System Crashing

Hi,

I'm new to GW, and have had many problems with my computer crashing since installing, and would appreciate any help.

After installing GW, and while trying to create my character, my computer would go to blue screen and give me the error:

*** Hardware Malfunction
Call your hardware vendor for support
NMI: Parity Check/Memory Parity Error
*** The system has halted ***

and then I would have to restart because it froze.

I decided to update my drivers, as well as my video driver (ATI Mobility Radeon X1800), thinking that my hardware may not be up to specs. Since updating, I'm allowed to play anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes, at which time it either crashes, or freezes, or sends me the above error message and crashes again. I haven't been able to get from the city to my first mission in Prophesies without a crash, and consequently have to start over again because the game doesn't save my progress (or if it does, I don't know how to save).

My computer is an Alienware M5700i-R2 Series
(2) Intel(R) CPU T2400 @ 1.83GHz processors
2 GB Memory

I'm better than the average computer user, but by no means a geek. Any thoughts?

Thanks

Does this happen with any other games or programs? You video card is an older model, but it should be GW compatible (abeit not at max settings). Also, are you on XP or Vista - and what is the driver that you are using?

Hi,

No--I haven't had any other problems like this with games, but have only played Morrowind and Oblivion. I haven't played any online games before.

I had to do a system restore and get rid of the new video driver because it caused everything (icons & text) in my display, webpages, e-mail, software programs, etc to be so small I can barely read without having to zoom the pages where able. So, the system info listed below is current (unless automatically upgraded), with the exception of adding another GB of memory last year.

I very much appreciate the help!

Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Media Center, 2002

o Processor 1
• Name: Genuine Intel(R) CPU T2400 @ 1.83GHz
• Manufacturer: GenuineIntel
• Caption: x86 Family 6 Model 14 Stepping 8
• Version: Model 14, Stepping 8
• Current Clock Speed: 987MHz
• Address Width: 32Bits
• Data Width: 32Bits
• Socket Designation: U2E1

o Processor 2
• Name: Genuine Intel(R) CPU T2400 @ 1.83GHz
• Manufacturer: GenuineIntel
• Caption: x86 Family 6 Model 14 Stepping 8
• Version: Model 14, Stepping 8
• Current Clock Speed: 987MHz
• Address Width: 32Bits
• Data Width: 32Bits
• Socket Designation: U2E1

o Memory Module 1
• Capacity: 512MB
• Bank Label: DIMM #1
• Mem_Type: DDR2-SDRAM
• Mem_Bandwidth: PC5300 (333 MHz)

o Memory Module 2
• Capacity: 512MB
• Bank Label: DIMM #3
• Mem_Type: DDR2-SDRAM
• Mem_Bandwidth: PC5300 (333 MHz)

Video Adapter

o Caption: ATI Mobility Radeon X1800
o Adapter RAM: 256MB
o Driver Version: 6.14.10.6601

Hard Drive(s) (Currently 34.0 GB Free Space)

o FUJITSU MHV2080BH SCSI Disk Device
• Model: FUJITSU MHV2080BH SCSI Disk Device
• Size: 80GB
• Total Heads: 255
• Total Cylinders: 9729
• Total Tracks: 2480895
• Tracks Per Cylinder: 255

Optical Drives / Other Storage

o _NEC DVD_RW ND-6750A

DirectX Version: 9c

Seems like a RAM problem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAM_parity

Try removing the ram you added and see if you can play stable.