double trifectia newbie woes sos

[devildog]

hello all, this is my first post so let me explain the title and my dilemia. i retired, got divorced and was diagnosed with diabetes all during last 6 mo. Lot of time on my hands real quick.this led to second dilemia. found sh3 and am newbie to game, new to forums of any kind and not computer expert. i downloaded sh3 from direct-2 and it sucessfully installed with patch 1.4 included. played thru tutorial w/o crashes. i'm hooked...now the problems start. constant ctd's, and at times shuts down entire computer. so i ran defrag and cleaned out temp file. i still have same problems. my system is win xp-pro, nividia geoforce 6200 vid card, processor x86 family 15 model 12 stepping o authentic amd ~2403 mhz, have 670.23 mb phisical mem available and 1.96 gb virtural mem available. i'm including all this gobblygook cause i ain't sure if it's important or not, but am hoping someone out there do'es. really enjoy this forum, but it's kinda bittersweet cause i know when i start playing...crash. any ideas or help would be greatly appreacited, as i hope to report my first patrol soon as i can figure out wtf is wrong. thanks for your patinice and help-mabye bernard is a time traveling double agent who jumped foward in vr to sabatuge my computer and spelling? naw... thanks
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[Chad]

Hi, first off welcome aboard.

Have you updated SH3 to version 1.4? This could improve some compatability with your system. Also, make sure all your drivers are up to date. This could also cause a problem, I remember something being wrong with Nvidea drivers when SH3 was first released.

Look into these two things, as that's all I can think of.

Again, welcome to our big family :up:

[kurtz]

your system sounds pretty similar to mine except I have ! Gb of memory, Virtual mem I'm not at all sure about, doesn't windows generally handle that?
My advice is to get more memory it makes a great difference to performance. I have no ctds but then I've gone on to GWX 2.0
One more bit of advice..don't give in to diabetes get up from the keyboard and get some gentle exercise SHiii is perfect for that just adjust the settings so when the crew spot something the game goes to TC x 0 lets you get some gardening done and that blood sugar back down...that said I'm not a doctor but I do have SHii and diabetes ;-)


Mike

[The Butcher]

Welcome aboard Devildog, Sorry to hear how you got here, but you are among friends here. I would definitely go for more RAM. The virtual memory does little for the game. Given all it wants the game runs just over a full gig so with anything else running you are really bottlenecked. I would suggest adding a 1gb stick. Everything else is over the top so give that a go. At least it is the easiest to fix. I had almost the exact same thing when I first started. If you still have trouble after adding memory let us know, there are some less likely culprits.

[Brer Rabbit]

Welcome Aboard--Hope you have many good missions in the future, and sink loads of ships --Allied of course. I have to echo the replys about upgrading your memory. I have a system similat to yors and have yet to have a CTD ib SHIII. (Looking over my shoulder in case Bernard is lurking around). Secondly in a earlier thread there was mention of increasing the page size of your virtual memory, which may help, but the priority needs to be to get more memory at least 2 GB, and I thind your problem will be over. Go to zipzoomfly.com or other online ordering and order the required memory -- there is a great deal of differences in prices make sure you get the type needed for your computer.

Watch the carbs, exercise and take your meds

Brer Rabbit

[Brag]

Hi Devildog, I imagine a semper fi greeting is appropiate. The advice by other Kaleuns is good. Did I miss your graphics card?

[Hanomag]

Welcome Aboard Herr Kaluen!! :arrgh!:

[Kptlt. Siegmann]

What series is your processor? Athlon, 64X2, Sempron, etc.

In terms of the game actually running, yea, you need mooore RAM (emphasis on more). 2GB is plenty for most people. In terms of eye candy and FPS, might want to upgrade the video card, but the memory is the most important upgrade for you right now.

[devildog]

now that i have a clue as to what to try will go hunting for ram-might have to wait for the eagle to do his monthly duties-he can be a bit constipated but at least consistant.i'll keep reading this forum and hopefully report back with sucess,thanks again:D

[bookworm_020]

Welcome aboard!:up:

Like others have said Ram should solve most of your problems, 1 GB is minimum, 2GB prefered. Make sure all your drivers are up to date, and that you haven't got other applications running at th same time. A quick check for a virus would be a good idea.

Happy Hunting:arrgh!:

[devildog]

sempter fi brag its a nividia geoforce 6200 still trying to figure out how to reply-think i got it-sorry but i really am a NEWBIE with this devildogHi Devildog, I imagine a semper fi greeting is appropiate. The advice by other Kaleuns is good. Did I miss your graphics card?

[Kptlt. Siegmann]

Doing just fine devildog, and oh yea, welcome to the forums!:up:

PS: check your messages (upper right of the screen)

[Nicolas]

I think you have some corrupted or bad file / setting, either in directx , or video drivers, or the game, or ultimately windows.

If the game runs normal to you with your memory,
if i remember right minimum spec. for sh3 is 512 mb.
Try this:

I suggest updating directx, here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&displaylang=en

Then the newest drivers for your card are here:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_169.21_whql.html

- And wipe out the sh3 from the pc, and reinstall it again.

That should do it. Good luck.

[Dronston]

Hi, you might want to do a forum search using words as "CTD" and such.
Many, including me, had similar problems so you may find some suggestions in those threads. (If upgrading the RAM doesn't work).

I guess reasons for CTD's can be multiple. Video drivers, sound card settings (for me anyway), processes running in the background (MSN, antivirus and such), incompatible mods, bad BIOS settings and so on.

Good luck, sure you'll fix it.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Welcome to SUBSIM :up: devildog


RDP

[Antiacus]

Heya Devildog
The fact that you can get thru the training missions without CTD's makes me very suspicious that it's a RAM issue.

Here is my suggestion if you don't have a "computer expert" friend or family member (this won't take long)...

1. Go to this webpage: http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/ click "download & buy" and download the "lite" (free) version of sandra.
2. Install Sandra, fire it up... click the "computer overview section" When it's done analyzing (15 seconds) click the button on the bottom that says "copy to clipboard".
3. Come back to this thread, hit reply, and then hit CTRL-V to paste the information you just copied...

From that info i will know exactly which processor, motherboard, ram etc. you are running and can link you directly to a good buy... I'm guessing, however that you'll need to spend between $60 and $80 bucks on ram.

[Laufen zum Ziel]

Welcome,

Be prepared to lose a lot of sleep.:lol: