Did NFL Blitz 2000 (MAME) fry my system?

[arcadecab]

I was using MAMEwah and selected NFL Blitz 2000 for MAME.  I had to leave immediately to attend to something and when I got back 30-40 minutes later, I just expected to see the game running in its intro mode, instead, my computer was shut down and can not be restarted again.  I am using a P4 3.0 ghz processor and 512 DDR PC-3200 memory, 400 watt power supply.  Just wondering if the game is so difficult to run with MAME if it could have stress my P4 3.0 processor to the point of frying it.  I just have the one case fan (although I should probable have two.  Anyone know.  Upon research, it seems the NFL blitz games, although they say the condition is good and very playable, is not run adequately because of CPU requirements.  But I thought the 3.0 would at least run the game somewhat and not cause this damage.  Perhaps it was something else and not the CPU, but wondering for any comments or thoughts.
Thanks.

[flampoo]

You probably overheated your system. If a processor gets too hot it will shut down the CPU. You'll probably need more than just a case fan but I'd install a circulation fan in the cabinet itself.

[MonitorGuru]

It probably ran the CPU (and FPU part of the chip) at 100% for too long, and caused a thermal shutdown.  Have you tried it after cooling the system? Will it boot now?  Or is it totally dead?

If so, there may not have been enough/too much/applied correctly heat sink compound on the chip, or the heat sink not applied correctly.  There may have been inadequate cooling via the one fan.

Was your P4 3.0 chip a Presscot or Northwood series chip?  Prescotts are known for running hotter at IDLE than Northwoods do at FULL POWER.  Also, if this was in a Dell 4600 or 8300 system purchased in the February time frame, Dell improperly switched to Prescott chips for about a week of orders WITHOUT reconfiguring the motherboard, heat sink or active (fan) coolers. They promptly saw numerous problems with overheating and replaced fans and heat sinks, and got to the point of stopping shipping Prescott chips and offering numerous upset people free upgrades to 3.2 Extreme Edition Northwood chips ($900 at the time!!) to satisfy..

Anyway, I've overheated a Northwood chip myself doing zipping of files, but it was due to an improperly attached heat sink direct from Dell on my work machine.  But if you have a Prescott series then you likely didn't have enough cooling OR inadequate power supply.  (you see, Prescott also uses more watts of energy at idle than Northwood does at full speed, thus the difference in heat)

Check into these things and at least you should be able to figure out what's wrong.

[SirPoonga]

BTW, the PC version of nfl blitz is just as good as the arcade and runs better

[arcadecab]

It does not start up at all-completely down.  I do have the Northwood P4 and I got is specifically because of the heat issues with Prescott.  Has anyone gotten the NFL Blitz roms to run at all with MAME?  I am disappointed that my 3.0 ghz could not really handle the game at all--if indeed that is what did it.  It may have been a power supply, but thinking it may be the CPU.  Shouldnt the game have run at all with a 3.0 and even running for 30-40 minutes, should that be enough to kill a new P4 3.0 Northwood?  Seems hard to believe because I thought my 3.0 would be hard pressed to be that challenged by anything MAME would produce.
 

[SirPoonga]

I don't think it is nfl blitz itself.  You will need alot of power to run blitz and that's why everyone is suggesting your computer over heated.   Your computer was running at 100% for too long.  

Thermal protection should have kicked in and shut your computer down.   So, even after a time of cooling your computer won't come back up?

[iwillfearnoevil]

i left my pc up overnight last week and after about 48 hours it shut down and wouldn't start up. i had a crappy powersupply. thankfully a nice new one installed perfectly and my pc booted up no problem. thankfully my cpu/motherboard were okay.

[AlanS17]

Are you getting response from fans, hd, etc? Any lights coming on? Try turning the thing on and opening the CD drive. Hopefully it's just the power supply.

[pointdablame]

ok, the game didn't kill your system.  A game can't kill a system.

It more than likely ran your system at 100% and, as mentioned, shut it down.  This could be caused by a number of things.  How old is the system? did you ever actually burn it in properly? You may have a hardware issue you didn't know about.  A crappy PSU will easily do this, I've seen it and had it happen.  Underpowered or no-name brand PSUs might do this.  Lack of fans/ventilation could do it too, although most new systems have a shutdown point that stops parts from frying.  If you let the system cool down, it SHOULD have went back on.

You're probably going to have to troubleshoot the hardware for a bit, swap out parts if you have that ability.

[PaulG]

If you turn the computer on and get absoluetly nothing (as you seem to be implying), sounds like the power supply.  I'm not an Intel person, and am not familiar with BIOS beeps in-depth, but shouldn't he be getting somekind of beep if the thing is turned on, but the CPU is dead?

And as others have stated, 100 percent CPU activity for 30-40 minutes won't kill a CPU unless something is terribly wrong:  Heatsink/horrid circulation/power supply. Heck, a lot of high end computer games are pushing the CPU as hard as they can go.  You should be able to play hour upon hour and not have a problem.

Would have been a good idea to have had a CPU temperature program installed so you could have seen if your CPU WAS have heating problems, but my money's still on the PS.

[Witchboard]

Sometimes when I lose power my system won't turn on either.  I fix this by unplugging it from the wall for about 30 seconds or so then plugging it back in.  Hit the button and pow, it starts right up.  I'm not sure why it does this, but it may be something you want to try.

[nipsmg]

Sometimes when I lose power my system won't turn on either.  I fix this by unplugging it from the wall for about 30 seconds or so then plugging it back in.  Hit the button and pow, it starts right up.  I'm not sure why it does this, but it may be something you want to try.

That sounds like an overheating or a power supply problem.. but I'm willing to bet power supply (if it was a heat problem, turning off the PC would fix it.. unplugging it from the wall should have no effect).  I'd advise you to get a new power supply however.  I personally would have issues running anythign of value off a flaky power supply, especially cause they're not expensive to replace.

--NipsMG

[Witchboard]

I mean when I lose commercial power.  My computer just doesn't shut down by itself.  It's always seemed to do that, this is the second supply it's had and it's done it with both.

[Tiger-Heli]

Sometimes when I lose power my system won't turn on either.  I fix this by unplugging it from the wall for about 30 seconds or so then plugging it back in.  Hit the button and pow, it starts right up.  I'm not sure why it does this, but it may be something you want to try.

Yes, I've seen this too!

[Sylentwulf]

By the way you talk, I'm guessing you know your way around a computer, but I'll type this anyways.

First, strip the whole computer. Put the CPU, and motherboard hooked up to the monitor and keyboard, see if you can get into bios. If yes, then add one component at a time until it won't boot.

If no, try resetting the bios with jumper, or removing the battery.

If all else fails, I found out that my local "charge your ass of to fix your computer" repair shop will test EVERY component in that I bring them for a flat charge of $25 (NOT per component, I brought in about 10 things to test, and it was $25)

Now, IMO, $25 for someone to say "Your PSU is emitting irregular voltages, you need to replace it" is WELL worth it... especially since, in that instance, I had already ordered a new cpu and motherboard thinking I fried the mobo....