Computer reboots when playing games in Windows

[Gav Mack]

Lockups like that I've found on my MBP seem to come from not only the video and heat but from the sound which seems to freeze first, perhaps related to Apple's Kbdmgr.exe boot camp program messing up Pro Audio with latency.

What works for me is along with kicking the fans up with SMC when you restart run task manager, click processes and right click Kbdmgr.exe (Snow Leopard beta Bootcamp.exe) setting the CPU affinity to CPU1 and then run your game.

That works for me. Failing that try ending the process but you'll lose the Apple keyboard controls as a consequence.

 

[The Flashing Fi]

I've actually tried that, and it doesn't work. I'm not getting a BSOD, it just freezes up for a few seconds then restarts.

You actually could be having a BSOD. XP and Vista are set to automatically restart when a BSOD occurs.

If you're on XP, do the following:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/russel_02may13.mspx
(read under "Recovery Settings."

If you have Vista or Windows 7, do this:
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windowsvista/ht/arestartvista.htm

If you are getting a BSOD after doing this, then please write down the actual error message (we don't need the, "your system has been shut down...").

We need what's pointed at by the arrows:

 

[Hugbees]

I froze after setting the affinity of kbdmgr.exe so I'm turning it off and seeing how that goes.

Also, I did exactly what you said Fi, and I am not getting a BSOD.

UPDATE: Currently turning off kbdmgr.exe is working.

 

[Hugbees]

I have a theory. Back when I first got my mac, this never happened when I played Oblivion or Tabula Rasa, which both are pretty graphics intensive and have somewhat high requirements.

I haven't played them since I got Leopard, but maybe something in Leopard's bootcamp system is being somewhat incompatible with my mac? Turning off kbdmgr.exe is working so far, and that is something that bootcamp is responsible for.

Is it possible?

 

[Hugbees]

UPDATE: I have not had a single issue while having kbdmgr.exe turned off. I am currently going to label this as my culprit.

I can only assume the sound is being screwed up and causing my reboots. Whether it is overheating or just plain giving an error I do not know. However the reboots had been more consistent, only doing it to me while in towns in the game, but now it hasn't happened at all in 2 days.

So I don't want to say it's fixed for sure, but it's definitely improved.

UPDATE2: I froze up again, but I think it may be helping? Is there any other programs/sound issues I can toggle with?

 

[Hugbees]

If this persists, is there any way to run this through a virtual machine? I tried Crossover for it, and it is not compatible. I think Dungeon Runners is small enough to work well with any sort of VM software. I just want one that supports it.