Vengeance goes to black screen

Recently I upgraded my computer with a new case, motherboard, processor and ram, and reformatted. Installed windows xp. After installing drivers and updates, the first program to go on was vengeance. It crashes after several minutes to a black screen and i have to reset manually. The longest I have been able to play was about 25 minutes, but usually it is less.

AMD Sempron 2800+2.0ghz, 512 mb ram(installed motherboard drivers)
windows xp(updated with service packs and windows update)
geforce 4 4200(have tried newer and older drivers from nvidia)

I have tried completely uninstalling vengeance and installing again, but it does not help. Computer also crashes the vengeance demo and ut2004 demo. I have tried playing vengeance on lowest settings.
Oh yes I also had windows 2000 installed before XP, and it crashed on that also. It is funny because the demo did not crash on my older motherboard/processor with windows ME. Any help is appreciated, thank you.

Sounds like something's getting too hot to me.

ditto.

get motherboard monitor: http://mbm.livewiredev.com/

install it, and watch the temperatures. also, google for prime95 and run the torture test.

thanks for the programs. ran torture test for a few hours without it finding any errors. ran motherboard monitor and the temperature hasn't gone over 50 celsius. Still no fix though

you ran motherboard monitor WHILE the game was running?

I had a similar problem with a new ATI radeon card and the latest catalyst drivers. I switched to Omega drivers and an older set of catalyst drivers and the problem went away. I'm using the Omega drivers.

Oh yeah, go into your bios and disable FAST WRITE

Am i not supposed to run motherboard monitor with the game?

Have noticed something that would suggest overheating-

When the computer has been off for a while and i turn it on and play the game i can play for maybe 20 minutes. If i restart it and immediately try to play more, it crashes after only a few seconds or minutes. I have gotten the same results repeatedly. Right before it crashes or after I start up after a crash, the temperature for the CPU is always 49-51. When I start up after the computer being off for hours the temperature is 30, and it seems like I am able to play for as long as the temperature stays below 50. 50 is a perfectly fine temperature though, as far as i know.

Looked in all of bios, didnt see fast write option.

I don't have a radeon, I have a geforce.

Am i not supposed to run motherboard monitor with the game?You are... to get a better temperature reading.

Right before it crashes or after I start up after a crash, the temperature for the CPU is always 49-51. When I start up after the computer being off for hours the temperature is 30, and it seems like I am able to play for as long as the temperature stays below 50. 50 is a perfectly fine temperature though, as far as i know. Well, try this anyway. Take the top off your case (or side panel) and direct a house fan blowing cool air into your case while you play.

See what happens.

well it worked. I have a window unit so i took it out of the window and pointed it into the computer on the coldest setting. I can play it fine now, but i would like the window unit back in the window eventually.

so most likely either your vidcard or your cpu is overheating.

since you ran prime95 for several hours without problem, i suspect your video card.

I also had a problem with the latest Catalyst drivers.... I had been playing T:V fine for months (since release) and then right after I updated to the latest Catalyst drivers for my ATI Radeon 9600pro I started getting this cut to black screen in T:V for about 10-15 secs, then im back at desktop and have to click back in to Vengeance to keep playing... after it happens a couple times, the hardware renderer shuts off and you have to reboot the whole system. I also noticed that when it drops to desktop there is an ["ATI VPU Recover" send an error message, dont send an error message] dialog... so Im about 95% positive its the new Catalyst drivers... it sucks some big donkey dicks

I dont overclock and I havent changed anything else in my system, so I know its the drivers. No other games do that either.

YOU need to disable your fast write in the bios, or in the display properties under the advanced options. give it a shot. and this guy doesn't have an ATI video card.

hey that seems to work... thanks dude