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Misc Tech Support Issues III


Supreme Cmdr
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i have updated my specs, i installed the latest version, of directx, from the cd, and then from microsoft, but the problem is still, there, and i also have the latest version of the driver for my radeon. i also tried switching cd drives( i have 2, a dvd drive and a cdr drive) but still nothing. i also think its not the cd, because, i downloaded the demo, from this site, and it wont run either. i think my windows 98 is missing somthing cause all my friends who have windows xp, it works perfectly.

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quote:


Originally posted by bob101x:

i have updated my specs, i installed the latest version, of directx, from the cd, and then from microsoft, but the problem is still, there, and i also have the latest version of the driver for my radeon. i also tried switching cd drives( i have 2, a dvd drive and a cdr drive) but still nothing. i also think its not the cd, because, i downloaded the demo, from this site, and it wont run either. i think my windows 98 is missing somthing cause all my friends who have windows xp, it works perfectly.


I would strongly urge that your start from scratch. Here's how.

And why does your profile not contain the driver revisions for your sound card, mouse, joystick?

Apart from that, you have your mouse and joystick swapped around in the profile.

Logitech released a new version of Mouseware yesterday btw

[ 01-17-2002: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

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I have been getting a ctd at the same point 7 times in a row.

I am in the mars region and jumping to the "to jupiter" gate when in the middle of my hyperdrive the game just ctd's, every time.

I have the game saved at the point just before the jump. All you have to do is hit A/P and wait.

Is it something simple or should I send the saved game?

Have since started another game and made the exact same jump with success?

Cheers

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quote:


Originally posted by Oban:

Have since started another game and made the exact same jump with success?

Cheers


And? What would you like me to do about it? Please refrain from posting if you have nothing substantial to post.

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I think maybe I did not explain myself clearly.

The new game I started was from scratch and had no relation to the game that I had saved or had the problem with.

I kept returning to that saved game and even tried different jump points with the same results. I still have that saved game. It may just be a freak occurance I have had no real gameplay issues to date other than. Thought you might be interested. So I thought I should report it.

If this makes no differnce then I apologize.

Cheers

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I have one truly annoying problem with BCM:

I've seen others mention it.

I have a problem with perhaps 1 in 5 (or so) saved games being somehow 'corrupt' so that it is unloadable, (i.e. hard crash after loading, and the save will do the exact same thing every time you try to load it...and mind you, I mean 'hard crash', not CTD, you must power down to get out).

It's become annoying of late, because it often costs me hours of work to lose a save like that.

Having read through the forums, I've seen others mention corrupted saves, any idea what's causing it, and any ways to stop it, or at least make it less likely? I'm dying out here, and losing 5k exp or so per time I lose a save.

Thanks in advance for any ideas, or input.

Idaho

GCV-Futeki

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quote:


Originally posted by Duncan Idaho:

I have one truly annoying problem with BCM:

I've seen others mention it.

I have a problem with perhaps 1 in 5 (or so) saved games being somehow 'corrupt' so that it is unloadable, (i.e. hard crash after loading, and the save will do the exact same thing every time you try to load it...and mind you, I mean 'hard crash', not CTD, you must power down to get out).

It's become annoying of late, because it often costs me hours of work to lose a save like that.

Having read through the forums, I've seen others mention corrupted saves, any idea what's causing it, and any ways to stop it, or at least make it less likely? I'm dying out here, and losing 5k exp or so per time I lose a save.

Thanks in advance for any ideas, or input.

Idaho

GCV-Futeki


Not a clue. Works fine here. I have a saved game one machine that I've been using since the last patch. In fact, even though my dev version is completely different, that particular machine is configured to always contain the current public release version.

Unless you have solid proof and reproducible steps, there's not a darn thing that I can do.

And the other posts you mention, you might want to read the entire threads as most were related to using incompatible saved games across versions.

