Please help :-( Constant crashing!

I have had my pc for about a year now. It insists on crashing every once in a while, usually when I am playing CoX or watching a movie on Netflix Instant. Soloing in the game has become a pain because often I crash and get killed while I'm offline. I average about 3 crashes a day. I did a CoH Helper diagnosis and here is the output- does anything leap out at anyone? My pc came with Vista but I put Windows 7 on it because I was offered a free disc. I got the latest NVidia drivers yesterday and still crashed twice today!

I am not tech savvy at all. Please help if you can.

---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.2.0.2---
DxDiag gathered at September 9, 2010 22:17 (-05:00)
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_gdr.100618-1621)
System Manufacturer: Acer
System Model: Aspire X1300
BIOS: )Phoenix - Award WorkstationBIOS v6.00PG
Central Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 7450 Dual-Core Processor (2 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
Memory: 3072MB
.Net Memory Report: 2089MB out of 2814MB available
Page File: 4446MB (1180MB currently in use)
C Drive: (Hitachi HDT721032SLA380 ATA Device) 71093MB out of 145452MB (48%) free
D Drive: (Hitachi HDT721032SLA380 ATA Device) 145340MB out of 145453MB (99%) free
E Drive: (ATAPI DVD A DH16A6S ATA Device) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\Windows
DirectX: DirectX 11
DirectX Diag version: 6.01.7600.16385 (32-bit version)
Display Notes: No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.
No problems found.
No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.
Monitor:
Monitor's Max Resolution: (blank)
Video Device Name: NVIDIA GeForce 9200
Manufacturer / Chip: NVIDIA / GeForce 9200
Video Memory: 1392 MB
Driver Version: 8.17.12.5896
Driver Date: 7/9/2010 5:37:00 PM
Driver Language: English
Sound Device Description: Speakers (2- High Definition Audio Device)
Driver File: HdAudio.sys
Driver Version: 6.01.7600.16385
Driver Date: 7/13/2009 6:51:47 PM
Sound Device Description: Digital Audio (S/PDIF) (2- High Definition Audio Device)
Driver File: HdAudio.sys
Driver Version: 6.01.7600.16385
Driver Date: 7/13/2009 6:51:47 PM
Sound Device Description: Digital Audio (HDMI) (2- High Definition Audio Device)
Driver File: HdAudio.sys
Driver Version: 6.01.7600.16385
Driver Date: 7/13/2009 6:51:47 PM

WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: Acer
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: WMCP78M
Motherboard Version:
BIOS Manufacturer: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
BIOS Name: )Phoenix - Award WorkstationBIOS v6.00PG
BIOS Version: ACRSYS - 42302e31
BIOS Release: 20090401000000.000000+000

Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 1024x768
3D Resolution: 1024x768 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: Yes
Maximized: No
Screen Position: 0, 0
Refresh Rate: 60Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: Yes

Physics Quality: Medium
Maximum Particles: 50000
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No

Anti-aliasing: Off
Anisotropic Filtering: 4x
Texture LOD Bias: Smooth
Water Effects: Medium quality
Bloom: 1.000 (turned on)
Depth of Field Enabled: Yes
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: Yes
Shader Detail: Medium?

World Texture Level: Very High
Character Texture Level: Very High
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 1.000
Entity Detail Level: 1.000
Shadows Enabled: Yes
Shadow Mode: Stencil shadows
Shadow Map Shader: Unknown (0)
Environmental Reflections: Disabled
Advanced Occlusion Settings: No
Ambient Occlusion: Off
Occlusion Strength: Off
Blur: Bilateral
Ambient Resolution: Performance

Gamma Correction: 1.000
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: Yes
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: No
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: Yes
Audio Mode: Performance
3D Audio: No
FX Sound Volume: 0.087
Music Sound Volume: 0.070
Show Advanced Graphics Options: No
Overall Graphics Quality: 0.500
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: 193125 bytes/second
Current Game Version: 1850.201007290124.28T4
Installation Directory: C:\Program Files\City of Heroes
Mod files in the Data directory
.\texture_library\MAPS\city has 1 file
.\texture_library\MAPS\Midnight_Squad has 1 file
.\texture_library\MAPS\Safeguard has 9 files
.\texture_library\MAPS\sewers has 44 files
.\texture_library\MAPS\static has 29 files
.\texture_library\V_MAPS\Static has 1 file

not really sure what to tell you since this sounds like something that will wind up having to be addressed by whoever actually built your computer. One of the basic problems here is that if you are getting constant crashes in multiple applications there is a high chance that something is wrong with the fundamental components of your system.

Tools like Memtest 86+ will show possible hardware level issues with your processor, memory controller, or system memory.

Simply download this file: http://www.memtest.org/download/4.10...+-4.10.iso.zip

Burn the ISO to a CD.

Restart the computer with the CD in the drive.

Memtest will start running. Let it run overnight.

If there are any red lines or errors in the morning, something in your system's memory configuration is broken.

That's probably going to be the best place to start looking for problems.

Has your computer always exhibited this problem or only recently? Possibly after installing some software?

Do you freeze up or is it a blue screen-> reboot?

If you open up your case, are you greeted by a veritable playground of dust?

If you open up Device Manager, are there any exclamation marks signifying problems?

...throwing things out here because, as it stands, it could be anything - too little information to go off of.

