One Last effort before I return the game

[[PROCK]CuTThroa]

I am making this last ditch attempt to get this thing to work before I return it.

 

PROBLEM :

 

Game freeze / Sound Loop.

 

Yes, I have read all the forum threads about this subject, and no it didn't help.

 

Yes, I have ALL of my drivers up to date.

 

Yes, this computer works perfectly well with RTCW and others.

 

SPECS :

 

AMD XP 1700

SOYO K7VTA PRO

768 MEG SDRAM

ATI RADEON 8500

Sound Blaster Live 5.1

Windows XP Home

DSL

 

 

NOTES :

 

The game is running at the highest levels of performance based on my hardware. I have tried to back these levels down, with no appreciable differences in crashes.

I usually wait about 1 minute for a start up load, and about 5 seconds for a load saved game.

 

Usually, I get 8 - 10 minutes of play before I get locked up and have to hard re-boot. As I have progressed to higher levels in the game, the crashes have become more frequent. I stopped on the first level of bespin, as the crashes were 1 - 2 minutes after start of play.

I have tried uninstall / re install , no help.

I ABSOLUTLEY REFUSE to reformat my drive or anything silly like that.

 

ALSO :

 

Here are some warnings I have seen ,

 

In yellow

 

"Couldn't Find image for shader"

 

"Warning: Shader textures/systems/slick has lightmap but no lightmap stage"

 

"Coundn't find image for shader gfx/2d/crosshair"

 

"Couldn't find image for shader [no material]"

 

"COM_SPRINTF : OVERFLOW 128 IN 128"

 

Please , If anyone has a way for me to make this thing work properly, let me know. Otherwise, I am taking it back and will probably never purchase another lucasart product. I don't have enough spare time to debug there games for them.

 

 

CUT

[CybrSlydr]

Well, I don't get as many errors as you do, but I do get the "Coundn't find image for shader gfx/2d/crosshair" and COM_SPRINTF : OVERFLOW 128 IN 128" Although mine doesn't crash. I just get some REALLY crappy colorings. Mine crashes about twice an hour.

[bar-bar mandrel]

Im wondering if you tried disabling sound to test it:

 

s_initsound 0

 

----------

 

"Being able to play a while, and then get a lock up" is a symptom I have seen related:

 

) to heat--open the case and point a house fan on it, and see if the problem persists

 

)"poor" memory--take out all but 1 stick of RAM and see if it persists. Try each stick individually. (turn the computer OFF first FOO )

 

) Overclocking. Even if *you* have not done it, if you didn't build the machine yourself, the person who did may have overclocked something.

 

None of the above are *solutions*, but troubleshooting methods.

[WhiteChedda]

Originally posted by [PROCK]CuTThroa

Here are some warnings I have seen ,

 

In yellow

 

"Couldn't Find image for shader"

 

"Warning: Shader textures/systems/slick has lightmap but no lightmap stage"

 

"Coundn't find image for shader gfx/2d/crosshair"

 

"Couldn't find image for shader [no material]"

 

"COM_SPRINTF : OVERFLOW 128 IN 128"

 

Please , If anyone has a way for me to make this thing work properly, let me know. Otherwise, I am taking it back and will probably never purchase another lucasart product. I don't have enough spare time to debug there games for them.

 

CUT

 

All the warnigs but the last one appear normal. You don't shadow a crosshair, etc... The last is multiplayer related and *possibly* fixed in the latest dedicated server released today.

 

Try checking your log file for what may be crashing you though.

[Ruga]

It's frustrating to see another round of these well-meaning suggestions...

 

The brutal truth is that none of these things epople are are issues. It's not overheading, it's not any particular hardware. Virtually all hardwares have experienced this. And other games using ostensibly the same engine have ZERO problems on the same equipment with the same settings.

 

The even more brutal truth is that I uninstalled JKII in frustration after trying *everything*, including the idiotic O/S upgrade. Nothing worked. And my system continues to lock hard (usually related to sound, winamp, media player, etc) periodically though the infernal game is long gone (though nowhere near as often as it locked when running the "game"... it locks now maybe once very 4 or 5 hours depending what i'm doing).

[AGPennypacker]

This is just a guess but its educated... I had the same problem until I installed the 1.03 patch. I noticed you didnt list the patch in your post...

