After Upgrade 3D Stops and Restarts

[alexcraig]

Greetings folks,

Have scoured this forum for an answer to this issue without luck.

I have SH4 installed with all patches.

Ran fine until I recently upgraded from an Extreme P4 Pressler to an extreme Quad QX6800. I also upgraded from a 4850 to an ASUS 4870 Top. I suspect the problem somehow involved the ATI settings for the new graphics card.

Anyway, the game loads OK. However, as soon as I get into the sub (into 3D) after a few seconds the game freezes for 2 to 6 seconds and then starts again. It repeated does this. I.E. Runs for 5 seconds or so and then freezes for 5 seconds or so.

FYI, the temps on my grphics card are fine at around 55 deg C.

Should I uninstall/reinstall the game? Or, are there one or more ATI settings for .cfg settings I can tweak?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Regards,

Alex Craig

MSI 975X Platinum 'Power Up' Edition
Intel Core 2 Extreme Edition QX6800 1066MHz FSB 2 x 4MB L2 Cache
2 Gig of 'Extreme Dominator' DDR2 RAM
ASUS R4870 Top Video Card
Antec 850 TRUEPOWER Quattro PSU
Realtek HD Audio

[wetwarev7]

Just a guess...

I used to get this problem with programs that weren't compatible with hyperthreading.

SH4 seems to do just fine on my multiple processors, but try changing SH4 to run on only one processor and see if it stops doing that.

[Arclight]

Dunno about ATI settings, but here's the usual advice;
Latest graphics driver
Latest system drivers
Latest DirectX

Perhaps BIOS update
Clean install of the game
Clean install of graphics drivers (uninstall, reboot to safe mode, clean drivers with tool, reboot and reinstal)

You could check inside the case to make sure any additional power cables to the card are connected (modern cards can't draw enough juice from just the slot).

If PSU is modular, check connection to the unit as well.

Same thing is true for CPU; check that cable as well (should be a connector on the motherboard near the socket).



Listing what OS you're using can also help people help you.

[alexcraig]

Originally Posted by wetwarev7

Just a guess...

I used to get this problem with programs that weren't compatible with hyperthreading.

SH4 seems to do just fine on my multiple processors, but try changing SH4 to run on only one processor and see if it stops doing that.

Since I'm running a quad processor hyperthreading technology is not utilized.

Do you know where I would adjust the setting for the game to only run on one processor with a quad core processor.

Gee, there are so many quad core processors out there these days, it it hard to understand how the game wouldn't run on one.

Thanks for the input!

[alexcraig]

Originally Posted by Arclight

Dunno about ATI settings, but here's the usual advice;
Latest graphics driver
Latest system drivers
Latest DirectX

Perhaps BIOS update
Clean install of the game
Clean install of graphics drivers (uninstall, reboot to safe mode, clean drivers with tool, reboot and reinstal)

You could check inside the case to make sure any additional power cables to the card are connected (modern cards can't draw enough juice from just the slot).

If PSU is modular, check connection to the unit as well.

Same thing is true for CPU; check that cable as well (should be a connector on the motherboard near the socket).'

Listing what OS you're using can also help people help you.

Thanks for the input.

I've got the latest of all the above mentioned and I'm confident the card is installed correctly as I'm able to monitor all the parameters using GPUZ.0.2.8.

At this point, I'm betting it has something to do with the 3D settings. I guess I'll have to uninstall and do a reinstall of the game. I was hoping to do a quick tweak to avoid it.

EDIT: BTW, I'm running XP Pro

[old_tex]

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest Old_tex

[Arclight]

Yes, could be the settings, but considering the changes you made to the system, wetwarev7's suggestion could be good.

To have the game run on 1 core, start it up and let it get to the main menu. Ctr-alt-del to bring up the task-manager, right-click on "sh4.exe" under the "processes" tab and select "set affinity...". You should see a dialog where you can select the cores the process should run on. Disable all but 1, see if that does it.

It runs fine on dual-core for me, but it might have trouble with more.

[alexcraig]

Originally Posted by Arclight

Yes, could be the settings, but considering the changes you made to the system, wetwarev7's suggestion could be good.

To have the game run on 1 core, start it up and let it get to the main menu. Ctr-alt-del to bring up the task-manager, right-click on "sh4.exe" under the "processes" tab and select "set affinity...". You should see a dialog where you can select the cores the process should run on. Disable all but 1, see if that does it.

It runs fine on dual-core for me, but it might have trouble with more.

Well Gentlemen,

It would appear we have a puzzle.

I decided to really do a thorough job of testing an install by using my dual boot drive.

I updated all the drivers on it and then did a clean install of SH4 to include the two update patches.

