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Misc Tech Support Issues III


Supreme Cmdr
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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?


Edit the shortcut and add /w1 /d5 parameters. Now delete ALL the files in the SAVE folder and start a new ROAM scenario. When it crashes, you may or may not have a window pop-up. If you do, see if you can write down what it says or do a screen cap of it. Then, from the folder where BCM is installed, look for all the files with the .LOG extension and send them to me at [email protected] with an explanation of what the problem is, who you are etc.

I am going to assume that prior to trying the above, that you have uninstalled/re-installed/patched BCM to the latest version (using the FULL 1.0.04 patch) and starting from a new BCM environment.

The other two of you in this thread may want to do the same thing. The game runs in fullscreen by default and a video issue may/maynot prevent the diagnostics window from being displayed. Which is why you are asked to run the game in a window. And the /d5 parameter is the highest debug level which outputs a lot of critical data (and makes the game run horrendously slow!) which may/maynot help me identify what is going on and why it crashed.

The downside is that with /d5, the game will be slow but you have to keep playing it until it crashes or terminates with a fault error. In fact, once you start, you should try to run at the default resolution (640x480) in order to speed up processing. Running at a high res while trying to isolate a problem is going to kill performance with all the debug info logging that is going on.

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

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Heheh,

My aperature has been set to default (64mb) all along. I don't have the 'slowdown' Spiderman mentions. And CTD's in general are rather rare for me. Only real problem I've had is the occasional save I cannot load, (heheh, note I avoided saying 'corrupted save'), and the 'must reboot after the 2nd time I play BCM' problem.

Only the former is a problem that gives me any headaches, and for the last day, I've not had the problem. (Though it's not the first such period of time where the problem hasn't shown up for me).

It seems niether of these problems are particularly common, it would be interesting to figure out what exactly causes this issue.

A third friend of mine has purchased the game, he's running XP, but has a very similar machine to mine. I'm curious to hear how he makes out with the game.

Idaho

GCV-Futeki

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quote:


Originally posted by Duncan Idaho:

It seems niether of these problems are particularly common, it would be interesting to figure out what exactly causes this issue.

A third friend of mine has purchased the game, he's running XP, but has a very similar machine to mine. I'm curious to hear how he makes out with the game.

Idaho

GCV-Futeki


Yeah, we should try and pinpoint this. If its a system setting etc, then it needs to be included in the FAQ once discovered.

And that issue about rebooting after running BCM is definitely a system (most likely video) problem. I ran into that awhile back and it was due to video drivers. You may want to look into that and even re-installing DirectX 8.1 and your video drivers again.

Keep at it and let me know how it goes.

btw, have you tried deleting the bcmconfig.ini file and using the default (you can turn off the music if you like) setting for awhile to see what happens?

Also, what level of acceleration is your video card set to? Have you tried reducing it by one notch (from the default setting of full acceleration) to see if that makes a difference?

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

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quote:

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.


Ah, good idea. I tried 3dMark 2001 overnight (looping benchmark with everything on for 5 hours) and it was still sitting pretty this morning. I will reset the bios, reinstall all the drivers and directx and retest with 3dmark again later. If i get another few hours of sustained stability, I will try the hardware acceleration tab again as you suggested. I did try it earlier, but not with default settings, unfortunately.

Um, I know what you are saying about the Quack heads. Believe me, I am content if the game runs without problems. I do check 3dmark and the q3 demo to compare video card drivers, but I leave the drivers at default settings. I've never tinkered with my bios before, and was doing so because it was recommended earlier in this thread. I've also reviewed/posted on the forums at AMDboards, a via chipset site, and at sysopt.com to check for similar problems/fixes/workarounds. They've been far less helpful than this forum. Anyway, if the hardware acceleration tab fix does not work I'll try that debug mode. God help me...

Oh yeah, thank you for the nice explanation of corrupted save-games. I understand what you mean and you're right, #4 is probably the answer in my case.

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

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quote:


Originally posted by Spider-man:

Oh yeah, thank you for the nice explanation of corrupted save-games. I understand what you mean and you're right, #4 is probably the answer in my case.