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I have been playing BCM with the system listed in my profile since 12/24/01. All in all, the game ran fairly well. I ran it with full graphics options on and with full sound and music. One of my saved games from a prior patch was corrupted; ending my first career short. I restarted the game with a larger ship and, now being more familiar with commanding, I finally achieved fleet command and control. Throughout my time playing the game, it would crash to desktop randomly. I booted up fresh each time before playing the game (indeed, it was impossible for me to play the game, quit, and then restart the game without rebooting) and I saved the game often. Occasionally, my saved game would become corrupted (or lock up shortly after loading) and I'd have to revert to a prior save (a bit tedious: reboot, load, play, save, reboot, load play, save, etc.). I read the manual, the appendix and the forums here. It seemed like most of these problems had been experienced in some fashion by a few of the other posters, and each time it was blamed on video card drivers, the hardware, or even the OS. I noticed that although the 23.11 drivers are the "official" drivers on NVidias website, Mr. Smart comments often that they are "buggy." I could also not find a recommendation for a particular system/hardware/driver combination that would work for my old system. (as an aside, it seems that if 3000ad is not going to test drivers,it might make a firm recommendation as to which to try for each card. there are too many to simply go "fishing"). I also thought that my system could be the problem: I was using an old sound card and a bx board. Plus I was still using win98se. Reinstallations of BCM produced the same results listed above, though they were not reproducible except in the instance of saved games that appeared to be corrupted. Other times CTD's and lock ups would happen and not really follow a pattern.

I decided to purchase new hardware. My new system is the following:

Athlon 1700+

512mB of Mushkin 2100 DDR

ASUS A7V266-E motherboard

WD 7200 RPM 60gig hard drive (ata 100)(primary on IDE 1)

WD 7200 RPM 18gig hard drive (ata66) (sec on IDE1)

40xCDROM (ide2 primary)

HP CDRW (ide2 secondary)

Ledtec GeForce 3 at default settings with 21.83 det drivers (note that the 21.83 drivers were the last to be WHQL certified. the 23.11's are not.)

C-media onboard sound with the 12/10/2001 drivers

Via 4 in one (version 4.37)

I have a PCI ethernet device (realtek with 7/17/2000 drivers -- the latest) on a T1 connection.

I have a MS SW precision pro joystick with the latest drivers and the fix for the Via Chipset.

I have a MS intellieye mouse with the latest drivers from MS website.

A CLEAN install of windows 98se.

DirectX 8.1

WMP 7.1

No issues on DXdiag!! (same as before actually)

All right, so I installed BCM. I figured it would be blazing fast and everything would be cool. It ran slow with the 23.11 drivers even at default system settings. I changed to the 21.83 drivers and noted a huge improvement in my RTCW and Quake 3 framerates (I tried the 22.80's, but i got graphical anomalies in RTCW). I reinstalled BCM (as detailed elsewhere on this website). I was able to successfully play at default system settings (640x480, etc). I played for 2 hours and got a lock up. I uninstalled BCM and reinstalled it (I applied the patch in the BCM directory, of course [every time unless otherwise stated]). I put my old "save" folder back into the BCM directory. (the save folder has my triumphant C&C career saved in eight different places on it -- no files tampered with, just all the contents of "save" replaced with my "save" folder from the previous installation). When I load up my old saved games with default BCM system settings, it plays for a bit and then locks up hard. When I adjust the system settings to 1024x768 (where i was playing on my old system) and all other graphics enhancements on, the game locks as soon as the scripts finish loading and I see nothing but a few white lines across the screen.

To recap:

1. I am currently playing BCM on vastly improved hardware and a clean install of the win98se operating system. Note also that I checked for IRQ conflicts and moved my ethernet card to PCI 1 so that it wouldn't conflict with the onboard sound.

2. I am still getting lockups, but am able to play for sometimes 2 hours or so at DEFAULT BCM settings (far below what I should be able to do with this system, I would think). Sound/music on/off makes no difference with BCM stability for me from what I can tell.

3. Saving the game or quitting the game while playing at default settings will not cause CTD's as often as with my old system, but they still occur and I still need to reboot my computer before playing BCM again. It will not run twice consecutively without a reboot.