[[SsP]Blackbird]

The only constructive thing I could add is verify that you've installed your motherboard chipset drivers. For example, if you're using a VIA chipset (as is the case with CuTTHroa), and you don't have the VIA 4-in-1 drivers installed, I would expect very unpredictable behavior. Why only in JK2? That I can't answer... but it's worth taking 10 minutes, downloading them, and installing, even if you think it has already been done.

 

Originally posted by Ruga

And my system continues to lock hard (usually related to sound, winamp, media player, etc) periodically though the infernal game is long gone (though nowhere near as often as it locked when running the "game"... it locks now maybe once very 4 or 5 hours depending what i'm doing).

 

Ruga, it seems to me that if this problem is occurring elsewhere, then your problem is not with J2K specifically. Perhaps it was an unfortunate coincidence that it started happening at around the same time you installed the game. I would start looking for a failing component. Reset your BIOS to factory defaults. And definitely reinstall your motherboard chipset drivers.

 

Originally posted by [PROCK]CuTThroa

Usually, I get 8 - 10 minutes of play before I get locked up and have to hard re-boot. As I have progressed to higher levels in the game, the crashes have become more frequent. I stopped on the first level of bespin, as the crashes were 1 - 2 minutes after start of play.

 

Personally, I have experienced a much more mild symptom -- when I play MP and choose to view the scores, about 2 out of 3 times, the game freezes for a few seconds, and the sound starts to loop. But it always recovers, and has never completely frozen. My specs are:

 

AMD Athlon XP 1800+

Abit KR7A-133

512 MB DDR

GeForce4 Ti 4400, 28.32 reference drivers

Sound Blaster Live 5.1, driver 3509.2.0.0, dated 11/2/2001

Windows 2000 Professional, SP2

[WhiteChedda]

There is a well known issue with SBLIve [not sure about audigy] sound card and Via chipsets. To test this, remove your sound card and try to run the game, though it will probably tell you it requires a sound device, I know Pool of Radiance does which seems to lock up on me randomly. I've checked heat, I can touch every component of my system and not fel warm, much less hot, so its not that. Got 256MB RAM so thats OK, its probbaly the sound card which seems to loop a sound over and over again when it happens. I intend to buy a Turtle Beach SantaCruz soon, so I suppose I will see then. I'll keep the live for when I build a P4 system which will NOT use a via chipset.

[Veijo]

Originally posted by [PROCK]CuTThroa

I am making this last ditch attempt to get this thing to work before I return it.

 

PROBLEM :

 

Game freeze / Sound Loop.

 

 

CUT

 

I use to have these freeze & sound loop problems. I changed PCI latency timer to 32 from bios (was 64). No freezes after that.

[bar-bar mandrel]

Ruga, I would say you've narrowed *your* problem down to the sound card.

 

Computers lock up for all kinds of reasons. It's a common *symptom* to all kinds of problems. However, most frequently, lock-ups are *hardware* based, and the software you are using becomes the unfortunate victim of your ire.

 

As you said, though, yours even does it *without the game installed*. Which basically counters your entire point about us wasting our time with fruitless suggestions.

 

When you are using word, or browsing the net, you are seldom using very much of your hardware. But when you kick it up to '11' with a game, all your hardware gets hit up for time 100%

 

Windows tip-toes through the lions' den, but many games are too loud, and the lions wake up.

 

In addition to all this, the known facts are:

 

1) VIA and SiS chipset motherboards have, historically, had problems where they do not provide stable power to the AGP port which locks up machine depending on load to agp

 

2) heat locks up machines over time

 

3) IRQ conflicts lock up machines (rare htese days)

 

4) bad memory locks up machines (depending on load)

 

5) PCI latency (whicj ive mentioned as a solution to others in these boards) can pose problems by "yanking the rug out" from under a hardware critical process, causing lock ups

 

etc.

[Elijah]

I Had this sound loop error, but un-like alot of people I DO NOT give up easy, and I was several houres away from Reformatting (Yes the game is TOTALY worth a HD format.) After 2-3 houres of this problem (whitch started out of the blue) So Anyways.... I Try'd about 3, 3rd Party Drivers for my VooDoo 5... When finaly i noticed 1 clue... it would only freeze when i played with other player or had AI, so i just kept trying with Trial and Error. I Finaly got it working again after 3 Reinstalls of diffrent Drivers and 1 Install of JO THEN it started working and the only problem iv had is a 10 FPS drop... whitch i can live with.

