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Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

Hi!

I have a problem with UR2k4 here in that whenever I run it (at various
points, but always fairly soon after starting) it crashes my machine
(instant reset to post). I have no clue why this happends as all other
software and games runs just fine. Any suggestions on troubleshoting and
fixing this would be very welcome.

System:
1024MB RAM
AMD 3000
WinXP Pro SP2
DX 9.0b
Radeon 9100
Catalyst 4.2
Unpatched UT

TIA
Thomas
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

"Thomas Andersson" <steiner@tifozi.net> wrote in message
news:2ic111Flm6keU1@uni-berlin.de...
> Hi!
>
> I have a problem with UR2k4 here in that whenever I run it (at various
> points, but always fairly soon after starting) it crashes my machine
> (instant reset to post). I have no clue why this happends as all other
> software and games runs just fine. Any suggestions on troubleshoting and
> fixing this would be very welcome.
>
> System:
> 1024MB RAM
> AMD 3000
> WinXP Pro SP2
> DX 9.0b
> Radeon 9100
> Catalyst 4.2
> Unpatched UT
>
> TIA
> Thomas
>
>

Where did you get XP SP2 from?
It's still only a release candidate and should not have been installed on a
computer you intended to use in a non test environment.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

MeltDown wrote:

>> I have a problem with UR2k4 here [...] Unpatched UT
>
> Try patching it.

So this is a known problem then?

Best Wishes
Thomas
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

Thomas Andersson wrote:
> Hi!
>
> I have a problem with UR2k4 here in that whenever I run it (at various
> points, but always fairly soon after starting) it crashes my machine
> (instant reset to post). I have no clue why this happends as all other
> software and games runs just fine. Any suggestions on troubleshoting and
> fixing this would be very welcome.
>
> System:
> 1024MB RAM
> AMD 3000
> WinXP Pro SP2
> DX 9.0b
> Radeon 9100
> Catalyst 4.2
> Unpatched UT
>
> TIA
> Thomas

I had the same problem. I play several games on a linux box I built.
All worked great, including UT2004 - for a *long* time. Then UT2004
started crashing, and only UT2004. By crashing, I mean back to POST. I
figured, given that UT2004 puts my machine to a real work out, it might
be heat. After last crash, I went into setup and checked the CPU temp.
YUP! Then I tore the case off and took a look around. Dust
everywhere including a landfill's worth between the CPU fan and
heatsink. I removed the fan from the heatsink and applied a liberal
dose of vacuum cleaner.

Problem solved.

Since you also have an AMD machine, you might try the same.

Ari
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

Thomas Andersson enlightened us with:
> So this is a known problem then?

Well, you didn't exactly describe a problem. You only told us it
crashes. You might want to look at it's log file to find out more, and
read our FAQ.

MeltDown
--
!For all your UT99/2k3/2k4 questions visit UnrealTower's FAQ section:
! http://www.unrealtower.org/faq
!Home of the FAQs for agut and agut2003.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

MeltDown wrote:

> Well, you didn't exactly describe a problem. You only told us it
> crashes. You might want to look at it's log file to find out more, and
> read our FAQ.

Ah, sorry, well, I doubt there's any time to enter any logs and there's
realy no time to register any problem. One sec everything is fine, the next
your staring at the POST screen. The Windows report thingy logs it a a
device driver problem (but I don't think I've ever seen any other thing
reported). I've upgraded to Catalyst 4.5 as well as patched up UT to the
lastest now to see if it helps.
The Window event viewer shows nothing. Are UT supposed to keep log files to?
At least I can't find any...

Best Wishes
Thomas
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

Ari Rankum wrote:

> started crashing, and only UT2004. By crashing, I mean back to POST.
> I figured, given that UT2004 puts my machine to a real work out, it
> might be heat. After last crash, I went into setup and checked the
> CPU temp. YUP! Then I tore the case off and took a look around.
> Dust
> everywhere including a landfill's worth between the CPU fan and
> heatsink. I removed the fan from the heatsink and applied a liberal
> dose of vacuum cleaner.

Thanks, but my case is clean and there are quiet a few fans, I keep an eye
on CPU tempa nd it's not that bad. I use a TT Extreme Volcano fan at full
speed which keeps temps down but it still crashes. I first thought it was
heat to, but I don't think so anymore.

Best Wishes
Thomas
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

"Thomas Andersson" <steiner@tifozi.net> wrote:
>Thanks, but my case is clean and there are quiet a few fans, I keep an eye
>on CPU tempa nd it's not that bad. I use a TT Extreme Volcano fan at full
>speed which keeps temps down but it still crashes. I first thought it was
>heat to, but I don't think so anymore.