I had a very similar problem recently especially when in praetoria. What worked for me was turning shadows off, not just advanced shadows but all shadows. I dont have the crashes red or blue side so when im in those areas i can turn them back on. It looks like you have ambient occ turned off already but thats the other thing im suspecting can cause the problem.

je_saist, I couldn't get the Memtest cd to work so I entered BIOS and ran the Windows memory diagnostic instead. Not sure if it is as good as Memtest but it said no memory errors were found.

kinaki, I started having the problem soon after getting my pc but I attributed it to Vista and after switching to Windows 7, it did reduce but then it started up again. I don't think it was around the time I started any new programs but I recently uninstalled several programs I never use. No change to the problem.

Also, what happens is, the screen literally goes blank when I 'crash'. And then I have to restart the computer. Sometimes the color of the screen is blue, other times it is green, red or black. Never get any 'lines'.

I don't know how to open the case, I will ask my husband to do so and report back about the dust.

I checked Device Manager, there is an exclamation mark beside my 'coprocessor'. It says-

The drivers for this device are not installed. (Code 28)
To find a driver for this device, click Update Driver.

However, Windows tells me that it cannot find any drivers

So not sure what to do about it.

Anaharra: At this point I am willing to try anything. I shall turn shadows off and see if it helps any.

I really appreciate all the help you guys are giving, thanks so much. I hope this irritating problem goes away!!

You crash behaviour sounds almost identical to what I'm experiencing...although not for as long.

My screen simply goes blank...and I have to do a hard restart. I've just reinstalled the drivers (did the sweeper thing), temperatures seem fine, and it only happens with CoX.

um...I suppose I should post this as well...

---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.2.0.2---

DxDiag gathered at September 10, 2010 18:00 (-06:00)
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_gdr.100618-1621)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
System Model: System Product Name
BIOS: BIOS Date: 11/13/09 11:35:30 Ver: 08.00.15
Central Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.8GHz
Memory: 4096MB
.Net Memory Report: 2492MB out of 4087MB available
Page File: 6195MB (1976MB currently in use)
C Drive: (ST3500418AS ATA Device) 370393MB out of 476837MB (77%) free
Q Drive: () zero-size drive
D Drive: (HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH22NS50 ATA Device) zero-size drive
G Drive: (ELBY CLONEDRIVE SCSI CdRom Device) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\Windows
DirectX: DirectX 11
DirectX Diag version: 6.01.7600.16385 (64-bit version)

Display Notes: No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.

No problems found.

No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.

Monitor:
Monitor's Max Resolution: (blank)
Video Device Name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285
Manufacturer / Chip: NVIDIA / GeForce GTX 285
Video Memory: 2793 MB
Driver Version: 8.17.12.5896
Driver Date: 07/09/2010 4:38:00 PM
Driver Language: English

Sound Device Description: Speakers (VIA High Definition Audio)
Driver File: viahduaa.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.7300
Driver Date: 07/10/2009 1:07:02 PM

Sound Device Description: Speakers (TASCAM US-122L)
Driver File: tscusb2a.sys
Driver Version: 2.00.0004.0000
Driver Date: 01/01/0001 12:00:00 AM

Sound Device Description: SPDIF Interface (TX0) (VIA High Definition Audio)
Driver File: viahduaa.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.7300
Driver Date: 07/10/2009 1:07:02 PM


WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: P7P55-M
Motherboard Version: Rev X.0x
BIOS Manufacturer: American Megatrends Inc.
BIOS Name: BIOS Date: 11/13/09 11:35:30 Ver: 08.00.15
BIOS Version: 111309 - 20091113
BIOS Release: 20091113000000.000000+000


Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 1920x1080
3D Resolution: 1920x1080 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: Yes
Maximized: No
Screen Position: 0, 0
Refresh Rate: 60Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: No


Physics Quality: High
Maximum Particles: 50000
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No


Anti-aliasing: 4x
Anisotropic Filtering: 4x
Texture LOD Bias: Smooth
Water Effects: None
Bloom: 1.000 (turned on)
Depth of Field Enabled: No
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: Yes
Shader Detail: Medium?


World Texture Level: Very High
Character Texture Level: Very High
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 1.000
Entity Detail Level: 2.000
Shadows Enabled: Yes
Shadow Mode: Unknown (4)
Shadow Map Shader: High quality
Environmental Reflections: Low quality
Advanced Occlusion Settings: Yes
Ambient Occlusion: High quality
Occlusion Strength: Strong
Blur: Trilateral
Ambient Resolution: High performance


Gamma Correction: 1.000
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: Yes
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: No
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: Yes

Audio Mode: Performance
3D Audio: No
FX Sound Volume: 0.814
Music Sound Volume: 0.000

Show Advanced Graphics Options: Yes
Overall Graphics Quality: 0.500
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: 189912 bytes/second
Current Game Version: 1850.201007290124.28T4
Installation Directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\City of Heroes

Mod files in the Data directory
.\texture_library\MAPS\city has 1 file
.\texture_library\MAPS\Midnight_Squad has 1 file
.\texture_library\MAPS\Safeguard has 9 files
.\texture_library\MAPS\sewers has 44 files
.\texture_library\MAPS\static has 38 files
.\texture_library\V_MAPS\Outdoor_Missions has 9 files
.\texture_library\V_MAPS\Static has 16 files