I need help

[liverbird]

Not sure if anyone can help but is it possible for a game to make a monitor lose connection with the computer ie goes blank with message no connection...  This only happens while playing sims 2 for about 5mins..  Any help would be great..
I also have a question I have a file called cigen in my sims 2 folder which is located in my documents folder does anyone know what it is or does & do I need it..

[Theraven]

Sounds a bit what happened on my laptop... It went black at random times, often when playing sims. Had it repaired when I couldn't even turn it on. Not sure what caused it, though.

The computer is still on, but the screen goes blank? You can't even get the Task manager up? (you get it up by pressing Ctrl + alt + delete)

[liverbird]

Yeah thats right only way to turn it off is by holding power button half in for 3secs..  When I turn it back on the monitor works again very strange started happening last week never happened before after all the years I have been playing sims including on this computer for last 2 years...

[caffeinated.joy]

I don't think it's a problem with the sims, but rather a hardware problem. It could be a few different things. It could be a symptom of your video card overheating or not being seated properly. It could be a sign you need to update your drivers, or that your PSU isn't working properly.

[liverbird]

But how come it only happens when I'm playing sims..  I have just done a driver update search & it updated my graphic card driver even though I only updated it last month..  I'll see if that works...

[Theraven]

My laptop was getting old and tired (it still works, but sims is running slightly faster than a snail on it), and I think some strangeness had gotten into it. Not a virus, but some downloaded program messing up a few functions or something (according to those who "fixed" it, anyway). The troubles started again after a few months, so I realized it was about time to get a new computer. It was not much more than 4 years, but I had driven it very hard...

But yes, most likely it's a hardware problem. Overheating due to dust, for instance, especially if the computer is getting old.

Sims is a resource demanding program, so it's not that strange if troubles happen only when playing sims. Was the same for me, although things only got worse. I was pretty freaked out when it didn't even want to turn on.

My best advice is to backup everything you want to save on your computer, and do it as soon as possible. On CD's or DVD's might be the best. External harddrives can crash just like a computer.

[caffeinated.joy]

Games take up more resources than surfing the web or editing documents. This is why you see so many high-end computers with plenty of RAM, high processor speeds, high-end graphic cards and plenty of hard drive space being touted as gaming computers. If you are going to find any problems with your hardware, be it your monitor, graphic card, PSU or whatnot, it will be when you're running a game. The sims is especially greedy when it comes to using your computer resources.

[Paden]

My lappie did the same thing; found out that the graphics card was shot and the motherboard was on the way out, so now I get to replace both of them. *sigh* Dang it, I liked that lappie!