Problem With Unreal 2 (Hardware/software related)

[stncttr908]

Well, this question would go in another section, but to be honest I'm at a loss as to which piece of hardware is to blame. My brother's computer has a very strange result to running Unreal 2. Here are some specs on the computer to start off.

Hardware
MSI KT3 Ultra (VIA KT333)
256MB OCZ PC2700
Gainward GF4 Ti4200 64MB (no o/c)
AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (no o/c)
40GB Maxtor 7200rpm
52x Liteon CDROM
10/100 NIC
SB Audigy w/latest drivers
Samsung 753DF 17" CRT
300W Enermax PSU
WinXP Pro

Drivers:
VIA Hyperion 4.45 (tried 4.46 as well)
NVIDIA 43.45 (tried everything down to 41.09)
DirectX 9.0a
Newest Audigy drivers

The Problem:
Whenever the game starts up, all goes well until I try to start a new game. The intro screen loads just fine. When the new game starts, the sequence that shows his ship departing runs just fine. Then, once the beach scene with the base loads up, all hell breaks loose. The screen goes wavy with lines of color, and after 5 seconds or so, the computer reboots. Upon rebooting, the screen is still corrupted through the BIOS loading sequences. The only way to fix the problem is to cut the power, and reboot.

The first time this happened I was horrified. I thought I had fried his card. However, I'm quite certain that this is not the case. I removed the side panels, the fan is unobstructed, and airflow is quite good inside thanks to 2 80mm exhaust fans. I then tried looping 3dmark2k1 several times, and it completes each test flawlessly. So I have ruled out the card overheating. I'm also sure that the computer is not rebooting due to CPU temperature, as I have it disabled in the BIOS and while running the game in windowed mode, sandra shows no significant temperature spike.

Then I tried several sets of nvidia drivers, but none seem to make any difference. I reinstalled DX9, that made no difference. I uninstalled the VIA AGP drivers and installed 4.46, that didn't do any good either. This error occurs on all resolutions, refresh rates, and detail settings. The game patch is no help either. I'm quite confused and a little concerned. Even though this game probably isn't worth the struggle, I still must get to the bottom of the problem, so I can verify that nothing is indeed wrong with any of the hardware.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[sakic19]

had the same problem before. same card g/w ti4200 64mb. it was definitely the card that was crapping out on me but never figured out what exactly caused it or what went wrong. last time i checked nobody knows the cause either but you can search google for 'gainward infinite loop' maybe somebody know something by now. some say its the capacitor, some say bad memory chip. anyway i rma'd my board and got a replacement (used the old board for ~8 mths). the new board has a different (bigger) heatsink/fan tho. not sure if the caps/mem chip was different altogether. but its been working fine now, its been about 5 months. hope it doesnt die on me again after 8.

 

[bjc112]

Originally posted by: stncttr908
Well, this question would go in another section, but to be honest I'm at a loss as to which piece of hardware is to blame. My brother's computer has a very strange result to running Unreal 2. Here are some specs on the computer to start off.

Hardware
MSI KT3 Ultra (VIA KT333)
256MB OCZ PC2700
Gainward GF4 Ti4200 64MB (no o/c)
AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (no o/c)
40GB Maxtor 7200rpm
52x Liteon CDROM
10/100 NIC
SB Audigy w/latest drivers
Samsung 753DF 17" CRT
300W Enermax PSU
WinXP Pro

Drivers:
VIA Hyperion 4.45 (tried 4.46 as well)
NVIDIA 43.45 (tried everything down to 41.09)
DirectX 9.0a
Newest Audigy drivers

The Problem:
Whenever the game starts up, all goes well until I try to start a new game. The intro screen loads just fine. When the new game starts, the sequence that shows his ship departing runs just fine. Then, once the beach scene with the base loads up, all hell breaks loose. The screen goes wavy with lines of color, and after 5 seconds or so, the computer reboots. Upon rebooting, the screen is still corrupted through the BIOS loading sequences. The only way to fix the problem is to cut the power, and reboot.

The first time this happened I was horrified. I thought I had fried his card. However, I'm quite certain that this is not the case. I removed the side panels, the fan is unobstructed, and airflow is quite good inside thanks to 2 80mm exhaust fans. I then tried looping 3dmark2k1 several times, and it completes each test flawlessly. So I have ruled out the card overheating. I'm also sure that the computer is not rebooting due to CPU temperature, as I have it disabled in the BIOS and while running the game in windowed mode, sandra shows no significant temperature spike.

Then I tried several sets of nvidia drivers, but none seem to make any difference. I reinstalled DX9, that made no difference. I uninstalled the VIA AGP drivers and installed 4.46, that didn't do any good either. This error occurs on all resolutions, refresh rates, and detail settings. The game patch is no help either. I'm quite confused and a little concerned. Even though this game probably isn't worth the struggle, I still must get to the bottom of the problem, so I can verify that nothing is indeed wrong with any of the hardware.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

You seem to have hit everything that could be causing a problem, have a spare video card? Try that.

If not get an RMA for the card, it is most likely bad.

 

[stncttr908]

Got the RMA today, sending it out tomorrow. GF2MX 64MB ran w/o errors, so I've concluded I have a bad ti4200.