freezing all the time, and i mean ALL the tme!

[aardvark]

i love this game but i can only play so long until the scren freezes and i have to hard reset my pc. It doesn't happen at a fixed time (could be after an hour if i'm lucky, sometimes after 1 minute!) and it doesn't happen after any one event (seems random as far as i can tell) - but it can happen several times a night until i get bored of reseting.
i have all the latest drivers (on an 8800gt) and this doesn't happen in any other game - nothing shows up in the event viewer and i can't find an error log anywhere so i am at a loss to explain it or solve it. i installed the russian 1.64 patch but that didn't help.
does anyone have any ideas? if it wasn't such an addictive game i would have given up ages ago!

[milo]

I experienced apparently random bsod with latest drivers, I tried the nvidia omega driver (which was last updated last year) and have not had a single crash. If you try this method make sure you run driver cleaner or similar app in safe mode to remove all traces of previous driver before installation.

[pc_gamer]

I was hoping the new patch 1.6.5 would solve the freezing problems when I play the game. But, it didn't. The game freezes no matter what I do to my computer to make it stop. I have tried the latest NVidia graphics driver (178.24) and an older one (93.71). I have cleaned my computer including reapplying thermal paste to my CPU and GPU and then reattaching a 'clean' heat sink + fan (in case I have an overheating problem; which I don't). I have run a registry cleaner multiple times when installing a different graphics driver. I have re-installed the game 'twice.' Once because the damn patch screwed up my original install. Also, I have stopped all start-up programs that normally operate in the background before playing the game.

I do not experience the freezing problem in any of the other games I play including several shooters. IT HAS GOT TO BE A SOFTWARE PROBLEM!! I do not know what else to do to my computer to make the freezing stop.

My computer specs are attached.

[aardvark]

i have had to stop playing the game - all those hard resets were corrupting my hard drive and i spent 3 days last week fixing the MBR on the drive.
its a shame because i like the game but i can't risk the damage to my pc

[Jinix the Elder]

It's a conflict between the game and your setup hardware or/and software that is causing this and not an inherent bug in the game's software.

I say this because if it was buggy software everyone would have the same problem.

I resolve my software problems but using a freshly formatted harddrive, making it C drive and install on that. If it works then I can eliminate hardware problems and look for conflicts in my software on my main drive.

I also have 4 completely different computers with different video setups to try my stuff on so it's easier to diagnose but I never have the same problem on all set ups.

Once a computer has been used a few times it becomes a completely unique setup. After you have installed a few programs or upgraded the software or hardware it becomes as unique as your own DNA. There is nothing exactly like in it anywhere else.
I am always in wonder that it works at all given the millions of individual setups there are.

Jinix the Elder

I have often wanted to drown my troubles, but I can't get my wife to go swimming.
Jimmy Carter

[pc_gamer]

Thanks for trying to be helpful, Jinix. I guess this game must be ultra sensitive to my computer setup. For my setup, the game freezes during gameplay. For other people's computer setup, they may get the BSOD or other various error messages.

Maybe if we all used Mac computers, we would not be having these problems. I have been contemplating on abandoning PC games altogether and going to either the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 for all the PC hardware & Windows problems I have had to deal with. "Hardware consistency" would solve a lot of headaches for us PC gamers!

[Jinix the Elder]

You would be just as frustrated with a mac or an xbox/playstation.

An example is the game Oblivion - there is an xbox version and thousands enjoy the game with it - but you can't make mods with it nor install other mods.
Now there are thousands of mods for Oblivion and the xbox gamers are really left out.

The pc for all its endless problems, is still the best all-round computer. The creation possibilities are endless. New hardware and programs developers have many more resources to draw from when making hardware and software without the strict limitations of the closed in box.

Every time you go through these pc problems you gain more knowledge and each little victory is the same as playing a game itself.
To stop my frustrations I, long ago, changed my outlook and now consider the solving of the pc problem as much fun as the games I play. But then again a have a roomful of old computers, parts and lots of time.
The real answer is to have both an xbox for all the popular titles to play the games with, and a pc for everything else.

The fact that most people can get the game working fine on their pcs without problems, proves that the troubles lay with the combination of your computer parts and , most significantly, the i-want-control-of-your-system software running on the computer.

Stop all anti-virus, spyware, trogan eliminators, firewall and especially notification/messenger calls etc., from working then unplug your system from the Internet and re-install a problematic game.

Jinix the Elder

When you make the finding yourself - even if you're the last person on Earth to see the light - you'll never forget it.
Carl Sagan

[wolfing]

Originally Posted by Jinix the Elder

You would be just as frustrated with a mac or an xbox/playstation.

He wouldn't be frustrated in the Mac because... he wouldn't be playing the games! Macs are ok for drawing pretty lines, but if you want to play games, get ready to play games that have been released years ago (and only a handful of them). Sure they may work, if you can wait for the game, and if the game is released for Macs at all.

[ACEofHeart]

I have a nvidia card (7300) and I had video stuttering when I first played the game.. but I turned all graphics settings to "normal" as they were on high to start, turned off "anti-aliasing".. and now it runs fine..

[Stephen_Richard_Webb]

I have an NVidia Gforce 8800 GT /512 VRAMm and I use Riva Tuner to control my graphics cards fan cycle, because for some reason the fan doesn't want to auto adjust when the chips get hot while playing instense games. Riva Tuner also lets you adjust your DX settings and Core Clock, Mem Clock and Shader Clock domains, you can also check the ambient and core temps which is invaluable when playing graphic intense games - if you see the core temp getting above 60 degrees celcius, its time to boost the fan cycle - when the chips get hot they perform VERY poorly the most common side effect of a hot chip is extended game pauses [the chips stop processing data so they can cool down - its a built in safe guard to prevent burnout].

P.S. If you overclock YOU MUST increase your fan cycle - and if you overclock YOU WILL INVALIDATE YOUR MRF. WARRANTY - VOID!