Random crashes

[Soulsmith]

PC specs are:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+
ATI Radeon X800XL 512mb (catalyst 7.9)
2GB ram
Dual monitors (not sure if this could be a problem)
Vista Ultimate with all windows updates

Ok so I did a complete install from the DVD before I tried to play but I can't get furthur than the start of the Cairo level before it crashes to desktop with no specific error, just the generic "Halo 2 for vista has stopped working etc.". I thought it might be a memory error so I disabled everything non-MS, even my AV's realtime protection and increased the pagefile to 3GB but it still crashes. Im busy defragging now as per the other posts advice.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[Caboose O'Malley]

What about your Audio card? Tried updating the drivers for it? Or the -nosound parameter?
People tend to completely forget their Audio Cards and it's often the source of their problems.

[Con]

I've never heard of audio related things causing a game to crash, It's most likely something else. Make sure your CPU or GPU isn't overheating, I get the same thing when they get too hot. Games will crash in the exact same way as a way to reduce the load on the processors. Whenever I play a graphically-intense game, I just open up my case and the window or point a table-top fan into the open case.

[Caboose O'Malley]

Just trust me on this one, it may very likely be related to your Audio
what do you have to lose by trying out the -nosound parameter?

[Soulsmith]

Ok, I tried -novsync and -nosound and neither worked. The last time it crashed the "fault module" was given as xlive.dll, does this help? also, I can post a dxdiag if you think it'll help

*edit* also, when it plays that halo logo file the white light only ever gets to the left hand side of the 'a' of 'halo' and then stops while the sound carries on playing */edit*

[SnaFuBAR]

the hell are you talking about, caboose? the soundcard and it's drivers would not cause the computer to shut off randomly nor would it cause it to not stay on after multiple restarts. it's a saftey feature on the cpu that prevents it from melting. it won't stay on after multiple restarts because it's already hot.

lmao, soundcard.

[Vicky]

I get the same thing when they get too hot. Games will crash in the exact same way as a way to reduce the load on the processors. Whenever I play a graphically-intense game, I just open up my case and the window or point a table-top fan into the open case.

Ever heard of case-fans and a good cpu-cooler?

[Soulsmith]

Maybe I should have made it clear, it crashes to desktop it is far from overheating

[Soulsmith]

New error: "Initialization failed. Either insufficient system resources were found to run the game, or game data is missing or damaged. etc."

I already tried reinstalling and it didn't fix it plus I can usually get into the game so I can only assume that it can't find the required resources but I wasn't doing anything else when I tried to run it and I had more than 1.5 gigs of ram free.

[Caboose O'Malley]

New error: "Initialization failed. Either insufficient system resources were found to run the game, or game data is missing or damaged. etc."

I already tried reinstalling and it didn't fix it plus I can usually get into the game so I can only assume that it can't find the required resources but I wasn't doing anything else when I tried to run it and I had more than 1.5 gigs of ram free.

Ok could you post a DxDiag?
(Next piece is not addressed to you Soulsmith)
And I've seen MANY cases where the sound card has caused crashes and/or graphical glitches - I was a long time over at the FEAR community forums (And also over at the Splinter Cell, and Far Cry, and The Cronicles of Riddick... the list goes on... I've been helping people out in the same way that I'm now helping here in the Halo 2 community for some time now) and I've witnessed it numerous times => I KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT.
End of discussion, now let's get back on topic.

And FYI, crashes aren't the same as lockups or freezes or reboots...