Help! Bernard's in my computer!

[Dan0859]

First, as a newbi, I want to say how helpful this forum as been for me, as far as learning and understanding the game. Now, for my problem. I bought SH3 about a month ago, as a download. I downloaded it, installed the patch, and everything was fine. Yesterday, when I tried to play, the game would load, but as soon as my mission started, it would freeze, and nothing would work. I've tried deleting it (including the file in My Doc's, and did a search to delete anything else labeled "sh3"). I reloaded the game, downloaded the patch again, but nothing helps. Both careers and single missions do the same thing. They load and start, but after 30 sec. to a minute, they freeze. I tried the delete-reinstall routine about 5 times, without any luck.
I even tried to go back to Direct2Drive, and buy another copy, figuring I'd delete the old ZIP file and start completely over. Well, I can't even do that. Their policy is that you can buy the game only once. That, I totally don't understand. Plus, they won't refund a purchase of a game. Any help would be appreciated!

[Deep-Six]

Bernard is not half of it. First and for most I need to have your syst specs.

Then we can go from there. NOTE: they need to be as specific as possible.

Your friendly neighborhood PC tech.:)

[Dan0859]

OK, I have an Averatec 6200 notebook. Yea, I know, but I'm overseas, and I couldn't bring a desktop unit with me. Specs are as follows:
AMD Athlon chip, 1.8 GHz
2 GB RAM
32 MG video card (hrdwired, can't be changed)
18 MG free on hard drive
Windows XP home
If I didn't list something you need, let me know. Thanks

[stabiz]

I really cant see the game working on a 32 meg graphics card.

[VIICDriver]

Did it ever work? Did it work well?

It has to be something with the video. Did you just install a mod or something before this happened, new vid drivers, new sound drivers?

Chuck

[Dan0859]

The game worked for about a month. Sometimes the colors were off, but it ran without a problem. I didn't do any mods or change anything, so that's why I don't understand what happened.

[The Munster]

Have you had a smell like of burning Cabbage ?

[John Channing]

A few problems here.

First your processor is a little on the light side, but would be adequate under other circumstances. However, with a laptop I am guessing it has on-board sound, so the processor is having to deal with some very complex sound files as well as everything else. A 32 meg video card is a problem too. But I think the real problem is the amount of available hard disk space. You would need a lot more than that for Windows and SH3 to operate happilly together.

However, try turning Sound Acceleration down to zero...

Start >>> Run >>> dxdiag >>> "Sounds" tab and move the slider all the way to the left. If that works great! Remember, however, if you play any other games on the laptop the slider can get re-set to Full.

And save often!

Good luck.

JCC

[VIICDriver]

Good advice, know nothing of laptops here except I hear they are not typical gaming material.

Chuck

[mookiemookie]

I would try deleting all the non-essential programs and files on your hard drive. Free up as much space as you can, and then adjust your virtual memory settings. (I'm going to avoid giving you specific suggestions on what size to use on your virtual memory size, as its a very contentious subject amongst computer geeks).

That's about the only thing I can think of when something used to work, but now it doesn't, and you haven't changed anything about it.

[Corsair]

Good advice, know nothing of laptops here except I hear they are not typical gaming material.

Chuck

Laptops today are no problem, I run all games on mine, using it at home as a central unit with external keyboard and screen, 1.8M Centrino, 1Gb DDR and 128Mo video card.

[P_Funk]

How big is your page file Dan? With a limited system that is one of the things you can control. An inadequate page file combined with barely workable specs would make for issues.

Related is whether it stopped working when you ran out of HD space.

[stabiz]

Good advice, know nothing of laptops here except I hear they are not typical gaming material.

Chuck
Laptops today are no problem, I run all games on mine, using it at home as a central unit with external keyboard and screen, 1.8M Centrino, 1Gb DDR and 128Mo video card.

Yes, but on low settings. Games like the new Splinter Cell require shader model 3.0, and only new/newer GPU`s have that.

The thing is, if you want a computer to play games on, get a desktop, since a laptop with the same specs will cost you way more.

