Windows - Gaming Errors (s.o.s.)

Hey All,

I'm a big gaming fan with computers, and recently I upgraded my whole system to a new thing. My problem with this system and windows is that I can't run select games due to Critical Errors. With Deus Ex, I had a CE of Bad Name Index (Similar with Unreal Tournament) as well as WarCraft III crashing after I go to load a campaign.

I tried searching MS database of error messages and codes, but find myself not finding what I need.

Has this happened to anyone else?





Side note: Those who want my specs.

AMD Athelon XP 1.6
460mb RAM (SD)
Giga-Byte MB (Onboard sound)
30Gig Maxtor 7200 rpm
nVidia TNT2 Riva Cougar 32mb video
Lucent 56k Winmodem
17" Envision Digital Flat

Hi tyger_claw,

According to your hardware-specifications, everything seems fine.

I am not sure about the games-requirements; but is DirectX installed? And updated to the latest version?

Besides, if the games you'd obtained are originals, from a legitimate source, you can contact the software dealer back, or read the game troubleshooting text.

Just trying to help here.

Thanks for the fyi.

I do have the up-to-date DirectX drivers (8.1) from my installation of WarCraft3

I also checked the sites of both Eidos (DeusEx) and Infogrames (Unreal).
The only thing I can get from their sites, is to try and download the newest drivers for my periferals. (Theay also suggest running the game while in Windows Safe Mode, seeing if anything not loaded while in safemode is the source of a conflict.)

Hope that works, if not, still open to any help

Hi!

Just to point out a tactic I use to check for conflictions;

1) Hit the Ctrl+Alt+Delete buttons together and "End Task" every program listed. Of course, some fundamental programs such as Explorer should be kept running.

2) Rerun the games.

Bonne Chance

I get quite a few problems with my box also and I believe that it is leading to my video card. I also have the same vid card as you. I think it is time to go Geforce or Radeon.

yeah, also, expanding on mrZxC, if you have win2k or XP, shut down all the processes you KNOW you don't need...like for winamp and stuff

Make sure you have the Detonator drivers for the video card, and not the lastest one for your particular card. This makes a huge difference, and looking at your specs, it's the video card that looks to be the slow end. If you're not using the Detonator drivers from nvidia, it might be causing the errors.

What's the OS? Maybe you mentioned it, but I didn't see it. I just wanted to point out that EIDOS can be a big pain in the ass. For a while they refused to support windows 2000 or XP. I'm not sure if this is still practice, but you should definately check out their website. Most games have forums, and most have a technical problem forum as well. Check out their sites, and maybe you'll find something there.

Also, were the errors exactly the same for each game? Can you run any games on your machine?

I personally belive it is the fact you have onboard audio. I belive this is what you said you
have.
If you do have onboard audio, this can run into problems with alot of games. Maybe think about dumping $50 on a 4.1 or 5.1 sound blaster.

When did this problem start occuring? Did you recently delete any items off your machine that may be effecting your games or dll files. My suggestion, would be to refresh your system, install all the newest drivers, and run a fresh machine, and hopefully it was just a problem that occured between a program you deleted. Unless I had alot more information, that is all I can suggest.

I'm telling you it is just the onboard audio. No need to intstall a bunch on new drivers. You should get a sound card anyways if you want a real gaming machine. Don't waste all your time on the petty stuff.

I'm planning to get a new sound card and speakers can anyone recommend some?

i havn't seen what OS you have, but i'm gonna assume new box new OS.. meaning XP.

if so, you need to check out the newer drivers for the nvidia graphics card.

My computer (dual 1ghz, 512mb cas2 pc133 ram, gf4mx420 video detonator 30.82 drivers, pci512 SB sound, XP pro).. used to crash constantly when playing games. I could sit and browse all day with no problems, however when i'd load a game it'd crash instantly. It'd even let me play for 10-30 SECONDS before crashing. FINALLY i dug enough to find that XP has an infinite loop error with nvidia graphics cards. The only recommendation that nvidia and M$ have is to get the latest drivers. http://www.guru3d.com is a good source of the latest greatest beta and release drivers for most video cards. if you don't already have the 30.82 drivers (which M$ updater will suggest if you do windows update) try those, if that doesn't work try slowly moving forward in versions until you find one that works or you've tried them all. If no luck, try going down in version.