Not a problem. Obviously you are having issues and we have to figure out whats causing them.

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quote:

Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr:

And that issue about rebooting after running BCM is
definitely
a system (most likely video) problem. I ran into that awhile back and it was due to video drivers. You may want to look into that and even re-installing DirectX 8.1 and your video drivers again.

btw, have you tried deleting the bcmconfig.ini file and using the default (you can turn off the music if you like) setting for awhile to see what happens?

Also, what level of acceleration is your video card set to? Have you tried reducing it by one notch (from the default setting of full acceleration) to see if that makes a difference?

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

SC

Okay, I can say now I've seen two machines with the 'reboot' problem now, and both have Nvidia cards, and I'm running the 22.80 drivers. Both are also on Win98SE.

I have reduced the acceleration tab, no effect on the reboot issue at all. That fix is on just about every game forum around, it was one of the first things I tried, heheh.

I'll try the deleting that file tonight, though.

(Comment added at 5pm)

I just tried that, ran BCM twice, no problems, third time, got this error:

"This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down."

Under the Details tab, this info is found:

BCM caused an invalid page fault in

module at 0000:b00dc170.

Registers:

EAX=dacfa000 CS=017f EIP=b00dc170 EFLGS=00010286

EBX=00000004 SS=0187 ESP=00dce8f8 EBP=00dc8912

ECX=0000078e DS=0187 ESI=dacf8900 FS=0177

EDX=00dce8f0 ES=0187 EDI=dacf42ff GS=0000

Bytes at CS:EIP:

This is the same error I've always had, (same error for the guy upstairs), and deleting that file didn't alter it. Can't wait to get it set back up the way I like it.

Particle effects rule!

(End added comment)

I HAVE noticed one (unrelated) thing: I run my desktop at 1024x768x32bit. If I run BCM with my desktop at that resolution, 1280x1024 does not show up in BCM as a usable resolution, but I get a horde of strange (1280x768, 1280x920 etc) resolutions. However, if I bump my desktop up to 1280x1024, that resolution shows up in BCM.

I'm only adding this info because on scanning through the forums here, I've seen at least one other say that 1280x1024 doesn't show up on theirs, and you might suggest to anyone with that issue that they set their desktop to 1280x1024 prior to running the game. Worked for me anyway.

See you.

Idaho

GCV-Futeki

[ 01-21-2002: Message edited by: Duncan Idaho ]

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Had the same problem with needing to reboot in order to load the game again after exiting. Here it is in more detail:

I had the game running perfectly on my system in WinXP, never a problem. Then when my HDD died on me recently I was forced to get out my old backup drive which has a Win98 SE install I keep around for such disasters... Got my system running again with the backup drive and installed BCM - It ran fine, no crashes and no problems encountered, until I exited for a while. When I next tried to start the game I got an invalid page fault similar to the one Duncan Idaho reported. I rebooted and was able to run the game fine, until the next time I exited where I again had to reboot in order to load the game without an invalid page fault.

I should mention here that I've worked as an alpha/beta tester for several companies so am farily adept at troubleshooting problems (having tested alpha versions of software that has crippled my operating system I am used to getting things running again) - I can safely say that I tried just about everything to isolate the problem. Uninstalled and reinstalled DirectX (both 8.0a and 8.1) numerous times, did the same with BCM and tried it patched and unpatched. I tried several videocard drivers (including the Hercules drivers that came with the card, as well the numerous nvidia dets). Tried different combinations of the VIA 4in1s, different sound card drivers, changed BIOS settings (and unlike some Quack-heads I DO know what I am doing and I know what everything in the BIOS actually does). I even removed the Geforce 3 and installed the old Creative Geforce DDR from one of my other machines - Problem still persisted.

It wasn't long until I suspected it was just a fubar OS installation. Regardless of my suspicions I still went on to test with different combinations of hardware and drivers installed to try and elminate possibilies (I removed all hardware from the machine except video card, HDD and CD-ROM). Only thing left was an OS reinstall. I probably should have tried a reinstall of 98 to see if that would be enough but I've been using XP since it was in beta (legally testing it via the MS developers network) and was missing it badly.

