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RO/Steam suddenly decides to destroy my computer

Zingu

Grizzled Veteran
Feb 20, 2006
55
0
(I run on Windows XP)

I've been playing RO:Ostfront on Steam since it came out. It has always worked without problems. Until today. I was playing RO, it worked fine. Then I logged off, and turned off my computer to enjoy real life and came back home.

So, now when I turn it on, my computer is acting really sluggishly, as in screen windows drag along the screen leaving "footprints", lines going down screen when you scroll down and you can see the fade in when your computer goes to your desktop from the login in screen - that type of crap you have when you haven't installed drivers for your video card.

Now, first I didn't think RO was at fault, so I checked how much hard drive space I had left, that was fine. I checked for viruses or spyware, none. So, then I boot up steam and try playing RO. Big Surprise, I get an error about RO.exe file trying to execute the program in an unexpected manner..blah blah. (I wished I had saved the original) and promptly exits. After trying to reboot before with no avail, I uninstall RO and reboot.

And what do you know, my computer is working fine, no sluggish activity, perfect as normal. So I think, "well, that's odd", I'll reinstall RO then. I started the download, and went for a walk.

When I come back, I look at the screen and move the mouse, I am at 75%, then my computer emits a BEEP and the screen goes BLACK and unresponsive, the computer is still running. So, now I restart, and my computer is back to being sluggish as RO installs (83%) as I speak here.

So, I'm here to say a major WTF is going on?! Why has this happened? How can Steam/RO be messing with my entire computer? I just log off like any other day and now its gone crazy. I'm thinking of reinstalling Steam completely if this fails again.

Any explanations?


EDIT - Okay, this time I uninstalled Steam and my computer is still running horribly. I'm going to do a Disk Error check and then a Defragmentation of my hard drive. I still don't understand why RO doesn't run though. I guess no RO for tonight. :(
 
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Okay, well I was wrong!

Here's my problem.

Immediately after finishing the installation of the drivers and restarting my computer, my computer works fine. So, I play Red Orchestra and everything is running smoothly.

But then when I log off and TURN OFF my computer, something bad happens. Because when I booted up again, and turned on my computer, its back to being sluggish and crappy. And Red Orchestra refuses to run, I get this error:


Shot at 2007-07-30


So it IS Red Orchestra that is messing my computer up, where I have to reinstall drivers and Red Orchestra just to fix it? WHY?!


Note, I have uninstalled and reinstalled Red Orchestra in the past, including Steam.
 
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Just for piece of mind and because it's so easy to check.... have you cracked open the PC and looked inside to make sure all the fans and such are running?

Unlikely problem but takes 2 min to check before you start tearing apart XP with driver changes etc. Make sure case fans are running, vid card fan, CPU fan and make sure the northbridge heatsink is firmly in place (no wires close to fans and maybe jamming them). Believe it or not but my mom's PC had hers just drop off because the spring tension on the sink was so strong, it pulled the retaining clips off the mobo. That overheating basically caused randomish errors (usually under stress) and reboots. Good for me as I was thinking fried x850 vid card which I REALLY didn't want to replace, couldn't believe it when I cracked the case open.

edit- forgot, that type of behavior can also be a hard drive dying. Might want to run a test on it.
Drive Fitness Test
Version 4.09
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Luck
T.
 
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