Crashes to reboot or locks up

[Darkgreen]

So I’ve been having problems with M2TW crashing my computer. I recently got a new machine so I could catch up on the series. I just installed windows 7.

My computer has completely crashed a few times from the game to rebooting. When it does this my screen usually just goes black for a bit and then the computer restarts and asks if I want to start up into safe mode. A few times the screen has gone black and I assume just locks up because nothing happens and I have to hit the reset button.
One time I got a screen of vertical gray stripes and I had to hit the reset button.

In all of these cases I haven’t been playing for more than 10 minutes. Sometimes I get this problem after just 4-5 minutes. A couple times the screen has gone black like it does when it reboots or locks up but then goes back to the game after 5-10 seconds, but eventually (and every time so far) the game will crash and reboot or lock up my computer.

The last couple times I managed to check the temperatures of my processor and graphics card a minute or two before crashing. My graphics card hit 49 and the warmest core on my processor was 58, so those shouldn’t be the problem, right?

Here is what I have and what I’m running.

XFX HD-577X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 video card
Intel Core i5-760 Lynnfield 2.8GHz processor
8 gig of RAM
Windows 7 professional 64 bit
I have a 650w power supply, so that shouldn’t be a problem, right?

I have the 1.3 patch installed and I have DirectX 11. I’m not very knowledgeable when it comes to fixing these kinds of things so any help would be greatly appreciated.

[irishron]

It could be. What is the make and model? Have you checked your voltages?

Have you updated all your drivers including motherboard chipset drivers?

[Darkgreen]

Hi Irishron. Thank you for responding.

My power supply: Rosewill Libertas Series LIB-650 650W

Check voltages? How do I do that and what would I be checking for?

I’ve installed so many updates and drivers the last few days in setting up this computer that I don’t even remember. How do I check for something like that and what other drivers should I be checking? My motherboard: ASRock P55 PRO/USB3.

Thanks for any help that you or anyone else gives me. I know that questions like these from relatively computer illiterate people can be irritating.

[irishron]

Rosewell power supplies do not have a good track record and can be your problem. Mrcrusty who posts in the Basement knows them better than I do. Even at 80% under load, it should work.
As far as motherboard, the ones on the motherboard install disc should be good.
Run Speedfan, and in the bottom right corner are the voltages. PC Wizard and HWMonitor are two more.

Black screen like that is usually hardware.

Software side, have you manually installed directx 9.0c?

[Darkgreen]

I installed from my motherboard disc.

I will have to wait until I get home from work to run SpeedFan to check my voltages. What will I be looking for. What should I see or what should I not see?

I’m running DirectX 11 right now, but I should install DirectX 9.0c?

[irishron]

Look for voltage differences greater than plus or minus 3%. Any more, it may run but it will wear out parts faster.

Yes, install dx9. The game needs it and dx11 is not backward compatible.

[Darkgreen]

Okay. So I downloaded direct x 9.0c and I made it about half an hour before a crash to black screen lockup and reboot.
I’m getting some streaking gray horizontal lines, but only mostly in the options and settings screens. I’m also getting some random gray polygons flashing quickly on screen during battles, but not often. Also during battles, sometimes my screen goes black, the music keeps playing, and then after 5-10 seconds the battle comes back up on screen.

I downloaded SpeedFan and I’m still don’t know what I should be looking for. The bottom right corner has nothing but the bottom left does have voltage readings.

[irishron]

Your AUX is 128C. Right now for nothing else to go by I am assuming it's your gpu. Is the fan on it working? Hvae you blown it out just in case?

Now the rest.
3v + 3% = 3.09. All three of yours are running high.
1.5v - 3% = 1.15. Both are running low. I believe fans run off this one and that would make your fans run slow. Not good.
+12v is good.

What I see is this game is killing your power supply and your power supply is killing your computer. The computer I built last year blew out a 600w psu and it's not as good as yours.

Try either turning the graphics card fan to 100% in either CCC or MSI Afterburner. It may help for a while.

[Darkgreen]

“Blown it out”?
I took the side panel off on my case and observed all fans running. GPU, graphics card, and case fans. I also periodicaly alt-esc to the desktop to monitor my graphics card and gpu temps. The gpu never got above 56 and the graphics card never got above 51.

So are you thinking a bad power supply or a not powerful enough power supply?

I downloaded an updated graphics card driver. I just was able to play for a little over an hour. The game didn’t lock up or reboot like it had, but the game quit on me in another way. Black screen and then to the desktop where I got this warning “M2 Total War encountered an unspecified error and will now exit.”

I was also getting a lot of momentary black screens (maybe sometimes for 10-15 seconds) with the M2TW cursor or hourglass still on the screen and music still playing. This was happening maybe once every 5-6 minutes. And I’m still getting fast flickering polygons maybe once every minute during battles.

[irishron]

Have you run memtest or another ram tester to see if a stick of ram maybe bad?

It is hardware related. If it's not the graphics card or drivers or heat, the next suspect is ram.

I do have a bad feeling about your power supply but I am hoping not.

[Darkgreen]

I ran memtest overnight and it didn't find anything.

Thanks again for your continuing help. I know this is going well beyond the scope of this game.

[irishron]

I can only say from where I sit it's your power supply doing it. If it can't hold its voltages in check and give you the amps for the card when you need them, it will cause this.