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Geek Culture / New Computer - RTCW Silently Crashes

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Blue Shadow
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Posted: 29th Dec 2004 16:28
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Hey,

I wondered if you guys had any idea how to fix my problem. I bought a new pc for christmas and installed RTCW (Return to Castle Wolfenstein). I then try to start a game in multiplayer and it loads the server and then either silently crashes or gives on error about the memory cannot be read/written to. I have checked ive got the latest version of Direct X and all the new drivers but still no luck.

My sytem Specs are: -

- AMD Athlon 2600+
- 256mb RAM
- 3d card - not sure which its just the one that came with the Acer Aspire T120E

Any help would be appreciated,

Mike
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flibX0r
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Location: Western Australia
Posted: 29th Dec 2004 21:01
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Quote: "3d card - not sure which its just the one that came with the Acer Aspire T120E"


See, you might wanna find that out. Its probably the cause


A baby seal walks into a club...
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billy the kid
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Posted: 29th Dec 2004 22:11
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Did you download the latest patch? DirectX doesnt matter since it uses OpenGL. And the video card dont matter for RTCW since it was programmed to utilitize the CPU more than the GPU. I would say reinstall and get the latest patch.
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Blue Shadow
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Posted: 30th Dec 2004 00:48
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Yup I have patch 1.4 for the Game of the Year Edition. Still no luck. Anyone else have any ideas?
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Mentor
22
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Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 30th Dec 2004 02:50
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the phrase vga onboard makes my toes curl, it`s a phrase used by people when they don`t want to say "this machine has no gfx capability at all" does DB run on it?, looking at the specs I would advise you to download all the drivers from here

http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/desktop/aspire_t120e.html

starting with the GFX driver, and make a note to yourself "onboard graphics suck bigtime and are useless for games players", then paste it on the wall where you can read it every day.

Mentor.

PC1: P4 3ghz, 1gig mem, 3x160gig hd`s, Radeon 9800pro w cooler (3rd gfx card), 6 way speakers.
PC2: AMD 2ghz, 512mb ram, FX5200 ultra, 16 bit SB.
Mini ATX cases suck.
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billy the kid
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Posted: 30th Dec 2004 02:55
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Does the single player game load? Cause from your description I think it would. And that would rule out any hardware problem. Though I do agree, get a real graphics card.
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Blue Shadow
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Posted: 30th Dec 2004 03:52
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Just tried the single player game and it loads fine. Fast effective results from the mouse and everything works ok. However after installing all the new drivers the mouse becomes very very slow in the multiplayer menus and consumes 96% - 100% of the CPU and will quite often freeze. The only way to quit this is by closing the program in the task manager. This is very strange because the single player game still works fine.

I checked out a couple of gaming forums to see if anyone else has had this problem and what do you know. Someone with the same make of on board graphics card (SIS) has exactly the same problem with the error message or silently crashing to windows. This convinces me that it is a hardware problem but why does the single player work fine?

Any more help would be greatly appreciated,

Mike

PS Thanks for all the help so far guys
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bitJericho
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Location: United States
Posted: 30th Dec 2004 04:08
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well, I would guess if he has the same graphics card, there's a possibility that he has the same mobo. And if he has the same mobo, then he probably has the same network card as you

Try disabling your network card to see if the program locks up when you run it.

for reference, if you're not sure how to do it::
(for xp pro)
start > control panel > system > "hardware" tab > device manager > right click on possible hardware that could be the culprit, and disable

Now if your using your nic card to play, or you use the nic card for your local network, you may have to find updates for it that may fix your problem, but if you don't use it at all, then you should be fine

Also, you may want to check if it's your modem that may be causing the problem

Hope I helped


Yarr join LoGD and defeat your fellow coders!
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Blue Shadow
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Posted: 30th Dec 2004 04:37
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I'm using the latest drivers for the Sound, Graphics and Network cars which i downloaded of the Acer site about half an hour ago. Unfortunately im using the NIC card to play because the internet connection is through the network. Afetr hours of crawling through gaming forums and the Activision help site i still have had no luck. Even after trying things like "setting my Virtual Memory to 512mb minus the size of the RAM" etc etc etc, which is the solutions they give you.
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bitJericho
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Posted: 30th Dec 2004 04:45
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well, can you get into the multiplayer section if you've disabled you nic card? try it out, also try disabling your modem...