4. I've made many adjustments with my video card drivers (23.11, 22.80, 21.81, and finally 21.83) and find that the 21.83 (the latest WHQL) are the best, for what it's worth. No dxdiag issues. Plus other Direct X and open GL games run very very nicely. I have installed and uninstalled them properly each time (using the detonator destroyer utility). The drivers are not making a big impact on BCM stability for me. If I saved a game while the 21.81's were installed, will the saved game work later if the 21.83's or other drivers are installed??

5. I have also adjusted BIOs settings for my AGP card one at a time to see if I could affect BCM stability. NO effect for me. 4x with fast writes is the same as 1x with nothing: still get CTD's and lock ups at default BCM settings and higher.

My thoughts on my system and my stability problems:

1. Vastly improved hardware has not made a great impact in improving BCM stability.

2. Changing Video Card drivers has had a MILD impact. 21.83's seem better.

3. Reducing BCM graphical options to default has a mild impact. (fewer CTD's, still LOCKS UP in time, and still can not play the game, quit out, and then restart the game (must reboot)).

4. 640x480 is sh*ttier than 1024x768. And the higher the resolution/graphical options, the more often I get CTD's and lock ups.

5. AGP bios settings don't help at all.

6. Could windows 98se be the culprit?

7. will windows xp be any better ? (shudder)

8. OR COULD THIS BE, possibly, BCM itself? the latest patch, the code, who knows?

9. What other things should I try to do to enjoy this game?

Thanks for your time. I love the game, but I am about to give up. It sucks buying new equipment and going through all this time and trouble and getting absolutely disappointing results.

[ 01-19-2002: Message edited by: Spider-man ]

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quote:

I've made many adjustments with my video card drivers (23.11, 22.80, 21.81, and finally 21.83) and find that the 21.83 (the latest WHQL) are the best, for what it's worth.

Use 22.80 or 23.11. Or at least don't use a 21.xx driver. WHQL is just a Microsoft quality-assurance thing. In fact, those drivers are reported to have some DirectX 8 problems.

Some glitch resolving:

Head into "Display Settings->Settings->Advanced->(Insert Card Name Here)->Additional Properties->Direct3D Settings", make sure you've got your Mipmap detail level at "Best Image Quality", which is the default. Tweaking of settings to improve performance won't work here; it'll produce tearing in some games. Run BCM, and/or other Direct3D games in 32-bit screen mode, also, because tearing also occurs with nVidia cards in 16-bit.

quote:

If I saved a game while the 21.81's were installed, will the saved game work later if the 21.83's or other drivers are installed??

Yes.

quote:

I have also adjusted BIOs settings for my AGP card one at a time to see if I could affect BCM stability. NO effect for me. 4x with fast writes is the same as 1x with nothing: still get CTD's and lock ups at default BCM settings and higher.

My thoughts on my system and my stability problems:

1. Vastly improved hardware has not made a great impact in improving BCM stability.

2. Changing Video Card drivers has had a MILD impact. 21.83's seem better.

3. Reducing BCM graphical options to default has a mild impact. (fewer CTD's, still LOCKS UP in time, and still can not play the game, quit out, and then restart the game (must reboot)).

4. 640x480 is sh*ttier than 1024x768. And the higher the resolution/graphical options, the more often I get CTD's and lock ups.

5. AGP bios settings don't help at all.

6. Could windows 98se be the culprit?

7. will windows xp be any better ? (shudder)

8. OR COULD THIS BE, possibly, BCM itself? the latest patch, the code, who knows?

9. What other things should I try to do to enjoy this game?

Put back your default BIOS settings, as a "control". (Best way to experiment something is try it one at a time. )

1. Faster doesn't necessarily mean more solid. (But I wish I had those system specs. )

2. Please, please. Use 22.80's or 23.11's. Use all default settings. Even if you used some driver removal tool, head into that display properties->advanced thing like I said above, and make sure everything is default.

6. Not sure.

7. Probably, but don't go there, unless you have the cash, and can handle a system re-format. (XP is more solid as a clean install.)

8. Probably not. It works on my computer just fine. See my system specs if you wanna compare.

9. Tell us:

Are you running anything in the background? Do the 3-fingered-salute (control-alt-delete), and try to close everything except "Explorer" and "Systray".

