UT3 and UT2003 not working?

[SkaarjMaster]

I decided to try and review some maps again for UT3, UT2004 and UT. Yikes! I DLed all maps for UT3, UT2004 and UT, then decided on a review order. Then, tried DM-AlpsDawnDuel2 in both UT2003 and UT3 and both games crashed and locked up computer with multicolors on the screen. In UT2003 it tried to fade back into the game and you could see the outline of the map scene but didn't quite make it all the way. I'm not even going to try UT2004 or UT. Of course, World of Tanks works just fine. Anyway, I'll try to get back in here and review ASAP, but I may need a new video card (old one is GTX280 and about 5 years old).

Looks something like this when it locks up but with pixels:
http://image.naldzgraphics.net/2012/10/31-colorful-shiny-glitter-hi-resolution-texture.jpg

What does it sound like to you guys? Here are my system specs:

WinXPSP3
Core2Duo E8600(Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P)
Noctua NH-C12P HS
4GB Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X4096-8500C5 RAM
Nvidia EVGA GTX-280 1GB video card
SB Audigy2 6.1 sound card
Klipsch 5.1 sats,Dayton sub,Pioneer VSX-819H-K receiver
Enermax 850W PSU
Lian-Li PC-71B full tower
Pioneer DVR-216D
BenQ DW1655
Asus E818A3T
2-1TB WD HDs.....

 

[KaL976]

Update drivers?

 

[[GU]elmur_fud]

Update drivers?

This.

Graphics tearing is usually caused by corrupt drivers. Be sure to do a clean install it is an option somewhere in the nvidia driver install dialog.

Also to try would be a complete reinstall of directx. The end user runtime or redistributable version is needed for this. Here was the last 9.0c which is needed for the games.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109

A corrupt color profile can cause garbled colors as well (though things are generally playable) so a reinstall of monitor drivers may be in order as well.

Make sure to check that your cable is firmly seated.

 

[SkaarjMaster]

drivers or card?

Yep, looks like drivers or my video card. First, I'll try upgrading the drivers and see what happens, then DX and monitor drivers. Someone at Rage3d forums suggested it might be the VRAM on my video card. The UT games fill it up whereas the WOTs game might not and the offending chip might be the last one. I have no idea about this, but that would mean the card is toast or definitely on the way out soon. If that is indeed the case and the driver upgrade does not work, I'm thinking of the GTX 650 or 650Ti. I really don't want to get top of the line right now. Besides the UT series and game before UT3, I'll only be playing GRiD and Rage for now. What do you guys think?

 

[[GU]elmur_fud]

I find it rather unlikely that it is your card.

WOTs is using the bigworld engine which is browser based and uses webGl which is based on openGL. Where UT games use either openGL and/or directx.

The difference in how they are rendered as well as the type of problem suggest something other then video card. UT2k3 is unlikely to tax your card at all. Its system req. for vid are - Video card with a 16 megabytes of video-RAM and DirectX 8 compatible...

UT3 might be a little rough on your GTX-280, but probably not. The unreal franchise is more processor heavy and your parts are more then adequate to play UT3 at max settings.

 

[SkaarjMaster]

That's what I was wondering, because I know the UT games are mostly processor-based. Hope it's not the CPU, but I have never had a CPU go out or go bad and I'm fairly certain more obvious things would be happening. I'll be testing tomorrow and Wednesday....results should be interesting. Thanks for the reply.

 

[SkaarjMaster]

UT3 problems maybe? not excited just yet

OK, I updated antispyware programs (etc.), windows updates, defrag and backup, then cleaned the video card and other connections and reseated the card and UT3 works now, so I'll proceed with those reviews as long as I can. I'm holding off on driver updates until I decide to finally try Rage or I get lockups again in any UT series game.

EDIT: Tried a UT3 map (DM-NecrisRelic) this afternoon and it locked up after a minute of play (no colored pixels), just locked up with map scene at time). I had to reboot and tried again and after 2 minutes it locked up for 2-5 seconds (still only map scene and no colored pixels as a few days ago) and then kept going (unlocked and able to continue map play from same spot), then slow in certain parts of the map, but there was something else game-related wrong with the map so I excited for other reasons unrelated to the lockups.

Now this is a custom map released a few months ago with optimization problems, but based on this does it still seem like it could be the old or corrupt drivers or are my problems pointing somewhere else? Tried 12 custom maps released in 2013 today and yesterday without problems until now. The UT3 maps tried with no problems include: DM-AlpsDawnDuel2, CTF-420 and all released COMP2 map pack maps (and VCTF-SilverPoint late last night).

EDIT AGAIN: Also, just finished the latest UT3 map reviews and DM-Lighthouse-final, DM-Malevolence-LPv1.1, CTF-Mythos and CTF-Nayr also all work fine. So UT3 won't be the reason I finally upgrade my 182.06 drivers....on to UT2004 maps!

 

[nawrot]

That may be some shaders on those maps. I had similar bug few years ago in Oblivion. Everything was fine, but when i started oblivion in 3d stereoscopic mode some certain shelf in castle always crashed game. After i reinstalled windows on new hdd it never happened again. Also ut3 had similar problem, i could not open some material in editor, it always crashed, while other, older computer could open it just fine.

 

[SkaarjMaster]

Halfway through UT2004 reviews and no problems. Once I finish these and some new UT reviews, then I'll dare to try UT3's DM-NecrisRelic again. In the meantime, anyone else having trouble with NecrisRelic on old systems?