www.heatsink-guide.com/content.php?content=maxtemp.shtml

 

[Bertieboy]

Help

attention Paulmaz can you adise me where one can find the details of downloading windows vista to xp as I cannot find any threads on the subject

 

[4ndylloyd]

attention Paulmaz can you adise me where one can find the details of downloading windows vista to xp as I cannot find any threads on the subject

It is caimed that it is not possible to 'roll back' from Vista to XP as the installation of XP will tell you that you have a newer operating system already installed. A colleague did it by zero filling his hard drive and then installing XP.

Take a look here for more information http://thewinforums.com/topic/8566-can-you-rollback-to-xp-from-vista/

 

[djt]

It is caimed that it is not possible to 'roll back' from Vista to XP as the installation of XP will tell you that you have a newer operating system already installed.

I switch back from Windows 7 and Vista to XP all the time without any problems.

You just delete the partition that Windows 7 or Vista was installed on in the Windows installation menu and reinstall/reformat with the OS of your choice, nothing difficult about it.