ok, i had this problem for a while now, and now it's really starting to piss me off. with games like red alert 2, quake 4, doom 3, fear, even shit like sims, i can start a game and play it, but if i exit it, and want to run it again, with all these games it tells me that it has encountered a problem blah blah blah and unless i restart i can't run the game again. wtf is going on?

7/29/2006 4:13:08 PM

Sounds like one of three things. Maybe a video or sound driver is corrupted to some extent. This could cause crap to be left in memory by 3d or EAX (in the case of an audio driver) accelerated games. It's also possible that your directx install is corrupted. Those are the only things I can think of that would pretty much cause problems with ALL games you'd play but not nescessarily normal windows operation. The third possibility is that something else has become corrupted, but I really can't think what else would do that except possibly a virus.

you could try downloading the latest version of directx here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=2DA43D38-DB71-4C1B-BC6A-9B6652CD92A3&displaylang=en

You may also want to uninstall your video and sound drivers, and install clean copies of the latest versions. If none of that works, there's always virus scanning and then reformatting and reinstalling windows.

I highly doubt hardware is to blame since you're not getting system lockups or hard resets.

[Edited on July 29, 2006 at 7:36 PM. Reason : ]

7/29/2006 7:34:46 PM

just to clarify, splinter cell works fine, so does need for speed, but yea i'm thinking i'll have to format soon, i guess i could use it as an excuse to buy a raptor and put my OS on it

7/29/2006 7:42:51 PM

Ah alright, I thought you meant ALL games did that. Darn, ALL games would have been easier to call a directx or driver problem. That'd still be one of my guesses, but yeah running a diagnostic on your harddrive and reformatting/reinstalling if it passes might be the solution here. You also might want to run a memory test.

Anyone know of something comprehensive like PC Doctor, except free?

[Edited on July 29, 2006 at 7:52 PM. Reason : ]

7/29/2006 7:49:55 PM

i was thinking perhaps games leave something open (running) say in the task manager that i can just end, but there's nothing out of the ordinary there.... and also, i tried logging off instead of restarting, still dont work, so still have to restart every time. now, it will let me run say quake, then run doom, then whatever, just not the same game again. an i did re-install direct x

[Edited on July 29, 2006 at 8:50 PM. Reason : ]

7/29/2006 8:49:58 PM