Unreal Engine 2/2.5 games crashing my computer.

[JohnDoe641]

I just got this damn SSD, crashing my comp isn't how I want my drive to die.

Ok, it seem like my comp is allergic to Unreal Engine 2 based games since ut2k4 and now KF are crashing my comp. I could unfortunately play ut3 for hours and not have a single problem but my old games don't want to run smoothly for me.

When it crashes my monitor loses the signal and all I can hear from my headphones in a .1 second loop of whatever audio I was hearing when the comp crashed. Ctr+alt+del and other commands don't work and so I end up hitting the reset button. The only thing I can find in Event Viewer is the report on the unexpected shutdown, nothing else shows up and the KF log file ends abruptly at a random point.

This is a relatively fresh install of Win7 pro 64-bit with the latest updates, 8gig of ram, and a GTX560ti running 337.88 drivers.

I really want to play KF but I don't feel like killing my brand new OS SSD drive dammit and I fear that with each crash, I'm shortening its life and killing its reliability.

 

[Carbon]

Have you looked at the log files? They typically are the first step towards solving UE problems.

 

[[GU]elmur_fud]

If your logs fail you another easy thing to account for is possibly corrupt directx files. Simply download the redistributable not the web installer and run the exe. It will ask you to extract the files someplace. Go to wherever you put them and run setup.exe it will over-right all existing DX files with new versions of them.

This was the latest I found but it might not be the most recent as it is from june 2010.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109

 

[SkaarjMaster]

OK, this makes me nervous for UT2004 reinstall on my newer laptop in the future. Did this ever get fixed? What was the problem?

 

[rejecht]

Make sure the first thing you install is the chipset drivers, even before letting Windows Update do anything. Also, install drivers from the manufacturer, never let Windows fill in the blanks.

 

[JohnDoe641]

OK, this makes me nervous for UT2004 reinstall on my newer laptop in the future. Did this ever get fixed? What was the problem?

Nope, I haven't fixed the issue yet.

I played two hours of UT3 tonight, I really wish it was UT3 that was freezing up my comp and not UE2.5 games.

 

[[GU]elmur_fud]

Nope, I haven't fixed the issue yet.

I played two hours of UT3 tonight, I really wish it was UT3 that was freezing up my comp and not UE2.5 games.

Post more detailed hardware specs and OS details also do a Dx diagnostic and post that. Maybe even a hijackthis log as some types of background apps can kill UE2.5

 

[JohnDoe641]

Well, here's my dxdiag report, I've attached it to this post.

That would be really stupid if it were my sound cards drivers that are causing this.

I already put my specs in my OP but I can also copy/paste it:

Win7 pro 64-bit with the latest updates
Xeon X3370
8gig of ram
GTX560ti running 337.88 drivers.
Audigy 2 ZS using whatever the latest driver for that is.

It's the same setup I had before I reformatted, same drivers for the chipset (old hardware) and no hardware changes except for the SSD as the main drive. It ran perfectly before the reformat and that was a 5 year old install of Win7.

Really the only thing I can think of is the sound driver, is there a way to completely disable a driver without uninstalling it and mucking up my neat OS drive?

 

[madspacemarine02]

Did you try running in protected mode?

 

[rejecht]

I think this works: UT2004.exe -nosound

You can disable drivers in device manager, but it's not an elegant method.

Start, Run..., devmgmt.msc, find the driver and you can disable it through a right click menu.

Maybe see if the SSD manufacturer has some diagnostic to run, if you suspect some corruption?

 

[JohnDoe641]

I ran a thorough dskchk last night and it found no error and there was nothing it had to correct.

It's not my sound, I ran Killing Floor with the -nosound command and it still crashed my comp.

I downloaded the WinDbg tool to see if I could take a look at any dmp files after the crash but the normal dmp files folder is totally empty, so it's not even getting a chance to write to write the damn files. I have no idea how to pinpoint something that's not leaving me with any clues.

 

[Manticore]

Make sure the first thing you install is the chipset drivers, even before letting Windows Update do anything. Also, install drivers from the manufacturer, never let Windows fill in the blanks.

Apart from this try and revert to an older iteration of the drivers. It appears some versions of Nvidia drivers can be problematic.

 

[JohnDoe641]

I've already tried the graphics drivers that worked for me previously, same hard crashing and I made sure to install the most recent mobo drivers, it was the very first thing I did after the OS was installed.

I ran memtest for 6+ iterations today and not a single error was found. I guess my next step is to run some type of graphics stress test, but surely Killing Floor is about 97% less stressful than UT3 or blender/poser/lux/vegas/photoshop. All of those apps make use of my cpu and graphics card very heavily yet they're all 100% stable.

I do graphics work and one of the render engines I use is called LuxRender, as of now gpu rendering in Lux isn't perfect so I render stricly using CPU... with that said Lux uses all four cores at 100% until I tell the program to stop so that is my CPU stress test, I did a few renders that I let go for three days and not a single issue came up, not heat issues, no program crashes or anything in the event viewer to say something went wrong. If there were any instability problems present in the CPU, memory, PSU or heat issues, rendering at 100% CPU for three solid days at a time and 6+ iterations of memtest would find something, anything but nope... nothing.

 

[[GU]elmur_fud]

Well, here's my dxdiag report, I've attached it to this post.

That would be really stupid if it were my sound cards drivers that are causing this.

I already put my specs in my OP but I can also copy/paste it:

Win7 pro 64-bit with the latest updates
Xeon X3370
8gig of ram
GTX560ti running 337.88 drivers.
Audigy 2 ZS using whatever the latest driver for that is.

