I'm a little behind in gaming ( I wait for computer games to drop before I get 'em).

I've been trying to play the following games The Sims and Theif.

When I get so far into the game, same place in Theif and different places in The Sims, my computer screen 'blinks' kicks me out of the game, and right back to the desktop, with no error nothing. It happens once in a while in RollerCoaster Tycoon.

What could be the problem, no new hardware added, HP Pavilion, 8Gb on the HD free, 384Mb ram, P3 550, ?video card?.

I'm thinking of getting a video card, rather than the one that came with it, do you think that could be the prob.

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"MS-DOS, the only Microsoft OS that doesn't crash, or have bugs. Maybe they should have someone else write Operating Systems for them again."

There are no stupid questions, just stupid people.

this same thing happened to me with The Sims. It would close for no reason. It usually happened if I turned on the radio. And I found out it was that my mp3's I had imported for the game were not 128kbps but like 160 and 192. And The Sims can only read 128kbps. So I changed them and it worked. Occasionally, though, I do have a crash here or there. I never had a problem with Roller Coaster Tycoon though. And I never played Thief. If I get more info on it I will reply with it. Sorry to not be of more help. It also may be your background programs. MANY games do not run good with Norton Anti-Virus, if you have that running in the back, try disabling it and trying the game again. If it still crashes enable it again, cause that probably isnt the problem.

What kind of video are you running now? And what is your processor and speed? Your HP box isn't used shared sytem memory for video is it?

I had similar circumstances with thief running it on a voodoo 2 and a voodoo3 card. For the Voodoo 2, searching the eidos site, I determined that there were some video options I just could not use. The issue with the voodoo 3 was having to go back to slightly older video drivers.

Thief sold very well - you should be able to locate a lot of support resources on the web. Dig in the support and you will usually find the recommended resolutions and video driver release combos that work best...

What install did you do for Thief? The full install takes up boatload of space around 800MB or so.

You're not alone in waiting for the prices to come down although I have had Thief for about 18 months or so I can't say I willing to wait as long as you.

Can't help specifically with The Sims - never tried it. Looking at my game collection now I realize that non-violent games seem to be in the severe minority...

The Sims.com actually have a question about this: http://thesims.ea.com/us/support/question48.html

What series Pavilion?

What are you running in the background?

I've noticed that if I have ZA running in the background it will sometimes cause certain games to crash, also have problems when a virus scanner is running in the background.

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/highrise/11/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

FROM THESIMS.COM: this worked for me

- You'll need to modify the shortcut to The Sims. Browse to the Program Files\Maxis\The Sims directory (or whatever directory you've installed the game to), right click on Sims.EXE and drag it to your desktop, and select "Create Shortcut(s) Here".
- Once you have the shortcut on your desktop, right-click on it and select Properties.
- In the ‘Target’ field it should say:
"C:\Program Files\Maxis\The Sims\Sims.exe" (or the path to whichever folder it’s installed to).
- Add the following to the end of the “Target” line: “-nodx6 -skip_verify -skip_intro -w”

Now that I'm on MY pc I'll give you more info:

HP Pavilion 8495
P3 550
384MB Ram
20GB HD (7-8Gb free)
8mb ati Rage 128 Graphics with AGP slot for future upgrades (from front of PC)


Video - ATI Rage 128 VR AGP 2X
8.0M
I believe it is the on board, cause I don't see it in an expansion slot.

The only programs I have running in the background is:

BlackIce Defender
and
InoculateIT (my anti-virus program)

All of my installs are full, complete, whatever the largest install is.
I'll have to try that last suggestion.

Any more let me hear them.

Thanks

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"MS-DOS, the only Microsoft OS that doesn't crash, or have bugs. Maybe they should have someone else write Operating Systems for them again."

There are no stupid questions, just stupid people.

Try running the game with the firewall/antivirus off...if you aren't doing an online session.

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/highrise/11/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.