Topic: games crashing

[alukav]

hello, ever since installing games on my new PC ive experienced crashing, freezing and random errors. I have tried different drivers (including catalyst 3.6) and Dx8.1/9.0a only to have a friend diagnose it as "bad hardware" i dont think this is the case as all other applications run fine, although its possible the company didnt set everything up correctly in the bios (setting suggestions?) dxdiag attached, any help is appreciated!




Games:
Soldier of Fortune 2
Rise of Nations Demo
Global Operations
Comanche 4
C&C Generals

ASUS A7n8X 2.0
Supergrace Radeon 9000 Pro 128m
Seitec PC3200 512M
AthlonXP 2600+

[Doc Nyar]

Could you attach your dxdiag ?

[alukav]

hope it works this time

[attachment deleted by admin]

[number6]

Well I checked your dxdiag and nothing jumps out as a problem there. Looked into your motherboard and it sounds like a really nice motherboard, so no problems there. It could still be hardware related even if all of your other games have no problems. I am guessing your problem is memory related. You say you have 512MB of RAM installed, how many sticks of memory is installed and of what size? Is it (2) 256MB sticks? I know that Windows 9X/Millineum has problems when you start going over the 256MB of RAM. I think 512MB is the max you can use without any problems.

[alukav]

single stick of 512mb 184 pin DDR SDRAM

sorry i should of explained better, meant to say ive yet to get any full/demo version of a game to run without some type of crash or pausing. the ones listed above are what i test with after each change.

onto the memory issue i did receive one or two "memory management" blue error screens with windows XP pro installed before i swapped back to WinME.

also
Maxtor 80GB DiamondMax Plus9 Hard drive 7200RPM
Antec 1080AMG 430w PSU, 3 fans

[number6]

Well if you only have a single stick of RAM it will be hard to troubleshoot the memory.  Maybe something went wrong when you upgraded to XP.
I am assuming you upgraded from WindowsME to XP pro.  I think there may be problems upgrading to XP pro. I think it is better to do a fresh install of XP pro without installing WinME at all. I am pretty sure that the upgrade XP install program can install without a prior install of Windows. The install program will probably prompt you for the original Windows disk or something. I don't know for sure because I am still using Windows 98 myself.

[gryphon]

Mayby disabeling advanced power functions and standby - sleep options in your BIOS if the are enabled and try again.. . ..

[alukav]

Well if you only have a single stick of RAM it will be hard to troubleshoot the memory.  Maybe something went wrong when you upgraded to XP.
I am assuming you upgraded from WindowsME to XP pro.  I think there may be problems upgrading to XP pro. I think it is better to do a fresh install of XP pro without installing WinME at all. I am pretty sure that the upgrade XP install program can install without a prior install of Windows. The install program will probably prompt you for the original Windows disk or something. I don't know for sure because I am still using Windows 98 myself.

XP was on the system first but after exhausting most options to run the games i did a fresh install of ME, reinstalled all my device drivers and games but the problem remained

[Doc Nyar]

I'm running Win XP Pro, but so far, all my games are running just fine (inlcuding Generals).

You might want to check this site (posted by SireMcDeath) for ATi drivers. Downloading Nvidia drivers there helped him to stop the freezing he encountered..

[alukav]

thanks for help so far

tried out the omega drivers today but the problem is same as it was with catalyst 3.6

most of the games load and play perfectly for 5-10minutes (and on rare occasions 20 minutes on comanche 4) before the crashing or freezing.
could it be something simple like an option enabled that shouldnt be? im new to changing options in my BIOS, so will tell what some of my current settings are .

CPU External Frequency = 100
CPU Frequency Multiple Setting = Auto
CPU Frequency Multiple = 12.5x
System Performance =Optimal
CPU Interface = Optimal
Memory Frequency = by SPD
Resulting Frequency = 200MHz
Memory Timings = Optimal
FSB Spread Spectrum = .50%
AGP Spread Spectrum = Disabled
CPU Vcore = Auto
Grapics Aperture = 64MB
AGP Frequency = Auto
Video RAM Cacheable =Disabled
DDR Reforence Voltagew = 2.6v
AGP VDDQ Voltage = 1.5v
AGP 8x Support =Enabled
Fast Write = Disabled

Im running LG Studioworks775N on Radeon9000 Omega 2.6.09 (16bit, 1024x768)

thanks.

[Doc Nyar]

What you could try is to set the memory timing setting to a lower value (set to optimal now)..

And those CPU requencies and voltage settings, set them to auto if you can. You don't want to mess with that unless you know what you're doing..

[alukav]

solved!

set the remaining bios settings to auto and now Generals/RON runs perfect, my vendor had "optimised" my default settings it seems. Thanks Doc and everyone else.

[Doc Nyar]

No problem. Happy gaming again