NOT OFF TO A GOOD START.

[wolfey321]

I just purchased and started downloading vintage story, and my computer suffered an unrecoverable crash for the first time since I built it several years ago. I had to manually shut off the power to regain control. Now that I've rebooted, something seems off. Everything feels sluggish. Did I just infect my computer with a virus, or is this normal?

[Michael Gates]

This is not normal, no. VS is just a Windows application, it doesn't do anything particularly weird when installing  or running.

[Daev]

Welcome to the forums! Sorry that has happened to your PC.  VS shouldn't cause any issues like that, maybe something coincidental happened while downloading?  Might need to try a wipe of the download and triage your PC from there.  Maybe someone more tech savvy knows better?  Definitely the first I've heard of something like that.

[MagpieOAO]

On 5/10/2025 at 10:54 PM, wolfey321 said:

I just purchased and started downloading vintage story, and my computer suffered an unrecoverable crash for the first time since I built it several years ago. I had to manually shut off the power to regain control. Now that I've rebooted, something seems off. Everything feels sluggish. Did I just infect my computer with a virus, or is this normal?

"Several years ago"
I would expect a system of that age to have issues now and then, but shouldn't have many issues running the game. What's the name of the file you installed the game from? Can you post a screenshot?

[Dilan Rona]

The problem with windows, and its The Biggest Problem, is that the installation needs to be redone every few months just to keep it running smooth. It was particularly annoying especially with Windows XP. It needs a fresh reinstall or factory reset at least once a year, and all problems can invariably be traced back to the registry as the eventual cause (https://www.quora.com/Do-registry-errors-slow-down-computers). You cannot even sneaze in the area of a pc running windows whatever without it picking up a virus (or 5+). In the case of Vintage Story, its just plain dumb bad luck on your part. Its not the culprit of the pc acting strangly.

 

PS: The caps on "The Biggest Problem" was intentional...

[LoveWyrm]

Your thermal paste might have dried out or gone bad, this is a very common problem that has people turning their computers to repair shops all the time, allowing them to make quite the profit off of that.

 

When in reality, it's a very simple process, as long as you go 'low' and only increase the paste very slightly if it still overheats.

 

You see...modern CPUs are equipped with a self protection shutdown, so, if you are completely new at (re)applying thermal paste, then if you don't put on enough, the CPU will save itself.

But if you put out too much and it spills out heavily, then you might short out things, so... going small first and experimenting from there, is the best way.

Plenty of tutorials on how to do it are online, thermal paste replacement should be in any PC users skill repertoire. It should be seen as changing a spark plug on a lawn mower, or maybe an oil change. It's that easy.

But it's also easy to get intimidated by it, but if you, when unsure, go too little, and add to that, you'll be fine. Your computer will lock up if you put on too little, and you'll have to do the entire unscrewing, and placement thing again...but that also gives you skill points.

 

So yeah, if the PC is years old, and suddenly goes sluggish and 'unrecoverable lock ups" then it's probably overheating cause the paste has gone off.