Help!! PC crashing!

TekDragon · 2003-05-25, 11:49 AM

My PC keeps crashing when im running planetside! I can only play for like 5 minutes!

My PC:
Alienware
P4
2.8ghz
1gig DDRAM
Radeon 9700 pro
SB audigy live
120 gig HD

[EDIT] Win XP Pro

Can somoene please help me? Its got me so frustrated!

Hamma · 2003-05-25, 12:25 PM

crashing how? ctd? lockup?

TekDragon · 2003-05-25, 12:26 PM

Ok, made some progress. I put the game into windowed mode on the lowest graphical settings (*sigh*).

The game still crashes every 5 minutes but at least only the game crashes now instead of the whole PC.

BTW: i get no error message or anything. It just closes to the desktop. Ive exited all my background programs like Kazaa, AIM, ICQ, and others stuff.

TekDragon · 2003-05-25, 12:29 PM

Hamma, the crash before i put the game in windowed mode made the computer reset, just as if I had hit the reset button. Now when the game crashes it says nothing. Its like im playing a game like minesweeper and i hit the 'x'... only i didnt hit the friggin 'x'.

TekDragon · 2003-05-25, 02:01 PM

Ok, this last time i was able to play for about 7 minutes in the VR training. I clicked the button to purchase a mosquitoe and the game froze. I had it in windowed mode still so it wasnt a total bitch, i just had to cntrl-alt-del close the game.

Did SOE hire 1000 monkeys to sit at 1000 computers to program this game? I have NEVER had problems like this with Anarchy Online, Buldurs Gate 2, CnC Generals, WarCraft 3, AsheronsCall 2, Unreal 2, Tribes 2, MechWarrior 4, Ultima Online, or Dark Age of Camelot. This PC has handled ALL those games PERFECTLY.. what the hell is wrong with PlanetSide?!

TekDragon · 2003-05-25, 03:23 PM

Well apparently im not as clever as i thought. After taking the game to lowest graphical settings in windowed mode with 800x600 resolution i figured it would at LEAST prevent my PC resetting. Nope.

This is my happy face:

Why am I happy? Becuse Sony wants me to pay 13$ to watch my PC crash itself to death. My happy face will be the last thing a Sony marketing staff member will see before I joke him to death if I ever meet one.

OneManArmy · 2003-05-25, 03:51 PM

do you have the 3.4 cats for your radeon?

TekDragon · 2003-05-25, 04:10 PM

do you have the 3.4 cats for your radeon?

More info please?

SpaceDrake · 2003-05-25, 04:23 PM

Newest drivers for your video card. http://www.ati.com/

And are you playing Vanu, by any chance? If so, try turning off particle effects, see how far that gets you...

Vash · 2003-05-25, 05:18 PM

Disclaimer: I'm not responsible for any fuckups. I'm not super-techie... this is just what worked for me

If new drivers dont do the trick, you might try lowering your AGP aperture. I found pretty early on that PS cannot tolerate an improper setting :/

If you dont know how to change your AGP Aperture, you have to enter the BIOS when you're rebooting your computer. Just press Delete or F8 or whatever... the proper key will be displayed on-screen during startup or can be found in your motherboard or system manual if not.

Once you're on the delightful little blue menu, select Advanced Chipset Features. You should be able to change the AGP Aperture from there.

Now, you said you have 1gb system RAM and a 9700... that's a 128mb card, right?

Anyway, you can experiment with values... the lower values to be exact. 32 was the magic number for me in beta.

oh, and just for reference, I have a GF4 Ti4600 (128mb) and 768mb PC2100, and my AGP Aperture was set at 256

Planetside was the only game that couldnt deal with it though... it would just dump me back to the desktop randomly every 2-15 minutes, and even rebooted my computer on its own a couple times

After a little searching, I found a little article about tweaking your AGP Aperture, tried it, and PS ran without a hitch.

eh, enough rambling
I hope this helps you out. I dont know what else to think otherwise heh

edit: Here's the little AGP aperture blurb. It's the 4th post down. Glad I still had it hiding in my bookmarks

TekDragon · 2003-05-25, 05:38 PM

Thanks Vash. That sounds exactly like the same problem im having. Ill give it a shot.

Lexington_Steele · 2003-05-25, 06:16 PM

Planetside has been giving ATI card users CTD and freezing problems that nvidia card users do not experience.

NoSurrender · 2003-05-28, 08:22 PM

lex ive said it like 18 thousand times ATI cards are not optimized like Nvidia card hell look at the back of the box and wut do you see Nvidia the way its ment to be played see see i was worried bout that (Grrrr must destroy Nvidia optimazations)

M0z · 2003-05-30, 07:49 AM

Exactly the same problem here, never as bad in the beta havent been able to play longer than 5 mins since i brought the damn game.

i got a 9700pro 128meg also.

clean installed xp latest drivers then DX8.1 PS still same
clean installed XP + sp1 , DX9 still same

eventually i contacted sony who are helping i sent them my DXDIAg and MSINFo and various other .ini files for them to search through if they get me a sollution ill let u guys know.

Ignore Me · 2003-06-03, 06:15 AM

Originally posted by Lexington_Steele
Planetside has been giving ATI card users CTD and freezing problems that nvidia card users do not experience.

Actually, I happen to have a GeForceIII and I am experiencing the same type of boot-to-desktop crashes as well.

I uninstalled my video card, reinstalled DX8.1, reinstalled Latest Detonator FX drivers, reinstalled Audigy1 drivers. Still the same Sh!t.

And no, the 32Meg AGP Apature size didn't seem to help either.

I wasn't experiencing crashes with the Planetside open beta, and nor was I experiencing crashes when Planetside retail was released until the first or second patch came into play, so it can't be my computer settings... has to be a bug in Planetside. Please, fix this sh!t now cause I paid $50 f-cking bucks for client-side software.

Please, I'm feeling a little Tribes2 action here (if you've dealt with that game as well).