Game freeze and soundloop only solvable with hard reboot.

[TexMurphy]

I was pimping AH to a group of online friends (a guild called OEC) and one of them reported a game lock up which I had never seen.

Game suddenly freezed for him and sound went into a loop.

On my next playing session after reading about it from him I got it my self.

I was over by A48 and about to engage a Yak that was heading towards the town, I was in a Spit9, when the game just froze up on me and the sound went into a nasty soundloop. Could only solve situation with a hard reboot.

Anyone know what this lockup depends on?

Ive never ever seen it till last night (april 21st 2005).

Tex

[Clifra Jones]

One question? Are you using on-board sound? If it that POS ac97 on board sound I would wager that is your problem.

[Ohio43]

If sound is looping, thats apparently causing the lock up.  Like the other guy said..if he's using the AC 97 sound..thats the prob.  If it isnt, make sure hes got both Directx 9.0c and latest sound drivers.

[LNWLF]

I'm experiencing the same problem. Doesn't matter if I'm in a plane GV or gun. Here's what I'm getting: Game locks up tight, sound loops for 10 seconds or so, then if I'm lucky, it comes back for a few seconds. I've learned to do the ALT/F4 thing real quick then or I have to do a cold reboot.
 Haven't had this problem until this last version. I've done all the idiot checks for my system. Defrag, scan/check disk..you name it. Even wiped the game out and reloaded it. And yes, my AC '97 is disabled and i have DX 9.0c

[Karash]

Tex is referring to me.  I get this "bug" like 3 times a night.

I have an Audigy Ex Platinum (the first of the series).  I will look into updating my soundcard drivers tonight when I get back home from work.

Thanks!

[TexMurphy]

Im using a SB live card.

alt+F4 did does not work, else I wouldnt have to hardboot.

Tex

[LNWLF]

Well, like I said, SOMEtimes it'll come back for me..thens when I can exit. If it doesn't come back however, it's the reset button Hopefully, those new drivers will help ya Karash. I have an older Audigy as well (Gamer drivers). One caveat....I DL'd a set of drivers for the SC and while I could hear vox and gamesound, I wasn't talking..I rolled back to the old set and fixed it though. Good luck!

[Karash]

I actually used to work at Creative, so if I cant fix an audio problem ...then im really lame.

or is the motherboard's pci bus' fault!  yea!!

[Skuzzy]

One of the things to check is for interrupts being shared by the sound card with another high data usage device, such as the network or video card.
Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools->System Information, expand the "Hardware" list, pick "IRQ" and see if any of the IRQ numbers match.

[TexMurphy]

Skuzzy.

Nothing has changed on my computer for the last what 2-3 months. Not hardware, not software, not drivers.

Tex

[StarOfAfrica2]

Which means absolutely nothing when it comes to Windows.  Ever had the computer hang and hit the reset button?  Good chance you corrupted some files.  Installed any new software lately?  Good chance it altered some of your .dlls or drivers on its own without you knowing, possibly corrupted files also.  It happens.  I've also seen instances where hardware gets installed, drivers get installed, everything seems to work fine.  Only it shouldnt be.  A file doesnt get overwritten that should have, points to the wrong driver, everything seems ok.  Then one thing changes or messes up, suddenly the offending file realizes it's pointing to the wrong place, corrects itself, and BAM!  Your system doesnt work anymore.  Especially Direct X, its particularly bad about that.  People trust Microsoft far too much to do all the work for them even after being burned several times.

[KONG1]

I feel better now.  I have same problem, same symptoms, started the same day.   The game has always been rock solid previously.  No changes or new installations.  Let me know if I can do anything to track this down.

Pentium 4 CPU 2.50GHz, 512 meg RAM
VIDEO
Name   NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
Adapter RAM   128.00 MB (134,217,728 bytes)
Installed Drivers   nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version   6.14.10.7189
SOUND
Name   C-Media AC97 Audio Device
------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 4/23/2005, 02:51:43
          Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519)
           Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: SYX
       System Model: snc302eeh
               BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
          Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.50GHz
             Memory: 512MB RAM
          Page File: 169MB used, 1029MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
    DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
     DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode

IRQ 0   System timer   OK
IRQ 1   Easy Internet Keyboard   OK
IRQ 3   VIA USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller   OK
IRQ 4   Communications Port (COM1)   OK
IRQ 5   NEC OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller   OK
IRQ 5   VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller   OK
IRQ 6   Standard floppy disk controller   OK
IRQ 8   System CMOS/real time clock   OK
IRQ 9   Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System   OK
IRQ 10   VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller   OK
IRQ 10   C-Media AC97 Audio Device   OK
IRQ 11   NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200    OK
IRQ 11   VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller   OK
IRQ 11   VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter   OK
IRQ 12   PS/2 Compatible Mouse   OK
IRQ 13   Numeric data processor   OK
IRQ 14   Primary IDE Channel   OK
IRQ 15   Secondary IDE Channel   OK

[RSLQK186]

Athlon 3200+ 2.0Gig here but all else the same(assume your vid card is AGP) and had the same problem. Seemed to happen as a wing came off my third kill which doesen't happen often for me:(  I switched to Omega 1.6177 peformance vid drivers 3 mons ago and it hasn't happend since. I also get better depth peception( yes I know my screen is really 2D), trees don't pop up in front of me and I can better tell what a con is doing at 1.5- 3K. I do have some sharing issues that give me pause but the game runs smooth.DISCLAMER: I beleive I could buy 2 identacle systems and have different problems.

[Dace]

"i feel like i could buy 2 identical systems and have differnt problems.-- RLQ



My thougts excactly:(

[Karash]

Well its not an IRQ problem.  I dont even think its a Soundcard problem as well...because it does it more randomly than I thought.  Here are my IRQ listings...(yes I know my FX5600 sucks! lol)



I have done a lot of testing last few days, and it seems to be related to my video resolution setting.  The game seems much more stable at 800x600 than 1024x768.  So unfortunately I have been playing at that resolution.  However, if there are a lot of things going on, all bets are off.  My system specs:

P4 2.0gig
512 Corsair Memory
Abit BD-7 RAID - 2 Drives Raid 0
Abit FX5600 256mb Ram
Creative Live Audigy Plat Ex
450w Enermax PS

Personally I think its a memory allocation issue...but thats just me.