Curse

pully2183 · May 30, 2005, 12:47 PM // 12:47

That's it I've had enough. I just cannot get this game to work without crashing.

First it would freeze and the screen would corrupt. So I removed the overclock from my card and left the side of my case open. That solved that.

Then it started to black screen of death on me. The screen would go black, the monitor would go into stand by and I would have to turn my pc off using the off button.

So I added a fan blowing into my case. I unplugged my pc from the multiplug I was using before and gave it it's own plug socket. I opened port 6112 on my router, disabled windows firewall and turned off my virus scanner incase it interfered. I even went into msconfig and turned off as many of the microsoft services as I could and still keep my pc running.

Now my pc black screens on me but the monitor doesn't shut down and I can still type and log out ( although I can't see jack).

I love this game to bits but I can't stand it crashing all the time. I've done the fort ranik mission 3 times now, each time my pc crashes before I can finish it.

If anyone has any suggestions I would be estatically greatful to hear them. My pc stats are:
Windows XP SP2
AMD Athlon 64 3400
1 Gb RAM
200 GB HD
300 W PSU
ATI Radeon 9800 SE 128-bit,256 MB Graphics card. cooled with a Zalman VF700-CU
Direct X 9
750 kb/s internet connection run through a lynksys dsl router.
I have the latest drivers for my video card and my motherboard

The only thing I can think of is that my psu is not powerful enough but I can't justify dropping £50 or more getting a new one if there is a chance my pc still won't work.

ElRey · May 30, 2005, 12:52 PM // 12:52

The only thing that i can think of is that the ATI Radeon SE is bad. SE is a crapped up card of the original. Get a Sapphire ATI Radeon X300 128 mb. Its about $66 at Newegg.com

Edge Martinez · May 30, 2005, 01:00 PM // 13:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by ElRey

The only thing that i can think of is that the ATI Radeon SE is bad. SE is a crapped up card of the original. Get a Sapphire ATI Radeon X300 128 mb. Its about $66 at Newegg.com

Yeah this sure does sound like a bad video card and not the game. It sounds like something in your computer is messed up, and chances are it's the card. I run the ATI 9250, a cheap 256Mb PCI card with no problems on a system that is vastly inferior to yours.

What I'd suggest is cleaning the inside of your case (which it sounds like you've done), and reinstall the video card with it's original CD drivers and give that a try. ATI always says to never upgrade the drivers unless you experience problems. Alot of folks just get the latest and greatest, but until I encounter a problem, I'll always use my original driver.

Good luck man, but I wouldn't give up on the game unless you don't like it specifically, because it sounds like you've got problems besides the game. The people on this forum are great and helped me get through my glitches. It will work out.

If you've got any sort of onboard graphics, you may want to enable that and see if it helps some. It will at least give you some idea of if it was your card.

EDIT: Oh yeah, the 9800 is a VERY HOT card. ATI's usually are hotter running than nVidia, but the 9800 cooks.

Svenn · May 30, 2005, 01:05 PM // 13:05

I think that either your card is bad or your PSU is insufficient/failing. Do you have a friend that would loan you a known-good, higher wattage PSU to try out? Borrowing a different video card wouldn't hurt, either, except you need to be careful that a card with lower current draw might "solve" a PSU problem, not a card problem.

EnDinG · May 30, 2005, 01:32 PM // 13:32

Try Svenn suggestions. They are the first things to do, one of those are probley the problem.

Replace the video card with a buddies first and see what happens. (Perhaps a couple just incase.) Then try the PSU.

termite · May 30, 2005, 01:34 PM // 13:34

a) Your PSU is too low for the stuff you have running in your system (AMD 64 cpu, 200gig hd, 1 gig of ram consume a lot of power, and so does that 9800se).

b) You are running your video card overclocked, which might also be reponsible for the problems you're having.

pully2183 · May 30, 2005, 01:43 PM // 13:43

Thanks for your prompt replies.
I was having a similar problem with most other games especially Warhammer 40000 dawn of war but upgrading my GPU cooler to a zalman seemed to sort this out. Oh and when I said I added a fan I meant a bloody big desk fan blowing onto the graphics card.

