Thanks for the quick replys. Overkill650-my problem is at random times the computer freezes and the only way out is to shut off the power. It happens not just when running Trainz but at any time. The computer people think it may have something to do with conflicting drivers. I've updated my printer and video card drivers and so far so good. Andy- I agree with you, if you shouldn't be allowed to adjust them then they shouldn't be in Options.
I'll second or third that agreement on the options!
Regarding your freezes...
Over the years I have found the following to cause this problem:
_Old drivers on the system with new ones installed and system drivers are old or corrupted.
We might be told by the installers that they are removing old ones and putting in new ones, but that isn't always the case. Look around for some system cleaning utilities that in particular clear out older driver files. The biggest culprits for this issue is ATI (AMD) and NVIDIA. There used to be a utility called nasty file remover, but I don't think it's available anymore, and especially for the newer versions of Windows. If can when you update drivers, do an uninstall first then reinstall then install the new.
Motherboard device drivers and software. Check your bios is up-to-date and you have the latest drivers for this. Go to the motherboard manufacturer's website. I hate to say it, but Intel has a whoppingly confusing website, but you can find the information there if you look carefully on there. Other manufacturer's sites are bit better, but vary.
_An enabled unnecessary device on your motherboard such as built-in sound when you have a sound-card for example.
I've run into this before where my system would intermittently freeze. After just about getting to the point of doing a fresh install, I happened to do a quick check at the BIOS. I don't know what made me do it, but I did it, and sure enough, for some reason the built-in sound was somehow clicked on in the BIOS. How the system ran fine up until that point is beyond me, but after disabling that option, the system worked fine.
Interestingly, while in the BIOS, also check your memory timings, etc. Try the default settings first. Sometimes tweaked settings end up slower due to bus timing issues, etc.
_Failing hardware such has hard drives and memory.
Yes this can happen. The hard drives in particular may operate fine for awhile, but then freeze, or work in little surges so the system seems to start-stop, start-stop as it's operating. The reason for this operation is because the hard drive is retrying sectors as it reads the data. In data-intensive operations, such as Trainz, the system will show these symptoms a bit more.
Memory is failing. This could be due to poor timing issues as well, but with failing memory, a similar thing to hard drive access is happening. The system is retrying and the retrying again to read the same data over and over, causing the system to freeze.
So I hope this helps. There are probably more, but I can't think of them at the moment.
John
