random crashes to desktop

[wwwarrick]

Okay, so while I fix up my Linux box, I tried playing TDM on my Windows 7 laptop. It installed well and ran great for about 30 minutes. However, for some reason, no matter what mission I play, it eventually crashes. I am not able to determine exactly why it crashes, and it may not even be the fault of the game, but I just want to rule that out. It also seems to crash more often after I have played the game for a while, continually reloading it (when all temps are up). For example, it will run initially for about 20-30 min, then crashes. Then I reload the game, then will crash again in about 5-10 min. Repeat.

 

I am ruling out overheating simply on the basis that the system monitor never shows the CPU above 40% load. The video card, however, may be working harder, but I could not find a default windows system tracker for video card load %. The only thing I can think of is that there may be a conflict between the discrete graphics and on-board graphics cards installed on the laptop. Would it be beneficial to disable one of them? Will that upset windows at all? Please let me know if more details are needed, as I really don't have any error windows other than the "windows is closing this now because it won't respond" window. Thanks!!

 

 

 

Here are some system specs:

 

Dell Latitude E6540

OS: Windows 7 Pro SP1

Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-4300M CPU @ 2.60GHz, 2601 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)

Display(discrete card): AMD Radeon HD 8790M (2GB VRAM)

Display(onboard): Name Intel® HD Graphics 4600 (2GB VRAM)

RAM: 4GB

 

PS - I ran TDM for over a year, problem free, on an older Dell laptop. However, it was a company laptop and it was property to a department that I don't belong to any more. So, they gave me this great new one, for all the good it does me now.

Edited July 4, 2014 by wwwarrick