System Crashes in Battlefield 2 and America's Army

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xFlankerx

Member
Aug 30, 2005
29
0
0
Yea, but for me it isn't only BF2 thats freezing. Sims 2, 3DMark03 and 05, SpeedFan, CPUz, and now it freezes even when I'm playing media files! Its ridiculous. I'm going to switch out my FX5200 for a 6600GT and see if that fixes the problem, but if it doesn't, I'm just going to have to give the PC to a PC Repair Shop and see if they can fix anything.
 

BeakerChem

Senior member
May 11, 2005
219
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Just chiming in with another person having similar issues.

My drivers are all up to date (at least as far as I have found new drivers...) My specs are in my sig.

What I have seen was the freezing problem in single-player BF2 at first. The freezes would result in the need for a hard reset, and generally occured within 10-30 minutes of running the game. Heat seemed to be a factor, as lowering settings helped delay the crashes but I would still get freeze ups at lower temps.

Prime95 didn't cause issues after 3 hours, memtest didn't cause freezes after several 1000% runs. SisSoft Sandra tested everything out fine.

3DMARK05 resulted in freeze-ups that were the same as BF2 most of the time by the third pass, and sometimes would just cause a reset. So I started thinking video card.

I D/Led the Doom3 demo and it runs at a lower temp (the vid card never hits 70C) but still has freezes.

I had previously tried the huge host of fixes, both the ones mentioned here and others mentioned on the BF2 forums, but none worked. Since I am thinking video card I am obtained an RMA (Gotta love BFG) on it and I'll see if I still get the same problems when it comes back. The only other thing I can think of is that it is an issue with the PCIexpress slot on my MB, but I am not sure how to test that without another board.

Suggestions are welcome, as this is something that is an issue on all of my graphics intensive programs. Nothing goes wrong with long term use of the system for non-graphics heavy stuff like surfing, word processing, making PowerPoint presentations, etc.

 

Brillman

Junior Member
Aug 17, 2005
10
0
0
I am going to swap out my XP SP2 harddisk and swap in a test HD for WinXP64 and see if that helps for BF2. I'll let you guys know in a little while.
 

BeakerChem

Senior member
May 11, 2005
219
0
0
I fixed mine! Praise God! :)

After fighting this for months, I found the problem (at least so far). My video card was bad. Not bad enough to not work, but it would cause the system locks after 20-40 minutes at temps that should have been fine accoring to BFG tech support.

They accidently sent me a 6800Ultra for my 7800GTX RMA, and while they are sending the GTX back to me they said to go ahead and use the Ultra. Zero problems with the Ultra in, everything runs great on identicle settings, drivers, etc. 3+ hours on BF2 with no lock-ups or glitches. In addition, the temp of the video card is actually lower than the 7800GTX was, which should be reversed according to the reviews I have read. I should get the 7800 back in a couple of days and I can check to see if the problem reoccurs with it. If so, then we have discovered a hardware incompatibility...

:)
 

Muerta de Poly

Junior Member
Feb 26, 2005
24
0
0
Originally posted by: Brillman
I am going to swap out my XP SP2 harddisk and swap in a test HD for WinXP64 and see if that helps for BF2. I'll let you guys know in a little while.


This worked for me, but everytime I unplugged my headphones from the headphone jack on the ZS Platinum 5.25" bay, I would get a BSOD.

Just out of curiousity, do you guys get DCOM errors in the Event Viewer when your game locks up (in Win32)?
 

yllus

Elite Member & Lifer
Aug 20, 2000
20,577
432
126
Bump for resolution. I recently upgraded from a P4 2.53 GHz to a AMD Athlon 64 3700+ on a ABIT KU8, same ATI X800 XT PE (AGP) on both systems. Same issues as Bigg (original post) had.

Any help?
 

daines1

Junior Member
Jul 26, 2005
24
0
0
Guys, I'm back.

Here's my system specs:

ASUS A8V Deluxe Motherboard (VIA Chipset) / MSI Neo Platinum 2 (Nvidia chipset)
AMD 64 3500+
Kingston VRAM 4x 512MB 400MHz DDR PC3200 DIMM CL3
Antec 550 Powersupply
Sony 52x CDRW/DVD Combo Drive
Sapphire 256 X800 XT Video Card (AGP)
Soundblaster Audigy 2 Platinum
Maxtor IDE 7200 60gig (with OS WINXP PRO)
Maxtor IDE 7200 250gig (with most of the games)
Logitech MX1000 Laser Mouse (USB)
Microsoft Wireless Natural Keyboard (USB)
Dell 17" CRT

Here are the steps I have taken to fix the problem:

1) Replaced the stock Heatsink of my x800 XT with Arctic Silencer 4.
2) Removed the Heatsink on the 3500+ and applied Arctic Silver 5 (quite a lot).
3) Reinstalled BF2 on primary HDD and repatched.
4) Reinstalled BF2 on Secondary HDD and repatched.
5) Installed Catalyst 5.7 drivers. Installed new Catalyst 5.10 drivers.
6) Undated VIA 4in1 drivers.
7) Upgraded Bios to latest version.
8) Changed AGP speed to 4x.
9) Turned Fast Write of in Bios.
10) Changed HT 1000 to HT800.
11) Continually monitored CPU temp (Max 50s C) and GPU temp (Max 60s C)
12) Ran Memtest and passed 7x on all 4 sticks of ram.
13) Replaced the ASUS A8V Deluxe MOBO with MSI Neo 2 Platinum.
14) Updated Nvidia chipset drivers.
15) Tested with 1 Gig of Ram. Tested with 512 Gig of Ram.
16) Reinstalled Windows XP Professional.
17) RMA'd Sapphire video card and tested fine.
18) Tried using a working ATI 9800 pro AGP card.
19) Replaced 350W powersupply with 550W powersupply.
20) Removed Creative Soundcard and used onboard sound.
21) Removed and disabled all sound cards on 2 mobos.

