Need Help, explanation as to why my computer is crashing.

[Zargabaath]

I had two scares today with my computer, shows how awesome my day was. I've been interested in playing Last Remnant (PC) because the gameplay really intrigued me. Well I saw that it was on sale at the steam store, you need steam to play the PC version. So I was shoot let me get that jank. So I downloaded steam and installed Last Remnant.

Here is where the problem arose: when I launched the game and was looking through the keyboard setting the game crashed my computer where it shut off. After many unsuccessful attempts to turn the computer back on, I was able to get it working again. So, like a dumb*ss I decided let me try this one more time. This time I selected "new game" and that sh*t shut my computer off instantly. When I tried to power on my computer it would instantly cut off after a few seconds. Eventually I saw that the computer had a fatal error before it shut off once more.

Luckily, after returning from work where I prayed to Computites, god of Computers to fix mine, I was able to successfully start up my computer. My questions are: do any of you good denizens know exactly in a more technological sense what is going on with the game & is there any way to fix it from crashing my computer? Or should I just cut my losses? Is it possible to get a refund from steam if I tell them my situation?

As for some of my computer specs:

OS: Windows Vista: 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU T5800 @ 2.00 GHz
4.00 GB or RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
DirectX 10

If you need anymore let me know cause I'm not that tech savvy to know what I should include for this. Thanks for any help that you can impart.

[Victoria]

Here's a question for you. Is your computer a laptop?
If so, the requirements listed on Steam specifically state that laptop versions of the requirements are not supported. (Video cards, anyway.)

And I doubt Steam would give you a refund just cause your computer can't play it.
Honestly though I can't really tell you what to do to fix it, or what's causing the problem.

But I do know that I experience the same problem when I shut down Vindictus, except it reboots my computer rather than shuts it down, but I figured out why it does that... and fixed it. It was a 'windows error' problem. Just had to uncheck a box.

But uh, yours seems a bit more dire than that. "Fatal Error" does not sound good, although I wish there were more specifics for that fatal error.

Do me a favor and go to here: YouGamers - Games - The Last Remnant
This will let you know if your computer can play Last Remnant or not. I did notice you don't have enough CPU for the "Recommended" specs, but you do for Minimum, so.. theoretically it should be fine.

Sorry I can't be of any more help. But um, it sounds like you're pretty much boned unless you get a better computer. ...How long have you had your computer?

[Zargabaath]

I thought I could get by with Minimum settings as I'm flexible but it seems I am barely under the min mark saying "the overall performance of your system is slightly under the publisher's minimum requirements... performance may be poor and it is likely that you will need to use the lowest possible visual settings in order to get the game to run."

It also says, my graphics card performance is slightly lower than the min but, my processor performance is slightly higher than min.

I got this laptop late 2008 which is why I thought I could pass by on min. I was able to play the demo but that probably has different settings & whatnot. There was some information as to what type of fatal error, which I could've wrote but did not at the time. I'm sure I could find out if I ran the game bu~t I'd rather wait till I have a better pc as I don't want anything too bad to happen. In the meantime I'll just have to cut my losses.

[Victoria]

Yeah.. pretty much. Honestly, playing games on Laptops usually isn't a good idea unless the Laptop itself is kind of current. If a laptop gets over a year old, nuh uh.

That's why Desktops are usually better. ..You can actually upgrade those. Can't really upgrade laptops all that much. Well, I guess you can if you know what you're doing..

[Sean]

Laptops are still better technology than what's thrown in "current gen" gaming systems, as long as they aren't super budget laptops. MOST laptops can run MOST games on low to mid settings without a problem. MOST games also have built-in checks for minimum hardware requirements and will refuse to load and display an error if the system cannot handle it at all.

This sounds like a RAM problem to me. More specifically, since it's a laptop, you don't encounter the error until the system starts allocating resources to the RAM set aside for graphics, hence you wouldn't see it unless starting a 3D game.

Click start (or the Windows button, depending on OS) and hover over my computer/computer, right click and click properties.

Click on advanced system properties (Vista/7) and look for the advanced tab. Check the bottom for Startup and Recovery, click settings, and uncheck "Automatically Restart" under the "System failure" tab.

Next time it happens, write down the WORDS located in the blue screen to follow and let me know what they say. My guess will be something along the lines of IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL or something that includes the word MEMORY



In the mean time, download memtest86 (google it), burn the .iso to a CD (NOT as a file, if you burn it as a data disk it won't work, if you need to know how to burn an ISO to DVD, again, google it), boot the laptop from the CD and let the software run overnight. If it runs into an error, replace your RAM (both, if there are two chips)

Newegg.com - Computer Parts, Laptops, Electronics, HDTVs, Digital Cameras and More! and TigerDirect.com - Computers, Computer Parts, Computer Components, Netbooks & Electronics are great resources for RAM. To find out the type (My guess is Laptop DDR2) download and run CPU-Z (again, google it) and click the memory tab, it'll tell you the type of installed RAM on the computer.

Replacing RAM in a laptop is a simple procedure. Look at the bottom for the biggest looking hatch. Remove the screws, pop the hatch off, and push the thumb clips on either side of the chip to pop it out. Align the new RAM (Make sure to touch something metal before handling new computer components to discharge built-up static) and snap in place.