System locks up ! Help please ?

[am1727 0]

Hi guys,

Been waiting so long for this release was a total flashpoint/resistance nutter. Anyways to the nitty gritty........

System Specs.

CPU=AMD 3000 xp

Graphics=ATI x800pro 256mb

Memory=1gb

Sound=Soundblaster 5.1 live/tried onboard sound too

From the 16th Feb (release date) I installed and started to play. During gameplay mostly the screen freezes, with looping sound. CTRL ALT DEL is inactive and have to reset my system. The time in which it happens can be from 2 minutes to up to an hour, but always the same system lockup. I have other programs that run fine FSx, NFS carbon, COD2, Joint Ops and they all run fine.

Tips I have tired so far..............

Installed FSautostart to cut processing down, still locks after differing configurations. MSconfig again to save on system resources and still lock ups. I uninstalled Norton systemworks and antivirus still lockups. I have installed Openal, got the latest drivers ATI catalyst Jan 07, sound drivers and of course direct X latest version, all resulted in system lock up. I have set the router ports, and have played online until.....yeh you guessed a system lockup.

I do not overclock and i am at a loss as to just what is causing the problem, I have even set all graphical options and audio to low or basic settings and yeh again system locks up.

Anyone else experiencing the same, or better still anyone cured it ?. That would be great. Really want to get into Arma but my patience fast wears out, can anybody help me please !

Thanks guys

[sir fragalot 0]

Had once problem with freezes too (before i got ArmA), but i had this problem in general.

I would try testing your memory, because i believe thats the source of the problem.

But don't nail me on that, just a guess.

So good luck!

[am1727 0]

Thanks Fragalot,

I'll download a memory test and benchmark see what pops up. If it is Memory damn the expence lol, got to get playing this.

[bobalobmitchell 0]

Exactly the same problems as you and tada... I have a X800 XT PE also, i dont think it`ll make a diffrence whether or not its an PE or just standard card. Im still trying to get to the bottom of my problem even trying the omega drivers so your not alone with your Ati X800

[desertfox 2]

Sounds definitely like an overheating problem.

Check if all fans on your mainboard and gfx cards are running properly.

Additionally you might try reducing the frequency of the GPU by 50-100 MHz and see if the problem is persistent.

[am1727 0]

Desert Fox looks like ya might have hit the nail on the head. Checked out the cpu temp and it was high.

Luckily got some cooler paste left over from first build so stripped out the heatsink and fan cleaned em. Got to the CPU main core and re-pasted with arctic silver and hasn't crashed since.

Thanks Fox m8y, really do have my fingers crossed here that it was the heat causing the problem, definately seen a vast improvement anyways, and I was running out of options as to what to try next.

Will reply if the crashing appears again.......................

Cya soon

P.S. Bob check your heatsink and fan and if you have an athlon try reseating the heatsink with fresh coolant paste, seems to have done the trick here !.

[someboy 0]

Hi. I have had the same problem both am1727 and bobalobmitchell described. My specs are:

AMD 3700+ 939

Asrock 939Dual-SATA2

ATI 1600Pro

1gb ram (1 512 module + 2 256 modules)

A very old sounblaster card

I have all latest drivers installed.

I acquired the motherboard and processor a few days ago, and i could not get the sound to work, thats why i installed the old soundblaster. I have tried the demo and played it for several hours, so I dont believe it is due to a temperature problem. This happens a few seconds or minutes after being playing around (and prior launching arma, my cpu temp is 30C, with CnQ of course), but i will try to check it out anyway. So far, this happens only "inside" a mission, not in the menu, not in the editor.

If it's not temps, i have seen boba and i have the same board. Could that be the reason?

I'll keep trying...

[bobalobmitchell 0]

Will do, thanks. I have some spare sachets of paste so i`ll re-do the cpu cooler + gpu cooler tommorow and tell you the outcomes. I do have Ati Overdrive enabled so i`ll disable that too while running ArmA, see if that helps any.

Although its never crashed due to heating before on other games, i replaced the stock ati gpu cooler last year with a Zalman VF700-AL/CU Quiet VGA Cooler + ram heatsinks which seems to work excellent, its running on "silent mode" right now so i`ll try switching that to max too.

someboy, have you tried checking the bios settings and making sure that Ac`97 audio is set to "Enabled"?

[someboy 0]

Yes, i did set Audio to "Enabled" in the BIOS

boba, did you try the MP demo? Did you have any problems with it?

I'll try catalyst 7.2, and see if they help...

