SOF II crashes?

[Viper GTS]

I am going crazy here. Last week I bought SOF II, & I have been unable to complete the first level without it crashing.

I have re-installed Windows XP on a spare HD, dropped everything to default clock speeds, updated all drivers, and in general pulled my hair out. SOF freezes my system hard (requires a reset), typically with looping sound. It's seemingly random, rarely in the same place twice.

I am running:

P4 1.8 GHz (Intel 845 chipset)
512 MB DDR @ 266 MHz
GF4 Ti4200, 41.09 Dets
SB Audigy, latest drivers
Plus the usual CDRW/DVD/etc.
XP SP1 + all updates (have tried both with and without DX9)

SOF II is patched to Gold (1.03).

Anything else I'm missing before I microwave this bastard of a game?

Viper GTS

 

[BFG10K]

Did you install either Windows or the game on overclocked hardware? If you did, that's your problem. You'll need to reinstall whichever one you did on stock hardware.

Also make sure you have the latest BIOS, chipset drivers, vidoe drivers, sound drivers etc for your system.

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
Did you install either Windows or the game on overclocked hardware? If you did, that's your problem. You'll need to reinstall whichever one you did on stock hardware.

Also make sure you have the latest BIOS, chipset drivers, vidoe drivers, sound drivers etc for your system.

Why would it make a difference? My system is stable when OC'd, I have no trouble with any other software or games - Including games based on the same engine.

However, to be absolutely certain it was not a result of OCing, when I re-installed everything on the spare HD all hardware was running at stock speeds (and still is).

All the drivers are up to date.

Viper GTS

 

[BFG10K]

Why would it make a difference?

Because whenever you run hardware out of spec you don't know exactly what's going to happen. Also specifically installing Windows on overclocked hardware is a big non-no, even if the OC is normally 100% stable. You can have problems afterwards which simply bend the mind because they have no rational explanation as to why they're happening.

My system is stable when OC'd, I have no trouble with any other software or games - Including games based on the same engine.

Doesn't matter. Why do people continually forget that overclocking is not guaranteed. Just because 99% of your games are stable it doesn't mean the other 1% will be.

when I re-installed everything on the spare HD all hardware was running at stock speeds (and still is).

OK, cool.

Try disabling all of your startup programs that load into the system tray and/or run in the background. In addition, check your event log at the time the program crashes to see if anything useful comes up. Also try putting the game's settings on minimum and disabling all advanced features such as EAX.

You also might try looking at Activision's website as they have a database of problems for all of their games which is suprisingly useful.

For the record I have a similar system to to yours except I have a 9700 Pro and SOF II is running perfectly on it. I'm playing it for the third time and I'm well past the first mission. Also in the past I've run it on a Ti4600 on both the release and 1.1 version and I didn't have any probems on the first mission either.

 

[Viper GTS]

Believe me, I've been OCing long enough not to do things like install Windows with my system OC'd (at least not on a new system that I haven't finalized settings on yet).

There are no background programs running (all I've installed is SOF + drivers & windows updates). Crashes are not limited to the first mission, it also crashes on randomly generated missions. I have tried both with and without EAX, it doesn't seem to make a difference.

I'll go crash it again & post the event logs, but I have found one entry for SOF2 that mentions an Nvidia driver file.

Viper GTS

 

[BFG10K]

I wonder if the log will show an infinite loop in nv4_disp.dll. It may pay to do a minimal boot and try the game that way, in case it's a hardware incompatibility and/or a power supply issue.

Also do you have the latest BIOS and chipset drivers for your system?

 

[Viper GTS]

After flashing the BIOS and updating Intel INF drivers, it still crashed.

All errors listed were in the System category, no mention of any trouble in application.

I had:

One entry with:

Idle Timeout Error Channel 00000001

10 seconds prior, 20 entries all with the same time stamp:

Access to free channel on Ch 0000001f SC 00000001 M 00000a6c Data 00000000

(each has different addresses listed)

One entry with:

No valid object on C 00000001 SC 00000002 M 00000180 Data beef0301

One entry with:

GR SW Notify Error on 0001 beef9701 00000597 000017fc 00000000 00010000

All have the source listed as nv.

Viper GTS

 

[BFG10K]

Try a minimal boot (ie remove all redundant hardware) and try downgrading your video drivers. To start with I suggest the 3082s.

Let me know how you get on.