My pc hasn't BSOD'd on me in 3-4 months now since i've found this out about the drivers.

hope this was informative

I'm under XP with a GeForce 256 and I had been a lot of problems in order to play correctly.
There are XP problems with Nvidia drivers I think, you should install the last drivers. Personally, installing detanator's driver was the end of my problems (if I except compatibilities problems with Win 9x games, like usual :D )

Quote:

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I'm a big gaming fan with computers, and recently I upgraded my whole system to a new thing. My problem with this system and windows is that I can't run select games due to Critical Errors. With Deus Ex, I had a CE of Bad Name Index (Similar with Unreal Tournament) as well as WarCraft III crashing after I go to load a campaign.

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I agree with everyone to ensure that you have the most recent Detonator drivers. Also, check for any Windows updates which you haven't installed (such as compatibility updates, etc.) which could be causing the problems.

Something which I didn't see mentioned by anyone is to check whether some of the games you're having problems with have any updates. I don't play games very often, but I have had problems in the past which were resolved simply by installing the most recent update for the game...

Quote:

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I'm planning to get a new sound card and speakers can anyone recommend some?

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Higher > What's your budget? My personal favorite combination is a Creative SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum with Inspire 5.1 speakers. Can't beat it (unless you want to invest even more, and go with a nice Bose set up).

AJ

Hey All,

Thanks for the advices. I will download the new Detonator drivers for the videocard (think I have it on cd somewhere). I agree with some that the soundcard is not the best, but will have to do for a bit, gotta put money in more important things right now (business suit for interview...)

I failed to mention it and I do apologize for it. My OS is Win98se. There are too many problems with 2k and XP for gaming and drivers that I prefer to avoid for the time being.

When I ran the game in Windows safemode, it ran fine (except for colors in 16 and no cd drive)
There was no sound, so I'll check for better drivers for that as well.

I figured that the problem would be either DirectX or Video because when I get the errors for DeusEx and Unreal, it was "drawing" the maps and history files.

I can play other games (ie: Quake III) but some games do crash after playing for a bit (Half-Life Blue Shift) but managed to finish it.

I did a clean reinstall of everything when it first occured. Now everything is as fresh and new posies (ok, bad anology) So it has to be some sort of conflict.

I'll keep you posted.

Side note, all windows updates are done...

t could be much simpler than you think...did you upgrade your vid card yourself? If so, the omnipresent AGP vid card is more than likely your problem.

If your box was preloaded, the BIOS is trying to use the AGP card while trying to ignore the PCI card that you have mentioned.
Enter the BIOS (usually f1, f2, esc, or del) and disable the ONBOARD vid card. Then make sure you disable the onboard card, which will still show up in your device manager thru windows, and enable the high- powered card that was installed after market. (TNT Riva2 Cougars are NOT factory parts... :) )

If that is not the problem, the system RAM may be...PC100 or PC133?...I would assume PC100, anything else "SD" or not, will downclock your system and cripple anything that you run...
Make sure of your hardware...as the man says, the fastest system is only as fast as its weakest component.

Ouroboros

Just to update this tread.

I have found the solution. It was a stick of RAM (128) that was causing the problem. I have since bought a soundcard (which I was going to either way) and still had the problem. So I looked at other ideas and found that the one stick was the "thorn in my palm".

That's all.

For those who submitted replies, thanks for the info.

Just to update this tread.

I have found the solution. It was a stick of RAM (128) that was causing the problem. I have since bought a soundcard (which I was going to either way) and still had the problem. So I looked at other ideas and found that the one stick was the "thorn in my palm".

That's all.

For those who submitted replies, thanks for the info.