Need Help With Game Crashes

[PolyAmorous]

Hey, everyone. I've been having the same problem for more than 8 months and cant seem to find a solution.

Backround: bought counter-strike source, was running it with a ati 9200 se, wanted to increase my fps and graphics. So I went out and bought an bfg gforce 6600gtoc, another 512 of pc2700 ram, and a 550 watt p.s.

Now whenever I try to play source I get a datacache.dll error (they're working on it, hopefully solved soon). But when I try to play FEAR, or BF2, I get constant crashes to desktop, while loading a map or such.

Sidenote: I play counter-strike 1.6 and condition zero all the time with no crashes.

Here's what I'm running.

Pentium 4, 2.8ghz
1 gig pc2700 ram
gforce 6600gtoc
some 80 gig h/d
ThameStar 550 watt atx p.s
(all the latest drivers...except mobo drivers)

After reading another post on this forum, it seems that my cheapo power supply might be the culprite? How can I know for sure?

I'm really stumped and just want to play these games.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
thanks in advance

 

[vegasgmc]

It could be the power supply and also some left over crap from the old ATI driver. Also the 6600GTs run very hot so they need alot of cooling.

 

[tifc8lraz]

Try reverting back to an older driver set from Nvidia.

 

[PolyAmorous]

I reformatted my pc in a last resort, still didnt work, went back to the nvidia driver 77.77, and still didnt work.... I'm stumped.

I honestly think its my power supply. Or my card just hates my mobo. I still dont understand why it would crash on the newer games only? maybe b/c it requires my card to do more work?

And I had my side panel off my case, and had a house fan blowing into it and it still didnt do anything.

 

[PolyAmorous]

Ok so yesterday I went to futureshop and bought a daynex 500 watt p.s. installed it, tried to play bf2, crashed to desktop.

I NEED HELP.....

 

[wolfram]

How many amps it has on the +12V rail? Check the PSU label.

 

[PolyAmorous]

it was like 16/18, i put my old p.s back in that has 24 amps on the +12, and took my 6600gt out and put a x1300 pro in and i can play bf2 now....I think I solved my problem.

We'll see

 

[wolfram]

Without a doubt, the weak PSU was your problem.

 

[zazazoom]

hey all, regarding that datacache.dll problem.. i have the same problem.. i can play frozen throne fine but when i play source...sometimes right when i connect to a server it just crashes with that same error
appname. hl2exe mod name datacache.dll mod ver00000 offset 00006413...its weird because i've never had this problem before..just like recently 2 months or so..i playing my games fine :Ti dont think its my video card..i already tried changing my card..i had a 9700 then i bought a cheap geforce 5500 just to see if it would stop the error...but no...any suggestions? in regards to the +12V amp stuff...i don't really understand..my powersuppply is pretty good. 500watts
others pecs
asus p4s533-e p4 2.4 radeon 9700 pro/ geforce 5500 bfg 256mb agp o/c

this error is really annoying me

 

[PolyAmorous]

I solved the problem...

I swapped out 3 power supplies....no go. I swapped an ati 9200se to a geforce 6600gtoc to an ati x1300 pro, then to a geforce 7800gsoc. All with no luck.

Then I built another gaming computer for my wife, and needed some ram just to see if it worked....took out the additional 512 stick of ram, put it in her computer....and BANG no more datacache.dll error. The timing was the same on both sticks....my mobo just didnt like the 2nd stick of crucial.

So if you have 2 sticks of ram, remove one and try playing. If still no, then swap it with the other and try again.

I can play source/bf2/fear...everything now.

Oh and try updating either you're bios or chipset agp driver if that doesnt work.

 

[wolfram]

regarding that datacache.dll problem.. i have the same problem.. i can play frozen throne fine but when i play source...sometimes right when i connect to a server it just crashes with that same error
appname. hl2exe mod name datacache.dll mod ver00000 offset 00006413...its weird because i've never had this problem before..just like recently 2 months or so..i playing my games fine :Ti dont think its my video card..i already tried changing my card..i had a 9700 then i bought a cheap geforce 5500 just to see if it would stop the error...but no...any suggestions? in regards to the +12V amp stuff...i don't really understand..my powersuppply is pretty good. 500watts
others pecs
asus p4s533-e p4 2.4 radeon 9700 pro/ geforce 5500 bfg 256mb agp

Make sure that's a quality PSU. What brand is it? Check the PSU's label.

Also, you could run memtest, and let it run for 7-8 passes (takes a lot), to see if you have faulty RAM.
Just keep on mind, that even faulty sticks, can pass properly memtest.

 

[zazazoom]

hmm faulty ram. what program do i use to run that memtest? hmm ram might be a consideration. for my mother board..p4s533-E what kind of ram should i get? or there a limitation what i can get? my psu is antec truepower 2.0 550 watt eps 12v
TP2 -550EPS12V this problem is a piss off haha

 

[Icthus25]

Hi,

I've been getting this problem too, cs:source keeps hanging/crashing the pc, with the same errors coming up...

(Faulting application hl2.exe, version 0.0.0.0, faulting module datacache.dll)

and I want to know if it has anything to do with windows XP not being able to register my RAM. Windows XP only identifies RAM up to 3gb, but I have 4gb. Is this causing the issue?

I've gone down the road of:
updating and backdating gpu drivers.
defragmenting the hardrives.
re-installing xp
adjusting the heapsize values of counterstrike source.
Turning all video settings in cs:s at lowest.
maintaining all the latest windows updates and steam updates.

The only thing I haven't tried is a different psu, or taking the ram out.
But if a 600w 19a psu can't handle it what will?

Pentium 4D, 3ghz
4gb CM2X1024-5400C4
BFG 7900
Jeantech Arctic 600 watt 19a PSU

 

[zazazoom]

solution

hey buddy i figured out my problem..if it ain't your psu its your ram..one of your chips are faulty..i dunno how to run a mem test or what program u used..but basically i did trial and error with my ram chips. i found the one that was giving me problems...just do the same with yours..take out one..try running it...if it crashes take that one out and put the other one back in..just see which ones u can use without crashing the game...then just replace it....damn 4 gigs of ram..dunno why u need soo much haah

 

[Icthus25]

I don't think its always down to a faulty psu or ram cos mine are fine.
But I have resolved the problem of cs:source crashing.

This may have been down to 1 of 2 things I did. Firstly i reduced the heapsize value in cs:source, as the game can hang if the value is set too high. The usual advice you get is to add half of your total ram as the heapsize value for cs:s, but you shouldn't have to do that if you have a lot of ram. So i reduced the heapsize value down to accommodate for 1gb of memory, instead of half the total, which in my case would be more than required.

I also increased the pci latency timer in my bios to over 200 as the default was 64, which may have had something to do with it.