[Corsair]

Yes, but on low settings. Games like the new Splinter Cell require shader model 3.0, and only new/newer GPU`s have that.
The thing is, if you want a computer to play games on, get a desktop, since a laptop with the same specs will cost you way more.
1. Why would I ever get a game like the new Splinter Cell ??:lol:
2. It's the same with desktops, if you want to run the last games, you always have to upgrade (Have been thru the process for 20 years...:lol:)
3. Now I decided I only buy games minimum 6 months after they come out, which means they are usually half price, the patches are out to make them almost bug free and the community mods are available and I am very selective about what I buy.
4. I have enough games already to keep me busy for the next 5 years...;) I am still playing OFP with mods, I will fly IL2/PF on high settings for a while, F4AF as well, and SH3 certainly for a long time (with high settings). As I am also still playing Combat Mission Pbems, and Virtual Skipper 4 online, Company of Heroes waiting, where would I find the time to play new games???;)

And I can carry my laptop and play wherever I am...

Just to say that it's possible...

By the way congrats for your films, loved each one of them...

[Corsair]

Just forgot to add to the list Dangerous Waters where I just until now scratched the surface and which will also surely keep me busy for a while, and I just remember I have at least 50 skirmish maps I didn't try yet in W40K Dawn of War...;)
By the way my son just bought a laptop with AMD Core Duo, 2 Gb DDR and 256 M Nvidia video card and I could bet it can run most of the games.
Once again I don't pretend it's the best, but just to say it is quite possible. When you have a life where you are a lot on the road (like me...) it can make sense. When I come home, I just plug in my TFT screen and external keyboard/mouse.

[The Munster]

Yes, but on low settings. Games like the new Splinter Cell require shader model 3.0, and only new/newer GPU`s have that.
The thing is, if you want a computer to play games on, get a desktop, since a laptop with the same specs will cost you way more.
1. Why would I ever get a game like the new Splinter Cell ??:lol:
2. It's the same with desktops, if you want to run the last games, you always have to upgrade (Have been thru the process for 20 years...:lol:)
3. Now I decided I only buy games minimum 6 months after they come out, which means they are usually half price, the patches are out to make them almost bug free and the community mods are available and I am very selective about what I buy.
4. I have enough games already to keep me busy for the next 5 years...;) I am still playing OFP with mods, I will fly IL2/PF on high settings for a while, F4AF as well, and SH3 certainly for a long time (with high settings). As I am also still playing Combat Mission Pbems, and Virtual Skipper 4 online, Company of Heroes waiting, where would I find the time to play new games???;)

And I can carry my laptop and play wherever I am...

Just to say that it's possible...

By the way congrats for your films, loved each one of them...

I know what you mean, I've got enough stuff to keep me going for a very long time. I have 'Driv3r' installed on my other Computer and I never get to play it anymore ! A lot of people think 'Driv3r' is rubbish but I think it's brilliant ! Same with 'Expert Pool' which won't play anymore on either Computers since I installed Silent Hunter [compatibility issues ? .. don't know, does anyone ?]. Miss playing 'Expert Pool' but sacrifices have to be made.

[Corsair]

What I mean also is that all this graphic stuff with pixel shaders and everything is nice, but for me the gameplay is a lot more important.. I still can remember when we played VGA 640x480 and had a hell of a good time...;)

[Respenus]

32 MG video card (hrdwired, can't be changed)
18 MG free on hard drive
Windows XP home

32Mb Video Card? I'm glad to hear that it ever worked. No offense, but that seems...low...

18Mb Free HD space? You can't run office, yet alone SH3 on such little space. SWAP memory, cache, temporary files, they all need space and 18Mb is far too little!

WinXP Home. Well it's Xp. I'm no expert, but I have heard that Home wan't really the best and that it has/had problems that Pro doesn't. Not really sure, but the game should work, just my observation.

[Kingcobra24]

32 MG video card (hrdwired, can't be changed)
18 MG free on hard drive
Windows XP home
32Mb Video Card? I'm glad to hear that it ever worked. No offense, but that seems...low...

