Mass Effect constant freezing

[CP5670]

Originally posted by: wrangler

Originally posted by: CP5670
I waited longer this time and it does indeed get back into the game eventually, but it fails to recapture the mouse and keyboard so you can't do anything with the game.

I found some strange bugs after playing it more, although there have been no actual crashes. One example occurs during the side quest to win five times in the casino. When you complete it, the camera gets stuck and you can't leave the area.

I had that one. I would actually clip through the wall. I had to do it by going to different machines after each win. I think I was on the first machine to the left when you come in when I got the 5th win. Seemed to me like the trigger for problems was when the dude would say "you seem unusually lucky for a human" or something like that. Every time he said that and I tried to exit the game machine I would be stuck. So I just kept switching out till I got the 5.

I tried switching between several machines but it always seemed to mess up at some stage (and in fact, I think I had to get 7 or 8 wins in total before it said that I had enough). It took me a while to get around it, but I eventually found that saving the game while the camera is broken and then reloading it resets the camera and lets you move properly again.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: CP5670
I waited longer this time and it does indeed get back into the game eventually, but it fails to recapture the mouse and keyboard so you can't do anything with the game.

I found some strange bugs after playing it more, although there have been no actual crashes. One example occurs during the side quest to win five times in the casino. When you complete it, the camera gets stuck and you can't leave the area.

Hmm that's really odd. Try Alt-Enter instead of Alt-Tab and see if that works any better. I never got the casino bug, even won a 6th time and bust me once. Closest thing to a bug I had was entering the Mako from a weird angle and then getting rapidly tossed around into self-destruct oblivion.

Originally posted by: Piuc2020
I just updated the software runtimes which some UE3 games like UT3 and Mass Effect use, heck, UT3 won´t even boot if you remove the NVIDIA PhysX thingie from the add/remove programs, someone suggested to update the runtimes on a forum so I did.

Well it seems a lot of people are having less trouble in Vista, I think it might be time to give Mass Effect a try on Vista. Does anyone know what the news are on the whole patch thing for MEPC?

Thing is I'm pretty sure replacing one of those dll in the UT3 directory is what allows you to use GPU-accelerated PhysX. What I'm worried is that replacing the entire runtime with the GPU-enabled library messes around with the PhysX .dll hooks, making ME think it can run in hardware instead of software.

Anyways I linked the new 177.79s in the other thread for you, can try those. Also there's supposed to be new drivers Aug 5th that enable PhysX for 8-series cards so those might help as well.

 

[Piuc2020]

Originally posted by: chizow

Originally posted by: CP5670
I waited longer this time and it does indeed get back into the game eventually, but it fails to recapture the mouse and keyboard so you can't do anything with the game.

I found some strange bugs after playing it more, although there have been no actual crashes. One example occurs during the side quest to win five times in the casino. When you complete it, the camera gets stuck and you can't leave the area.

Hmm that's really odd. Try Alt-Enter instead of Alt-Tab and see if that works any better. I never got the casino bug, even won a 6th time and bust me once. Closest thing to a bug I had was entering the Mako from a weird angle and then getting rapidly tossed around into self-destruct oblivion.

Originally posted by: Piuc2020
I just updated the software runtimes which some UE3 games like UT3 and Mass Effect use, heck, UT3 won´t even boot if you remove the NVIDIA PhysX thingie from the add/remove programs, someone suggested to update the runtimes on a forum so I did.

Well it seems a lot of people are having less trouble in Vista, I think it might be time to give Mass Effect a try on Vista. Does anyone know what the news are on the whole patch thing for MEPC?

Thing is I'm pretty sure replacing one of those dll in the UT3 directory is what allows you to use GPU-accelerated PhysX. What I'm worried is that replacing the entire runtime with the GPU-enabled library messes around with the PhysX .dll hooks, making ME think it can run in hardware instead of software.

Anyways I linked the new 177.79s in the other thread for you, can try those. Also there's supposed to be new drivers Aug 5th that enable PhysX for 8-series cards so those might help as well.

The only reason they are called nvidia physx is because AGEIA is no more but they are still include the actual AGEIA PPU, the software side and the new GPU Physx, I just updated them from the link the control panel gave me and there it specified it was for software and hardware use. As far as I know they are still only software runtimes and have nothing to do with the GPU implementation, that requires actual GPU drivers. (http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx_8.06.12_whql.html)

I'm gonna try those 177.79, thanks and I'll see if uninstalling the runtimes will fix anything.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

I could hardly start the game when I was using the 175 drivers. I switched back to 169.21 and I've been able to get to the Citadel (basically, get off Eden Prime). It gives me unrecoverable crashes (need to restart) every 10 minutes, but it does work. I think the problem is on the driver end, since I'm still getting artifacts too.