[desertfox 2]

@ Someboy:

- Uninstall the soundblaster drivers, shut down PC and take the card out

- Download these drivers for your mainboard chipset ftp://www.uli.com.tw/driver/Integrated220.rar ( I assume you have Windows XP )

- See if that gives you sound and fixes the problem please.

@ Bobalobmitchell

- Check if disabling silent mode for the cooler fixes the prob.

- What maiboard type have you got ?

[someboy 0]

I will do desertFox, probably this weekend, i'm just to busy these days. I'll let you know if it works. Thank you very much.

[Easy_tiger 0]

Good shout desert Fox,

Im also experiencing the symptoms described and suspect now that CPU overheating is going to be the problem. (as i only have a AMD 2000+ i suspect ArmA is going to be hitting it pretty hard)

Time to find that syringe of artic silver.......

[bobalobmitchell 0]

@someBoy:

I did try the mp demo, had no problems like im experiencing now. The mp demo worked fine

Recoated the gpu and cpu heatsinks with paste and ran armA last night, crashed again after a while just froze no hd led just a stuck frame on the monitor. Computer is totally unresponsive at that time so i cant alt + tab. I swapped from silent to maximum cooling so i dont think that overheating is an issue as HL2 or ofp never crashes even though ArmA is a bit more demanding, still..

Main board is the same type as someBoy, ASRock 939 Dual SATA-2 with onboard AC`97 Audio

Iv tried disabling the sound on bios so i`ll go see if it crashes..

[someboy 0]

Hi,

I finally reinstalled windows, and it's the same, no onboard audio. I've posted this problem in several HW forums, but it might be simply that this board is defective.

Regarding arma, i didn't reinstall it, i'll try later.

boba, have you been able to fix the problem?

[desertfox 2]

To all people whos system "Freezes" after playing a certain amount of time: Do a burn-in test of your RAM, CPU and GPU with a tool like Sisoft's "Sandra" to locate the problem.

I am 90% certain it's a temperature problem of RAM, CPU or GPU, or FSB.

[stingfish74 0]

ok, oh my. SAME EXACT PROBLEM.

Game will freeze, looping "cracking sound", ctr/alt/del won't work and everything is locked. requires reboot.

Specs = :

AMD AM2 ATHLON 64 3800+ (single core)

2X1GB CORSAIR DDR2 6400 XMS2 ETREME

ABIT KN9 SLI AM2 NFORCE 570

PF-500 2.0 PSU POWER SUPPLY

EVGA NVIDIA 7950 GT 512 MB PCI-E

I use FSAutospot, AND -nosplash -maxmem=1024

IF this is a heating problem, how can i check my temps on the vid card and cpu? also, what temp should i be on.

IF this is a driver problem, im a dumb @ss when it comes to finding the right driver, will someone look at my specs and provide a link to the correct driver i need for updates.

any other suggestions, please help a bro out.

also note: i run antialising off, default off on vid card and arma setting, same with anisotropic filtering = off. arma setting = very high. runs smooth and decent fps, just freezes.

[stingfish74 0]

also, looking at my abiteq, it shows the following for temps:

cpu = 88F

sys = 95F

pwm = 99F -what's pwm?

fans:

cpu fan =ok

sys fan = 0 rpm warning

aux1 fan = 0 rpm warning

aux2 fan = 0 rpm warning

note: i have 3 case fans, and all "sound" like there running. something is not right here.

connecting to sandra and running the burn test. - should i post the results?

alos, what is artic freeze? any thoughts on how i can straighten out this mess?

[Bobcat26 0]

Same problem here

three fans

I think its a game bug

seems to happen more often now with the 1.05 patch

[mazza 1]

I happy except for the occassional freezes I get with AA- off and AF-off, with PP-off and most other settings to normal.  It's weired, everything runs very smooth and then "freeze". I don't get any distorted sounds. The game just freezes FPS to 1 then continues on its merry way

Edit: It does not do this with PR(BF2) all settings high nor with LOCKON (settings high).!!!!

Specs

GFX: GEFORCE NVIDIA 7600GT 256 MB

CPU: INTEL CORE 2 DUO E6600, 2.4 Ghz 4MB L2 1066MHZ

HD: 320GB SEAGATE (PARTITIONED) SATA2 16MB ATA300

MB: Gigabyte GA-965P-S3

RAM: 2 x 1024MB DDR2 667 MEMORY

OS: XP (SP2)

MONITOR:Viewsonic LCD VG2030WM

[granQ 293]

my gfx card fan is broke, so i played arma with the temparture reporting over 100 degress with no problem but I get same thing sometimes I am close to water.. annoying as hell.