Are you running under custom swap file (a.k.a. virtual memory) settings? If so, try and let Windows control it, just to be safe.

Anyway, try those things above. Also, try to run BCM the way you regularly would. High res, and whatnot. If you get a crash, keep that save file; you could use it for tech support later, to see if it's the save file (which it's 99% probably not) or your system, or system config, or something else.

Nova, over and out.

[ 01-19-2002: Message edited by: Cmdr Nova ]

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*If you read the post above earlier, something just popped up in RL, and I might not be able to help like I said. Sorry for the confusion.*

(This message has been brought to you, by Nova, because Nova realized he had to change his earlier plans on this and the preceeding post, and cannot delete his post that he just posted. Thank you for your time, and please drive responsibly. )

[ 01-19-2002: Message edited by: Cmdr Nova ]

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good suggestions. I'm not running anything but Explorer and systray and I let win98 manage my virtual memory. I did adjust the bios settings one at a time, but I'll go back to a default state and a clean install. I'll post the results in the next 48 hours or so. I never touched the "Best Image Quality setting"

Here's hoping.

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Spiderman's problems are the same as mine. I have random 'occasional' CTD's, but not too often, I can't gripe about that.

But the corrupted saves, that's the annoying one.

I am using the recommended 22.80 Nvidia drivers, and thorough reading of the board shows that I have the recommended drivers for all my hardware. No bios options, (AGP4X, Fast Writes, etc.) have any affect on this problem.

As Spiderman stated, this problem occurs on Win98SE for me.

For the record, my neighbor upstairs bought the game same day as I did after seeing my copy, and he has the same exact problems. Random save file corruption. Inability to 'run' BCM, exit it, and run it again. (Weird difference here, I can actually run BCM 2 times, but if I try to run it a third time without a reboot, it will hang my system, where upstairs, he can only run it once, and MUST reboot to restart BCM).

His specs: Asus P34X mb, latest VIA 4in1 drivers, Geforce 2 (64meg) with NV 21.83 drivers, SB Live!, 256mgs ram, latest drivers for the hardware.

As for the 'using saves across multiple versions', I understand, but these saves are started with my current version of BCM. In fact, this problem will happen with any freshly made commander just as often.

I know what you're saying, SC, hard to fix what you can't reproduce. But, it's hard to 'reproduce' a seemingly truly random event. (If there IS a pattern to this corrupted save problem, I haven't seen it yet). But the fact it's not only happening to me might be at least a pointer to a valid problem.

Again, willing to try anything if anyone has suggestions, though I have tried what others have said here. Kind of tough considering it's usually blamed on drivers, but I'm running exactly the drivers recommended for my hardware.

A tough little problem, this.

Anyway, thanks for the time.

I'm still having a blast with this game, it IS simply the BEST 50$ I've ever spent, and this 'annoying' little problem isn't enough to stop me from playing. But would be nice to track down this problem! Heheh.

I'm likely upgrading to XP next week, MAYBE that will clear this problem up?

Idaho

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quote:

Originally posted by Duncan Idaho:

Spiderman's problems are the same as mine. I have random 'occasional' CTD's, but not too often, I can't gripe about that.

But the corrupted saves, that's the annoying one.

I am using the recommended 22.80 Nvidia drivers, and thorough reading of the board shows that I have the recommended drivers for all my hardware. No bios options, (AGP4X, Fast Writes, etc.) have any affect on this problem.

As Spiderman stated, this problem occurs on Win98SE for me.

This is very strange cause i've got also Windows 98 SE and i've never had such problems. Probably it's because i run the italian version... i don't know. Windows XP italian version is really bugged while the 98 SE is very stable... strange uh?

I've got three machines, two for work (connected to studio recording stuff and equipment, i don't think you wanna know the specs hehehe i don't run games there) and one for playing games and surfing the net.

This "playing machine" is a PIII 800mhz, Cusl2c motherboard (a very stable motherboard) and 384mb ram, SB Live! and Geforce 2.

