Hi all:
I have a decently powerful self-built system that should be able to handle any current games out there in their mid to upper range graphic settings. Here is my abbreviated list of specs:
P4 2.4 Ghz
1 GB of PC2700 RAM
ATI Radeon 9600XT video
SB Audigy 2ZS
Windows XP SP2 (Home Edition)
Norton Antivirus (disabled for installation and gameplay)
Direct X 9.0c
I do not overclock.
Basically, about half the games I try to play on my machine wind up with what appears to be the same problem: screen lockup early on. By “screen lockup”, I mean that everything just freezes onscreen like a snapshot with total loss of input ability and the only way for me to get out of it is to reboot. Sometimes, if a sound is in the middle of playing, it will “freeze-skip”—other times the sound just gets cut off with the freeze.
In games where this occurs, it’s usually either right at the beginning menu screen (I always get through any intro videos with no problem), or occurs shortly after entering the game itself (usually within a few seconds of starting). When I get this problem, I always try to subsequently turn down the graphic settings as low as they can go to see if that helps—it doesn’t. Also, it rarely freezes in the exact same place for a game with each try—sometimes it goes a little farther before locking up, other times it’ll lock up as soon as the menu appears. But it’s always pretty brief. Adding to the confusion is the fact that some games perform flawlessly.
Here are some recent games where the problem occurs:
Simpsons
Thief Deadly Shadows
Evil Genius (Demo)
Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War (Demo)
Rome Total War (Demo)
Contrast the above list with some recent games that work just fine on my machine:
Painkiller
Doom3 (even at 1280x1024 and the “High” Graphic settings, this game worked well—no problems)
Tron 2.0
Star Wars: KOTOR
Dungeon Siege
I mention the ones that work because they are intensive processing games and I play them at very high graphic settings with no problem. So it appears that if a game gets by whatever condition causes the others to freeze early on, I wind up having an enjoyable experience with no worries.
IÂ’ve contacted customer support on all the games that donÂ’t work, and after going through the SAME steps for each (disable antivirus, disable firewalls, update your drivers, uninstall/reinstall, drop graphics, remove sound), they all inevitably wind up throwing up their hands and saying thereÂ’s nothing more they can think to do.
But there’s likely a singular reason for this—I just can’t find the pattern or pinpoint the source. Given Creative’s crappy driver support (you have to basically remove every hint of the soundcard to truly update a driver), I’ve long suspected that the interaction between the Audigy card and the problem games is the culprit--but the fact that going into code and turning sound and music off doesn’t make the problem go away casts doubt on that theory. I also recently dabbled in turning down the hardware acceleration for sound in the Direct X Diagnostic tool, but that did nothing either. I even tried manipulating my ATI Catalyst panel to force the graphic card to do only performance (vs. quailty). No luck. But again, it doesn't make sense to have todo all these tweaks when a number of graphic intensive games work fine.
At one point, I thought I might have a memory problem (since my memory purchases were typically generic), so I “upgraded” my memory sticks to name-brand quality. No change.
I should mention I had the same problem with XP SP1 and other Direct X versions--the problem appears to be independent of these.
Any remaining suggestions would be helpful. Could this be a motherboard issue? And how the hell can Doom3 work well at high settings, but the Simpsons canÂ’t even play at 640x480? It makes no sense. If it were just a single game, or a single developer, I'd chalk it up to sloppy code for the title possibly doing something--but the wide range of titles with problems implies that the problem is either on my end, or there is some coding standard the devs for these games are using that interferes with my specific hardware.
This basically makes my game purchases a crap shoot and it’s frustrating as hell—especially when my machine exceeds even the recommended requirements of the latest titles out there.
Thanks in advance.
ps. I guess I should mention that EVERYTHING is up to doate that I'm aware can be. Drivers for video card, soundcard, monitor, motherboard BIOS, on-board chipsets--you name it, I've likely searched for the latest drivers and/or updates and made sure I've got it.
