21 réponses à ce sujet

[ammobake]

I installed the game on my PC 3 or 4 days ago.  Game always freezes and/or completely crashes a few minutes into playing.  One time I got a bluescreen error and the PC completely rebooted but I didn't get any of the message details, unfortunately.  I haven't had the bluescreen come back but I have had alot of game freezes (5 tonite and I haven't even been able to beat the first battle in the arena).

Sometimes the sound loops while the game sits frozen, sometimes it doesn't.

Sometimes if I click Ctrl+Alt+Delete and then click "Cancel" the game will unfreeze and resume where it left off.  I've noticed the game keeps freezing right before I'm prompted for options on what to say in the game too.

2 days ago, I installed the latest patch.  Yet the problem persists.

I'm running the game from an external drive.  That could be a cause for my problems but I've never had problems with other games and mass effect seemed to work perfectly when run from the external hard drive.

MY INFO:

OS: Vista (SP2) 32 Bit
Dell Dimension DXP061
Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40 Ghz, 2.39 Ghz
3.00 GB Ram

VidCard:  GeForce 8600 GT (running on DirectX 10.0)

The only vidcard issues I've found online deal with ATI vidcards (something about you might have to downgrade the driver or something) because of DirectX issues.  Haven't seen any fixes for Nvidia card issues.

I've been reading in these forums about alot of other people having crash/freeze issues but only at certain places in the game (not everytime you play).  I've tried tweaking the video settings but can't find a solution just yet.  I've already tried running the game with virtually all combinations of video settings.

When I first installed the game, everything was completely black.  The character attributes portion at the beginning was fine except for the background and the character on the left were completely black.  When I tried playing my first game, after installing the game/setting up character, everything was completely black also (could hear audio and everything).

I can now play without everything showing up black (I don't know why because I didn't change anything) but I continue to have constant freezes/crashes every few minutes.  Any help would be appreciated..

-Chris

[Balder84]

well Chris from what I have been reading around the forums, it makes no difference if you have ATI or Nvidia, Xp or win7 or the latest patch for DA there's a lot of crashing/freezing going on and the one thing we all have in common is.....Dragon Age.



One time when DA froze on me I had to do a hard reboot and vista started up to a KSOD (black screen of death) It took me long time to get my PC fixed from that. So I updated the game my Video drivers and vista to win7....started DA up and 3 seconds later it crashed to a KSOD and win7 reboots to a blue screen of death! sigh. only just got that fixed yesterday.



Has that happened to anyone else?



My system has had no issues b4 with games.....I'm going to skip the under-clocking workaround as I just don't wont to risk a KSOD or BSOD nightmare again.



So anyone know if we are getting a fix for this broken game or not? Don't get me wrong it's a great game but the technical issues are SO disappointing!

[ammobake]

I've had no issues with games before either (not like this). With BF2142 I had issues connecting to servers at first because of "punkbuster" client-related drama. But even with Mass Effect I never had any crashes/freezes whatsoever (and that's running the game from an external hard drive).



This is the first game I've ever played that not 5 minutes in completely crashed my computer, gave me a blue screen, and then forced the computer to do a clean reboot.



I'm gonna try a couple things tonite..



-Update vidcard

-Update/Reinstall Direct X

-Reconfigure in-game video settings



But from everything I've seen so far the source of my problems is something going on with the video card and I am certain of it. Mainly because of the problems I had early on with some content showing up black, and then the whole game was black when I tried to play for the first time (even though the game really was running, people talking, music, etc.)



-ChriS

[ammobake]

I just recalled a problem with BF2142 a while back where people were having problems inside the Titan where they could only see pitch black but could walk around in it. It turned out it was some kind of texturing issue with the in-game video settings.



There could also be some kind of rendering/texturing glitch in the software for Dragon Age that causes people's video cards to crap out at specific times just depending on the videocard power and capabilities. For some people, it might freeze/crash at certain cut scenes or locations in the game because the videocard might not be able to properly render that particular environment and its surroundings in game. I only say this because so many people are experiencing freezes and crashes and always at very specific locations and/or scenes in the game. But not everyone is having the game freeze up at those particular points (In other words it just depends on the videocard).