What's the temperature of your graphics card GPU? Can you touch the
heatsink without burning your fingers? The silly little fans on those
cards don't hold up very long before the bearings seize up, and the
Radeon 9100 is pretty old...

--
William Smith
ComputerSmiths Consulting, Inc. www.compusmiths.com
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

Thus spake Thomas Andersson on 6/4/2004 3:53 PM:
> I first thought it was
> heat to, but I don't think so anymore.

Are you overclocked? If not, it could also be a problem with your
memory or power supply. Make sure memory is running at its rated BIOS
settings, and try running Memtest http://www.memtest.org/ overnight with
all tests enabled, that will rule in/out your memory. What brand of
Power Supply do you use, what wattage, and how many HD and optical discs
are you powering? The power from your wall could be dirty and the PSU
unable to clean the spikes, or unable to handle peak load of your card
and drives combined. Could be a million other things, but these are the
most common. Good luck.

tb
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

Thomas Andersson wrote:

> Thanks, but my case is clean and there are quiet a few fans, I keep an eye
> on CPU tempa nd it's not that bad. I use a TT Extreme Volcano fan at full
> speed which keeps temps down but it still crashes. I first thought it was
> heat to, but I don't think so anymore.

Okay. Well, if it's doing insta-crash, it's almost surely a hardware
fault of some sort. Seems like you've already checked memory and power.
Has your entire experience with UT2004 been plagued by instant
reboots, or is this new?

I'd probably proceed with backing some things off in the BIOS to see if
the crashing stops. You may get lucky with some experiments and develop
some theories as to what's causing the problem.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

Spinner wrote:

> Where did you get XP SP2 from?
> It's still only a release candidate and should not have been
> installed on a computer you intended to use in a non test environment.

Doh! Sorry about that, it's a typo. I have SP1.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

koop wrote:

>> I first thought it was
>> heat to, but I don't think so anymore.
>
> Are you overclocked? If not, it could also be a problem with your
> memory or power supply. Make sure memory is running at its rated BIOS
> settings, and try running Memtest http://www.memtest.org/ overnight
> with all tests enabled, that will rule in/out your memory. What
> brand of Power Supply do you use, what wattage, and how many HD and
> optical discs are you powering? The power from your wall could be
> dirty and the PSU unable to clean the spikes, or unable to handle
> peak load of your card and drives combined. Could be a million other
> things, but these are the most common. Good luck.

4HDs and 2 optical. Enermax 465W (it held up just fine with full load when I
had 7 HDs + Optical in my machine.
Been running memtest when I installed the ram and it passed fine (Ram is
actually underclocked).
As I said earlier everything esle works fine, both software and games, even
att extreme load without any problems. It's just UT2004 that's affected and
resets my machine.

Best Wishes
Thomas
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

Ari Rankum wrote:

> Okay. Well, if it's doing insta-crash, it's almost surely a hardware
> fault of some sort. Seems like you've already checked memory and
> power. Has your entire experience with UT2004 been plagued by
> instant reboots, or is this new?

I just installed it so it's new, doesn't happend in UT GotY or any other
game. BTW, it often happends before I even get in to the game, when I'm just
in the options menu at the start looking over things.

> I'd probably proceed with backing some things off in the BIOS to see
> if the crashing stops. You may get lucky with some experiments and
> develop some theories as to what's causing the problem.

Hmm, question is if it's worth all the hassle since it's the only game
giving me headaches. Although I love UT and want badly to try red Orchestra
I dunno if I want all the problems as I also need stability for my system.

Best Wishes
Thomas
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

William P.N. Smith wrote:

> What's the temperature of your graphics card GPU? Can you touch the
> heatsink without burning your fingers? The silly little fans on those
> cards don't hold up very long before the bearings seize up, and the
> Radeon 9100 is pretty old...

It's a old chip, but a new card and the fan is fine. I haven't physically
checked the heat though.

Best Wishes
Thomas
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

Thomas Andersson enlightened us with:
> Been running memtest when I installed the ram and it passed fine (Ram
> is actually underclocked).

I suggest you run it again. Because your RAM was good when you bought
it, doesn't mean it is still good.

MeltDown
--
!For all your UT99/2k3/2k4 questions visit UnrealTower's FAQ section:
! http://www.unrealtower.org/faq
!Home of the FAQs for agut and agut2003.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

Thomas Andersson enlightened us with:
> The Window event viewer shows nothing. Are UT supposed to keep log
> files to? At least I can't find any...