If one of those are the problem than you'll probably be able to come up with a solution


Yarr join LoGD and defeat your fellow coders!
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Blue Shadow
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Posted: 30th Dec 2004 04:58
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Tried disabling both the modem and NIC and still no luck. The menus are still just as laggy and mouse non responsive. I think im beggining to see a pattern emerging... number of times SIS graphics card mentioned is ummm 5 now. These people have exactly the same problems and exactly the same errors. Maybe its worth getting a new graphics card completely.

A little off topic but does anyone have any suggestions for a reasonably high end graphics card that isnt too expensive. The website for the local computer shop to me is [href]http://stak.com [/href].

Thanks again,

Mike
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Newbie Brogo
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Posted: 30th Dec 2004 04:59
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Funny, I would have expected the computer to moan in discomfert when it crashed... Not be silent.



--From your favorite Cat Overlord
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Mentor
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Posted: 30th Dec 2004 06:43 Edited at: 30th Dec 2004 06:55
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any Nvidia fx or ATI gfx card will be vastly superior to what you currently have, even if (as I suspect) you have to buy a PCI version, onboard video often means there is no physical AGP slot on the mobo, just the virtual one used by the poxy onboard chipset, I realy hate onboard chipsets, yes they make for low cost PC`s, but the people buying low cost PC`s often want them for gameing, and the puny 2D wannabe 3D chipsets they inflict on the punters are so pathetic they have trouble displaying text in realtime.

check if you have a real physical AGP slot on the mobo before you commit any cash to the upgrade venture, (any diagnostics software will lie to you, you need to physicaly look, onboard chipsets obviously wouldn`t be using an AGP port even if one was fitted since it wouldn`t be onboard if it was plugged into an expansion slot.

if you don`t have an AGP slot then check in the BIOS to make sure you can disable the onboard offering, if you have the option to disable it then you can go for a PCI graphics card, if you do have an AGP slot then that makes life easier, there will be an option to disable the onboard offering, or it will automaticaly disable it`self, you need to check this before you consider upgradeing.

Mentor.

ps: I just checked the stak site, you have an option of PCI or AGP in both Nvidia or ATI, don`t be put off by the fact the PCI offerings are only fx5200, you can run DoomIII/Farcry/Unreal on that chipset, you won`t gain by getting a faster chipset for PCI since the bus will limit what the GFX can handle, also don`t bother looking at PCI-e or PCI-x boards, theyare for a whole new graphics standard your mobo wouldn`t support, if you have the agp slot then your options skyrocket, lots of agp cards to pick from.

pps: I notice they have a PCI card named after me

PC1: P4 3ghz, 1gig mem, 3x160gig hd`s, Radeon 9800pro w cooler (3rd gfx card), 6 way speakers.
PC2: AMD 2ghz, 512mb ram, FX5200 ultra, 16 bit SB.
Mini ATX cases suck.
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Blue Shadow
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Posted: 30th Dec 2004 16:12 Edited at: 30th Dec 2004 16:13
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Thanks for all your help Mentor. Just looked on the Acer site aswell as physically openeing up the comp and woohoo I do have an AGP slot. That means that i have lots and lots of options.

The Stak website lists over 208 different cards. Any suggestions for a good high end card that will be able to play the latest games with a good frame rate. That way i wont have to upgrade for quite a while.

Once again thanks for your help,

Mike

PS: Had a look on their site again and was probably thinking about getting something like the 128mb Radeon 9200 SE or the 256mb Geforce FX5700LE.
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Dot Merix
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Posted: 30th Dec 2004 16:15
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Radeon 9200 wont be able to play current games(such as half life 2) -great- but it will play it.

I suggest bumping up and getting a radeon 9600, the other thing is, you definately need to upgrade your ram, preferably to a minimum of 512. That'll get you up and running smoothly.



