Dell Dim. 4100 restarts on certain files?

TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
edited January 2008 in Hardware
I got a used Dell Dimension 4100 desktop PC for my nephew and neice. It's an 866 P3, 384 MB RAM, XP Home SP2.

They don't have internet access at their place yet so I didn't put on much antivirus stuff.

Only problem it has is that when trying to open certain files, the computer will just shut off and restart itself.

I had installed a few small games on it, and when trying to open Pac Man, the thing just shuts off and restarts. I tried 4 times and it did it every time. There were a couple other games that played just fine.

Same thing with Sierra's 1999 game RC Racers.

It plays Windows Media Videos fine, even 2 MBit ones, but some things just don't agree with it apparently.

Might this be some unusual software problem? I could try a repair install of XP if anyone thinks that will help.

Comments

  • Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
    edited January 2008
    Might be a memory error...
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited January 2008
    Altho that makes no sense, run Memtest86+ anyway.

    What kind of software requirements do the new games require? DirectX, memory amount requirements, video/audio drivers?
  • Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
    edited January 2008
    I'm not saying it's specifically a ram error. There's three kinds of memory. Paged, nonpaged and static.

    I sat and thought about this over breakfast and since only certain games are doing it I want you to try reinstalling those games after you do a nice defrag.
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited January 2008
    Spontaneous reboot usually means hardware. Memory is one thought but I think Power Supply or overheating may be an issue also.
  • EssoEsso Stockholm, Sweden
    edited January 2008
    Run memtest, using bootable 3.5" floppy.
    Remove the floppy after boot, so you know if it reboots.

    If it does reboot under memory test, then it might be heat releated or something else.

    If it doesn't and no memory errors will be detected.
    Then test the HDD, with test program from the vendors site.

    If HDD is okay, then test the memory in Windows .....
    If it doesn't reboot, it shouldn't be heat related.

    Try uninstall graphic driver, then install a driver that can be trusted.
    I.e a year old.

    Also test the stability in safe mode,
    http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chsafe.htm


    Edit,
    It might be HDD related, corrupt files etc.
  • TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
    edited January 2008
    I forgot to mention that when the computer restarts, it pops open a window saying "The system has recovered from a serious error".

    I just click on "Don't Send" since there's no internet connection.

    I had done a full reformat of the hard drive when reinstalling XP, so I doubt a defrag would do anything, but I'll try it.

    I'll also try pulling one memory stick or the other and see if that makes any difference.

    The video card is a Radeon 9200SE with its own driver CD installed.

    I thought it may have been a power supply issue, but I've dealt with that in the past, and in this case it'll only restart when certain programs are clicked on. It could still be a problem, but it's different this time.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited January 2008
    Sup bad hard drive with bad sectors.

    http://icrontic.com/articles/hard_drive_diagnostics
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