zxc 0 Posted March 8, 2002 Hi everybody! Being a fan of Operation Flashpoint, I get really frustrated every time I'm trying to play this game: it crashes randomly after 5 to 20 min, either by going back to the desktop, re-booting the pc or just freezing up the screen. Here is my configuration: Athlon 1GHz (supports FSB @ 266MHZ). Gigabyte GA-7DX (with latest BIOS upgrade), AMD northbridge chipset and VIA southbridge chipset (both with latest drivers). 256Mb DDR Ram. Geforce 2 MX-400 (with detonator XP v23.12, which is windows certified). Win XP Pro. DirectX 8.1. Every single driver on my pc is up-to-date. Ofp v1.46 (original copy, I bought the CD). Using Direct3D mode (but not T&L). Playing with 1024*768 32 bits resolution. Sometimes when it crashes, win xp will tell me that my display driver seems to be the source of the problem. As I'm not a lazy bastard , I've tried many things, including tips from this forum, b4 deciding to write this message: - I increased my virtual memory to 400Mb, then let win XP managing it. - I changed AGP speed in bios from 4x to 1x/2x. - I tried 21.83 Detonator XP driver which is another certified driver by windows. - I've done the directx tweak (.cpl file, thanks to the avonlady) and it appears fine in my control panel. There's also a few important issues I think u should know: - I had the same problem with Win 2000 Pro. - I always need to fully install the game + upgrades at a FSB of 100MHz or less or it will always crash. - My joysticks (sidewinder precision pro or logitech wingman force3d) don't work with ofp, although they are both recognised under win xp and work well in other games (ex: half-life). - I play ofp at a lower FSB (100 or less) and it works very well !!?! The game is also very slow and not playable really. I suspect my (very old) HDD to be the origin of the problem: IBM 6.4Go 5400 rpm ATA33 but I'd like to be sure b4 changing it. Anyone has an idea? Thanks in advance for your help... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ALDEGA 0 Posted March 8, 2002 What error message did windows give (blue screen of death error message)? Was it something like "the driver was unable to complete a drawing operation"? Or "the driver got stuck in an infinite loop"? It was an error related to nv4disp.dll, right? This error is caused by the 23.xx + drivers. I have the same problem. There's no other option than to switch to a different driver, e.g. 22.80. btw, Are you overclocking your videocard? Perhaps it's getting too hot. Also, try disabling fast writes, etc... The 100-mhz-upgrade issue could be related to the VIA southbridge. Apparently datatransfer is not stable when your FSB is set 133mhz. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DodgeME 0 Posted March 8, 2002 Get the 27.70. Is the latest leaked drivers but they work wonders for me. Everything is quicker and more stable. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ALDEGA 0 Posted March 8, 2002 Well right now I've got 27.50. My computer still locks up. But only after a cold boot. I need to one or two warm boots after a cold boot to get my computer stable. It's weird, but that's the way it is. The main reason why I'm putting up with this (and not using a driver which doesn't have this issue) is because the 23.xx+ drivers have quite better performance than the 'old' ones. Since I don't have an ultrafast computer, there's no other way. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PanzerGrenadier2 0 Posted March 9, 2002 Or if this is your games machine [only] then run win98se the gamers choice . Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hkg3 0 Posted March 10, 2002 OK ZXC, i wonder if you are experiencing the same problem as i have had, I had this problem twice now and basically i will explain what happened and what i did to sort it out. My PC Spec 1gig AMD, 768 mb SDRAM, Gforce 2 MX400 32mb with 1/2x AGP setting, Creative 5.1 soundcard, 5600rpm 20gig HDD, AOpen 73 Pro MOBO with Via chipset, XP home. All settings are default standard nothing else changed, i find MX 400 runs better with 1/2x AGP setting (Mines crashes my PC otherwise) A. I had just upgraded (Fresh install from win 98SE, HDD was formatted etc) to windows XP FULL home version. it appeared to be all running stable, so i proceeded to install latest patches and latest drivers for Video, Sound etc bla bla. with XP i was told that it had it's own Via drivers so i never bothered to install those. B. Ok still appearing to run ok, smooth no apparent problems. NOW attempt SEVERAL times to install OFP, all attempts crashing halfway through to BSOD with an error stating either a. Page attempting to cache to non page area (or something like that) b. BLA BLA_NOT_LESSTHAN_OR_EQUAL. OK so i looked around to see what was goin on, nothing shows up that there are any device conflicts on Device Manager etc all still looks fine. Move on and try and Install another game, boom halfway through same problem. OK now starting to get really P***** off. D'load latest Via 4 in 1's install them and now same problem as before can't install any games without crashing to BSOD with memory dump to protect system and same error messages as before. Now for the extremely funny (Funny weird not HAHA, and pulling out of hair) I UNINSTALLED/DELETED the VIA 4 in 1 drivers that i had D'loaded from my board manufacturer. GUESS WHAT? Â Everything went swimmingly and OFP loaded first attempt, all other games loaded also and my PC runs extremely sweetly, so i guess that possibly the VIA drivers had somehow became corrupted during the initial XP install and had installed correctly second time, well to tell the truth i have no idea why it happened but it works ok now, so possibly worth trying out,. My email is markthemud@aol.com, feel free to email me if you want, and i will try and explain this a bit better, or if you got it sorted now let us know. Hope this helps m8. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mister Frag 0 Posted March 10, 2002 You may have bad RAM if the system isn't stable at PC133 speeds. Try swapping in a different stick or two from a friend... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zxc 0 Posted March 11, 2002   Thank u so much for these ideas! I'm gonna try other graphic and VIA drivers, and also try and find someone with DDR Ram. </span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">What error message did windows give (blue screen of death error message)? Was it something like "the driver was unable to complete a drawing operation"? Or "the driver got stuck in an infinite loop"? It was an error related to nv4disp.dll, right?<span id='postcolor'> It is a big blue screen with addresses in hexa and after 10s, it restarts automatically. Sorry I don't really remember but I will check for u next time it happens. Also after the reboot, windows tells me sometimes that nv4disp.dll or smthg very similar may be the origin of the pb. By the way, I'm not overclocking anything in my pc. I got a new HDD yesterday, Maxtor 20Go 7200 ATA133 so I'm reinstalling everything tonight after work and try the followings: - Benchmark my RAm (with sisoft sandra I think) to c if it's faulty - try to reinstall chipset drivers - Try the very latest 27.70 nvidia driver - Try disabling fast writes, agp 4x... - Maybe try win98se as PanzerGrenadier2 said. If it's working, at least I know it's not a hardware pb (although I'm sure it is now) and I'd consider to put both OS together: 98se for games, XP for the rest! I've got a lot of work to do tonight! c u soon  Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
