22 réponses à ce sujet

[hedop85]

 Hello there,

Finally I'm able to post, what a relief. First let me tell you my specs taken from the ME 1 config tool:

Processor:   Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM CPU @ 2.00GHz
Clock Speed: 1991 MHz
Physical Memory: 5,94 GB
Display Adapter: Radeon ™ HD 6770M
VRAM: 1GB
Driver Version (taken from the PC as it doesnt show in the config tool): 8.882.2.3000
Sound Adapter: Lautsprecher und Kopfhörer (IDT High Definition Audio CODEC)
Driver Version: 6.10.6345.0
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit Service Pack 1
DirectX Version: DirectX 10.0  (Mar2009) or later

I hope thats sufficient for now, if anything is amiss please don't hesitate to ask me, after all I'm here to get some advise. I should think that I should be able to play just fine on highest setting with these specs. At least that is what I'm able to do with DA:O and DAII. 

My version of the game is a digital download via Origin and it starts up via Origin as well. ME 1 is patched to Version 1.2. This is a second installation. I used to own a copy via steam but now its somehow gone. Anyway... during the first installation some months ago on the same machine the game worked fine. No problems, highest settings etc.

So my problem is:
During cutscenes or in dialogues the audio will usually lag or even stutter quite heavily. This lag usually leads to whole sections of dialogue (often Shepherds) missing or rather not being heard. This lag turns into a stutter during cutscenes when the whole screen freezes for 2-4 seconds. This is when I use the standard set up given to me with hardware sound. If I switch to software sound I can reduce the problem to some extent but especially during longer cutscenes or dialogues it will happen again. It's quite annoying. I also have a lag occassionally before firing a weapon or just moving around. 

I would welcome any suggestions to help me out or how to set up the configuration to work around these issues.

Thank you.

[PsiFive]

 Bad news. Looks like your CPU is below minimum spec:

EA Support wrote...

The minimum system requirements for Mass Effect are as follows: Minimum System Requirements:

• Windows XP or Vista
• 2.4 GHz Intel or 2.0 GHz AMD

[/list]

No idea if there's a workaround or anything that you can do short of upgrading. Sorry.

Modifié par PsiFive, 21 mai 2012 - 05:09 .

[Gorath Alpha]

Actually, when the requirements were drawn up, there was no distinction made between Intel Pentium P4s and the far more powerful C2Ds that had come along later.  If a 2.4 GHz P4 was adequate, then a C2D at HALF that speed, more or less, is an equivalent (the P4 was pretty bad by the time the C2D finally arrived) --let's say that a 1.6 GHz C2D is at least as good as that 2.4 GHz P4. 

I'm not familiar with any digitally downloaded anything, so I won't attempt to diagnose the problem, but the EA twit is wrong, of course.

[hedop85]

You are aware though that they are talking about single core CPU's right? I mean thanks for the feedback but I doubt it's the CPU since the game is from 2008 and DA:O, DA II, PES 2012 and similar modern games run fine in the highest settings so it would really surprise me.

Just seen that there was another comment Thanks guys. Well I am actually in touch with the Origin and EA technical support as well and asked my questions on 3 other forums as well to see whether anyone had any ideas... let's see what EA comes up with and the others as well but if anyone would have some suggestions or had a similar problem and solved it I would be really grateful for any help since I loved the game first time around and can't be asked to play DA:O a 6th time and DA II a fourth time.

Modifié par hedop85, 21 mai 2012 - 05:26 .

[jakenou]

At first I would of thought it's a audio driver issue, but from what you describe it seems like the sound is cutting out because the video is cutting out/stuttering, which is therefore most likely a graphics issue. You have a nice new(er) beefier AMD card, and a lot of the new cards, whether Nvidea or AMD, run on newer drivers that have a hard time with an older game like ME1. I would look into finding a working driver and/or playing around with Catalyst Control Center (I always opt for using application settings wherever available in the 3D settings).

Also, worse comes to worse, try installing the game once again. If it worked before with the same hardware then it's highly likely your latest installation got borked.