[ammobake]

I think I fixed my problem.  I've been playing for about an hour with no hiccups yet and everything seems ALOT smoother than before.
This is how I did it:

1.  I went to the microsoft website and downloaded and installed the latest version of the DirectX software.  I downloaded and installed
a.."DirectX Redistributable (August 2009)
b.."DirectX SDK (August 2009)"

Both files can be found at the following URL (you may need to copy and paste it):
http://www.microsoft...7D-85FC422D1388

NOTE:  The executable file for the "DirectX SDK (August 2009)" is over 500 mb in size.  I have cable modem and it took me 20-30 minutes to download it.  I'm still not even sure if it is required to play Dragon Age.  But I figure it doesn't hurt to make sure you're current.  Download/install of "DirectX Redistributable (August 2009)", the other file, goes pretty fast.

2.  I downloaded and reinstalled the latest patch for Dragon Age (1.02a).  It took me 5 days to figure out where the patches were on this website...  When I did it before, I got the patch from an outside website.  Simply click on "Games" (above), Select "Dragon Age Origins", then "Game Patches".  You do not need any of the previous patches either.  The patching is retroactive, meaning installing the 1.02a patch will keep you current.  I just wish they'd have a link to the patches on the homepage (which they don't....).

For some stupid reason, If you've already installed the latest (1.02a) Dragon Age Origins patch from Bioware, reinstalling it seems to result in an error message.  Hopefully they fix this.  But the secondary program that runs the patching for 1.02a should go through and tell you that all the latest files are already there (one by one).

3.  I downloaded and installed the latest driver for my vidcard from the Nvidia website. (Ensuring vidcard driver was current).

4.  Once the vidcard driver was installed, the computer rebooted.
NOTE: If you have the videocard, itself, set up to run differently for certain games or programs, Installing or reinstalling the driver will reset the vidcard to default settings (which means you will have to reset all your individual program settings).  If you're like me and use "Global settings" for everything you do it isn't such a big deal.  I'd expect that most people smart enough to configure program-specific video card settings would know this.. but you never know.

When you run dragon age, you shouldn't have to change any video settings at all unless you just want to.  But I tested it out with a couple different configurations and everything seems to work fine without any freezes/crashes.
I'll keep you guys posted if I have any other crashes.  But so far everything is running great and the game seems so much smoother than before too (for whatever reason).

-ChriS

[Balder84]

Cool, thanks for all that info ammobake, I'm still trying to fix my PC after DA crashed last time but I'm getting closer, I think the game corrupted my DirectX so maybe the latest DirectX software you listed above will help :-) And maybe fix the game too, I'll give it a go soon.



Is your DA still running smooth?

[Doofus42]

The dxwebsetup command also does a great job of updating all the directx 9.0c components. It is available here:



http://www.microsoft...&displaylang=en



I have had to run this command on a fresh Win7 x64 install to get DAO to run smoothly.

[Laktheos]

Well, I am glad I was not the only guy having problems with crashes. I plan to try what ammobake did to see if it works, and isn't the latest version of DirectX 10?

Modifié par Laktheos, 06 janvier 2010 - 09:03 .

[ammobake]

Yes, Laktheos. DirectX 11 is not available yet. But to my knowledge Dragon Age runs on DirectX 10 (only) anyway. And to my knowledge DirectX 10 requires either Windows XP (updated) or Windows Vista. Usually DirectX problems don't cause crashes/freezes though. Even if you have a version that is slightly out of date and not current. The problem isn't DirectX 10, necessarily.

DirectX 10 is the latest version, but that doesn't mean the program is current either.  But there are ways you can cover your bases and try to rule out what is causing the problem.  This is basically what I did and the problem went away (Amen).  Also, if you are running an ATI video card, there are known crash/freeze issues which, from what I've read so far, may or may not require you to actually downgrade your driver to an earlier format to make the game run properly (wow!). But the cause of the problem is actually DirectX somehow from what I've been reading.