 

[Piuc2020]

Well after a big ME hiatus I decided to install the patch and try the new 177.84 NV drivers. I still can't start the game (GFP), all my other games run perfectly, I'm not going back to an archaic driver such as 169.21 for one game so screw Mass Effect, god I'm so angry.

I don't know if this is Demiurge's, EA's or NVIDIA's fault but someone better do something about it quickly, I'll never buy any game made by the inepts at Demiurge ever, they are obviously incapable of programming a game, either that or EA rushed the game through QA.

EA should force Bioware to make the PC port for Mass Effect 2, the guys at Demiurge seriously need to find another profession.

Oh well, at least I still have Devil May Cry 4 and GRID to tide me over.

 

[CP5670]

I played through most of the game on 177.41 and didn't have any serious issues, but there were a lot of crashes towards the end of the game. This roughly coincided with the time I switched to 177.79, but I can't be completely sure it was due to that. I just finished the game on that driver since I was close to the end anyway, but I can see how that would get on someone's nerves.

In all of the cases, the game just locked up and stopped doing anything, although they didn't require me to restart. When I alt-tabbed the game, I often saw the Unreal Engine error messages saying things like "assertion failed, file not found" and so on, but there was no real pattern to the crashes.

 

[Piuc2020]

Well I have one last ace up my sleeve, Vista, I'm running the installation now, if that doesn't work, I'm throwing the towel.

On the plus side, I may be switching to ATI soon, maybe that will alleviate my issues with ME.

EDIT: Well it worked in Vista with 177.83 drivers but I only played it for 30 minutes so I can't attest for total stability yet. The downside is I have to reboot because most of my games are on XP.

 

[skace]

Mass effect beats the shit out of video cards. Take it from me, I watched my 8800GT hit 80c-85c which would effectively crash it every single time. I ended up having to buy 2 of these for my computer, http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16835186016.

I would suggest getting GPU-Z running and monitor your temps. It may seem odd that Mass Effect would hit a graphics card harder than Crysis, but I think it has something to do with all of the random post processing effects that ME has, such as the gray noise/film effect. These effects don't ever give the card a break.

FYI, if you have SLI you want the latest beta driver, if not, your driver won't matter as much, but the latest beta driver fixes an issue in mass effect w/ SLI in 1 specific area of the game.

With accelero heatsinks, my GPUs still hit 70c but then stop rising and they remain completely stable.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

disable dynamic shadows and use the latest beta drivers. 8800GT is known to have issues with Mass Effect -- MEPC tech forum for more info.

 

[jonks]

Originally posted by: skace
Mass effect beats the shit out of video cards. It may seem odd that Mass Effect would hit a graphics card harder than Crysis

Same, but had the prob with Assass Creed. Set up profiles to have my fans blow at 100% while playing and no probs now. The S1 installation scares me.

 

[TBSN]

I have the same freezing problems as many others. I am downloading the newest version of DX right now, and if that doesn't work I'll try putting the fan speed higher (its on automatic, but it never goes to 100% by itself).

If that doesn't work, I'll try the CPU affinity thing.

If that doesn't work, I'll try disabling dynamic shadows.

If that doesn't work, I'm going to burn down the EA HQ...

Wait, did I say that out loud?

 

[TBSN]

GAH!

I can't install the latest DirectX because my computer says it hasn't passed windows Logo testing to make sure its compatible with XP. WTF?!

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: TBSN
GAH!

I can't install the latest DirectX because my computer says it hasn't passed windows Logo testing to make sure its compatible with XP. WTF?!

You can get August 2008 DX9.0C version from here as well.

 

[TBSN]

Originally posted by: Mem

Originally posted by: TBSN
GAH!

I can't install the latest DirectX because my computer says it hasn't passed windows Logo testing to make sure its compatible with XP. WTF?!

You can get August 2008 DX9.0C version from here as well.

For some reason the install won't work. Why would it say that it hasn't passed windows Logo testing? Maybe I'll try to install another, earlier version first...

EDIT: Alright, I got it installed, but I still can't play the game! I can't even open it without a General Protection Fault...