Games are programs that use your computer components on maximum and this error can appear when one or more hardware component doesn’t have a good functionality. Also the error can appear because the drivers of your components are not the latest versions. It is good to update to a period of time the drivers and for this you should contact your computer manufacturer.

The symptoms for this error are following:

• The game stops responding.
• The game closes unexpectedly.
• The computer restarts unexpectedly.
• The game window is minimized to the taskbar and cannot be restored.

To help you to find a good solution for your error I will describe here how to view the error message details.

For Windows XP:

Step 1: Right click on My Computer
Step 2: Click Properties
Step 3: Click on Advanced tab
Step 4: Startup and Recovery click on Settings
Step 5: At System failure clear the “Automatically restart checkbox
Step 6: Try to reproduce the error message.

Fox Windows Vista:

Step 1: Start -> go to Control Panel -> go to System and Maintenance, and then click System
Step 2: Click Advanced System Settings.
Step 3: Click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Startup and Recovery.
Step 4: Under System failure, click to clear the Automatically restart check box.
Step 5 : Click OK, and then click OK.
Step 6: Try to reproduce the error message.

How to fix the error: “THE GAME has encountered a problem and needs to close.”

Solution 1: The first solution is to update the drivers with the latest version and for this you should contact you computer manufactured. In general the latest drivers you can find on the manufacturer site and this are free.

Solution 2: The second solution to fix the error is to restart the computer by using a clean startup procedure because you should prevent the program, which are loaded automatically when the computer started, from starting automatically. To finish this procedure you must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the administrators group.

Steps for Windows XP

Step1: Click on Start button – > Click on Run
Step 2: Type msconfig and then click OK button
Step 3: On the General tab, click Selective Startup
Step 4: Under Selective Startup, click to clear the following check boxes:
• Process SYSTEM.INI File
• Process WIN.INI File
• Load Startup Items
Step 5: On the Services tab, click to select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box, and then click Disable All.
Step 6: Click OK, and then click Restart.

Steps for Windows Vista

Step 1: Click on Start button
Step 2: Type System Configuration in Start Search and then press enter
Step 3: Click on General tab and then click Selective Startup
Step 4: Check off the checkbox Load system services
Step 5: Check off the checkbox Load startup items
Step 6: Check on the Load system services checkbox
Step 7: Click OK and then restart

Solution 3: Another solution is to change the compatibility settings for the games.

Solution 4: Update the video driver, and for this solution you should contact the manufacturer of the video driver.

To see the name of the manufacturer of your video drive follow these steps for Windows XP:
Step 1: Click on Start button and then click on Run
Step 2: Type dxdiag and then click OK button
Step 3: Click on the Display tab
Step 4: Under Device the name of the manufacturer should appear

For Windows Vista follow these steps:
Step 1: Click on Start button
Step 2: Type in the search box dxdiag and press enter
Step 3: Click on the Display tab
Step 4: Under Device the name of the manufacturer should appear

Solution 5: Download and install the most recent version of DirectX

To install the newest version of the DirectX you should download for here http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-US/AboutGFW/Pages/DirectX10-a.aspx
and then install.

Solution 6: Update the sound driver
To update the sound driver you should look first who is the manufacturer of your sound driver and then to download it.

To find the name of the manufacturer please follow the steps:

For Windows XP:

Step 1: Click on Start button and then click on Run
Step 2: Type dxdiag and then click OK button
Step 3: Click on the Sound tab
Step 4: Under Device the name of the manufacturer should appear and under Driver the name of the provider

For Windows Vista:

Step 1: Click on Start button
Step 2: Type in the search box dxdiag and press enter
Step 3: Click on the Sound tab
Step 4: Under Device the name of the manufacturer should appear and under Driver the name of the provider

Solution 7: Remove and then reinstall the game

Solution 8: Scan the computer for viruses
To scan the computer for viruses you can use a free antivirus and a list with free antivirus to scanning you can find here.