AH Stopped Working

[Noah17]

I've had AH close on me 5 times in the last 24 hours and gotten an "AH Stopped Working EXE" message. I've also noticed that the mouse/cursor doesn't always want to respond and the Vox Audio cuts in and out.

My PC seems to be working fine otherwise. It's only 1 year old and should have plenty of sound/video capability.

Driving me nuts,Any ideas?

[The Fugitive]

it could be one out of about 1000 things.

First run virus scans and defrags on your drives. Good maintenance of your computer should have you doing this once a month at least.

After you have that done hit cntrl, alt, delete to bring up your task manager. click on the proscesses tab at the top and check to see how many you have running (number will be in the lower left corner) under 25 for XP machines, under 35 for Vista, the lower the better. Adding programs will add processes spliting the time your CPU has for each job. After a year you could have really piled up a bunch.

That just cleans your computer up. After that there is internet issues, and resources issues you can look into.

[fuzeman]

Also, in Task Manager, [ at least for an XP system, have to ask Skuzzy for others ] the performance graph should cycle between 0 and 2% regularly, almost like a heartbeat. If more than 2% spikes, there is something lurking around in the background.

If applicable a DxDiag report would be handy.

[Noah17]

Ok great!

I'll try those suggestions.

Thanks!

[Skuzzy]

If you suffer an abnormal exit of the game, it is generally a good idea to rename the "settings" folder in the game installation directory as it is possible for a config file to get corrupted when an abnormal termination occurs.

Also note, it would be helpful to see a DXDIAG output.

[Noah17]

Geez......I  have  66 process's running. Is there a way to tell what is important and what I can end?

[Noah17]

I'm using vista if that matters......

When you say rename the "settings" folder do you mean that the folder would have had its name changed and that I should change the name back to "settings" and reinstall?

Also...I'm not that tech oriented. I'm not sure what DXDIAG output is.....Sorry....I feel technically inadequate....

[Noah17]

ok I found and ran a DXDIAG report. It seems to have found no errors. Should I copy and paste it here?

In task manager I noticed spikes from 3-8% as well......

[Skuzzy]

You can email it or post it.  I prefer email as it is easier to get through the data than it is on the bulletin board.  From what you have said, it sounds suspiciously like an HP computer.

[Noah17]

I emailed it to the hitech address at the bottom of your post.

It is an HP pc w/Vista...........

[Skuzzy]

As I suspected, it is an HP.  Ok, HP piles on the background processes and many things they install can interfere with the game.  From the Bluetooth drivers to Norton, you have your hands full.

A typical Vista system has about 35 to 38 processes running in the background.  With the video card you have, you really need to make sure you disable the "Detailed Terrain" option in the games "Options->Graphic Detail->Advanced" panel.

That assumes you can get that far.  Also note, if the game unexpectedly aborts, for whatever reason, it is quite possible for something to get corrupted (particulalry when Norton is installed) and would require a complete wipe of the game and re-install.

Getting rid of processes takes effort.  You have to get the name of the process, then decide if you need it, then find the method to disable it, if you chose.  Most of that starts with getting the name of the process, then heading to Google to find out all about it.  HP is not going to help you with this.

[Estes]

Theres a program out there that I believe is called Glary Utilities. Ive never used it, but have heard it has a tool that either gives you a link to a site discussing the process/service whatever or an actual description of what it does, and if its needed to run anything crucial.

You might find that helpful in eliminating the excess stuff HP runs on their machines. And if you dont want to check that program out, as mentioned above there is always the tried and true method of hitting up google with the name of the process.

[gyrene81]

If it's factory installed HP junk, I just uninstall it...makes life so much easier.

[shiv]

Autofilm running?  I get those crashes if I don't clean out my films folder every so often, once a month at least.

[Noah17]

Wow......Thanks for the suggestions. I'll start on them.

I didn't realize that much would hook itself to the pc.

I do film all sorties but normally wipe them out/delete them afterwards.

Thanks!