 

So my advice is.... Dont Give UP ..... or... Reformat (you sound like the person who only Formatts when your PC Get a Virus)

[Brodieman]

You should download the Via 4:1 patch i believe it will fix your problem www.viaarena.com

[bar-bar mandrel]

BTW Blackbird...in multiplayer, the client defers loading resources for new models and sounds (for players who have joined the game) until you either die or hit the score key. The hitch in the game (accompanied by looping sound) is either slight or pronounced, depending on how fast your hard drive is, how much memory you have, etc.

 

But what you describe is designed behavior, not a bug.

 

It's better to do it then, rather than do it while you are in the middle of a firefight.

[[PROCK]CuTThroa]

I just wanted to update my situaton and let everyone know that I am up an running flawlessly with the game.

 

Solutiuon :

 

I took the SB live 5.1 card back and purchased the SB Audigy Gamer. $20.00 and problem solved.

 

Thank you all for your input !!

 

 

CUT

[[SsP]Blackbird]

Originally posted by bar-bar mandrel

BTW Blackbird...in multiplayer, the client defers loading resources for new models and sounds (for players who have joined the game) until you either die or hit the score key. The hitch in the game (accompanied by looping sound) is either slight or pronounced, depending on how fast your hard drive is, how much memory you have, etc.

 

But what you describe is designed behavior, not a bug.

 

It's better to do it then, rather than do it while you are in the middle of a firefight.

 

Thanks for the info, I did not know that. I figured that it was a problem, based on the symptom.... it seems almost like a driver quirk.

 

[ssP]Blackbird

[Ruga]

I appreciate all the time people have taken to reply to my woes. I can assure you all that i am far (alas, very far) from a novice with windows (and a mightier assortment of OS's), all sorts of hardware,. I can assure you all I am fairly well versed in driver issues, IRQ conflicts, and have had many things happen to my system over the years (i am actually a programmer and unix system administrator by trade).... we have been through much, and learned much ... sometimes painfully. But I've never had any single program (especially a game) so thoroughly befuddle my computer before. I know it sounds like a "coincidence", but i assure you i ran a very stable system for a long time before installing this game... installing this game, and nothing much else at the time. It could be a coincidence, but if it is it is a very very coincidental one... for everything in my experience points to this install completely destabilising my system (which isn't esoteric at all... all brand name hardware, not even OEM stuff.. SB, AMD, etc).

 

Anyhow... i continue to struggle, and things continue to lock up periodically where no lock ups were before JKII. I continue to look for answers.

If it is a coincidental hardware/software failure, i'll be very suprised... but happy to discover it... il keep my eyes open.

[Elegy]

Hmm...I had the same problem but was running a different card. Downloading new drivers for my card have fixed this for me, BUT it didn't work the first time. Why? When you installed your new video drivers did you first uninstall your old ones? That's what I had to do. Just merely downloading and installing the new drivers didn't work for me. For some reason it didn't completely override my old drivers or some BS, I'm not even gonna hazard a guess as to why that attempt didn't work. But then I went in and completely removed my video card, and then reinstalled the new drivers. Reinstalled DirectX 8 after that just for good measure. Things worked after that, so try completely uninstalling your video card and then installing your new drivers. Just might work.

[BigHairyWookie]

Originally posted by [ssP]Blackbird

 

Personally, I have experienced a much more mild symptom -- when I play MP and choose to view the scores, about 2 out of 3 times, the game freezes for a few seconds, and the sound starts to loop. But it always recovers, and has never completely frozen.

 

Same thing here except in SP. I've played half way through the game without a problem until last night. It freezed w/ sound loop for about 6 seconds, and then the game resumed. No hard lock requiring a reset. Specs:

 

P4 2Ghz

Intel D850GB

512MB RAM

Geforce 3 Ti 500 64MB

Soundblaster Audigy

 

I haven't had this problem with any other Q3 engine game or any game for that matter, including STV-EF, MOHAA and RTCW.

[bar-bar mandrel]

Ruga...

 

the troubling thing to me is that quake[X] games and derivatives are, in general, self-contained--they add nothing to the /windows tree, and have almost NO registry entries etc., and do not usually install extra OS "components."

 

I haven't looked at JK2 carefully, but iD based games have always been strictly an "unpack and copy" type of install.