Never had any problems with BC Millennium... probably it's the Cusl2c which seems to be a gamers paradise, while VIA motherboards are less stable, especially for PCI transfers (and so a worst audio card efficiency, more graphics/audio resources incompatibilities and so on...)

[ 01-20-2002: Message edited by: Vanethian ]

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quote:


Originally posted by Duncan Idaho:

I know what you're saying, SC, hard to fix what you can't reproduce. But, it's hard to 'reproduce' a seemingly truly random event. (If there IS a pattern to this corrupted save problem, I haven't seen it yet). But the fact it's not only happening to me might be at least a pointer to a valid problem.


Nope, its not. I'm a developer not a magician. Unless I can reproduce it, I can't fix it. Period. End of story. Thats the way it is and always has been.

As I said before, I (like most) get NO such problems.

Besides, you shouldn't be running such a powerful machine on an inferious OS anyway. Get winXP.

If you can reproduce it with a BRAND NEW game profile, then send in the saved game and I will take a look at it. If you send me a saved game that is NOT from a BRAND NEW game and created with the CURRENT version of the game, you'll regret it. You HAVE been warned.

And WHY on Earth are you running the standard win98 default mouse driver instead of the MS Intellimouse software that is designed for that optical mouse?!?!?

[ 01-20-2002: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

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quote:


Originally posted by Spider-man:

good suggestions. I'm not running anything but Explorer and systray and I let win98 manage my virtual memory. I did adjust the bios settings one at a time, but I'll go back to a default state and a clean install. I'll post the results in the next 48 hours or so. I never touched the "Best Image Quality setting"

Here's hoping.


I find it rather odd that you spent so much time and effort on such a time consuming and INCONCLUSIVE venture - YET - you don't even know HALF the information required for your hardware system as indicated in your system profile.

[ 01-20-2002: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

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quote:

I find it rather odd that you spent so much time and effort on such a time consuming and INCONCLUSIVE venture - YET - you don't even know HALF the information required for your hardware system as indicated in your system profile.

SC, I noted in my message that my system info had changed. I supplied that information in the content of my post. I will now update my profile. It's going to be hard for me to get help here if you attack me directly. (by the way, there are THREE items missing from my old system profile {mouse/joystick drivers, etc). This is not "half").

[ 01-20-2002: Message edited by: Spider-man ]

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Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr:

[QB]

Besides, you shouldn't be running such a powerful machine on an inferious OS anyway. Get winXP.

If you can reproduce it with a BRAND NEW game profile, then send in the saved game and I will take a look at it. If you send me a saved game that is NOT from a BRAND NEW game and created with the CURRENT version of the game, you'll regret it. You HAVE been warned.

SC,

Heheh, you don't need to warn me, I've seen what happens here when you 'cross the line'.

As for sending a save game, I will do that as asked, though I will likely wait to see what XP does for me.

Personally, I'm not all that 'hopped up' over XP, I don't like this 'activation' thing, and I'm truly worried about the direction MS is taking, (i.e. software subscriptions: last thing I need is another monthly utility bill...phone, electric, I don't need no stinking OS bill thank you very much). But, I'm biting the bullet and giving XP a shot. I'll let you know if it helps.

Oh, and about the standard PS2 mouse driver, well, there's a good reason I use it and not the Intellimouse driver: It's more stable. I don't use the extra buttons on the Intellimouse (save the wheel, which the standard driver supports), and I have seen the Intellimouse drivers cause problems with some software (read games) over the years, sticking with a standard mouse driver often avoids issues like this. (my experience, anyway)

Take care, man.

Idaho

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quote:


Originally posted by Spider-man:

SC, I noted in my message that my system info had changed. I supplied that information in the content of my post. I will now update my profile. It's going to be hard for me to get help here if you attack me directly. (by the way, there are THREE items missing from my old system profile {mouse/joystick drivers, etc). This is not "half").

[ 01-20-2002: Message edited by: Spider-man ]


If posting your specs in a forum thread were important, the need for a System Profile would not exist.

If giving you directions and pointing out HOW things are run around here is considered an attack, you might want to think twice before posting.