I'll see if I can borrow another PSU and graphics card. I won't be easy since most of my friends are technophobes who would have to open up their pcs.

If i decide to buy one, what size psu would you reccomend and what make? Preferably nothing too expensive.

How do I enable the onboard graphics? Do all motherboards necessarily have them?

I'll try reinstalling my old video card drivers.

EnDinG · May 30, 2005, 01:46 PM // 13:46

A 400 PSU it seems is running the game pretty well. (If you can, go for a 500 from a decent company so you can keep using it over the next few years at least.)

Not all video cards have an onboard graphic engine. Quite a few are just typical VGA poop.

termite · May 30, 2005, 01:46 PM // 13:46

Nothing too expensive? Well then this is probably the best bet for you: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817153006
It's on sale until tomorrow, so you probably still have time if you're planning on upgrading the psu. I think its regular price is like $45.

pully2183 · May 30, 2005, 01:51 PM // 13:51

oh should have mentioned I live in the uk so I can't order from newegg

termite · May 30, 2005, 01:55 PM // 13:55

Try looking here: http://www.thermaltake.com/where/uk/uk%20index.htm

pully2183 · May 30, 2005, 05:28 PM // 17:28

I've decided to order this PSU since I couldn't get the model you suggested.

http://www.overclock.co.uk/customer/...roductid=16915

Looks like I'm gonna have to give up alcohol for a bit to pay for it. Ah well I'm sure my liver will be pleased.

termite · May 30, 2005, 07:35 PM // 19:35

That's a good power supply. Good luck, and come back to let us know how things go once you have it up and running.

Principa Discordia · May 30, 2005, 08:17 PM // 20:17

If you're willing to spend £45 on a new PSU, I would seriously recommend an Akasa Paxpower2. The 400w version is £46.94 with VAT at this site and has dual 12v rails.

I just bought one of these myself, it's amazing how quiet it is compared to a dual-fan PSU, and it runs very cool.

pully2183 · May 30, 2005, 08:28 PM // 20:28

too late i already ordered the other one. Thanks anyway.

aeroclown · May 31, 2005, 07:27 AM // 07:27

Just another side note to consider. My friend has a 9800se and it works perfectly fine. However, he has never overclocked it. You should be aware that over clocking any part of your system without really Good kooling that ensure the levels stay at a constant safe level, can destory hardware. In fact I hear that plain just overclocking in general can by very bad for hardware over the long term even if its maintained properly. By over clocking you are putting strain on systems that were not really designed to handle the clock speeds and data rates you have set.

It sounds like a burnt up video card as well as maybe a psu problem. Once you crunch up a card it can do alot of strange things, that seem to be unrelated at all to what you are doing or have done.

Furious Surearrow · May 31, 2005, 02:32 PM // 14:32

two things to consider:

psu is weak and should be upgraded

Test your video card by downloading ATI Tool and running the tests. If you get artifacting then you know it's a video card problem, it may run fine for a while overclocked but when it goes, it goes quickly. For ati tool you'll need to let it run for several minutes and hopefully you won't see any errors

cannonfodder · May 31, 2005, 03:26 PM // 15:26

That card (9800se) is more than adequate to play GW, it seems as though the PSU isn't good enough for the specs...

Lunarbunny · May 31, 2005, 04:25 PM // 16:25

Definitely switch out the PSU. 300w just won't cut it anymore. I'm probably currently (haha) pulling more out of my cheap 350w than I should be:
AMD Athlon64 3200+
GeForce FX5900XT
2 HDDs
1 CD-RW
3 fans (1x120mm, 2x80mm)

I'm thinking my crash issues are caused by power dips during high loads on my video (fog, emitters, lots of sprites during battle, etc.)
I'm about to spend a bit of dough on the Antec True430 on Newegg.

Ellestar · May 31, 2005, 04:34 PM // 16:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by pully2183

The only thing I can think of is that my psu is not powerful enough but I can't justify dropping £50 or more getting a new one if there is a chance my pc still won't work.

Try this suggestion
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...84&postcount=9
If your computer still restarts, then it's PSU. If you see a "Blue Screen of Death", then your PSU should be ok. Looking at your specs, i can say that there may be a chance that the problem is with your PSU. Especially so if it's some chinese noname crap.