Crashes to reboot!

New Citizens Q&A
1

I am still in the tutorial. Of the three times I’ve been on, two have lasted until my game crashed all the way to a reboot of my PC.

Can this be cause by:

  • a disconnection to the internet? (thus happens randomly sometimes)
  • because I’m using Windows 8?
  • because my computer is just broken?
  • ???

Thanks

2

Yeah, if your computer is rebooting/BSOD’ing, I’d recommend checking your hardware.

First things first, make sure that your computer isn’t set to restart after system failures. This will give you time to see the BSOD error code if there is one. You can find directions here. If you do get a BSOD, write down the error, as that can help point us in the right direction.

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If you don’t know where to begin, you can:

  • Make sure that all your drivers are up to date (do not use a driver updater. Manually install drivers from the computer manufacturer or individual hardware manufacturer websites.)
  • Run a memory test
  • Run a Hard Drive Test
  • Blow out your computer with compressed air
  • visually inspect your mobo for busted caps or any other damage
  • Use a PSU tester (they’re cheap) to test the PSU.
  • Dive into the Event Viewer to look for clues
  • Reinstall windows (as a last resort)
3

Thanks I’ll see what I can do.

It just might be time for a new computer. This ONLY happens on this game and when I play Civ5. But my internet connects seems to go and come back randomly.

4

Well, if it’s happening with two games, we can assume that the problem is with your system, and not the game.

Anyway, keep me up to speed, and I’ll try to help the best that I can.

Also, if you do manage to get this sorted, please come back and tell us how you did it. It might help someone else with the same problem.

2 Likes
5

Will do. Thanks again

7

Turns out my computer was overheating. Turned down the graphics and it seems to be better, my ship looks crappy though. Hopefully I can find a middle setting that works.

The temp was shooting up from 61C to like 98C in a couple minutes.

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8

Okay, use compressed air to blow out the fans and heatsinks. Note that depending on design, you may need to separate heatsink fans from heatsinks to be able to properly blow out all the dust.

If you feel comfortable doing it, you can replace the thermal paste that is in between the heatsink and CPU/GPU/APU. Thermal paste can dry out over time and lose it’s thermal conductivity. There are general tutorial videos on how to do this, and it’s not very hard. As for cleaning off the old thermal paste, you can use thermal paste remover, or 90% or better isopropyl alcohol. Of course, the latter might be more difficult to come by nowadays.

Anyway, doing that will help your computer to better cool itself, which will hopefully allow you to turn your graphics settings back up.

1 Like
9

thank you.

I’ll try blowing it out.

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10

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