I have a decently powerful self-built system that should be able to handle any current games out there in their mid to upper range graphic settings. Here is my abbreviated list of specs:
P4 2.4 Ghz
1 GB of PC2700 RAM
ATI Radeon 9600XT video
SB Audigy 2ZS
Windows XP SP2 (Home Edition)
Norton Antivirus (disabled for installation and gameplay)
Direct X 9.0c
I do not overclock.
Basically, about half the games I try to play on my machine wind up with what appears to be the same problem: screen lockup early on. By “screen lockup”, I mean that everything just freezes onscreen like a snapshot with total loss of input ability and the only way for me to get out of it is to reboot. Sometimes, if a sound is in the middle of playing, it will “freeze-skip”—other times the sound just gets cut off with the freeze.
In games where this occurs, it’s usually either right at the beginning menu screen (I always get through any intro videos with no problem), or occurs shortly after entering the game itself (usually within a few seconds of starting). When I get this problem, I always try to subsequently turn down the graphic settings as low as they can go to see if that helps—it doesn’t. Also, it rarely freezes in the exact same place for a game with each try—sometimes it goes a little farther before locking up, other times it’ll lock up as soon as the menu appears. But it’s always pretty brief. Adding to the confusion is the fact that some games perform flawlessly.
Here are some recent games where the problem occurs:
Simpsons
Thief Deadly Shadows
Evil Genius (Demo)
Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War (Demo)
Rome Total War (Demo)
Contrast the above list with some recent games that work just fine on my machine:
Painkiller
Doom3 (even at 1280x1024 and the “High” Graphic settings, this game worked well—no problems)
Tron 2.0
Star Wars: KOTOR
Dungeon Siege
I mention the ones that work because they are intensive processing games and I play them at very high graphic settings with no problem. So it appears that if a game gets by whatever condition causes the others to freeze early on, I wind up having an enjoyable experience with no worries.
IÂ’ve contacted customer support on all the games that donÂ’t work, and after going through the SAME steps for each (disable antivirus, disable firewalls, update your drivers, uninstall/reinstall, drop graphics, remove sound), they all inevitably wind up throwing up their hands and saying thereÂ’s nothing more they can think to do.
But there’s likely a singular reason for this—I just can’t find the pattern or pinpoint the source. Given Creative’s crappy driver support (you have to basically remove every hint of the soundcard to truly update a driver), I’ve long suspected that the interaction between the Audigy card and the problem games is the culprit--but the fact that going into code and turning sound and music off doesn’t make the problem go away casts doubt on that theory. I also recently dabbled in turning down the hardware acceleration for sound in the Direct X Diagnostic tool, but that did nothing either. I even tried manipulating my ATI Catalyst panel to force the graphic card to do only performance (vs. quailty). No luck. But again, it doesn't make sense to have todo all these tweaks when a number of graphic intensive games work fine.
At one point, I thought I might have a memory problem (since my memory purchases were typically generic), so I “upgraded” my memory sticks to name-brand quality. No change.
I should mention I had the same problem with XP SP1 and other Direct X versions--the problem appears to be independent of these.
Any remaining suggestions would be helpful. Could this be a motherboard issue? And how the hell can Doom3 work well at high settings, but the Simpsons canÂ’t even play at 640x480? It makes no sense. If it were just a single game, or a single developer, I'd chalk it up to sloppy code for the title possibly doing something--but the wide range of titles with problems implies that the problem is either on my end, or there is some coding standard the devs for these games are using that interferes with my specific hardware.
This basically makes my game purchases a crap shoot and it’s frustrating as hell—especially when my machine exceeds even the recommended requirements of the latest titles out there.
Thanks in advance.
ps. I guess I should mention that EVERYTHING is up to doate that I'm aware can be. Drivers for video card, soundcard, monitor, motherboard BIOS, on-board chipsets--you name it, I've likely searched for the latest drivers and/or updates and made sure I've got it.
