PC CRASH

[GUNTHERPOPE]

Help, been playing SHIII for 3 weeks with no probs, changed base and now when I F5 (Map) programme crashes/freezes, anyone had this happen to them please? :roll:

[GulfFulf]

Thats was bad, but i can't help you...SORRY!

[Gizzmoe]

Hi! Please try the map view in a single player mission to see if it´s a general problem. Does it only crash when you are in the harbour area or also when you are out at sea?

[GUNTHERPOPE]

Thanks for quick reply. It crashes anywhere as soon as you hit F5. Everthing else works OK until then. Just happened when transferred to La Spezia. :D

[deckard]

did it happen before you transfered to la spezia aswell or only after you transfered?

[iceflatline]

Not sure what precisely is the problem, but you might start with:

Verifying you have the most recent version of the game - v1.4;

Updating your graphics driver;

Try backing up a save or two to see if that corrects the problem.

[GUNTHERPOPE]

Only happened after transferring, have transferred bases before with no probs.
Brand new PC and graphics card (Radeon X600) I can always go back to a previous save of course but I am curious as to what caused the problem, I fancy a sail round the Med!

[GUNTHERPOPE]

Sorry, forgot to mention latest patch is installed.

[iceflatline]

Interesting problem indeed. I still suspect drivers. If you haven't updated the ATI catalyst drivers to the most recent (v5.10 i think) then I recommend you do so, and phone me from the Med.

[GUNTHERPOPE]

Iceflatline, you are a star!. Downloaded new drivers, control panel etc. and it now works OK. Hope this will prove useful for others.
I have another small problem maybe you can throw some light on, it's not important but I can't get a proper display on opening video sequence, it's all very colourful and garbled, any idea's.
Many thanks for your help, nice to know it's out there!. Gary. :lol:

[iceflatline]

Did this start with the new drivers or has it always been a problem?

[GUNTHERPOPE]

Hi there, always done it on my new home PC, identical PC at work no problem, in fact I just lashed out on a new Dell at home purely to play SH (used to run ME). I was rather hoping that new drivers would cure this also but of course it's an easy unimportant problem to have, it's more the challenge of solving it I guess. :D

[iceflatline]

First make sure you have the most current monitor drivers.

A couple of other things to explore:

Check the refresh rate for the monitor. Make sure it's set to the correct rate for your particular desktop resolution.

I don't recall if SSHiii has setting for limiting the game's refresh rate to that of the desktop (usually called "wait for vertical sync" or something similar), but if it does, try enabling that to see of it corrects the problem. Unless the GPU is constrained to the refresh rate you've set for the desktop, it will render as many frames as the technology will allow. The cut scene you've referred to may simply be tearing because the GPU is rendering frames too quickly.

If "wait for vertical sync" cannot be set in the game options, that's okay. You can go to the ATI driver options and enable it under the Direct3D and OpenGL tabs.

[Col7777]

Another thought, did you install anything after you began the campaign missions or just before/after your mission ended before you went to La Spezia?

[GUNTHERPOPE]

Col777 thanks for your ideas, no but all working now, see previos post.
iceflat, thanks, I'll try that and report back, sounds feasable to me. :P

[GUNTHERPOPE]

iceflatline. Help, I did your suggestions and on rebooting PC just getting snow on screen, been messing with frame rate. Problem is I now cannot talk to PC at home cos I cannot read the screen. Any ideas how I can get round this please, thenks, Gary.

[iceflatline]

You must have an LCD monitor?

Well, you can boot into safe mode. which should avoid loading the ATI Catalyst drivers and allow you to at least see the screen. Once in the OS you can eliminate the drivers and reboot. That should put you at square one again where you can reinstall the drivers and begin again.

Another option would be to round up a CRT display. These are multisync and are forgiving as far as refresh rate and resolution are concerned. Once you can see the OS with the CRT display then you can make any adjustments you'd like to see if they will work on your LCD.

[GUNTHERPOPE]

Thanks for reply. It turns out that the Philips LCD monitor kissed out. I don't think anything I did actually caused it. I swapped montors in my office this morning and got the same result, Brought home another LCD and it works fine, Philips have agreed to send me a new monitor so for a few days I have no sound (speakers built in to monitor) Going to try in a silent sub in a minute to see if I still have same problem on opening vid sequence out of curiosity, will let you know. Thanks again, Gary. :D

[iceflatline]

Sounds like progress!

[GUNTHERPOPE]

Yes, good progress, temp monitor working fine, Windows media player still not doing video so I have removed the opening files, didn't need it anyway!

Many thanks for your help, much appreciated, Gary. :up: