Random exits to desktop in C&C Generals

[Link19]

When playing Command and Conquer Generals, sometimes the game will just quit and go to the desktop with the sound still playing. It displays an error message saying something along the lines of "Your system has encountered a serious error. Serious errors can be caused by over heated hardware, viruses, and your system not meeting the minimum requirements to run the game." I know for sure my system easily is by far more than the minimum requirements to run the game being a Pentium 4 3.0GHz with hyper threading, 1GB (2*512MB DIMMs) of PC3200 400MHz DDR SDRAM and a Radeon 9800 Pro 8X AGP video card. I just did a full system scan for viruses with AVAST a few days ago and it found none. Does this message mean that those are the most likely or only problems that it could be? If I do have overheated hardware, how do I read the temperature of my video card? There is no thermal management built into my video card? My CPU temp is the only temperature I can read in the BIOS of my system.

Help greatly appreciated.

 

[Link19]

BUMP

 

[tontod]

Just a hunch, but have you tried installing the latest version of directx? Not sure if it will solve your problem, but I think its worth a shot.

 

[helpme]

It's just because it's buggy, and EA isn't doing anything to fix it.

 

[Link19]

I have DirectX 9.0b installed which is the latest version. I also have the system sometimes random reboot in the middle of the game Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2. Is this another EA game that is buggy too? Is is there something wrong with my system? I did have my system once reboot on its own a few days ago when moving shortcuts and menus around in the start menu. But this is the only time that has ever happened on this system when not playing games or having a driver issue with the Ultra ATA/133 controller I used to use that I hooked a CD-RW drive up to.

 

[Shagga]

Originally posted by: helpme
It's just because it's buggy, and EA isn't doing anything to fix it.

This is actually the reason... :frown:

 

[Justorq]

well ... there is a reason it's not working ... and im sure it has nothing to do with the bugginess of the game... I have the game and it never gave me any problem at all ... Need for Speed on the other hand is pretty buggy. You should uninstall your video card drivers and reinstall them (or get the newest version of the drivers if you don't have it already).

 

[Regs]

Happens to a lot of people. I had those problems when I played it on a ti4200 and still face those problems on a ATI card. Maybe not as frequent as you. Maybe once a week I get the problem.

I wouldn't know where to start trying to figure out what would be causing it. I was hoping EA would of figured it out by now.

 

[BoomAM]

Originally posted by: helpme
It's just because it's buggy, and EA isn't doing anything to fix it.

Ditto.
I havnt been able to complete generals at all. Not cos i cant, it cos the last GLA mission allways crashes to the desktop aftr 5 or so minutes.
And none of the 6-7 patches thus far has fixed it.
Although they do say that the latest patch will fix SP issues, but im not getting my hopes up.

 

[Regs]

The graphics engine must be buggy. Maybe you can try playing around or customizing the graphic details. Like heat effects, shadowing, etc..

In the add-on Zero Hour, they all ready told us to turn off heat effects, because one of the weapons that uses heat effects makes the screen go black and framerate drop below 5 FPS!

 

[thorin]

Got the latest greatest Vid and Sound drivers?

Thorin

 

[Lawranch]

You may need a better power supply. I have a p4 3.06 ATI 9600 pro, and since I've added a second hard drive my power supply has trouble with some games. MSI has a free utility that monitors the temps and voltages for your system so you can tell where the problem is.

 

[Link19]

I have an Antec True550 WATT PSU. I would think that would be more than enough. I have the latest Catalyst drivers installed from ATI. I also have the latest drivers installed for my onboard Realtek souns system.

 

[Regs]

Generals was engineered differently than most games. I think a lot of the effects and files come the cd-rom other than the hard drive. So your hardware is rendering from the CD-rom on some occasions.

Make sure you are using a good, fully functional, up to date ROM drive. Seems like a lot of EA games are like that, including Sim city 4.

 

[BoomAM]

You lot like to skirt around the problem dont you?
Theres no two ways about it, its a poorly coded game. Almost as bad as GTA3(seriously).
Like GTA3, on some machines it ran flawlessly, but on most, it ran bad, crashes, poor performance, ect;
Its the game. Its buggy. Theres no two ways about it.

 

[Regs]

Sure it's buggy. Doesn't mean he does not want to play it though.

 

[wacki]

Just wondering, are you accidently hitting the windows button? I actually ripped my windows button out of my logitech keyboard.... Damn shame, but Counter Strike was more important than the looks of the keyboard at the time.

 

[Regs]

Originally posted by: wacki
Just wondering, are you accidently hitting the windows button? I actually ripped my windows button out of my logitech keyboard.... Damn shame, but Counter Strike was more important than the looks of the keyboard at the time.

This game gives a hardware error when it exits to the desktop.

 

[somechineseguy]

yeah this happens to me too

i emailed ea and they said it might have something to do with dual monitor function on my ati card?!?!!
can anyone verify this?
or maybe its just ati cards in general?!?!


*i got an radeon 9800 pro

 

[Markfw]

I have had nothing but problems with this, but finally have something that works. Try uninstalling the game. Then delete the directory that is left. Then defrag. Then set your memory timings one slower than rated (had to set my CAS2 to CAS2.5, if you have 2.5, set to 3) Then re-install the game. Worked for me, and I spent three days trying to update every friggin driver on my machine. And this was with Zero hour also !

Ditto the coding of the game sucks, but I love the game other than that. I do with they would make it not read from the CD during the game, that sucks. I am sure it was to assure you didn;t remove the CD and put it in another computer to play the game at the same time. Then you have to buy two copies, even if both PC's are 2 feet from each other and you own them both (I had to buy two Generals CD's and two Zero hour CD's for $160 total to play the game with my son)

 

[newbiepcuser]

Originally posted by: somechineseguy
yeah this happens to me too

i emailed ea and they said it might have something to do with dual monitor function on my ati card?!?!!
can anyone verify this?
or maybe its just ati cards in general?!?!


*i got an radeon 9800 pro

No, it happens with my Nvidia Geforce 4 ti4200 card also. EA is full of it.

 

[BoomAM]

Originally posted by: somechineseguy
or maybe its just ati cards in general?!?!

FanBoi.
You seem to be reverting to the age old, and now obsolete opinion of "its allways ATIs fault if you have a ATI card".

 

[helpme]

The game is great, but it's pretty buggy. EA doesn't really seem to be in any rush to fix the bugs either, but other than that it is a great game.