18Mb Free HD space? You can't run office, yet alone SH3 on such little space. SWAP memory, cache, temporary files, they all need space and 18Mb is far too little!

WinXP Home. Well it's Xp. I'm no expert, but I have heard that Home wan't really the best and that it has/had problems that Pro doesn't. Not really sure, but the game should work, just my observation.

I agree with Respenus. A 32 MB vidcard is the next best thing to worthless. You should at LEAST have 128 MB on board. I don't know how large a download we're talking here, as far as the download version of SH3, but I have the boxed DVD version, and on my Tower with Windows XP Home with SP2, my program files are in 409 folders, and comprise 22,574 individual files for a total size on my hard-drive of 2.47 GB - that's GIGABYTES, not MEGABYTES. So, 18 MB of hard-drive availability seems to be extremely low as well. All I run is a basically vanilla SH3 with patch 1.4b. No supermods...merely torpedo texture, scenery texture, and sky & smoke add-ons. I don't even run custom skins! So, if SH3 even loads on your lapper, you're very lucky.

[stabiz]

Yes, but on low settings. Games like the new Splinter Cell require shader model 3.0, and only new/newer GPU`s have that.
The thing is, if you want a computer to play games on, get a desktop, since a laptop with the same specs will cost you way more.
1. Why would I ever get a game like the new Splinter Cell ??:lol:
2. It's the same with desktops, if you want to run the last games, you always have to upgrade (Have been thru the process for 20 years...:lol:)
3. Now I decided I only buy games minimum 6 months after they come out, which means they are usually half price, the patches are out to make them almost bug free and the community mods are available and I am very selective about what I buy.
4. I have enough games already to keep me busy for the next 5 years...;) I am still playing OFP with mods, I will fly IL2/PF on high settings for a while, F4AF as well, and SH3 certainly for a long time (with high settings). As I am also still playing Combat Mission Pbems, and Virtual Skipper 4 online, Company of Heroes waiting, where would I find the time to play new games???;)

And I can carry my laptop and play wherever I am...

Just to say that it's possible...

By the way congrats for your films, loved each one of them...

:D Thank you!

Yes, its possible, I know that. A friend of mine has a monster laptop, that is much better than my desktop, but its very expensive too.

Can you run Company of Heroes on that laptop? :huh: Impressive!

[Corsair]

I admit that for Company of Heroes I must use medium settings... I don't have dynamic shadows and lighting, play it 1024 x 768, but looks good altogether and once again it doesn't take anything away from the gameplay. With this kind of game, you rarely anyway have the time to look around closeup views on your units...;) Have only tried it from a friend's DVD and have not decided yet if I will buy it or not... I have seen the price is already going down, saw today a collector's edition (the metal box) for 39 Euros. (Think it was 55 a few weeks ago when it came out.)
I also think it is important to keep your system fit and not let it become fat and lazy, which means regularly defragment disk, clean unnecessary files, clean and compact registry, etc...
To launch all my games I use a nice freeware coming from the flight sim community called FSAutostart. It stops all unnecessary programs, tasks and services, defragments memory before launching the program and restarts everything on exit. It frees up a lot of memory and ressources...

[stabiz]

:up: Yes, all this is true. I`ll have to try that program, I`ve read about before here on subsim.

BTW: Try CoH with some antialiasing and high res someday. :rock: Its a great game, by the way. (Unlike über-****ty Medieval 2: Total War, that is a released beta. I bought the Collectors Edition, which has nice postcards, maps, a figurine, making of-dvd, soundtrack cd and a game riddled with bugs and crappy AI. Thats what I call priorities)

[Deep-Six]

If you have the money to burn get a Dell XPS M1710. It is a gaming laptop.

I am thinking on getting one.:D

[Corsair]

@ Stabiz : I have seen CoH run with all schnick schnack on my friend's computer, sure is impressive... but nevertheless even at my medium settings still interesting to play.

[peterloo]

Yes, I agree that 32Mb is not enough. You should, at least, attempt to double it while shutting down all other special settings (particles , shadowing , ...)

