Lazerr's trials and tribulations

[WMLute]

I was confused about his post.

He musta been using DriverCleaner and THAT had the option for the chipset uninstall.

I misunderstood and thought he saw that in Add/Remove programs when he selected Nvidia for the uninstall.
(which gives you the option for chipset, video, and physX when you use it)

But please do post pics of a full uninstall of a video driver for me.

Lord knows I don't have a clue about such things and will probably learn something.

[Lazerr]

Why is it, that after uninstalling my Onboard Graphics... (Intel 82845G) it always reappears after restarting my computer? 

[gyrene81]

Why is it, that after uninstalling my Onboard Graphics... (Intel 82845G) it always reappears after restarting my computer? 

It's because Windows still recognizes it...I think it's one of those chips that SP2 or SP3 has embedded in the driver set...see if you can turn it off in your bios...should be something in there to redirect the default video output.

[Skuzzy]

You have to disable the chip in the system BIOS.  Failing that, you can disable it in the device manager, but that often has some side effects.

[Lazerr]

thanks, for another prompt reply.

[Lazerr]

These dang lock-ups.  Sometimes I can play an entire day without a lock, sometimes not even 30 seconds.  AH2.13 ran perfect on this system, with moderate framerates, and NEVER a disco..unless there was maybe a arena reset.  These lock-ups record as a disco on my score.  I've updated drivers, and ran all the spyware toold, cleaned old drivers out.  Im at a loss, what else can a guy do short of buying a new PC?

Any tips would be appreciated, you guys have been more than enough help already!

[gyrene81]

You have made a lot of changes in the past couple of days...has there been any common event happening when you lock up?

What is your current settings in the video settings? (resolution and texture size)
Post a screen shot of your running processes before and after you use whatever system game optimizer you're using please.
What directory is the game installed in?
Custom sounds?

[Lazerr]

Custom sounds yes..
Running game at 1024 textures..
Resolution 1024X768

This is what usually happens when I lockup.  It is very random remember.  The screen will freeze, sometimes my desktop mouse pointer will appear and I can move it over my frozen AH screen.  I can hit any random button on the keyboard and you will her the "dunk" sound, like an invalid keystroke.  In order to get rid of the locked screen, I have to hit the power button on the computer.  Sometimes, I need to hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete to get that pointer I was talking about to appear. I've only got 19 processes running, just the vitals to keep the computer stable.

I guess I can try running the game in 256 textures, but Im sure it will lock running that too.

[Lazerr]

Got another serious error message after reboot (lockup @ 256 textures), same as before.  This time before the system shutdown, there was a blue screen with a bunch of white text on it, that came and went so fast I couldnt read a word off it.

[Tigger29]

I once had a similar problem a while ago...

My problem ended up being improper sound drivers.  I was using a 'LTB' brand of USB headphones, and the drivers they had posted on their website were for a 'newer' version of hardware, which coincidentally looked almost identical to the 'older' version.  I ended up finding their FTP site for drivers and was able to find the proper drivers which corrected my problems.

I would only have problems during specific times though... Shutting off the engine in almost any GV would cause a lockup like that... likewise sometimes some tread noises and once in a rare while just launching a GV would cause it.  It never acted up while in an aircraft though.

Now this might not be your exact problem, but try to pay attention to what was happening in the game when the lockups occur... maybe we can isolate it that way...

[Lazerr]

Im downloading updated sound drivers right now.  No new noises are introduced when the lockups occur, just seems very random.

[Tigger29]

Yes, when you uninstall a device, windows will simply reinstall it next start up.  You have to 'disable' it from device manager, or from within BIOS (if you have this option, it is the preferred way to do it)

[Eagleclaw]

Making changes to my computer, I always Defragment, this helps the RAM do its stuff. Clears out clutter and moves it, etc. This may or may not help your problem, but I recommend it after driver changes, deleting and uninstallation either way.

[Lazerr]

Would my page file being set entirely too high maybe cause this?

[gyrene81]

Paging file "usage" could contribute to it...that is all the processes running while your system is on...total allocated paging file has no effect.

This is going to be painful I know...find your settings and sounds folders for Aces High and copy them somewhere safe...then uninstall the game...run Wise Registry Cleaner or RegCure to clean out the old registry entries...update the sound drivers as Tigger said...then defragment your hard drive...reboot...re-install the game...no custom sounds, no hi res pak...copy your settings folder back to the Aces High directory...download IOBit game booster (if you don't already have it)...turn it on...and start the game...set your textures to 512...disable the downloading of custom skins...set detailed terrain and bumpmap terrain to on...object detail to fastest...ground detail range to center...leave gamma alone...play the game.

If you don't have any lockups...reinstall the hires pak...and try again with 1024 textures...if no lockups again, copy your sounds folder back and try again...

The testing phases should take you 2 or 3 days before you make further changes.