I have a question

I just had something strange happen. I was playing KOTOR 2 which runs good on my PC (I say good Because when I go to a new area there is a chance on it hanging up and then kicking me off) Well back on topic. I was playing like normal when I hear an alarm go off. Then I realised it was comming from inside my PC. I exited the game and the alarm quit. This has never happened before. I have played games for much longe and nothing. If it is onky KOTOR 2 then fine I will get rid of the game. Is this an over heating alarm? My PC is about 3 years old and here are it stats.

System Board MSI-6533G-L by powerspec

Supports

AGP 4x slot
pentium 4. 2.19Ghz
512 DDR RAM
ATI 9000 graphics card
soundblaster live card

here are the reg, for KOTOR 2 on the Box
32meg Graphics card.
256 ram
pentium 3 1hhz 4 1.6ghz recommeneded
Win 98SE 200 and XP
Direct9.0c
I have all that and more.

So I am more that a little confused. also I have a window ac unit and my PC sits right in front of it only 17inches away. I have never had any heat issues in 3 years so if it is one why now and what can I do about it.

Thanks.

That seems pretty odd that your computer would start screaming at you like that, especially after having it for as long as you have without any prior incidents like that one. I only wish that I knew more about the internal components of computers, since with my current knowledge I could only tell you were things are located, not how you'd be able to look around and see if something is actually wrong.

The only person that comes to mind with computer things is Darkmane for some reason, but I'm not entirely sure on that one. I'm just assuming it'd be him because he has the "debug code" in his sig, and I've seen multiple posts by him in other PC help threads.

I turned the games settings down to the rec. levels and it seems to work fine. No strange alarms I don't need to tell you that that scared the $hit out of me. Weird I am only playing KOTOR 2 till GW is out anyway so if my PC hates it no big loss .

Did you get the update? It might just be the sound card and PC speaker freaking out. Other than that, I don't see why you should be getting that kind of sound. Typically there are only 3 things in a case that should ever make a sound:
1) A PC speaker
2) A Modem
3) Thermostat alarm. (Most don’t have this except for custom build machines)

Other than that it could be a fan or drive shaking loose, but you would hear that whenever those were used, not only in KOTOR 2.
Be careful though and save regularly - it froze a few times in the load screens, and I had to do ~ a half hour all over again

So (and this may be off topic) I am not the only person having problems with KOTOR 2 This makes the 4 or 5 time the game kicked me off. If it keep this it may find it self sold on eBay this time may be because I had the play disk in my CDR and not my DVD drive (felt a little stupid on that one) I do not have an internal speaker (as far as I know) and if my fan or drive was louse would here it all the time right? I must confess I am not the best computer tech. I can install memerory and cards and stuff (once I even put in a cd drive) But other thant that I am clueless. I don't know maby it was just a glitch. I played GW from 9 til 3am and never heard a peep last BWE and most likely will do it again. heres hopeing.

Check the drivers and bios for everything.

It is possible the game is relying even on a more current motherboard, video, drive controler etc. bios. So make sure you get everything up to date. Did you check the cd and blow out your cd drive? It could be the game accessing the cd and there is a defect that doesn't really stand out, or something in the cd drive (easy to check that with another cd obviously).

Also. it sounds like march hare has had different problems with the same game. Could be innocent coincidence, however, I tend to think it means there should be another patch coming for the main client very soon!

**one other odd thing that happened to me with my samsung cdrw is one of the bios spun the drive up in a way that when it got to the right speed for some cd's it would make a high pitched noise almost like a chirp or beep. This game may be spinning at a speed that just causes that to happen (bad substrate resonance due to marginal chemistry in manufacture of the CD, it happens sometimes.)

I am gonna guess if its an alarm that quit after leaving a graphic intensive game, then your video card could be overheating. Remember .. winter is pretty much over here in the US and your pc's are not goint to be used to the temperature rise. We need to find out where the sound is coming from. You can try to see if your motherboard has tools that display the temperature of the cpu/gpu ambient. If your motherboard doesnt have tools for this. Maybe check out motherboard monitor.

check for dust bunnies inside coating heatsinks

dust on fans

etc

EEEEEEVIL Dustbunnies. Thats what did it for me...

As I post here today I still have my left cover off of my PC. I have Killed all the evil Dust bunnies that were hiding under the colling fan (never looked there) on motherboard. My graphics card was still clean. I have lowered the settings on KOTOR2 so everthing should be fine(famous Last words ) Thanks for all the help.