Balder84, I've had one, unexplained crash to the desktop since I've done all my upgrading/reinstalling stuff. It happened while I was in Redcliffe for some reason. But It only happened once and I've been playing for a few nights (2-3 hours a night) and have only had that one problem. When it happened, all I got was an error message in windows saying "Dragon Age has stopped working"... Bit aside from that one isolated incident, the game runs extremely smooth and is actually pretty awesome!

My characters are all lvl 9 or above now.

-ChriS

Modifié par ammobake, 09 janvier 2010 - 06:10 .

[Balder84]

Thanks for the feed back ammobake, that crash you had dose sound like just a one off.



Also - I thought DirectX 11 was available? Using dxdiag says I'm using DirectX11...I'm using windows 7 maybe that's why? even tried installing older DirectX but still says I have DirectX11 *shrugs* EA support tells me - Dragon Age + DirectX11 + 3870x2 = should be just fine........

[Gorath Alpha]

Laktheos wrote...

Well, I am glad I was not the only guy having problems with crashes. I plan to try what ammobake did to see if it works, and isn't the latest version of DirectX 10?

(Edited) The question above dated to seven months ago, and was inaccurate.  Dx11 was already known to be in Windows7, and was already in widespread use via the free Beta versions available at the time, although the official release of Windows 7 was imminent at the time. 

For the purposes of this forum, however, Dx9 is all we care about, since that is what the game uses, and sadly enough, neither Dx10 nor Dx11 is adequately backward compatible for this game.  You must have both installed when you have Vista or Win7 and the matching Direct3D in it. 

All three, DA: O, ME-1, and ME-2, are all Dx9 games,  and I believe you need to do it in Dx11 first, Dx9 second, sequence. 

Gorath
-

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 21 juillet 2010 - 10:18 .

[ammobake]

I've noticed an issue with Denerim, in particular, that seems to crash the game intermittently with no warning too now, guys. I'm not sure why Denerim is the only spot this happens, but it's like I have to save every few minutes because when it crashes you have to pick up where you left off since you loose all data since the last save. Whenever I go to Denerim now I almost expect the game to completely crash because it does about half the time.



All the other parts of the game seem O.K. Although, I have had a few unexplained crashes to desktop just randomly wandering around and the crashes don't always repeat like they do in Denerim.



The good thing is that it doesn't happen to me every single time I play. One day, I can sit down and play for 3 hours and have no problems. Another day I can sit down and have 5 or 6 crashes in a night for no explainable reason whatsoever.



"Dragon age has stopped working".. <---- My nemesis. Very frustrating.. And a shame for such a good game too. But for the most part the game runs pretty smooth. Very few bugs that I've noticed.



Only bug I've seen is with Shale. Every time I try to chat with him in camp, it asks me whether or not I want to "activate the golem".. Which, of coarse, I've already done weeks ago. IF you accidentally click him just walking around and try to end the discussion, everything goes dark and you can walk through walls and stuff for a while. Sometimes it goes back to normal, sometimes you have to actually transition to another area entirely for it to stop.



-Chris

[Divine Justinia V]

Wrong forum, sorry!

Modifié par VittoriaLandis, 21 juillet 2010 - 09:47 .

[OX420]

Game freezes on me also, should I use Directx 9 like dude said cuz I have 11 for my Windows 7 OS. I get sooo frustrated with games that win awards but dont work worth crap on my nice pc. Fallout3 is the other one.....I figured out how to stop the crashing on that game but I shouldnt have to be a programmer to play the games I purchase, very FRUSTRATING

[Gorath Alpha]

Gorath Alpha wrote...

For the purposes of this forum,  Dx9 is all we care about, since that is what the game uses, and sadly enough, neither Dx10 nor Dx11 is adequately backward compatible for this game.  You must have both installed when you have Vista or Win7 and the matching Direct3D in it. 