Yes, it does. It's called UT2004.log in your UT2004/System dir.

MeltDown
--
!For all your UT99/2k3/2k4 questions visit UnrealTower's FAQ section:
! http://www.unrealtower.org/faq
!Home of the FAQs for agut and agut2003.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

On Fri, 4 Jun 2004 21:31:43 +0200, "Thomas Andersson"
<steiner@tifozi.net> wrote:

>Hi!
>
>I have a problem with UR2k4 here in that whenever I run it (at various
>points, but always fairly soon after starting) it crashes my machine
>(instant reset to post). I have no clue why this happends as all other
>software and games runs just fine. Any suggestions on troubleshoting and
>fixing this would be very welcome.
>
>System:
>1024MB RAM
>AMD 3000
>WinXP Pro SP2
>DX 9.0b
>Radeon 9100
>Catalyst 4.2
>Unpatched UT
>
>TIA
>Thomas
>

From the description, I'd be willing to bet money it's your memory.
If you've got 2 512's, try testing with a single stick.

You could also try more relaxed memory timings or a slight voltage
increase.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

MeltDown wrote:

>> The Window event viewer shows nothing. Are UT supposed to keep log
>> files to? At least I can't find any...
>
> Yes, it does. It's called UT2004.log in your UT2004/System dir.

Ah, found it, but it's empty... (so, not much help there).

Best Wishes
Thomas
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

Thomas Andersson enlightened us with:
> Ah, found it, but it's empty... (so, not much help there).

Hmm... all arrows point to flaky hardware. Or just general windoze
stubbornness. I'd check your memory again, the temperature of your CPU
and also your video card, and try another PSU.

MeltDown
--
!For all your UT99/2k3/2k4 questions visit UnrealTower's FAQ section:
! http://www.unrealtower.org/faq
!Home of the FAQs for agut and agut2003.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

MeltDown wrote:

> Hmm... all arrows point to flaky hardware. Or just general windoze
> stubbornness. I'd check your memory again, the temperature of your CPU
> and also your video card, and try another PSU.

Checked the temp in BIOS after a few crashes and the temp was just 40c so
that's not the cause. Ran a bit of memtest and no errors (gonna do a longer
run though). PSU values are good too.
I tried switching from D3D to software rendering, but it still crashed
(never have time to go through options even before crash).
I ran the Benchmarking tool and that ran all the way through without any
crashes though...

I reay think that if it was bad hardware it would give me problems in other
softwares as well, at least in other newer games.

Best Wishes
Thomas
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

"Thomas Andersson" <steiner@tifozi.net> wrote:
>I have a problem with UR2k4 here in that whenever I run it (at various
>points, but always fairly soon after starting) it crashes my machine

It may have been to fix a BSOD, but others have reported fewer crashes
after clearing the UT cache...

--
William Smith
ComputerSmiths Consulting, Inc. www.compusmiths.com
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

Folk wrote:

> From the description, I'd be willing to bet money it's your memory.
> If you've got 2 512's, try testing with a single stick.

> You could also try more relaxed memory timings or a slight voltage
> increase.

Well, I've just run a 3h prime95 torture test without any warnings or
errors. Timing is fairly relaxed as the mem is underclocked.

Best Wishes
Thomas
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

"Thomas Andersson" <steiner@tifozi.net> wrote in message
news:2ieaj7FmejtsU1@uni-berlin.de...
> Folk wrote:
>
> > From the description, I'd be willing to bet money it's your memory.
> > If you've got 2 512's, try testing with a single stick.
>
> > You could also try more relaxed memory timings or a slight voltage
> > increase.
>
> Well, I've just run a 3h prime95 torture test without any warnings or
> errors. Timing is fairly relaxed as the mem is underclocked.
>
> Best Wishes
> Thomas

Disable Fastwrites in the bios if it isn't.
Can also try deleting your ut2004.ini and it will be rebuilt the
next time you run the game and maybe get rid of the glitch.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (More info?)

Thomas Andersson wrote:
> Folk wrote:
>
>
>>From the description, I'd be willing to bet money it's your memory.
>>If you've got 2 512's, try testing with a single stick.
>
>
>>You could also try more relaxed memory timings or a slight voltage
>>increase.
>
>
> Well, I've just run a 3h prime95 torture test without any warnings or
> errors. Timing is fairly relaxed as the mem is underclocked.
>
> Best Wishes
> Thomas

It may be time to remove, inspect the connections, and re-seat every
component in the system: CPU, memory, power supply connectors, PCI
cards, video, IDE cables.
 
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