Frustrated to tears with CTDs

[floundericiousWA]

Originally Posted by Fenris_Wolf

Ok, I have a few suggestions for OP.

- Make sure that all the RAM modules, or sticks, are of the same make, speed and model number, if you have multiple ones.

Ok, I was wondering about that...I'll probably bump to 2GB and see how the puter is doing...I CAN upgrade to 4GB...but dont' know that I need to spend that much money (especially if bumping to 2GB does the trick)...

Originally Posted by Fenris_Wolf

- Download and run a program called Memtest.exe (freeware). It will run in DOS mode and take an hour or two to thoroughly test the RAM installed in your CPU.

I'll try it!

Originally Posted by Fenris_Wolf

- For troubleshooting use stock SH3 with latest patch only (without GWX or any other addons like the SH4 effects pack by RB or the high resolution dll).

Check!

Originally Posted by Fenris_Wolf

- Try to run the game in Windows 2000 compatibility mode.

Huh...ok, i'll try it! Can't hurt!

Originally Posted by Fenris_Wolf

- Driver settings (important): Make sure that the features that SH3 does not support are disabled in the global video driver settings, or set to auto if that's not possible.

Can someone point me to these? edit: that is, what features on a modern NVIDIA card are not supported by SH3? recall that it ran fine on stock settings...NVIDIA's control panel DOES have a program specific template for sh3.exe!

Originally Posted by Fenris_Wolf

- Hard disk: There should not be any bad sectors on the hard disk.

I defrag regularly...no bad sectors that I've seen on the reports...

Originally Posted by Fenris_Wolf

- Paging file (virtual memory): Increase paging file size (fixed, not windows managed) to approx. 3-4 GB.

I'll give that a try...current page file is like 1.4GB or 1.5GB

Originally Posted by Fenris_Wolf

- Old save files (important): Delete older saved files of your current career from the SH3 folder in my documents.

Check...every time I try something new, now, this will be a consistent step. Question: Do you guys just DELETE the SH3 folder or go in and snipe the saves?

Originally Posted by Fenris_Wolf

- CPU / video card voltages and temperatures: These must be normal. No overclocking.

After running SH3 for a while (or any other 3D game) the NVIDIA temperature readings are still nowhere near 100 deg C (usually around 65-75)...when I put my hand near the frontside vents, I can FEEL the inflow zipping into the computer...

Originally Posted by Fenris_Wolf

- Sound card (important!): Update the sound card drivers, or play the game without sound (if it runs that way) by disabling or removing the sound card (only to see if this piece of hardware is the problem).

I've tried updating the sound drivers...but I'll check again... FWIW, I turned off music and still had the problem, but music emulation and digital sound aren't the same I suppose...

Originally Posted by Fenris_Wolf

- BIOS Settings: Make sure the processor's L1 and L2 cache are enabled and the RAM timings are set to "By SPD" or default. If your video card is AGP interface then select AGP aperture size = 64mb.

My motherboard is a PCI-Express...I'll take a look at the BIOS (for my system F2 at the splash screen after power on)..actually I'd not thought of that..I flashed my BIOS late spring/early summer..it MAY have reset some of those settings! (not that I know it'll work, but it shook that loose from the dusty innards of my conn)

You know...thinking about it... my computer, earlier this year, was next to a baseboard heater...some of the wires on the back side got pretty damned hot (I noticed this after a month or two and pulled the computer about 6 inches further away from the heater and rerouted the cables)... that might have damaged something...

[Fenris_Wolf]

The nvidia global driver settings that have caused problems and given me CTD's on patrol startup include some fancy advanced anti-aliasing settings and one or two other ones. Just do a search of the forums and you should find plenty of tips about the right settings.

As for RAM. My secondary/work computer has 1GB RAM, 2.4 ghz single core hyper-threading proc, nvidia 6800 AGP video card and it used to run SH3 just fine, or even just as good as my new one. Never had any problems. There is a freeware program called Memturbo that you can use to free up memory before firing up SH3 or just to see if there is not enough for SH3.

Your 1.8 processor -should- be able to run the game imo. If I were you I would troubleshoot the problem first and if it turns out that the processor is too slow, I would overclock it However, I think 65-75 degrees celcius is still a somewhat high temperature for your video card. It should not go above 60-65 imho. An easy and cheap way to add cooling is to take off the CPU cover and put a table fan infront of it

[floundericiousWA]

Originally Posted by Fenris_Wolf

The nvidia global driver settings that have caused problems and given me CTD's on patrol startup include some fancy advanced anti-aliasing settings and one or two other ones. Just do a search of the forums and you should find plenty of tips about the right settings.

As for RAM. My secondary/work computer has 1GB RAM, 2.4 ghz single core hyper-threading proc, nvidia 6800 AGP video card and it used to run SH3 just fine, or even just as good as my new one. Never had any problems. There is a freeware program called Memturbo that you can use to free up memory before firing up SH3 or just to see if there is not enough for SH3.

Your 1.8 processor -should- be able to run the game imo. If I were you I would troubleshoot the problem first and if it turns out that the processor is too slow, I would overclock it However, I think 65-75 degrees celcius is still a somewhat high temperature for your video card. It should not go above 60-65 imho. An easy and cheap way to add cooling is to take off the CPU cover and put a table fan infront of it

EGADS! I think the pagefile increase might have gotten it!

I bumped it from 1.5GB (range of 1.5GB to 1.5GB) to a range of 3GB to 4GB

I just ran a very satisfying patrol up the coast of england, including all the places/things where the game would ctd or get graphical gremlins (ever had the fluorescent yellow graphical error before? ) ...and, while it slowed down a little during 1024x compression a few times, it didn't CTD like it has... fingers crossed!!!

[bigboywooly]

Good news
Fingers crossed indeed

[floundericiousWA]

note: I'm STILL planning to upgrade my physical mem from 1 GB to 2GB (I MIGHT get frisky and go for 4GB )

[Fenris_Wolf]

Ahah!

it slowed down a little during 1024x compression

Someone here claimed that increasing the task priority for sh3.exe in the task manager (press ctrl+alt+delete to bring it up) to "high" helps greatly with that problem. Try it. I think you're all set.

Now go out there and
SINK THEM ALL!

[floundericiousWA]

Originally Posted by floundericiousWA

note: I'm STILL planning to upgrade my physical mem from 1 GB to 2GB (I MIGHT get frisky and go for 4GB )

Follow up...

about $60 and a few weeks later... I've now added 2GB of Crucial PC2-5300 memory to my machine...and the problems have stopped! :-)

[kiwi_2005]

Your PC's fine to play SH3. Get rid of Starforce and your crashing will probably stop.