So I did a straight upgrade to WinXP (usually I'd format and do a fresh install but I am only using this while waiting for my new IBM drive to arrive) - Ran BCM and it worked perfectly. The invalid page fault problem is all gone and I can restart the game endlessly without need to reboot (note that I did not reinstall the game after upgrading to XP, I wanted to test with the old install first).

So the folks having the reboot problem may want to think about formatting and/or reinstalling their OS (or better yet get WinXP already).

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Hot damn, Elenkis, nice post. I'll try the OS reinstall after trying fresh bios and driver installs (if they don't work). Currently running the 3Dmark2001 torture-thon, no problems yet. I would really hate to go to windows XP at this point, but if it works it's worth it. Improved system stability would really be nice, even if games don't run as fast...

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quote:


Originally posted by Duncan Idaho:

This is the same error I've always had, (same error for the guy upstairs), and deleting that file didn't alter it. Can't wait to get it set back up the way I like it.

I HAVE noticed one (unrelated) thing: I run my desktop at 1024x768x32bit. If I run BCM with my desktop at that resolution, 1280x1024 does not show up in BCM as a usable resolution, but I get a horde of strange (1280x768, 1280x920 etc) resolutions.


Thats a standard system crash and doesn't tell me anything. I'm still of the opinion that it is system driver related.

Thats how the screen res enumeration works. If you have your desktop at a lower setting, the game doesn't offer anything higher. This is a safeguard against choosing an invalid screen res.

In fact, if you are having problems in fullscreen mode, you can run BCM in a window mode that takes up the fullscreen. If and when it crashes, you will be able to see the error log window. If it is a BCM error, you will see a BCM message. If it is a system error, you will get the fatal system info from the OS (which you posted above). EACH time BCM generates an internal fault, it WILL display it because it KNOWS where it came from.

Anyway, try this. I am going to assume that you wish to run in 1024x768x32 bit mode.

  1. set your desktop to 1024x768x32 bit mode
  2. run BCM with the /w2 param

Doing the above will run BCM in a 1024x768 window but since it is the same res as the desktop, it will fill up the screen rather than just a portion of it.

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

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quote:


Originally posted by Spider-man:

Hot damn, Elenkis, nice post. I'll try the OS reinstall after trying fresh bios and driver installs (if they don't work). Currently running the 3Dmark2001 torture-thon, no problems yet. I would really hate to go to windows XP at this point, but if it works it's worth it. Improved system stability would really be nice, even if games don't run as fast...


Yep, those are kind of posts which help.

In fact, Elenkis, please send me email ([email protected]). Since you have beta testing experience, I'd like you to join the Beta testing team.

Note to some of you n00bs who are new here; this is how I select most of my core testers. From right here in the community after careful observation of their participation, assistance etc.

Anyway, Spider-Man, I think you should first try re-installing the OS on top of itself (no need to go for broke with a format/install yet). Then re-install all your drivers etc.

In fact, you should go into Safe Mode, REMOVE as many drivers as you possibly can. Then when prompted to reboot, do so from floppy (I assume that you have a startup disk. If not, create one) or your win98 CDROM and then re-install. Once its all installed, go and install all drivers, DirectX etc. Then do the same for BCM (uninstall, reinstall, patch).

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

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quote:

Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr:

Thats a standard system crash and doesn't tell me anything. I'm still of the opinion that it is system driver related.

Thats how the screen res enumeration works. If you have your desktop at a lower setting, the game doesn't offer anything higher. This is a safeguard against choosing an invalid screen res.

Anyway, try this. I am going to assume that you wish to run in 1024x768x32 bit mode.

set your desktop to 1024x768x32 bit mode

run BCM with the /w2 param

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

SC,

Okay. It is the only error message I had to give. It is never "in" the game when I get it, it is just after the 'splash screen' goes away, but prior to where the program screen should open. BCM never got past the close of the splash screen. I'm in agreement with the guy who wrote the other post that this is a Win98/Nvidia thing. I'd try a fresh install myself, but this install is only a few weeks old as it is, and hasn't had anything mucking it up yet.

