constant BSOD / freezes / XP geforce 8800gt

No idea if this is the issue, but you might want to check that you have AMD's dual core optimizer (found on this page) installed.

Thanks for the tip.  I tried that and still no luck.  It usually crashes in the tutorial, but I've seen it crash just attempting to change menu settings.  I do have blume off as well. 

Is Sins the only game that has problems, and is there any error message on the BSOD?

it is the only game that has the problem, however I did have Warhammer online crash twice yesterday (one BSOD).  It's the only other game I've tried to play since installing Sins.  Warhammer has crashed in the past but pretty infrequently.  I hate to think that something got corrupted during the install.  I'm beginning to think about trying a system restore.

The BSOD happens too fast for me to see the message.  I'll try to get a closer look next time.

Shrike7,

Is the video card new? or been purchased in the last 9 months or so. Nvidia

had issues with bumps on some of their video chips and chipsets ..

Basically when the chip gets too hot ... the material get soft and connecting

crack and cause BSOD and other issues ...

If it is, RMA the card and get a new one. I prefer Nvidia carda when I build

linux systems. Right now, I'm using ATIs video cards when I build PC system

now. Also, the drivers for ATI had gotten better.

I was thinking of overheating, but that should crash other games quite frequently too, checking the GPU temperature couldn't hurt, though, i use the free GpuZ for that.

And there is a newer driver version available, the 180.84. It should increase performance, but may not solve the problem at hand.

Other reasons could be some background programs or services, but in my experience they mainly cause performance drops (except certain p2p program that occasionally caused BSOD's on my old XP machine). There is a clean reboot method that temporarily prevents all non-essential programs, drivers and services from loading at start-up, but i'm not sure if the game can run after that.

Yeah I did purchase the card in Sept. 08.  I hadn't heard about that chip issue - good to know.  My BSOD only happens consistently with Sins which makes me question if it's hardware related though.

Could be a range of things. Personally I would check the eventlog for further information (Control Panel - Admin Tools - Event Log) - Look at the system one for warnings and errors. Also check the application log.

Post the results of this.

Thanks - I will try the event log when I'm home later tonite and post my findings here.

this is from the application log:

Faulting application sins of a solar empire.exe, version 1.1.2.0, faulting module sins of a solar empire.exe, version 1.1.2.0, fault address 0x000225b4.

I tried to see the bsod message and all I could see was something about a dll before it tried to reboot.

I've been playing the new Red Alert 3 game on my other system. I

had to add a extra fan to the system. The game put a big load on

the graphics card. Before adding the extra fan the game would crush

the game. I found out my ATI graphics card was getting too hot and

caused the crash. I have sins on that system too. The card get hot,

but doesn't crash.

Now the crash is resolved, most likely your system needs better air

flow.

Faulting application usually points too RAM issues in my experiance, however it could be a range of things. Is is always after 5 minutes of playing? or can you go on for longer and it's a random crash?

When you are a few minutes into the game, can you alt-tab and bring up task manager and screenshot the performance tab?

Also, it's worth uninstalling your current drivers. rebooting. Downloading these drivers:

http://downloads.guru3d.com/Forceware-GeForce-180.48-XP-32-bit-WHQL-download-2122.html

Installing, rebooting and trying SINS again.

I hvve had the same issues as you my friend, It is the RAM that is about to Die.

Only way to fix that is to install new RAM, but im not sure tough since my problem was on a Laptop

If it is indeed a memory failure, you can use memtes86 to test which RAM module is the faulty one (it seems i have freeware tool for every problem ), the thing is, that must be burned to a cd and booted with it. Also there are brand new Nvidia drivers (185.20)

(not yet available from nvidia's website, so use at your own risk), with something called "Ambient Occlusion".

hey I was away on the weekend but thank you all for the advice.  I will try the memory test later.  I remember glancing at task manager once and thinking it wasn't as much of a hog as Warhammer online.  I can replicate this issue 100% of the time so far, about 5 minutes in (and not always the same part of the tutorial).  I do have 4gigs of RAM.

The 8800's run hot, I use "Riva tuner" (free downloadable software), to turn the fan speed up on the card.  I've increased the fan speed duty cycle to 70%, and it runs fine, otherwise, I'd get 5 to 10 minutes before it would crash. Hope this helps.

I have tried a few of the recommendations above:

1) New drivers.  I installed the 180.48 driver that was recommended above.  That didn't fix it

2) I tried the Riva tuner and set the duty cycle to 70%.  Likewise that didn't help. 

I haven't done the memory test, but if I had faulty memory wouldn't it have come up in other games?  I mentioned I play WAR which regularly uses more.  I compared them in task manager.  Sins would have about 800,000k usage, whereas WAR regularly runs 900+.  WAR typically runs fine.

If it was memory, it should BSOD other games and applications too, still checking it couldn't hurt. Have you checked your system temperatures while playing? If you have two monitors you can use, set up an extended desktop so you can play the game on the first, and see the temperatures on the second, if not alt-tabbing before you expect the BSOD to happen should work.