Game crashes to POST

[Guest]

I've got an odd problem. The game will run for 2-3 minutes, but then without warning it will crash. Not to the desktop, but right back to the BIOS/POST screen, and then the computer reboots normally. Basically, it acts like I hit the physical reset button. Which I didn't. I've tried it with detail set at medium and lowest, and with various resolutions and color depths from 640x480x16 to 1280x768x32. Nothing makes a difference.

Setup:
Max Payne 1.05 -- I also tried a cracked version, same thing happens
Windows 2000 sp2 w/all relevant patches & DirectX 8.1a
384 MB RAM
Hercules/Guillemot Prophet SDR (that's a GeForce 256 chip)
ABIT KA7 motherboard (VIA KX133 chipset w/newest 4-in-1 drivers)
Hercules Gamesurround Fortissimo II soundcard w/latest drivers
Athlon 600 CPU

I've been able to play a number of other demanding games with no problems (Half-Life, Deus Ex, Crimson Skies, Homeworld, Cataclysm, others). I'm at a loss here. Help!

[Guest]

Update-- after reading a few more posts I tried turning off the sound and that seems to have fixed it. Of course, playing with no sounds sucks, so I hope I can find a way to resolve.
Given the number of sound related complaints here, and the terrible driver support for the Fortissimo II, I don't know whether to blame my problems on the publishers of MP, or on Hercules.

but as an aside, I would certainly recommend against buying a Fortissimo II. It took me 3 days to make the thing work in the first place, and I had to use drivers for a German card that happens to use the same chipset.

[OddBall]

Try enabling the "15M-16M Memory Hole" in BIOS.

[SamiV]

If you want to get closer to the root of the problem you are having, make sure you have the "Autoreboot" disabled on your Windows2000.

Right-click on "My Computer", select "Advanced" tab, click on "Startup and Recovery". Unselect "Automatically reboot" from the "System failure" portion. And if you get to crash the game again (with sound), read the topmost lines of the "Blue Screen" to find out what caused the crash. (This is a fine example of how Microsoft got rid of the "End users complain about blue screens with cryptic numbers..." problem...)

SamiV.