On the screen enumeration thing, I sort of figured that, but the person who asked in these forums previously why their machine didn't offer 1280x1024 in BCM never figured it out that I saw, that's the only reason I mentioned it. Oddly, the game DOES offer me higher res than my desktop setting, just not 1280x1024. 1280x960 is available, as is 1280x768. Setting desktop to 1280x1024 fixes it though, and at least if anyone else asks, there's the answer.

On the /w2 parameter, I'll keep it in mind, but lockups in general haven't been a problem for me, save for that specific save game error. I will, though, try using that next time I get another unloadable save, never know, maybe I'll get some helpful info that way.

Don't work too hard.

Idaho

GCV-Futeki

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damn SC, you mean you don't want ME on your beta testing team??!?

Especially after all those carefully worded posts about my stepwise troubleshooting efforts?

I'm crushed.

/me snaps a new web cartridge into his webshooter...

I am now gonna embark on the OS/driver reinstallation as you recommended, SC. I think I will do a clean install of the OS if I can find a spare hard drive laying around here (I think I have an extra 3.2 gB Seagate -- I'll just boot from it when I wanna play BCM). That way the only thing on the drive will be the OS, the drivers, and BCM. If it STILL gives me problems, I'll mail you the damn hard drive and let you play with it....

As for my current configuration on my WD hard drives, I'm gonna leave it alone. It's running everything else pretty well.

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quote:

Okay. It is the only error message I had to give. It is never "in" the game when I get it, it is just after the 'splash screen' goes away, but prior to where the program screen should open. BCM never got past the close of the splash screen.

Yep. Just to confirm, that is exactly how it was for me too. The invalid page fault would happen right after the Safe Disk splashscreen (or the BCM splashscreen in patched versions) goes away.

I'm curious about something... Idaho, when you get the error, what happens if you then try running dxdiag? Does it load ok? (Start/Run, type dxdiag and then OK)

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Elenkis,

I'm being lax: I should have stated that pretty much any other Direct3D using game or app will not work either after BCM has been run the second time on my machine, (or the first time for the machine belonging to my friend upstairs). This includes DXDiag. I get the very same error that BCM gives from any program that attempts to use Direct3D.

Idaho

GCV-Futeki

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Man it's been a long night. Here's what I did.

0. Returned my bios to "DEFAULT SETTINGS"

1. Reformatted my hard drive

2. Reinstalled win98se

3. Added the via 4in1 drivers (v4.37a) and then my ethernet drivers.

4. installed my video and sound drivers as noted in my profile. (i noticed that the sound drivers are beta -- listed as 632beta on the cmedia website. But they are the latest ones, so I installed them anyway). I checked to make sure the direct X settings for the detonator drivers corresponded to the troubleshooting FAQ (ie: best image quality and don't quack with anything else)

5. Installed direct x 8.1 and WMP 7.1

6. installed the mouse and joystick drivers listed in my profile.

7. installed direct x 8.1 again for good measure.

8. Installed BCM

9. REbooted (i rebooted between each numbered step, by the way, not just this one).

10. installed the 1.004 January 5th patch in the appropriate directory and then rebooted again.

11. I started the game and it ran beautifully. Frame rate unfettered by other programs cluttering the hard drive. For a second I was in heaven. I saved, quicksaved, quit, restarted, started, quit, restarted all without a single CTD or hard lock up. I decided to do the time trial to see if the game would "slow down" as I had reported earlier. I started a new roam campaign with the BCmk1 and set a course for gammula 1. 23 jumps or so. I walked away to make a sandwich.

about 2 hours into this I was jarred from a catnap by red alert sirens! I grabbed the stick, disengaged the autopilot and noticed, to my horror, the frame rate dropping like a stone. not momentarily, but steadily and progressively. The sound of explosions were distorted and crackly and the reports from my officers were painfully drawn out. The game did not crash. I saved it and quit out. I ran dxdiag and found no problems. system resources were fine. only systray and explorer were running. I rebooted and did the following:

1. Went back to dxdiag and slid the sound accleration down to standard

2. resumed my campaign.

