Tribes2 lock up problem!

[GarbMan]

After a couple of minutes into the game, my computer locks with the sound loud. The game has all the updates and patches. I am running Windows XP Pro. I have recently installed an ATI Radeon 8500LE 128MB DDR, but I had one night of smooth playing while the card was installed. I have experienced this problem before while running a Geforce 2 400MX, but it somehow corrected itself. Since the problem reoccured, I have updated the AGP and Video Card drivers. The Bios was updated about six months ago. Some of the other hardware in my system is:

K7S5A motherboard
1700XP CPU
512MB PC133
Creative SB 512
30GB 7200RPM WD harddrive.

Does anyone know anything about this problem? I know of at least one other person who has had the same problem.

 

[mrman3k]

Did you make sure all the older drivers were removed? If not, that could be your problem. And it is nice to see another T2er, it is probably still one of my most favorite games.

 

[GarbMan]

Well as far as I can tell the old drivers are uninstalled. I looked at the dates and numbers of the versions and they all have the new numbers. I uninstalled the old drivers of the Video card before installing the new one. The old devices don't show up in safe mode. Am I overlooking something?

 

[Adul]

strange is there some sort of HW conlict issue maybe? Move sound card around. Sometimes that helps.

<-- another tribes 2 player

 

[GarbMan]

I know it doesn't have anything to do with the soundcard. I reinstalled Tribes2 and it did not help. Today I put the geforce 2 card back in and it worked flawless. Do you think reinstalling DirectX 8.1 help? I am about to send my 8500LE back and trade it for a TI 200 or TI500. I'm thinking that there is a compatibility issue between Tribes2, XP pro, and the 8500LE. I know that the 8500 is compatible with Tribes2 and I know it is compatible with Windows XP pro, But tribes2 was not actually made to run with Windows XP pro. Maybe the 8500LE drivers are not suited to run Tribes2 in Windows XP. Can we honestly say that ATI tested the drivers on Tribes2 with Windows XP? Maybe the Geforce is the only right combination. My old Voodoo 3 3000 won't work also.

 

[Evadman]

I see your problem. you have a 8500LE. The 8500LE has problems with the T2 engine (some 8500's from what I hear too). It will be corrected, but it will take a while. The problem has been known for a little bit, but not corrected yet.

Although if you had the problem before it may not be the video card. How many watts is your power supply, and how much is the 3.3v + 5v watts add up to?

<--- has used a regular 8500 and gotten crappy frame rates.

Currently using a GF4 4600 @ 90-130 FPS.
ATI 8500 = 30-35 FPS
PNY GF3 ti 200 = 60-70 FPS
VooDoo5 = 130-150 FPS ( but with video "effects" and distorsions. that's why I got rid of it.

Oh, and all were on XP Pro, but I just installed 2000 about 2 weeks ago. All worked with XP Pro except the voodoo5. I did not have XP @ that time. I had ME ( Don't kill me! )

By the way, what is your nickname? I play all the time as -(GB)- BigGayAl.

 

[GarbMan]

My power supply is a 300W and I have a 400W on the way, but don't you think a 300W is enough? My name is the same in the game. It is "GarbMan". My friends and I mostly play a modified version of Meltdown2. Unless your one of the best, you have to go heavy and use an energy pack. Heavys fly higher and the mortars shoot harder and 5 times stonger. We love it. We only play deathmatchs though. By your name "BigGayAL" I assume you might be gay. Is that the case? Just curious. I'm not gay though.

 

[Evadman]

The 300 may not be enough. The K7S5A is known to be finiky with power. The 8500 could be drawing enough to make the K7S5A freak out. ( I have a few K7S5A baised systems here ) Swap out the 300 to the 400. Personally I would get rid of the 8500 if you bought it soley for T2 or gaming, and go with a nVidia baised solution. ATI and T2 just plain do not get along. But up to you of course

Nah, not gay. I was in a T1 clan called :|SPC|: which stood for South Park Cows. We were all south park peeps. I joined the tribe late, so I had to be a non-regular guy, so I picked big gay al. him. I ran up though the ladder fast, and ened up being ranked #4 by that ranking site that I forget the name of at the moment ( quake something I think ) I went pubbing all the time, and played in lots of tourney's and the name stuck. (kept it in every clan I was ever in ) I kept it in T2 so the people would know who was killing them.

I will keep a lookout for ya, but I don't play too many Mods. I will find ya though, trust me. Same goes for you adul!

 

[GarbMan]

We usually play after 9:00pm EST. Look for Mandex, GarbMan, or OX3GEN. Note the 3 is not an E in 0X3GEN. OX3GEN is ussually the host. I have a server built, but I'm having some problems. Thanks for your help. I'm going to try to call ATI.

 

[GarbMan]

My Father-in-law passed this information along to me that he found at microsoft. Could this have anything to do with my situation?

DirectX 8.1 Potential Issues in Games That Use Software Vertex Processing
The information in this article applies to:
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Microsoft Windows XP Professional

SYMPTOMS
Under very rare circumstances, games that use the Software Fixed Function Transform and Lighting functionality in DirectX 8.1 may stop responding (hang) while you play a game.

CAUSE
This issue occurs when a minor problem in the Direct3D DrawIndexedPrimitive function is experienced. This problem prevents Direct3D from continuing or from displaying an error message.

RESOLUTION
The only games that are known to experience this issue were discovered during pre-release testing and already include this update with the product release. Therefore, few, if any, customers have to install this update manually. However, a fix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that is described in this article. Apply this fix only on computers that are experiencing this specific problem. This fix may receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not affected by this problem, Microsoft recommends that you wait for the next Windows XP service pack that contains this fix.

To obtain this fix, visit the "Download" section of the following Microsoft Developer Network Web site:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads
File name: Dx81b winxp - qfe (q321178).exe
Display name: DX8.1b WinXP - QFE

STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION
It is unlikely that you will experience this issue because games that have been identified as potentially having this issue already include the fix.
First Published: Apr 11 2002 9:58AM
Keywords: kbWinXPpreSP1fix kbbug

 

[Evadman]

T2's engine uses said functions. Try the update. Can't hurt.

 

[GarbMan]

Now if I can just find the update file. I can find the text, but I am having trouble locating the download. I will post back when i try it.