So for those counting, here is a list of Hardware I have replaced:

1) Video Card
2) Ram
3) Powersupply
4) Sound Card
5) Motherboard
6) Replaced Stock Heatsink fan on Video Card

I've started having this problem for some time and it started with BF2. After many weeks/months of BF2 being unplayable, WoW started locking up when I went to Stormwind. Then... my desktop started to freeze completly while surfing the net. Then it started locking up while sitting there idle.

So, when I got my MSI motherboard I reimaged my system and tried BF2. It started locking up. Everything else seems to be working fine. I installed FEAR and played it for a few hours without a single problem on pretty high settings. If FEAR won't lock up, then what could my problem be?

Just wanted to update the situation.

Daines1
 

yllus

Elite Member & Lifer
Aug 20, 2000
20,577
432
126
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ / ABIT KU8 / ATI X800 XT Platinum Edition - Solution

The following settings seem to solve my BF2 issues:

AGP Mode = 4x instead of 8x.
Fast Writes = off instead of on.
AGP Aperture = anything. Set to 256MB for the hell of it.

Very annoying that I can't seem to leverage 8x mode or FWs, but what can you do.
 

daines1

Junior Member
Jul 26, 2005
24
0
0
yllus,

When I was previously working on the problem, what you've done really seemed to help my stability as well... but I wasn't "satisfied" having to slow down my system just so I could play the game. So I continued on.

** SKIP TO BOTTOM IF YOU JUST WANT POSSIBLE FIX **

As you can see above, I swapped mobos and reinstalled the OS... with no luck. So, it was time for some serious troubleshooting. After a gabillion tries at tweaking this and that, I may have figured something out.

**This is probably not the fix, but why not try it. Seems to work for me so far.**

For one of my troubleshooting tests, I removed my Soundblaster 2 Audigy card from the system. I also disabled my onboard sound. I booted the game up... and it worked. It had no problems and I could run it on high settings. After about an hour of playing without sound, I put the Soundblaster back in the system.

When I started the game up again, I heard the sound for the intro screens, but as soon as it asked me for my password, there was no sound. I went to the audio options to see what was up and it was set to Auto Select or something like that. Not software, hardware or XFI (sp). To see if it would still work with the settings that were already there (and my soundcard in the PCI slot) I started the game up. Worked flawlessly. Still didn't have sound. So, I disconnected from the server and changed the audio settings from "Auto Setting" to software and medium. I loaded a map and played fine. I tried different servers and it worked fine.

The one thing I have left to do is restart the game and try it again now I have software selected as audio.

** POSSIBILE FIX **

1) Disable onboard Sound.
2) Remove PCI Soundblaster card.
3) Reboot.
4) Load game up. Join a multiplayer map and test it.
5) If system locks up, throw it out the window. If it is playable, power down the computer and put the PCI soundcard back in the system.
6) Boot up. Restart BF2 without changing any settings. You will probably only have sound for the intro screens. Join a Multiplayer game and see if it locks up. It shouldn't.
7) If it works, disconnect from server and go to Audio Options. Change "Auto Settings (or whatever it is called) to Software. Leave middle setting to low, medium, or high. Whatever it was.
8) You should now start to hear music within the game. Load up a Multiplayer map and give it a go.

So far, I've been able to play 3 hours without a problem. Give it a shot and see if it works for you.

Good luck to us all.

Daines1
 

jcinacio

Junior Member
Nov 15, 2005
1
0
0
I had some freezes in 3dmark and tried changing every kind of settings everything... to no avail. got a new PSU... still freezing.

in bios: vcore, agp settings, mem settings

CPU Temps always bellow 40º C at full load

i reinstalled nvidia's 77.50 drivers and 3dmark seems to have stoped freezing, but BF2 still crashes my PC once in a while :s

AMD64 3000+ @ 2400Mhz (prime95, occt, systool, 3dmark, whatever STABLE)
ASUS A8V Dlx (Via K8T800 Pro)
Antex NeoPower 480w
Geforce 6600GT 128Mb
2x512Mb OEM (memtest stable)
onboard sound (realtek)

Edit: i have played for hours straight without a single crash and then... BAM! hard freeze!
 

dripgoss

Senior member
Mar 13, 2003
496
0
0
The thing that fixed it for me was lowering my displays refresh rate to 60Hz. Now it works like a champ. Because it's a CRT, I just have to put up with the black border since I have my res and everything set up for my desktop...