All three, DA: O, ME-1, and ME-2, are all Dx9 games,  and I believe you need to do it in Dx11 first, Dx9 second, sequence. 

Nothing at all has changed in this regard, if Direct3D is a causitive factor. 

[ANDY5151]

Gorath Alpha wrote...

Gorath Alpha wrote...

For the purposes of this forum,  Dx9 is all we care about, since that is what the game uses, and sadly enough, neither Dx10 nor Dx11 is adequately backward compatible for this game.  You must have both installed when you have Vista or Win7 and the matching Direct3D in it. 

All three, DA: O, ME-1, and ME-2, are all Dx9 games,  and I believe you need to do it in Dx11 first, Dx9 second, sequence. 

Nothing at all has changed in this regard, if Direct3D is a causitive factor. 

I have Win7 and Directx 11 how exactly do you have both 11 and 9 installed at the same time gorath?

[Gorath Alpha]

The game does it for you, unless you screw things up. Dx11 doesn't care, Win7 doesn't care, but Dragon Age does care. This particular thread is old, and the connection to Direct3D doesn't show up in its subject line, therefore, I chose to include the "causative factor" comment.

That's because both game crashing and freezing have multiple vectors.

[ANDY5151]

Understood I wrote you a message lol....wait so how do I get Dx 9.0C?

[Gorath Alpha]

It's on the game's DVD, but also on the MS download site, plus numerous other library sites. I believe Major Geeks has it; that is where I always look first for all kinds of downloads.

P. S. (In Edit, an hour later)  I responded to the PM just now, but one of your questions deserved to be here; the only way that I can think of for Direct3D to be involved in any increased incidence of game instability is if any part of it has been stepped on.  There have been some mentions of problems with both games following a recent Microsoft automatic update (big mistake for game players to allow that). 

It is possible for Dx10 and / or Dx11 updates to accidentally screw up the parallel Dx9 install, so I always recommend waiting until new versions of both are on hand (both Dx9 and Dx11, for instance).  Then you install the updates in downward order, Dx11 first, then Dx9.

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 10 septembre 2010 - 09:26 .

[Gorath Alpha]

OK, it doesn't seem that Major Geeks had it, but a fast Google was all it took, so there was no reason AT ALL to start still another new message thread, really!

www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/DirectX-9.0c-Redistributable.shtml

Modifié par Gorath Alpha, 10 septembre 2010 - 09:32 .

[Firewoman]

DA:O was crashing on me during the mage tower quest, templar level, in the fade fighting the big boss sloth demon. I could never beat that boss even on easy cause the game kept crashing. Then I eventually ended up formatting and restoring my computer. Re-installed DA:O, started crashing at odd points in the game..no rhyme or reason. I increased my virtual memory: min. 10 x 1024, and max. 15 x 1024. game no longer crashes, completed the mage tower quest and all. I am not really sure this is a permanent fix, but for now it works for me, so maybe it will work for other people.

[OX420]

OFIX CRASHS TO DESCKTOP  ON WINDOWS 7 x64 THE ONES WITH THE ERROR MESSAGE DA:O HAS STOPPED WORKING



1. GO TO THE MAIN GAME FOLDER IN PROGRAM FILES



2. OPEN BIN-SHIP FOLDER



3. RIGHT CLICK ON DAORIGINS (SHOULD BE THE SECOND FILE IF SHOWN IN LIST) SELECT THE PROPERTIES



4. CHOOSE COMPABILITY



5. COMPABILITY MODE: CHECK THE BOX SAYING: RUN THIS PROGRAM IN COMPABILITY MODE FOR: WINDOWS XP SERVISE (PACK 3)



6. CHECK THE BOX SAYING: RUN THIS PROGRAM AS AN ADMINISTRATOR



7. PRESS APPLY



8. PRESS OK



PLAY





I sooooo hope this helps others out, it really is a fun game, but I havent played it much because of the crashing. I played for at least 2 hourst last nite with no freezing or crashin. GL!