It's the same setup I had before I reformatted, same drivers for the chipset (old hardware) and no hardware changes except for the SSD as the main drive. It ran perfectly before the reformat and that was a 5 year old install of Win7.

Really the only thing I can think of is the sound driver, is there a way to completely disable a driver without uninstalling it and mucking up my neat OS drive?

Those are details but not that detailed. When somebody asks for specs they usually mean like the first section of the DXdiag log. gives info that could point out hardware conflicts (either with individual componants or with the game). About the only thing Dxdiag wont tell that would be pertinent(though only slightly) is ram speed.
For example under the memory section of your motherboards spec sheet
(http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2625#sp)
it says

1.Supports DDR2 1066*/800/667 memory
2.Dual Channel architecture supports up to 8GB by 4 DIMM slots

* Please refer "Memory Support List" for memory support information.

Unsupported memory will often run, but it wont run right and can cause problems because the board will force it to run in something termed legacy mode.

That by itself shouldn't be causing a problem even if such a thing is happening, as you said it ran fine before the re-install. The only hardware change being the disc.

I ran a thorough dskchk last night and it found no error and there was nothing it had to correct.

It's not my sound, I ran Killing Floor with the -nosound command and it still crashed my comp.

I downloaded the WinDbg tool to see if I could take a look at any dmp files after the crash but the normal dmp files folder is totally empty, so it's not even getting a chance to write to write the damn files. I have no idea how to pinpoint something that's not leaving me with any clues.

You have the exact sound card in the recommended system requirements for UT2k4... It would be odd then to be the card.

Apart from this try and revert to an older iteration of the drivers. It appears some versions of Nvidia drivers can be problematic.

This is good advice. +1

If you just copied your old UT files instead of doing a fresh install (or did a fresh install and overwrote things) your .ini files could conflict with your new build. Delete your .ini files and try a re-run UT will rebuild them with new correct settings.

This may be what you need because the first thing UT wants to do is write to the .ini
http://superuser.com/questions/3337...ave-in-a-folder-that-windows-7-denies-me-from

If you did do a copy windows 7 may have decided you don't own the folder or files and maybe disallowing you to modify them. In which case you would need to take ownership of the files/folders.

 

[rejecht]

I ran a thorough dskchk last night and it found no error and there was nothing it had to correct.

A tool from the manufacturer should have diagnostics that can get proprietary information.

Doesn't seem like the CPU gets a chance to catch the error, though it may have triggered an exception within an exception, etc. That's why I usually suspect chipset drivers were missing, because they tell Windows about memory maps/what things should occupy what resource.

Didn't UT2004/UE2.5 have software rendering?
Could enable that, and have the CPU do the work.

Different rendering devices:
http://www.tweakguides.com/UT2004_10.html

Does the mainboard have integrated graphics?
Could test without the dedicated card.


Slight digression: If it comes to a reinstall, or future use of an SSD, I'd suggest having the SSD as a non-system drive where you install your applications/games to. Windows Update is fast enough on a SATA 300/600 mechanical drive, and boot times aren't that bad. Applications are mostly about reads, thus ideal on an SSD. The OS on the other hand writes and writes and moves and writes to the SSD all the time, temp files, crap, etc.

 

[JohnDoe641]

Now UT3 is crashing constantly. Something is going bad on my system.

[M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEliLOjkexo&index=1&list=PLcsDDiNEvNtSPVFhN-eAWsPvMYRxp30sr&hd=1[/M]

 

[[GU]elmur_fud]

Now UT3 is crashing constantly. Something is going bad on my system.

[M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEliLOjkexo&index=1&list=PLcsDDiNEvNtSPVFhN-eAWsPvMYRxp30sr&hd=1[/M]

Bad news, I think that your motherboard is dying. I had a gigabyte board do the same thing only on Diablo 3 at first, then more games, then windows. It started killing my main hard disk as well and damn near succeeded. (I was able to retrieve the data off it but it is unstable.)

The motherboard finally went out entirely while using it as a testing rig.

 

[JohnDoe641]

Bad news, I think that your motherboard is dying. I had a gigabyte board do the same thing only on Diablo 3 at first, then more games, then windows. It started killing my main hard disk as well and damn near succeeded. (I was able to retrieve the data off it but it is unstable.)

The motherboard finally went out entirely while using it as a testing rig.

Well that would be a very bad thing as I currently don't have any income and I have 0 money to spend to replace anything.

I removed my Audigy 2 ZS and still had the crash so the sound card has been 100% removed as the culprit. Next I will see if I have an extra video card lying around, if not I may have to remove the one from the other house computer and that might cause a few arguments.

*Edit Actually that does make sense. If you read my HD thread, the C drive was just fine but started dying... and if that's the case, it's probably doing some damage to me new SSD. Shit that's really bad.

 

[JohnDoe641]

Never mind all that, it wasn't the motherboard it was the video card. I took the 260 GTX out of the other computer, installed in this one and I've been able to play games without a single issue for three hours.

The 560Ti is still able to be RMA'd so that's what I'm doing in the morning.

 

[[GU]elmur_fud]

To be more accurate about what on the motherboard was dying, it was the chipset, specifically the bios's addressing of devices handled by integrated peripherals, (like the sata controller and PCIe bridge) that was dying. I too replaced my video card before figuring this out and it worked for a while before it started all over again.

The crashes on my system were caused by the system loosing communication with a device. Perhaps flashing my bios before I lost access in it's entirety would have solved things but I did not try it as that could also toast a flakey board.

I hope in your case it is just the video card because as you said you can get it replaced. I offer the above so you can be watchful.