And please don't make something out of nothing. I wasn't attacking you in any shape or form and I am quite puzzled that you would regard my post as such. Oh well.

[ 01-20-2002: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

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quote:


Originally posted by Duncan Idaho:

As for sending a save game, I will do that as asked, though I will likely wait to see what XP does for me.


Well, if you upgrade and then you no longer have the problem, that just defeats the purpose doesn't it?

BEFORE you do upgrade, try to reproduce the problem and get a suspect saved game profile in my hands. Then remain on a holding pattern until you get feedback from me. If it is something suspect on your system, you upgrading to winXP will just mask it. I'd like to isolate it (assuming it exists) and find out what the problem is (either in BCM or in your system) before going further.

Thanks for your co-operation.

[ 01-20-2002: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

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quote:

Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr:

Well, if you upgrade and then you no longer have the problem, that just defeats the purpose doesn't it?

BEFORE you do upgrade, try to reproduce the problem and get a suspect saved game profile in my hands. Then remain on a holding pattern until you get feedback from me. If it is something suspect on your system, you upgrading to winXP will just mask it. I'd like to isolate it (assuming it exists) and find out what the problem is (either in BCM or in your system) before going further.

Thanks for your co-operation.

[ 01-20-2002: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

SC,

Sure thing. I just played about 6 hours straight, and had no bad saves, so so far nothing to send you.

I guess if it's a problem with my machine and you can pin it down, it could help anyone else who has the problem.

One way or the other though, XP comes to me next week, and it'll be hard to put off installing it when it comes. I'll see what I can do though, heheh.

Unrelated, but I just had one heck of a good fight, and managed to tow two Gammulan stormcarriers to the sci lab around Pluto, and got really nice exp for it. I live for things like that!

Idaho

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Guest rockinit

I have upgrade my system with Asus 8200 Deluxe Geforce 3 Ti 200(AGP)(22.80 drivers), Windows XP, and VIA 4in1437[a] drivers and updated my sytem profile.The game still crashes to the desk top 10min into the game. Is there anything else I can do to get the game not to crash?

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I've been working with the game all day. After returning to default bios settings, i adjusted each of the AGP settings one at a time again. I have come to the conclusion, again, that 2x/4x, fast writes, interleave, and other settings do not make a difference in BCM stability on my system. I did notice some improvement(!), however, when I set my AGP aperture to 64mb. By improvement I mean: fewer crashes to desktop, lockups, and corrupted save games over a period of eight hours or so. Note that I did have 4 CTD's and 3 lockups but absolutely NO immediate lockup upon attempted restoration of saved games (ie: no corrupted saves?). I am using the 21.83 det drivers still. Plus I AM RUNNING THE GAME WITH ALL GRAPHIC DETAILS ON!

I have also been able to restart the game without rebooting my machine more times than not after saving or quitting out completely. Additionally, the "resume" option is not causing game crashes or CTD's every time, either (had one CTD with it).

I have a question and then a comment on a new problem that has surfaced.

The question is first: What does it mean to have a "corrupted save"? This term has been tossed around the forum a lot and I'm not sure what it means. For instance: Does a "corrupted save" always mean that the save game cannot be loaded (ie: crashes immediately)? Or could a corrupted save cause a delayed crash to desktop or lockup? What I am getting at here is that if there is some mechanism by which people's saves are being corrupted, then this corruption could lead to the crashes to desktop and lockups some of us have been experiencing. If I start a new campaign and continue to play it without saving I seem to have a bit less trouble (fewer CTD's and lockups over time) than if i have saved the game multiple times. Anyway, i'd like to hear how a savegame gets corrupted, what this means, and what can be done to prevent it.

