Bioshock crashes at random places

[atsra]

Hello,
I have the retail version of Bioshock and it keeps crashing in random places.
I usually get to play for around 20 mins before it crashes. If I activate bioshock again after the first crash it crashes after about 5 min of gameplay, and if I try to activate it again after that it crashes right after loading my savegame. it displayes an error messege saying bioshock.exe has encountered an error and has to be closed.

My specs:
-Core 2 Duo E6750
-Geforce 8800GTS 320MB
-Windows XP SP2 32 bit
-2GB DDR2 800 Mhz RAM
-GA-P35-DS3
-latest nvidia driver (163.67)

Also, I tried turning off the high-level shaders and it didn't help.

[Tech Richard]

Okay try dropping all of the graphical options in the game, not just the High Detail Shaders.

You may also benefit from disabling the background applications by doing the following :

- click on the start menu
- click on run
- type in the following MSCONFIG
- click on the startup tab
- deselect all the tick boxes
- click on apply and then close
- restart your computer
- when your computer starts up again, please ignore any messages from msconfig (do not close these)
- run the game

To return to the original startup sequence follow below instructions

- click start menu
- click run
- type in the following MSCONFIG
- click on normal startup
- click on apply and then close
- restart your computer

[worldwriter]

I'd try dropping your quality setting on the right hand side to medium with everything turned on but vertical sync and high detail shaders. I would not suggest using those drivers as they are known to lag your fps with that video card. I would suggest the 167.44 drivers. You also should not raise your resolution above 1024 x 1280.

[BloodRayne]

Okay try dropping all of the graphical options in the game, not just the High Detail Shaders.

You may also benefit from disabling the background applications by doing the following :

- click on the start menu
- click on run
- type in the following MSCONFIG
- click on the startup tab
- deselect all the tick boxes
- click on apply and then close
- restart your computer
- when your computer starts up again, please ignore any messages from msconfig (do not close these)
- run the game

To return to the original startup sequence follow below instructions

- click start menu
- click run
- type in the following MSCONFIG
- click on normal startup
- click on apply and then close
- restart your computer

Sorry, but I wouldn't recommend that. I don't mean to troll or anything, but that's simply not a good piece of advice to give out on a forum such as this. For starters, there are many different kinds of 'lurkers' that will take this piece of advice and you have no idea about their level of skill with a computer.

This user might have a dozen different applications for normal use of his computer that need these TSR's to run. It might be a good solution for advanced users, but many moderate and beginner users that might try this solution could end up in a position where they simply won't know how to turn them on afterwards. Many users these days need these TSR programs to access their VPN at work, get photo's from their camera etc..etc.. Even worse, one of the TSR's usually present in that list is the audio driver helper for Creative cards.. deactivating that can cause more problems instead of solving them.

Never mind the fact that when you turn these startup programs off via MSConfig many TSR's simply add a new entry to the registry and thus remain persistent in the 'run' keys of the registry (thus not solving the problem or give any kind of indication as to what the problem might be).

A better solution might be to see wether the uses has any 'Download' programs running such as Emule, bittorent or a newsleecher...If he has the latest drivers for their audio card, what resolution they are running, if they have DX9 installed (in this case) etc..etc..

[atsra]

Thanks for the advice but that won't be necessery- the problem is I have faulty RAM hardware. After the recent bioshock crashes and a Winrar problem regarding CRC I realised my RAM could be bad so I performed the HCI MemTest ram testing and the windows memory diagnostic and both tests showed I have serious RAM problems, so I guess that's the reason for the crashes. I'll have them replaced. Thanks again for your help.