Help! Programs don't work after installs...

[sypher309]

I built my computer last fall (2.53GHz P4, 512Mb DDR, WinXP). Everything worked fine until this past Feb. When I install very large programs or large amounts of programs (ie. ~1-2gig) they will crash upon trying to launch them. I thought it was the hard drive, but I replaced that and no difference. I have tried formatting and starting fresh, but that does not help either. I have tried just about every solution I could think of and am ready to throw it out the window after 6 months of living hell. Please give me some ideas to try. I am pretty sure it is some hardware issue (maybe the motherboard, some bad cables, etc.) and not my windows version either since it works fine on other computers. Any and all help would be very appreciated. Please email me at sypher309@yahoo.com Thanks.

[twistedcranium]

What types of programs are you installing? and which programs are then not working? and what error messages are you seeing?

*something is puzzling here, you say 1~2 GB programs? wow, those are big programs, what are they?*

Also, this may sound silly and I do not mean to insult your intellegence but are you rebooting after each program installs and it suggests a reboot?

[sypher309]

Well basically I am into gaming and the games I am installing, well one I am beta testing is 3 disks of info (~2gig itself). This one installs fine for the most part, then upon launching it, it tries to start, but pops up with one of those "Report error to Microsoft" boxes saying the program had to quit because of some problem. I hate that box. Anyway, the programs I am installing all work fine on another computer, and yes if I have ever been told to restart, I always do. Thats about it I suppose. Thanks.

[twistedcranium]

I think we still need a little more info....record the error messages that you see and what 'game' you are playing or loading when you see it.

*at the moment, my gut feeling is that this might be a video card/setup issue, as most often game problems relate to this*

[sypher309]

the game is Star Wars Galaxies Beta, but this problem is not game/program specific. With this game I get "the swgclient.exe has encountered a problem and needs to quit/send a report of this error to Microsoft" message. All that happens is it tries to launch, but pops up with that message and just quits. Here is some more info about the general problem:
-I install approx. 1-2 GB of data after getting the OS installed fresh
-programs/games installed after that usually have trouble running correctly or do not run at all and respond by just quitting and giving the report problem message
-the problem does not just arise for one given program/game, but after so much data has been put onto the HD.
-The HD has been replaced and the problem still occurs

Thats about all I can really describe as to what the problem actually is...

[twistedcranium]

Does this game allow you to play over the internet or network? Or does it have network chat functionality?

[twistedcranium]

For this game there seems to be a rigid set of hardware requirements....
http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/features/faq.jsp

It is also multiprocessor compatible (multithreaded) and by design would benefit from having two processors, but doesn't state that it will not work with one.

The other thing I noticed at the site that made me uneasy is that it is discussed in beta mode and you even mention that yourself. If this software is beta, it is likely to have bugs that cause such behaviors.

Are you part of their beta testing network, and if so, maybe you should report this to them somehow.

[twistedcranium]

Can you list the other programs and the error messages (exactly) they produce?

[sypher309]

I meet all system requirements for anything I install and try to use. The only error message I ever get is the generic "so-and-so encountered a problem and needs to quit. Please send this error report to Microsoft blah blah blah." That is as much as I have to go on. And again, this is not specific to just this one program. I can try to install Office, Instant Messenger, or what have you and if there is already over 1gb or so, then these generic error messages will appear. I am not just having a problem with this particular game, but with ALL software I wish to install and use.