[hedop85]

Well I'll give it a shot and report back. I'm not sure what it is, the audio issue at least in the dialogue sequences seems to be similar or the same as the audio driver issue. The issue with the cut sequences and the stuttering in game seems to me more graphic related yet that is hard to believe. The 3D settings are all set to application settings and I wouldn't know where to start trying out different drivers. I'll try and reinstall it.

[hedop85]

Sooo... I've reinstalled the game, even removed Origin before that and did a registry clean up... not working but now the stutter really goes with a sort of lag in graphics as well... it seems to be stuck for half a second before getting started which causes the delay... any ideas? I've even tried lowering everything to medium and switched of Vsync but nothing seems to work. Pretty weird given that my machine should be well able to handle the game.

[PsiFive]

hedop85 wrote...

You are aware though that they are talking about single core CPU's right? 

Yeah, but I wasn't aware that yours isn't. I stand corrected (doubly so in the light of what Gorath Alpha said). Good luck with getting it sorted out.

[hedop85]

Thanks... so anyway... I still need help with this... any ideas? The only thing EA support came up with so far is sending them a DXDiag and afterwards telling me I need to update certain things... half of these things were already up to date and the other half I couldn't do since they asked me to directly download drivers from the manufacturers website but I need to go through the manufacturer of my machine to get them. Anyway I then was asked to uninstall Origin and ME 1, clean my registry and reinstall all of the above and see what happens. Well the problem persisted so it's gotta be something with my machine that's somehow acting up and causing the freeze... does anybody have any clues? I'm waiting for EA to get back to me atm.

[Gorath Alpha]

The game is over three years old now and the forum messaging season has ended; there were few readers on hand already, now there are almost none. If EA can't help you, the archives may contain what you need, but don't use the crude and faulty finder offered here on site. Use one of the professional Search engines instead.

[hedop85]

Just to be clear... what is a messaging season and why would you have seasons for checking the forum? I already checked through but no one I found had the exact same problem. Thanks for the feedback but if the game is over three years old and no one gives a damn why not close the subforum? I know that apparently everything here is dead but it doesn't hurt to write a few lines and hope that maybe someone comes along and has a clue.

[hedop85]

Great fun... EA support just told me it's because of my outdated drivers (version September 2011) so they can't help me... how can a outdated driver be the reason for these problems if the drivers itself are 3 years younger than the game??? That doesn't make any sense to me.

[jakenou]

Which drivers are outdated according to EA support? The graphics drivers? If so then I doubt it's that the GPU driver that is outdated bc as I said above, newer cards don't have a lot of driver support for older games.

But still, you should give it a try - go to the AMD site (not your computer manufacturer) and get the latest driver for your card and the latest version of CCC. After you've updated your GPU driver, then you should reinstall ME1 yet again so that it forces dx9 and .NET updates needed for the older game (installing newer drivers from newer cards with dx11 tend to muck all that up). Hope you get it working!

Edit - Here's the latest version for your card (you don't need the app profiles)

Note - sometimes getting those drivers updated can get a little wonky if it doesn't uninstall your earlier driver. If that happens, just keep trying untill you get it installed correctly

Modifié par jkthunder, 22 mai 2012 - 04:37 .

[hedop85]

Thanks jk. Well apparently my Realtek Audio drivers, even though I dont have Realtek Audio, my Graphic drivers and my Intel drivers. Well unfortunately the link you provided doesn't actually support my card... its 6700M and this one only supports 6900M, 6800M and 6300M. It supports the normal 6700 Series but mine is an M . There is a program I can download to check to drivers from AMD but after installing it always tells me that my card is not supported and I should contact my computer manufacturer for an update.This is where I take my drivers from or rather have to take them from: http://h10025.www1.h...ct=5097262#N193
According to what they provide (I know its in German ) my netbook is up to date... all the drivers are from end of 2011 so I wouldn't know what else to update. In their last mail they told me to: te "Go to folder C:/Programme/Mass Effect/Binaries and start MassEffect.exe as Administrator.
If that doesn't work please locate OpenAL32.dll and rename it to OpenAL32.bak.
Locate wrap_oal.dll and rename it to OpenAL32.dll.
Try to start MassEffect.exe as Administrator again"

[Gorath Alpha]

Actual "Netbook" mini-laptops weren't intended for anything as strenuous as gaming. I doubt that what you have meets the definition of netbook.

