Hi guys when i have been playing sims 3 on the the laptop after about half hour it goes to a blue screen with writing on and flicks off fast then re starts . Was getting this before i did a system restore back to manufacturers settings, when i was just surfing the net it was happening quite a lot, now it seems to have come back again. Is this some sort of hardware failure? I am runing windows xp.

Appreciate any advice.

Certainly does sound more like a hardware failure of some sort due to the fact it hgas reappeared after a clean install. Although it could be down to driver/software errors. Does it always happen after a certain ammount of time? (say after 30 mins gaming?) or is it completely random?

If you could try and note down what the error code is on the blue screen, it would help in idintifying the cause of the fault.

Frankie

Switch off the auto restart so that you can read the blue screen for us.

1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.

2. Click the Advanced tab.

3. Under Startup and Recovery, click Settings to open the Startup and Recovery dialog box.

4. Clear the Automatically restart check box, and click OK the necessary number of times.

5. Restart your computer for the settings to take effect.

Hi guys, thanks for getting back to me!

I have done what you said grasshoper. will write it down when it does it again. The blue screen only just started happening again since i got sims 3. It happens after about 30mins to 1 hour. I did a hard wear scan and that said it fixed a few things, so see if that has fixed it. Going on the game to night so let you if it happens.

Also, the laptop seems to get very hot when on this game, so I'm not sure if the fans working properly. Is there a way of checking this?

Thanks,
Frankie
x

Well, i was just playing on thhe sims for bout 30mins and it did the blue screen thing again. Here's the error mesage that comes up:

' A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

The problem seems to be caused by the following file: ialmdev.DLL

PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen, restart your computer. If this appears again follow these steps:

Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed. If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for any updates you might need.

If problems continue disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. If you need to use safe mode to remove or disable components restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup options, and then select Safe Mode.

Technical information:

***STOP: 0x00000050(0xE2655000, 0x0000001, 0xBFA0C63F, 0x0000001)

*** ialmdev5.DLL - Address BFA0C63F base at BFA06000, DateStamp 43e8d11c '

Hope that helps to diagnose the problem?
Frankie
x

The error message suggests a graphics issue. Obviously you have an onboard Intel graphics chip. Never the best for games. But then laptops in general aren't much cop for games anyway.

I'm not sure what the graphics requirements for Sims 3 are but it could simply be that the graphics chip in your laptop is not up to the job. The fact that the laptop is getting hot whilst you are playing would suggest that it is working very hard. I suspect that it gets to a point where it gets so hot that it has to shut down.

If there are options in the settings of the game to turn some of the visual effects off, you could experiment and see if that helps.

I got this info from system properties, i have a genuine intel ® CPU T2300@1.666GHz 1.66 GHz.1 GB of RAM.

It says you need this to run it

PC system requirements:
Windows XP (SP2) / Vista (SP1)
2GHz Intel Pentium IV or equivalent for XP / 2.4GHz Intel Pentium IV or equivalent for Vista
1GB RAM for XP / 1.5GB RAM for Vista
6.1GB HDD Space (with at least 1GB of additional space for custom content and saved games)
128MB Graphics Card with Pixel Shader 2.0 support

How can i find out if my laptop can take an up grade in a graphics card?

thanks frankie

Upgrading graphics and laptops don't go together.
You're usually stuck with the graphics you have with a laptop as the chipset is integrated on the motherboard.

Its possible there's an issue with the driver and there could be an update to fix it, but looking at the specs of your laptop, you're on the edge of the game specs anyway and if you're running Vista, you're ram is below the system requirements to run the game.

Which may explain the memory error message (PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA) which is linked to the graphics.

Found this as well:

For computers using built-in graphics chipsets under Windows, the game requires at least:
* Intel Integrated Chipset, GMA 3-Series or above
* 2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent
* 0.5 GB additional RAM

Not sure which Intel integrated chipset you are using, but your hardware isn't up to the system requirements of the game.

LINK

Thanks for getting back mart. I am running windows xp on my laptop. Also how do i find out what Intel integrated chipset i am using?

When you say an update is that just doing a windows update?

Thanks Frankie

You can look in Device Manager, right click My Computer, click Properties, click Harware tab, click Device Manager.

Expand Display adapters and you should see which graphics chipset you're using.

The update I mention, is to see if there's an update for the graphics driver.

Looking at the added requirements for intergrated graphics chipsets though, you could do with an extra 512 MB of memory.
If possible you'd be better just doubling your system memory to 2GB

The cpu isn't quite up to speed either, but you are stuck with that. Thats another piece of hardware which isn't easily upgradable with a laptop,
due to the exra heat a faster cpu would generate.

There are a few things you need to consider, and as hopper mentioned earlier, gaming on most laptops can be a bit frustrating at times as they're not really made for it.