bfg 7800gs

[gorbs]

looking for any help with this game and the sudden lockup and artifacting. i have completely uninstalled it and cleaned the regisrty of all mention of it. got the latest directx 9 and installed the tribunal and bloodmoon add ons in the right order.

i figure this 7800 should run this game without a hitch.

thanks in advance for any suggestions

 

[dreddfunk]

I played Morrowind for hours but never got lockups or artifacting. Usually I would simply experience random CTDs. Make sure that your card isn't overclocked and/or isn't getting too hot. You should probably download a utility like ATI Tray Tools (http://www.guru3d.com/article/atitraytools/189/) or RivaTuner (http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=rivatuner). Artifacting and lockups could easily be an overheating GPU.

A few more things to try:

Just out of curiosity, have you made sure that you installed the patches from elderscrolls.com? There are different updates depending on which of the expansion packs you have.

If you have Bloodmoon, then you should get this patch:
http://static.bethsoft.com/dow...loodmoon_v1.6.1820.exe

You can also try Morrowind's hardware & software problems forum:
http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsfor...85f2409fb1&showforum=9

Also ensuring that you have BFGs latest drivers for your 7800gs would be good to do.
http://www2.bfgtech.com/driverdownload.aspx

 

[gorbs]

dreddfunk,

thanks for the tips. when the artifacting is happening is when i need to interact with a character in the game , off loading booty and getting armor fixed and so forth. i did a complete uninstall and reinstall of the game. i got the collectors edition ?, with all three games in one package.

i will copy your post and check on the latest patchs to see if i have the right version. i also was reading about some kind of "cold bug" that is symtimatic with these 7800's but during joint operations game play i never experienced it. i am wondering since the action is not fast and furious as in a war shooter that the card might never get up to optimal running temp. its pretty stable at 41c whenever i check it from a recovery situation.

i did get the latest driver from BFG the other night but did not load it yet. i want to try one change / fix at a time so i can nail it down when it happens. the fix that is.

i thought i had it last night, i played for about three hours without a problem and was getting ready to stop for the night so i went to the mage guild in Balmora to turn in the skull of adrano or whatever that is called and hit the space bar to engage the mage and my screen turned into a patchwork of colors and angles lol. thanks again for the suggestions and have a good weekend. !

edit: i did install the latest Audigy 2ZS drivers too.

 

[dreddfunk]

gorbs - that's odd that the problem is limited to a precise situation: interacting with characters. That seems more like a driver issue to my untrained eye. The only thing going on when interacting with characters is the loading of the dialog menus.

To be clear: have you ever had the artifacting or shutdown problems at any other time?

If this is the case, it doesn't sound like a temperature bug (cold or hot) as those would happen at random times during the game.


Moving forward with one fix at a time makes sense to a certain degree, but I'd suggest that the 'baseline' for starting should be the latest versions of: XP/Vista (all current updates), DirectX, Game Patches, and GPU drivers.

If you have to call any tech support (like BFG) these are the first things they'll likely have you do.

Unless there is an important reason you know of not to update your drivers (or any of the other items), such as a known incompatibility between a game that you play and nVidia's current drivers, I'd always get the latest drivers installed first thing. Otherwise, if you're just implementing one fix at a time out of curiosity, I can understand that as well.

Cheers and have good weekend too!

 

[gorbs]

dreddfunk,

i am going to load the latest driver for the card tonight and re-read the 28 page download for optimizing morrowind. dont have the website with me but i found it during a google search under morrowind problems.

yeah i agree that it is wierd i am only experiencing AI interaction crashes ?. i do get some stuttering when transitioning from one area to the next but its minor. i swear when i first got this game i didnt have any artifacting just a couple of CTD's ? ( crash to desktop) anyway before i turn on the PC tonight i will make sure the graphics card and memory modules are all seated fully in their slots too. i'm ready to sacrifice a goat about now if it will help lol. l8r

 

[gorbs]

looks like it was the original drivers supplied with the video card that did the trick. the latest drivers for this card shut the game down in less than 5 minutes. i uninstalled them pulled out the disc that came with the card and loaded the supplied drivers and the game played without a hitch !!.