Frustrated to tears with CTDs

[floundericiousWA]

I finally got SH3 earlier this year (in around March) after getting a new Dell XPS 410. It has a 1.8 MHz Core Duo processor, 1GB of memory and an NVIDIA 7300LE 512MB video card...

I had no problems playing the game until this summer and was freaking loving it ...then...all of a sudden

I CTD non stop... YOU SUCK AGAIN!

I've updated the NVIDIA drivers to the latest (100 something. something)...no help...

I've read here and elsewhere about turning down the sound acceleration...no joy...

The CTDs come at virtually any time after the game engine gets going (after I'm in a submarine). It happens primarily at station changes (say, going from the watch deck to the map view or map view to exterior or map view to periscope). The screen freezes, the audio drops into a 1 second loop...and the computer takes its pick of CTDing normally, CTDing back to 4-bit 640x480 corrupted graphics view, or just plain freezing so I have to hold down the power button and cold boot.

I have no #()*$*#($* clue what to do with this thing...

NO mods installed
v1.4 patch installed (yes, for my DVD version and yes, for the North America version)
I've updated the NVIDIA drivers...I even dl'd the latest DirectX 9.0c drivers for all the other crap...
I've cleaned out the SH3 folder in my documents...and it gets better..for about 20 minutes...
I've uninstalled and installed fresh...I've defragged...I turn off as many of the obvious processes as possible (ipodservice, e.g.) and the anti-spyware tools

I seem to be able to do an academy mission...80% of the time without a CTD...but as soon as I try career...I'd give it about 35 minutes MAX and it shuts me down...

This is very serious (harumpf!harumpf!harumpf! - sorry, even as pissed as I am, I still have to throw in the blazing saddles ref )

I'm not doing anything that I can tell differently...I'm () this far from throwing the ****ing thing under my car's tires and burning its entrails in frustration...

Any thoughts?

Ok, any HELPFUL thoughts?

[baggygreen]

Firstly, gday and welcome to the forums, you came to the right place for a hand

Next, the only thing i can think of with regards your CTDs that might help in the immediate future is to set SH3 to run as a high priority program through task manager. In the longer term id consider upping the ram to 2 gig, but thats optional.

No doubt someone with a bit more technical expertise will be along shortly to help out more

[floundericiousWA]

I'll check that and try it, baggygreen, thanks!

Please keep'em coming...

[bigboywooly]

Hmmm
IIRC doesnt the 7300 only have 128mb onboard and takes the rest from the RAM ?

Still should be enough GPU power to run the game though
If it ran ok before and not now then something has happened in between
Windows updates ?

[Patboot]

Hum I hate to suggest this, but it almost sounds like the Vcard is packing its bags for a trip south. Any other graphic-intensive game give you any problems?

[Paajtor]

I've had this problem too, on my previous PC.
It can be either faulty RAM, HD, or GPU.
I would check the RAM first...take it out, and re-insert it...and make sure you're grounded, before touching the RAM-stick(-s).

[floundericiousWA]

Thanks for all the replies, everyone...let me address each:

Hmmm
IIRC doesnt the 7300 only have 128mb onboard and takes the rest from the RAM ?

Still should be enough GPU power to run the game though
If it ran ok before and not now then something has happened in between
Windows updates ?

I'm not sure about the NVIDIA card... I DID notice that, while running, when I tabbed out and checked the task manager, the sh3.exe was consuming around 500MB of memory and that physical mem was at around 8xxMB/1024MB

I've had this problem too, on my previous PC.
It can be either faulty RAM, HD, or GPU.
I would check the RAM first...take it out, and re-insert it...and make sure you're grounded, before touching the RAM-stick(-s).

Holy crap-charges, batman, I hope not... I'll certainly bump the RAM, when I do I'll take a look and see if there are any problems with the contacts and mountings.

Hum I hate to suggest this, but it almost sounds like the Vcard is packing its bags for a trip south. Any other graphic-intensive game give you any problems?

Not really...the "modern" games I've given a whirl on this include Battle for Middle Earth I and II, Empire at War, SW: KOTOR and KOTOR II

None of those have given me graphics crashes except BFMEII, which was obviously a "your computer is to damn slow to run this with as many graphical options selected" issue..

I've also recently had a problem with TES3: Morrowind freezing while running...

high there flounder'

have you done any 'saving game' under water - this knackeres things up, i can speak from personal experience !!

definatlley step up to 2gigs for your memory - about 25 - 35 quid, when you can afford it.

it could be that the dual core is struggling. if it is 1.8 per core it will probably only be using the one - not both at 3.6 ( ?? )

is it vista or xp - i've heard of people struggling with sh3 and vista. posts and threads are here at this forum.

other things that could help: disable anti virus and internet connection, you can turn them on again after. turn down the special effects - particle density ??

if there is a send error report note down what it says: not the whole thing just the sh3.exe stuff at the begining. some of the crew here will be able to help you with that.

as far as throwing the '....ing thing away' back-off for a while. gather your momentum ( ?? ) again and come back to it. for once you have it running smoothly with GWX and it's got its hooks in to you, it will be being depth charged, rammed, lost, missed torpedos, faulty sabotagued machinery that will drive you insane, whilling away the hours roming the empty sea for days and days will drive you nuts.

back atcha! My U-4 is feared throughout the north sea! muwhahahaha

well...at least until I've shot all 5 torpedoes, then seagulls dive bomb me with impunity :rotfl:

Mem - check, it's next on the list

I do deactivate (including the background monitoring stuff) the Trend Micro Anti-Spyware software and internet, just in case... I also kill the Ipodservice.exe and ituneshelper.exe tasks...

I've had the problem with particles turned way down, and high qual textures turned off... so I'm almost thinking the problem is with the computer hardware...maybe running out of memory so the program runs off a cliff, so to speak...

I'll try it again and post the "error report output" (for just the sh3.exe portion) when I get it...

[flag4]

look forward to reading your report.

bon voyage Flounder'