3. cried in anguish when, in two hours, it slowed down again.

I'm going to run some other direct X applications tonight to see if there is a problem in other games (gonna install mechwarrior 4 and AVP 2 and 3d mark 2001 again). I posted a query on the AMD motherboard forum to see if anyone has experienced anything similar..

What do you guys think?

-get a new OS, spidey.

-get an actual sound card, spidey.

-try (insert hardware/bios/software/os adjustment here), spidey.

or

-give up

[ 01-22-2002: Message edited by: Spider-man ]

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quote:


Originally posted by Duncan Idaho:

Elenkis,

I'm being lax: I should have stated that pretty much any other Direct3D using game or app will not work either after BCM has been run the second time on my machine, (or the first time for the machine belonging to my friend upstairs). This includes DXDiag. I get the very same error that BCM gives from any program that attempts to use Direct3D.

Idaho

GCV-Futeki


Yep. Thats the #1 symptom of a driver trashing the DirectX buffers. The culprit? video and/or system drivers.

In fact, try this. Boot to Safe Mode and remove ALL the video drivers and monitors in there. Then reboot. Once prompted, install the latest video drivers, monitors etc. then DirectX 8. If you are lucky, it will be cleared.

You can also use the system tools and have it check all your system drivers, replacing any version that has been trashed, deleted etc. You will need the CDROM for your OS in order to do this. I think under win9x, that tool is in the accessories section somewhere.

[ 01-22-2002: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

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quote:


Originally posted by Spider-man:

damn SC, you mean you don't want ME on your beta testing team??!?

Especially after all those carefully worded posts about my stepwise troubleshooting efforts?

I'm crushed.

/me snaps a new web cartridge into his webshooter...


hehe, keep doing the research. Who knows what might happen in the end.

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quote:


Originally posted by Spider-man:

Man it's been a long night. Here's what I did.


OK, NOW I'm confused. I thought that your #1 complaint was instability. As far as I can see, you no longer have that problem.

The slowdown IS normal and is dependent on a LOT of things. Including :

  1. the OS being used
  2. the Config screen res
  3. the Config screen depth
  4. the video drivers
  5. the CPU
  6. the video card type
  7. if you are playing music

Most of the game's processing comes from the AI kernel. Graphics is not the bottleneck. So, in a large battle, even a PIII 1Ghz can come to its knees.

So, PLEASE don't confuse the issue. This thread is NOT for performance tweaking. It is for runtime problems.

Try changing all of the above params and you will see that the fps during processing in massive battles, will vary. I'm not sure WHAT you were expecting.

And why are you still using the 2183 nVidia drivers??!?? Or is your profile out of date again?

btw, to run a test like that unattended, you should increase the shield level, arm the PTA system, put the craft in PATROL profile and engage the A/P. In fact, you should upgrade to the most powerful shield first. Doing this, your ship may survive longer and you can leave the game running overnight. I'm not sure, but I think the /i (invincible flag) also works in the current version. You could try adding this and your CC will never be subject to destructive damage - allowing you to run the game for extended periods during stability tests such as this.

You might want to disable music playback as well

You should also run with /d2 /w2 so that if/when it terminates, there is a log file and/or error window.

e.g.

BCM.EXE /n /i /d2 /w2

[ 01-22-2002: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

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SC I am happy to report that my stability issues have resolved after converting to the 21.83 drivers and a complete reformatting of my hard drive/reinstallation of the OS!. (I said earlier that I used the 21.83's after trying the 23.11 and the 22.80. They appeared to be more stable [fewer crashes to desktop/lockups -- indeed none of late], were the last version to be WHQL certified, were recommended by the folks at the AMD motherboard and via chipset sites and produced no graphic anomalies in other games/3dmark).

I began having this extreme slowdown(noted in a prior message) after I began using the 21.83 drivers, but before I had completely wiped my hard drives and OS. That's why I am devastated that the slowdown continues. I don't think this is a performance problem, SC. When an application brings my system to it's knees -- the framerate drops and then returns to normal when conditions normalize (80 ships suddenly pop in, framerate drops, 80 ships are vaporized, framerate returns to normal). What is now happening with me is that: with all graphical options (except particle trails) on, there is a steady progressive decline in framerate that begins after playing 1.5-2hrs. EVERYTHING slows down tremendously. This did not happen with my old (inferior) 800mhz system. Everything crawls to a framerate of 10-20 with slowed game music and sounds and it never returns to normal no matter what I do (I can jump to a system or a planet with NOTHING else in it and the framerates still crawl and the sound lags). Again this is not a brief intermittant phenomena, it happens and it progressively worsens. When I quit out, everything is cool. When I restart without rebooting, the game will start out with normal framerate/sounds, but then slow down fairly rapidily again. If I quit out and REBOOT, it takes another 1.5 to 2h for this to happen.

to recap:

1. my stability issues with saving/random crashes were ELIMINATED with an OS reinstall, wiping of the hard drive, and clean installation of the drivers listed in my system profile.

2. The slowdown I began experiencing and described in a prior post is a lingering problem and I don't know what is causing it. If everyone else is having slowdowns like this, I'll call it normal and live with it, but I DIDN"T have this problem with my old system (processor, ram, and harddrive all far beneath what i now am using).

[ 01-22-2002: Message edited by: Spider-man ]

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Again, none of this is of interest to me. Please READ my post again. Slowly this time. In fact, I just added to it.

The fact is, the 2183 drivers are very, very old. Even if you THINK they solved your stability issues, the one thing you forgot is that after you did the full OS re-install, you SHOULD have used either the 2280 or 2311 drivers since those are specifically optimized (the 2183 is NOT) for your OS and video card.

You HAVE to pay attention. I don't think you are.

Apart from that, you're not very consistent and I'm trying to keep track of WHAT exactly you're up to and/or saying. e.g. you talk about slowdowns, YET, you NEVER once mentioned your Config settings. We're supposed to just guess all this crap?

*sheesh*

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quote:

The fact is, the 2183 drivers are very, very old. Even if you THINK they solved your stability issues, the one thing you forgot is that after you did the full OS re-install, you SHOULD have used either the 2280 or 2311 drivers since those are specifically optimized (the 2183 is NOT) for your OS and video card.

You HAVE to pay attention. I don't think you are.

Apart from that, you're not very consistent...

Nice. Look, let's admit that it is hard to follow these threads and remember everyone's advice/input. I mentioned the slow down problem a couple of posts ago. I've also repeatedly mentioned my use of the 21.83 drivers and that they work for me. The 23.11's and the 22.80's did not.

I have been paying attention, and here is what the board says about drivers (speaking of consistency)....

quote:

SC:

So they went ahead and made the 2311 drivers official huh?

Typical. They're as buggy as hell. But don't let me stop you from using them.

...

Has:

After changing my driver (from v21.83 to v23.11) I got CTD and locks up after restoring a game. Same thing happened with v21.85. After changing back to v21.83, I┬┤ve had no problems. Lesson to learn here, don't install a beta driver (or a buggy one like 23.11).


22.80 is a beta driver. Unsupported. 21.83, though old, works for me. I'm not sure what you mean by it not being optimized for my video card and OS. Okay enough of that.

Against my better judgment, I DID carefully uninstall the 21.83 drivers with add/remove programs and the detonator destroyer utility. I then carefully installed the 23.11's to try them on my still-virginal freshly installed system.