WindowsXP Home(Service pack 2), Athlon XP 2400+(2.1Ghz), 1GIG Ram, Ati Radeon 9800Pro 128MB.
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OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 30th Dec 2004 17:10
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You've also got nVidia 68xx range...

Beware the Christmas... The fattener... The drunkard...
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DarkSin
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Posted: 30th Dec 2004 17:15
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Quote: " Radeon 9200 wont be able to play current games(such as half life 2) -great- but it will play it."

Sorry to dissagree but I have a Radeon 9200 with latest drivers and the only lag I get is thanks to my RAM, graphics wise everything runs smoothly.


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Mentor
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Posted: 30th Dec 2004 21:22
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actualy both ATI 9800 pro or fx5800 cards are top of the range for agp, basicaly the smaller the number from that the lower the spec, I`m not sure about cards with 512mb ram, normaly more is better, but I think it`s gonna be the next gen pci express cards that need 1/2 gig mem, it takes long enough to load gfx into video ram now, I would say either ATI 9800/9600 or Nvidia FX5700 or 5800 (there is a Nvidia 5900 but the AGP port will be a bit of a bottleneck for that card, it performs much better on PCI express)

Mentor.

PC1: P4 3ghz, 1gig mem, 3x160gig hd`s, Radeon 9800pro w cooler (3rd gfx card), 6 way speakers.
PC2: AMD 2ghz, 512mb ram, FX5200 ultra, 16 bit SB.
Mini ATX cases suck.
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Blue Shadow
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Posted: 30th Dec 2004 23:28 Edited at: 30th Dec 2004 23:33
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As you can probably tell I don't know much about graphics cards. I really am stuck on which card to choose. My budget is around the £75 mark but i am confused as to what the difference between the manufacturers are. For example ATI, Mentor etc all make the Radeon cards but there are price differences betwen them etc. I'd really appeciate if someone had any spare time to reccomend which model card to buy from the stak website (http://stak.com).

Thanks for all your help,

Mike
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Mentor
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Posted: 31st Dec 2004 01:35
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the following fastfind code numbers

Aopen

41983970

ATI

41981523

Gainward

41973115

41967066

seem reasonable (although the site assumes you know what each one is exactly...the specs are minimum), the names Iknow and have used are

Aopen
Asus
ATI
creative
Gainward
Gigabyte

most of the firms make a reasonable card, the chips are made by ATI or Nvidia, and the boards that carry the chipsets and ram are put together by the different names, so if it works it`s basicaly sound barring minor deviations (cheaper makers use low cost slightly slower ram etc), but for all intents and purposes you will be happy with anything other than what you have, the step up is quite marked, games that wouldn`t run or stuttered run smoothly etc.

Mentor.

PC1: P4 3ghz, 1gig mem, 3x160gig hd`s, Radeon 9800pro w cooler (3rd gfx card), 6 way speakers.
PC2: AMD 2ghz, 512mb ram, FX5200 ultra, 16 bit SB.
Mini ATX cases suck.
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Blue Shadow
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Posted: 31st Dec 2004 02:15
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Wow thanks for all your help Mentor. I will go in on monday with that list and see what they have in stock. Will those cards be able to play games like Far Cry, Doom 3 etc if i was to upgrade my RAM aswell?

Once again, Thanks for all your help,

Mike
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Mentor
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Posted: 31st Dec 2004 03:10
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yep! I have a Athlon 2ghz with a Nvidia FX5200 ultra (lower spec than what you are looking at) with 512mb ram and it can run DoomIII/Halflife2/Farcry/Unreal2/UnrealTournament2004 just fine, I think it will be a while before they get too out of date to run new titles, coding for shaders has hardly got going yet for example.

Mentor.

PC1: P4 3ghz, 1gig mem, 3x160gig hd`s, Radeon 9800pro w cooler (3rd gfx card), 6 way speakers.
PC2: AMD 2ghz, 512mb ram, FX5200 ultra, 16 bit SB.
Mini ATX cases suck.
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