The aforementioned "new problem": I have been monitoring my FPS carefully during my testing of the game today. I have noticed that during sustained bouts of play (1.5-2hrs or so), the FPS will gradually decline (goes from a constant 75fps to a 10-15fps). This slowdown is accompanied by a slow down of the game music, voices and other sounds (say "activating tac-ops computer" out loud to yourself over fifteen or twenty seconds). Miraculously the game does not crash and i am able to save/quicksave, quit the game, and restart the game and everything is okay again. I am letting windows manage my virtual memory (i did try to set a 500mb cachefile myself but there was no improvement or worsening of the slowdown effect described above). I do not have anything running in the background besides EXPLORER and SYSTRAY. No other games or applications have ever done this nor are they doing this currently (granted, I have not played anything for longer than an hour except BCM today). Could this slowdown be due to the reduced AGP aperture (i changed it from 128 to 64 as noted above)? It's really the only permanent change I've made.

Anyway, I thank everyone for their time and advice, it's been very encouraging.

I do have a saved game that will crash every time somewhere between 5sec-90sec of being restored (sometimes CTD, sometimes a hard lockup requiring reboot). If this sounds like something that SC or someone else wants to look at, I'll pack it up and send it. Again, I'd like to know if it is corrupted, if it works for you, or if there is some other problem.

[ 01-21-2002: Message edited by: Spider-man ]

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quote:

Originally posted by rockinit:

I have upgrade my system with Asus 8200 Deluxe Geforce 3 Ti 200(AGP)(22.80 drivers), Windows XP, and VIA 4in1437[a] drivers and updated my sytem profile.The game still crashes to the desk top 10min into the game. Is there anything else I can do to get the game not to crash?

Easy! Throw away the VIA Motherboard

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quote:


Originally posted by Spider-man:

I do have a saved game that will crash every time somewhere between 5sec-90sec of being restored (sometimes CTD, sometimes a hard lockup requiring reboot). If this sounds like something that SC or someone else wants to look at, I'll pack it up and send it. Again, I'd like to know if it is corrupted, if it works for you, or if there is some other problem.


Yeah, I'd like to take a look at it.

Saved game corruption can manifest itself in any number of ways

  1. HDD failure e.g. lost clusters etc
  2. System failure e.g. bad clusters (from #1) being written while the file is saved
  3. Incompatible saved games e.g. using 1.0.03 saved games with 1.0.04. This usually happens if you applied a patch incorrectly or didn't delete all the files in the SAVE game folder when applying a patch which specifically indicates that the file format has changed.
  4. Resuming or restoring a game which then fails, does NOT necessarily mean it is the saved game. Once the file is loaded, the screen then switches to the configured graphics mode, all the graphics engine requirements (buffers, res etc) are all loaded. Now, if the graphics card settings (either in display properties, BIOS, DirectX etc) are suspect, it will fail to init and will exit or give a hard lockup. This is one way in which a saved game can be suspected of crashing the system, when in fact it is NOT necessarily at fault.

From what I've read so far, you definitely have a system problem and I don't know how you're going to fix it. Everything I know about is in the FAQ and I have nothing else to add. As such, you're going to have to research this one on your own I'm afraid and find the common denominator (audio, video, chipset, BIOS, DirectX etc) starting with the reduction of the hardware acceleration on the video card.

More often than not, Quack-heads (read: Quake) download a plethora of video and system optimization tools (e.g. NVmax) just because it is available - then totally screw up their system (overclocking the card, messing with the BIOS settings, pissing about with display property settings) beyond repair. Of course, as long as Quake or Unreal works, they don't frigging care. Then you get into that age-old, braindead and stupid notion : "...well all my other games work".

The fact is, EVERYONE thinks that because they know what a commandline looks like, that it makes them cool enough to go pissing about in their system. And most don't even know how to change a car tire or even check its oil level. Yet, without qualification, they continue to piss about with their systems and then come crying to us [developers] when it all goes wrong.

And THAT is EXACTLY what I have NO interest in. NONE whatsoever. I don't care if someone has a $5K, top-of-the-line machine and is the bees wax. If you go pissing about with it, I do NOT want to know about it. PERIOD.

In your case, I would suggest that you QUIT pissing about with your machine, reset the BIOS to its defaults (for now), re-install its latest BIOS, DirectX and ALL your drivers. Then download a system intensive program such as 3DMark2001 and SiS Sandra and stress test your machine - BEFORE - you even consider re-installing and patching BCM.

[ 01-21-2002: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

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