I remembered that my old computer (just doomed 3 months ago) had
P4 1.2Ghz, 128Mb RAM, and a 16Mb Display card. At that time, I did want to play SH3 but I know that it is impossible. I did play SH2 instead (it worked fine)

I bought a new computer after my old one went down, with my GF7600, AMD Athlon X2 3600+ and 1Gb RAM [2 RAM will be better for SHIV], SH3 is not a big deal

Anyway, you should consider buying a new computer. With at least 256Mb RAM for display and 1 Gb RAM. Any CPU rocks since it is not the key factor. RAM is much more important than CPU when considering GAMES, the more the better. Get a new computer [avoid notebooks, they are not build for gamers] and all current subsims & SH4 will be a piece of cake for you!!!

Good luck!

[peterloo]

I admit that for Company of Heroes I must use medium settings... I don't have dynamic shadows and lighting, play it 1024 x 768, but looks good altogether and once again it doesn't take anything away from the gameplay. With this kind of game, you rarely anyway have the time to look around closeup views on your units...;) Have only tried it from a friend's DVD and have not decided yet if I will buy it or not... I have seen the price is already going down, saw today a collector's edition (the metal box) for 39 Euros. (Think it was 55 a few weeks ago when it came out.)
I also think it is important to keep your system fit and not let it become fat and lazy, which means regularly defragment disk, clean unnecessary files, clean and compact registry, etc...
To launch all my games I use a nice freeware coming from the flight sim community called FSAutostart. It stops all unnecessary programs, tasks and services, defragments memory before launching the program and restarts everything on exit. It frees up a lot of memory and ressources...

Also, try Company of Heroes, a good game but not expensive at all [when comparing to Battlefield 2142, etc.] I also spent Saturdays and Sundays on that particular game!

[Corsair]

quote "avoid notebooks they are not built for gamers" unquote
False : today's notebooks have the same performance as desktops, they just are more expensive for the same... I would correct and say : if you spend your life at home, get a desktop. If you are a "gamer on the move" like me, a notebook will do the job. If I had a desktop, my gaming time would be divided by 10 at least, as my home BdU wouldn't allow me to stay on the PC too long on the weekend...;)

[Dan0859]

OK, a couple of things. First, I appreciate everyone's willingness to help. Second, I misspoke (typed?) regarding frees pace on my hard drive. It's 18 gigs, not megs. For those of you who suggested I buy desktop computer, like I said, I'm overseas. I travel a great deal, and right now, I'm in Iraq. A desktop simply isn't an option. They just don't travel well, and I can't take one as carry-on luggage:cry:.
Bottom line is, the game played fine for over a month, then just started freezing up on me. I didn't do or change amyhting, so if anyone can give me advice on how to troubleshoot the situation, that'd be great.
I am considering buying another laptop, so futher suggestions along that line would also be appreciated. Thank you, everyone, for your help and suggestions.
Dan

[Respenus]

OK, a couple of things. First, I appreciate everyone's willingness to help. Second, I misspoke (typed?) regarding frees pace on my hard drive. It's 18 gigs, not megs. For those of you who suggested I buy desktop computer, like I said, I'm overseas. I travel a great deal, and right now, I'm in Iraq. A desktop simply isn't an option. They just don't travel well, and I can't take one as carry-on luggage:cry:.
Bottom line is, the game played fine for over a month, then just started freezing up on me. I didn't do or change amyhting, so if anyone can give me advice on how to troubleshoot the situation, that'd be great.
I am considering buying another laptop, so futher suggestions along that line would also be appreciated. Thank you, everyone, for your help and suggestions.
Dan

THX God for yor error. 18Gb is a lot better! Graphic card is your problem now!

[Corsair]

As I posted earlier in this thread, my son just bought a decent laptop with AMD Dual Core, 2 G Ram and Nvidia 256mb video card, think this rig can run decently most games. Think it is a Samsung and price 950 Euros. Translated it makes around 1200 bucks. Other brands are in the same price level.