ArmA hard-lockup when shaders set to 'high'

[no use for a name 0]

This has plagued me from the beginning; and I'm finally getting fed up with it. If I turn the shading detail OR terrain detail past Normal, ArmA locks up and I have to do a hard reboot. It usually happens after ~15 minutes of playing (doesn't matter what mission, SP or MP); and when I zoom/use optics. The screen will turn a solid color and the sound will start looping; and the only way to get out of it is a hard reboot. I've tried just using the reset button; but then my pc won't boot and I get the 'beep code'. My lcd poster gives me a VGA MEM error when it reboots and I have to turn it off/on (that CAN'T be good!!! I'm kinda affraid that it could fry my vid card)

Temps are good, every other game I play doesn't have this problem, I have the newest drivers, etc. etc...

Is there any workaround/fix for this? It's happens in both WinXP, Win7, and when I had only 2GB of PC6400 RAM. I have a clean install of both the game and OS's (just reformatted to install Win7) and ArmA was the first game I installed and played.

Specs:

ASUS Commando mobo

OCZ GamerXtreme 700w PSU

C2D e6400 2.13GHz OC'd -> 3GHz

4x1GB Kingston HyperX DDR2 PC8500 RAM (only 3GB available for 32bit OS)

BFG GTX260 core 216 896MB DDR3 (max-overclocked edition) using XG185.81

Win7 & WinXP 32bit

I can post a DXDiag if needed; but I don't think it will help. I'm 99% sure it's an ArmA engine flaw that doesn't know how to handle memory; but I'm also not a programmer so I'm probably wrong lol

THanks for any suggestions!

p.s. If there's another thread already just point me in the right direction...I did a search but couldn't find anyone with quite the same problems

Edited May 15, 2009 by No Use For A Name

[NoRailgunner 0]

Maybe one of your RAM/VideoRam is defect?

Test your hardware and if you can try another RAM/ monitor screen/ graphic card.

Some Beep codes: http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

[no use for a name 0]

I've tested everything; I've run StressPrime, memtest, and ATITool artifact scanner for several hours and nothing. Monitored temps and nothing was overheating (70c for the card, ~60c for my cpu). I had an 8800GTS before this card which was a disaster with this game (similar crashes, graphic tearing, etc.); and had different RAM modules before I upgraded from 2 to 4gigs. The Commando MB has a little LCD poster on the back that shows the error (along with the beeps) so you don't have to do too much guesswork. IIRC, when I 'soft' rebooted it beeped 1 long 3 short, and showed VGA ROM or MEM (can't remember which) on the screen. Right then I thought my card was fried; but I just hard rebooted and all was good.

This is the ONLY game that does this; I can run GTA4 at high settings; and Far Cry 2, Crysis, World in Conflict, Oblivion, Fallout 3, Black Shark/LOMAC, STALKER, and numerous other games all maxed/ultra-high settings without any issues (besides the occasional CTD). The second I change my shaders or terrain detail to normal, I can usually play for hours on end no problem.

I thought maybe it was a DX9 problem or bad drivers with an old XP install; but I'm using DX11 with a fresh Win7 and still get it.

Oh ya I've also downclocked my GPU and used stock CPU/FSB clocks and tried it to no avail

Edited May 15, 2009 by No Use For A Name

[kklownboy 43]

...

I thought maybe it was a DX9 problem or bad drivers with an old XP install; but I'm using DX11 with a fresh Win7 and still get it.

...

Not sure about your issue yet but your not usig DX11, ARMA is DX9 only. I think some NVDA owners have had some luck with August 2008 DX9, though the most current is March09. What you haven't said is your in game settings and what Mods you run? Also in your Nvidia CP 3D settngs under ARMA profile, you can adjust the IQ (mipmap?) setting to one lower than Highest. Then here is the HDR setting 8,16, and 32... Edited May 16, 2009 by kklownboy

[no use for a name 0]

My game settings are all very high, except of course for terrain detail and shaders which are at normal. I've played around with them a bit and found the game only becomes unstable when those two are above normal. I've set everything to low and only turned one of those up...still no go

I do use mods; but this still happens on a fresh install of Queens Gambit 1.16 with no mods running/installed. I believe i had the august DX9 on my old install of XP and still got it. My HDR setting is at 16 (was at 8). I can't find the IQ setting in the NvCP; I only see "force mipmaps" which is off.

I'm telling you, I've tried just about every conceivable way to narrow it down to something, and the only thing at the end is ArmA still crashing (which is why I believe it's an engine error).

Thanks for the suggestions though! I'll keep messing around and see

[rowdied 44]

Try setting the fan speed to 100% on the vid card using rivatuner and lowering your view distance and see if that helps.