Omega drivers do not require the intervention of a laptop manufacturer so lackadaisical about the drivers as that company (I strongly advise you to never again buy anything they produce). Sager is the single, only brand name I would trust for a gaming laptop.

[hedop85]

Well okay let's call it a laptop than... What are Omega drivers? Sorry I'm not an IT expert or nerd... so you have to try and speak in plain English to me . Well so far HP and Toshiba laptops I've owned in the segment around 900 Euro have shown remarkable skills dealing with games and so forth so I can't really agree with your comment there... Anyway... I appreciate what you're saying but it doesn't really help to say: Oh dude this company is **** and what they do is **** and it all sucks and you should buy something else the next time around. Might be your attitude but I dont have another grant lying around somewhere so I have to make do with what I've got and it's that system which works fine with DA:O and DA II and PES 2012 as well as Shogun Total War II and what have you... all games more recent and hungry than ME 1 so I don't really get the problem.

Anyway. If you have a clue how to update my drivers beyond what the manufacturer is providing please don't hesitate to tell me but so far most of your feedback has been: Dude the forum is dead so **** posting here, if EA can't help you you're ****ed up because the Forum is dead and the game is from the stone age, Dude your laptop manufacturer sucks and you shoudl have never bought anything they produce and should never again do so. That doesn't exactly help and as we say in Germany: If you have nothing constructive to say sometimes it's best to say nothing at all.

I know laptops are the most difficult when it comes to resolve system related bugs but it's all I've got atm and until I have saved up enough cash (roughly a grant) to buy myself a nice desktop again I want to resolve this problem somehow and I will use every ressource availble to me: Forums, Support and trying around myself.

[Gorath Alpha]

Omega's site has all the information on it you need. He supplies the modified drivers in order to show you the ads from his advertisers.

Just Google for Notebook Drivers. *

Laptops simply DON'T have what it takes (now) to run games properly over the long haul, they just aren't designed for it at all.

Sager is different.

* www.google.com/search

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 23 mai 2012 - 06:25 .

[hedop85]

Seems he doesnt have stuff for Windows 7 64 bit Radeon yet...

[Gorath Alpha]

Keep googling. There have been three or four sites with modified drivers for laptops, including the Omega drivers, which I thought were probably most useful of all of them.

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 23 mai 2012 - 06:26 .

[hedop85]

What exactly am I looking for? Omega Drivers has finished their work in 2011 so what exactly am I looking for now? Any other brand like that or what should I be searching for?

[Gorath Alpha]

Same thing, exactly, just not Omega -- just click on the link.

[jakenou]

Ah sorry. My bad. Didn't see the "M" and thought we were talking about a desktop. Now I see the Ms everywhere. And yeah, that ain't no netbook. If you have a 14" screen or something, I see how it might be thought of as a netbook, but you won't find an i7 and a Raedon Mobile dedicated GPU in any netbook I've ever seen!

Good luck with it and keep us up to date on what happens. Even though it is a laptop, your specs certainly support gaming for the most part, so keep working at it!

[hedop85]

Gorath Alpha wrote...

Same thing, exactly, just not Omega -- just click on the link.

Sorry but getting a google link to a search for netbook drivers isn't exactly helpful. I'm not that daft you know? I know the name of my graphic card and my laptops serial number so I know how to get updates but like I said there are none more up to date other than the ones I use and I strongly doubt, that a game manufactured in 2008 would run without the problem I encounter simply because I updated my gc drivers to a version more current than October 2011... that wouldn't make sense because even the original drivers were 2 years younger than the game.

Jkthunder I know and am still in contact with EA support... so far no solution and i don't get it... if I wouldn't have a shortage of funds atm I would simply get myself a decent desktop machine for about 1000 € and that would be that and I doubt the machine would have a problem like the one I do encounter.