Result: two crashes requiring reboot. once shortly after creating a new profile (with full graphics and music options on)in roam mode, and the other after restoring a saved game from last night (with full graphics and music/sound options on). I learned my lesson and carefully uninstalled the detonator 23.11's and used the detonator destroyer. I then reinstalled the 21.83's. I am no longer getting immediate crashes. I am very reluctant to try the 22.80's, but I'll give em a shot if I run out of options.

quote:

btw, to run a test like that unattended, you should increase the shield level, arm the PTA system, put the craft in PATROL profile and engage the A/P. In fact, you should upgrade to the most powerful shield first. Doing this, your ship may survive longer and you can leave the game running overnight. I'm not sure, but I think the /i (invincible flag) also works in the current version. You could try adding this and your CC will never be subject to destructive damage - allowing you to run the game for extended periods during stability tests such as this.

You might want to disable music playback as well

You should also run with /d2 /w2 so that if/when it terminates, there is a log file and/or error window.

e.g.

BCM.EXE /n /i /d2 /w2


GREAT ADVICE! I'll try this with the 21.83's first and see if I can get the error window or log file. I'll then try the 22.80's, same procedure.

And I apologize for not supplying my game config settings.

[ 01-22-2002: Message edited by: Spider-man ]

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quote:

Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr:

Yep. Thats the #1 symptom of a driver trashing the DirectX buffers. The culprit? video and/or system drivers.

In fact, try this. Boot to Safe Mode and remove ALL the video drivers and monitors in there. Then reboot. Once prompted, install the latest video drivers, monitors etc. then DirectX 8. If you are lucky, it will be cleared.

You can also use the system tools and have it check all your system drivers, replacing any version that has been trashed, deleted etc. You will need the CDROM for your OS in order to do this. I think under win9x, that tool is in the accessories section somewhere.

[ 01-22-2002: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

SC,

Okay, rebooted in safe mode, removed display adapter and monitor from Device Manager as suggested. Rebooted, reinstalled the Nvidia 22.80 drivers, rebooted, and then DirectX8.1. Another reboot!

(Mind you though I hadn't said so, I had already tried this).

Fired up BCM. No change. Runs 2 times fine, third time makes it impossible to run any Direct3D using program, same as before.

So, I then fired up the System File Checker, (SFC.exe, burried in the System directory), and let it scope out all my files. It replaced no less than 6 files, (with older versions, and all 6 files were part of MS Outlook). I let it, since it backed up the replaced files anyway. Rebooted.

Fired up BCM the requisite 2 times, tried for a third, and still no change. (I did put my 6 files back after, as I suspect they are part of my MS Outlook's update).

No luck there.

I've spent more time here at the forums the past 2 days than I have playing the game. On perusing this forum, I ran into 2 others (not counting Elekis), who have this problem, and there are three things in common in all cases: Win98/ME, Nvidia cards, and SBLive!. That makes by my count a total of 5 people with this same issue, all with that same combination of hardware/OS.

Maybe nothing. I don't know.

At any rate, thanks for the suggestions, they were worth a try. I'd never have tried System File Checker, since I've never had it turn out to be useful to me in the past. Never know, it might have helped.

Now! I'm gonna go play. I don't mind the reboot much, and I still think upgrading to XP will fix me up. (Though I'd still like to find out what's causing this, just to know).

Idaho

GCV-Futeki

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quote:


Originally posted by Duncan Idaho:

That makes by my count a total of 5 people with this same issue, all with that same combination of hardware/OS.


Can you list all those five (5) please? Thanks

And while you're at it, use the Detonator Destroyer to remove the 2280 drivers (you can find it over at 3dchipset.com I think). Then try the 2311 drivers.

Remember to re-install DX8.1 before or after installing video drivers.

And you MUST drop the card's acceleration down a notch. I don't you mention that at all.

[ 01-22-2002: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

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quote:


Originally posted by Spider-man:

GREAT ADVICE! I'll try this with the 21.83's first and see if I can get the error window or log file. I'll then try the 22.80's, same procedure.


AGAIN you are NOT paying attention

The error log won't occur if you are having system problems. That error log will only appear if/when BCM itself generates an internal error.

From I've read so far, 2183 drivers are stable on your system but you have performance issues.

So, use whatever drivers work for you and be done with it.

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