I have a similar card and found playing for a few hours would cause distortions and graphic problems until I upped the fan speed to 100%.

[xmongx 0]

Is it just me that can see the obvious solution here?

Keep terrain detail and shading detail at medium and you should be good.

Its not an engine issue, many people run vith very high settings. to be honest it sounds like your graphics card is knackered. Do you have a spare you could swap out and replicate a similar issue with? A machine hardlock is not a good sign but you can be sure that it is not arma itself that is causing the issue, otherwise this board would be spammed with similar threads.

I'd be looking towards either a GPU issue or a heat issue, i used to have a fairly similar problem with an old card...turns out the fan wasnt even spinning, liuckily i found out before i broke it and replaced with a zalman...served me well for a while.

Edited May 16, 2009 by xmongx

[no use for a name 0]

Is it just me that can see the obvious solution here?

Keep terrain detail and shading detail at medium and you should be good.

I realize (and have been doing) that...but if my system is capable of running it higher then why shouldn't I be able to?

Its not an engine issue, many people run vith very high settings. to be honest it sounds like your graphics card is knackered. Do you have a spare you could swap out and replicate a similar issue with? A machine hardlock is not a good sign but you can be sure that it is not arma itself that is causing the issue, otherwise this board would be spammed with similar threads.

Because I've used 2 different cards (albeit not the same model) and have had similar problems. Also, like I said EVERY OTHER GAME I play never has this issue. I've also read multiple posts by others who have similar systems and they get similar problems (with no fix)...I started this thread because I got lost in the others; also mine was just a little bit different. I know ArmA itself isn't causing the lockup; but it's definitely doing something with my GPU that causes it to lockup.

I'd be looking towards either a GPU issue or a heat issue, i used to have a fairly similar problem with an old card...turns out the fan wasnt even spinning, liuckily i found out before i broke it and replaced with a zalman...served me well for a while.

I'll try what rowdied suggested and jack my fan speed to 100%. ATITool says my GPU temps are only ~70c; but they say to never trust temp monitoring programs. It is also a stock cooler; but so far it's never gotten past 75c which is more than within the threshold for this card.

I'll let ya know :pray:

[no use for a name 0]

Well, I tested further and found (I think) that it was my view distance. I turned it down to 2000 (it was at 3k) and I played for several hours with no crash and shaders on very high...still confuses me as to why, but I guess I'll take it lol.

Thanks for the help everyone!

[kridian 33]

Hmm, you shouldn't have to be viewdistance-crippled.

Get a USB thumbdrive (4+ GB) and use it as a ReadyBoost cache.

Just a thought.

[kklownboy 43]

VD and Terrain should be used as a pair for some maps/islands;

3000vd=high to veryhigh

Also default Textures and veryhigh shaders.

Post Process can and will limit some other settings, i used to run it all the time, but got tired of the blur and 15fps hit, so its Low and my AA is high.

Edited May 16, 2009 by kklownboy

[no use for a name 0]

Next I'm going to keep creeping it up little by little until hopefully I can find the threshold. I guess it's not a huge deal because I very rarely fly anything in ArmA and the server I play on is set to the default 1200.

For that USB ReadyBoost drive; would an external HDD work? I have a 1TB external just for storage.

[xmongx 0]

Ive looked into the ready boost drive before when trying to fix lod switching, having tried it i found it had nothing more than a placebo effect. The way it works is to cache commonly used files to the mem stick, the only real benefit it has is that commonly used programs start faster. (i dont really understand why as a mem stick should be s.l.o.w, something to deo with sequential read/writes)

Try it with a mem stick with an led that signifies activity, you'll notice that there is activity when arma starts (it seems to load arma.exe form the memstick) but once you are ingame you'll see there is no activity at all.

no luck with fanspeed?

did you already do the old delete gpu drivers/use driver cleaner/re-install latest gpu drivers trick?

Edited May 16, 2009 by xmongx

[no use for a name 0]

when I reinstalled Win7 & XP I went straight to 185.81. I did run my fan at 100%; but I also decreased my viewdistance in the same game; so not sure if it worked or not. After I didn't get any crashes I just ran it at default speed with the same viewdistance and it seemed stable. But I'll test some more and see if it will let me increase my VD (lol...that sounds bad ).

Funny how I tried all these things trying to troubleshoot; but I overlooked messing with my VD to see if that was the problem :386:

[Twisted1 0]

Hi No name. I had a lot of these issues with versions around 1.08 etc can't remember the exact version. Arma has (Had) memory leaks so the higher the VD and or graphic settings the faster it will fail the only way I fix it was to lower some settings. Have you monitored your memory usage ram and graphics etc. mine would increase until the PC fell over (Had to do a hard reset).