9 réponses à ce sujet

[geoffsbg]

I've been searching the web, and I've seen people report similar issues but I haven't had any luck with the proposed 'fixes' (changing drivers, updating things, disabling things, etc).

1. Game:  PC version, patched to 1.02, with Bring Down the Sky DLC.  (Same problem was happening with 1.01)
  a.) I got it from Direct to Drive

2. System: 
 a.) Intel Pentium(4) 3.2 GHz x 1 (though Dxdiag says I have 2?), 4GB DDR2 RAM (PC-2 6400, Corsair brand)
 b.) Nvidia Geforce 8800GT 512MB, driver 258.96 (6.14.0012.5896, from July 2010)
 c.) SigmaTel Audio, Driver 5.10.4991.0000, from June 2006); the more current driver didn't help anything, and I rolled it back b/c it may have been even worse (maybe not though).
  -I have disabled hardware acceleration (in the ME1 config)
 d.) Windows XP SP3
 e.) DirectX 9.0c (it's definitely current; trying to update it gives me a message saying there's no need)

3. The Problem:
 
Basically just as the subject title describes.  Every 15-30 minutes the game freezes up.  Occassionally I get flashes of yellow or bizarre yellow geometric shapes flying around for a few seconds first, then either a freeze or a crash.  When it does crash, it's often a total system crash - ie; the system basically shuts down and restarts.  About half of the time I need to do a hard boot to escape the freezes.  There does not appear to be an association with a specific area or action, though I haven't been anywhere other than the Normandy, Eden Prime, and the Citadel.

a.) Things I've tried:
 -I've tried a variety of 'fixes' that I've read about, including disabling background processes, turning off my anti-virus software (which was a HUGE mistake btw), running in windowed mode, turning graphics down, rolling back video card drivers, re-installing game, etc.
-the only thing that seems to make a difference is changing the video card drivers.  The current one I'm using (258.96) appears to be the most stable; older drivers were causing crashes even more often or even not allowing me to get into the game (it would freeze/crash loading the game, or during the first cutscenes).
   -so far I've tried: 178.24 and 186.18; I also tried the omega drivers for nvidia 

Oddly, I've played the game in the past with more stability than this - similar problems were occurring, but more like every 45min-1.5hours.  I'm 95% sure that I was using 178.24 back then, with MEPC version 1.01.  But that same setup is very unstable now for some reason.  Also, ME2PC runs beautifully on my machine.

4. My Question:

Obviously I'm hoping someone has a magic bullet for this, but I'm not holding my breath.  A more practical question I have is for users that have the same GPU (8800GT) - which driver version are you using, and how well does it work?

[Gorath Alpha]

Before anything else, let's hear what your in-game GPU temps are. I suspect your GPU cooler is filled up with lint, and not cooling any more.

[geoffsbg]

Thanks for the reply. How do I check that?



I recently blew out the dust from the heat sink over my processor, and kind of aimlessly blew dust out of a few other areas but I may have missed the GPU, I can't recall. I'll give that a try and see what happens. Thanks again for the tip.



The weird thing is that I run ME2 just fine, along with plenty of other games. ME1 is the only game I've owned that did this. I wonder why ME1 taxes my GPU more than newer games?

[Gorath Alpha]

I can't tell you (any longer) what program will work for a Geforce card -- in the past, RivaTuner had an option to put that temp reading on screen inside of games. I can't find that function in the newer versions of RivaTuner.

ATI Tray Tools will do it for Radeons.

[geoffsbg]

Okay, so using GPU-Z from 'TechPowerUp', I got the following temps (in celsius):



Reported by driver: 65 before playing, upwards to a max of 74 during gameplay.

Reported by 'ADT sensor chip': 58 before playing, up to a max of 66 during gameplay.



It got to the max temps within a few minutes then just hung out there for around ~20 minutes before it froze again. Also it reported that the 'GPU load' never went above 28%, and the fan speed never above 32%.



Not sure if those are particularly high temps, but the low GPU load and fan speed certainly suggests that the GPU isn't being taxed too much. Either that or GPU-Z isn't accurate.



I also checked the GPU's heat sink and it looks clean, but it's hard to see b/c it's upside down. I'm all out of canned air, but not much was coming out when I blew on it myself. Bummer, because that would've been an easy fix....



A good thought though, I wouldn't have considered that.

[Gorath Alpha]

All of the Geforce 8n00 cards had defective firmware that wasn't controlling the cooling fan operation properly. The 74 - 75 degree (Celcius) readings should have been accompanied by higher fan power settings than 32%.

nVIDIA learned quite soon after their mistake what they had done, but wanted to deal with their bad firmware with special routines in their drivers. However, they have released at least two drivers that literally made the fan operation situation WORSE, not better.

[geoffsbg]

You're right, I was just reading about that issue. I installed RivaTuner and set the fan speed to a 70% minimum. The temps have dropped a bit, but no change to the freezing/crashing so far. Thanks for the tips, it's good to know that about my card.



Now that I've been through a good 15-20 freezes and crashes, I'd say maybe only 2 or 3 had those graphical anomalies. Most of the time it just freezes with no warning, or stutters for a few frames, then freezes. I've also noticed that it has yet to freeze while I'm just standing there doing nothing. Only when something is loading, like a new part of the map, during a cutscene, or during dialogue.



I don't know if its related, but I get a lot of 'crackling' sound as well. It's not game breaking, but it seems worse than it did in the past. For example, the Bioware logo screen that first pops up invariably stutters and crackles for a good 5 seconds before playing smoothly. That never used to happen.

[Gorath Alpha]

You may have twin problems, with the video being only the minor part. Test the game with all sound off to see if the audio processor is at fault.

[geoffsbg]

Good idea. I can now rule out my sound card as the cause, b/c I disabled it in the device manager and it still froze after about 25 minutes. The bioware logo came up nice and smooth however, no stuttering.

Maybe the crackling is just from the software acceleration, and unrelated to the freezing. I think I'm going to try a few more nvidia drivers...

EDIT: 
175.16 - froze while loading save game
181.22 - froze during startup splash screen
191.07 - so far appears to behave just like 258.96 (invariably freezes within 30 minutes)
260.63(beta) - After about 30min it started to stutter and then I thought it had frozen, but when I brought up the task manager it started up again nice and smooth.  However, within a couple minutes huge portions of the environment suddenly became solid yellow.  Then it crashed.

Modifié par geoffsbg, 25 septembre 2010 - 06:06 .

[geoffsbg]

I re-updated my sound driver, since that clearly wasn't the cause. Also I did a huge cleanup of my HD and then defragged it overnight. No difference noticed.



I think I'm over it; I'm spending too much time on this. I'm going to shelf ME1 until I get a new GPU, or until they release another patch (which seems unlikely). But thanks anyway for the help, Gorath, I appreciate it.