I loaded up Fraps and then loaded the Sim. I noticed my fps rate was twitchy and pretty abysmal showing from 1 to 6. This had me puzzled as I'm running a pretty high end rig where I normally get 50 - 95 fps on a flight sim I really enjoy, BOB II, which has a very heavy footprint.

So I moved on to try wetwarev7's suggestion.

At first I thought I'd found the cure as my fps upon entering the sub was stable at 130.

However, just as soon as I tried to raise the periscope the problem reasserted itself. I.E., it would freeze for about 5 seconds and then come back to life for a coule of seconds and then freeze again. Evenutally, the ATI VPU failsafe kicks in and the game freezes up altogether.

I'm back to thinking I'm going to need to do a manual adjustment of the 3D settings.

Can someone please point me to a thread containing the recommended manual 3D settings?

Thanks guys.

[Arclight]

Best I can do is link you a tweakguide that goes into detail on all the options in CCC. http://www.tweakguides.com/ATICAT_7.html

A thing to try is setting everything to "application controlled" where possible. If the drivers are trying to force anti-aliasing it can cause conflicts/slowdowns.

[alexcraig]

Well guys,

I finally figured it out.

My solution involved two steps which I'm posting here to try and help anyone else who may run into the same issue.

Step 1 was wetwarev7's suggestion to use the affinity option on a running process to restrict the quad processor to utilitze only one of the cores.

Step 2 occured to me as the VPU automatic recovery sofware kicked in every time I experienced the problem. Bottom line .... I had to ratchet the card back from its defaults of 815Mhz on the GPU core and 3700 Mhz on the graphics memory. I scaled them back to 600 Mhz on the core & 2660 on the graphics memory.

Apparently, the card tries to throw way more at the game than it will handle in my rig. Note: This may be due in part to the fact that I'm into some serious overclocking. Can't say for sure.

At any rate, ATI card users can simply enable the Overdrive function in the Catalyst Control Center and instead of ramping up your settings ramp them back. I'm sure any number of other lower settings would work. However, the game ran stable for me at the settings I chose and I never saw the FPS drop below 82 anywhere in the Sub.

Thanks again for taking the time to provide the suggestions.

I would not have been able to solve this puzzle without learning the "Affinity" option trick from wetwarev7.

[Arclight]

:rotfl:

Now if you had said you were using Overdrive, I could have told you to turn that crap of. :rotfl:

If you do overclocking, do it manually. Steer clear of programs that do it for you to find "optimum" settings, and disable dynamic OC/powersaving functions (C1E, EIST, etc). Saves you a lot of headaches.

[alexcraig]

Originally Posted by Arclight

:rotfl:

Now if you had said you were using Overdrive, I could have told you to turn that crap of. :rotfl:

If you do overclocking, do it manually. Steer clear of programs that do it for you to find "optimum" settings, and disable dynamic OC/powersaving functions (C1E, EIST, etc). Saves you a lot of headaches.

I am manually OC'g the CPU and system memory.

I was not using the CCC overdrive function for the graphics card. Albeit, I did have the Hyperdrive option enabled in the Smart Doctor which you need to have engaged to control the fan speed for the card.

However, the problem still occured when I disengaged the Hyperdrive function. Bottom line, the only way I was able to cure the problem was to use the CCC overdrive to underclock the GPU core and memory speeds. I.E. The game would not run at the default core & memory speeds for the card.

I have not learned enough about GPU and graphics memory manual OC'ing as yet although I know it can be done by tweaking the BIOS settings. That's one of the next items on my agenda.

There's a lot of upside potential left in my Quad Core CPU as I got lucky and got an expectionally good one. However, I've pushed it as far I can with air cooling. Thus,, my next project is to convert my rig from air to water cooling. I've put together a custom solution with most of the parts being bought from Danger Den. Have everything sitting here except for one last part that is due in in 2 days. Gosh knows, I hate to rip the motherboard out of this thing as everything is neatly laid out with a lot of care given to cable routing, ties etc. to include a twin RAID array. However, there's no getting around it to install the CPU water block.

[AVGWarhawk]

I might be wrong but is there a box in CCC for forward rendering or some type of read ahead type deal. Also, at 3DGuru there is a program much better than the CCC for tweaking ATI cards.

[alexcraig]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

I might be wrong but is there a box in CCC for forward rendering or some type of read ahead type deal. Also, at 3DGuru there is a program much better than the CCC for tweaking ATI cards.

I appreciate the tip.

I'll see if I can find the rascal.

Thanks!

[AVGWarhawk]

It is here:
http://downloads.guru3d.com/ATI-Tray...nload-733.html

Sorry I did not locate it for you earlier. Busy with another thread that went south.