Problems with Unreal 3 Engine Games

[Zonino]

This is my first post, so hello to everyone out there, and I hope you can help.

I've been having major problems with any game that uses the Unreal 3 Engine. Basically after an indeterminate amount of time the screen will go blank, or blank with vertical dotted stripes, the sound will maybe play for a couple more seconds, then it stops and my computer locks up, forcing me to power it off using the power button. When this happens depends on what my graphical settings are at, but it always happens, and it takes the computer with it, even if I play windowed.

So now, the specs. I'm currently running:

Windows Vista 32bit SP1
Athlon Dual Core 7750 2.7Gig (AM2+)
ASUS V-M3N8200 Motherboard
2*2 Gig Corsair DDR2 800 RAM
XFX HD 4850 with 512 Memory

Things like the sound are all onboard.

So, I've been reading around trying to find out more on the problem and trying lots of different things. So far, I've tried:

Using older drivers (no success)
Checking the temps (the card idles at 40-45 celcius, and I stress tested it with non unreal 3 engine games like CoD:W@W with max settings, the card went to 75 and was fine, the games I'm having problems with don't even tax it that high)
Disabling the onboard sound (no success)
Making a profile using the Catalyst Control Centre to turn off Powerplay (no need, as far as I can tell, the card doesn't attempt to underclock at all, the clock values remain constant).

The only thing that I can remember being mentioned that I've not tried is underclocking the card myself. I think I remember reading that XFX slightly overclocks the card, but CCC gives me no option to go below the value it's set at, I can only overclock. I tried Rivatuner but it says it doesn't support my driver (10-2).

So I think that's everything. I'd appreciate any and all help you can give, and I apologise if this has been answered before, but I'm just having no luck finding a solution anywhere. The main thing I want to know is what the safest way to underclock my card is. I want to try everything I can before I give up on it.

 

[flyinfinni]

Well- you know, maybe reinstalling all your drivers and uninstalling all your other monitoring programs and stuff fixed it. Hope thats the case, but good luck in any case. If you end up having to reformat- I'm sorry.

 

[Zonino]

Damn, didn't realise Last Remnant was so bad for ATI cards. It's a shame though because I'm really enjoying it.

I hope I won't have to reformat. I was able to play the game there for almost an hour full screen, which is quite rare. I'm going to have to give other games a try too.

 

[RazberyBandit]

Well it's not that the game will break them. They just don't run it very well. At least, they definitely didn't used to... I haven't really heard much about it since not too long after the game was pulled from Tom's bench suite. Another site was using it in their bench suite, too, but I can't remember which it was.

Instead of games, you could always try something generic, like UniGine's Tropics or Heaven benchmark programs. They'll just run, and run, and continue running as long as you want or until the system crashes. They should both stress the card at 100% load the whole time, too. And, they'll run windowed so you can monitor temps as it runs. Could use FurMark, too, but that program heats cards up in an unnatural manner.

If this problem occurs in one of these, as well as your Unreal 3 Engine games, then there's something seriously off with that card or your software.

 

[Zonino]

I've run furmark a couple of times using the stability test and it had no problems. I also played Batman: Arkham Asylum there and got past the point it crashed at before with the same settings.

The only real thing I can think of is the driversweeper thing. I had it check for nvidia drivers and lo behold it found one, which at first I thought was strange... then I remembered that this motherboard has an onboard gForce which I disabled as soon as I made the computer. Why the driver was there I don't know... I can only wonder if that fixed it.

 

[Zonino]

Best answer selected by Zonino.

 

[Guest]

i have problem with that too.. i have GeForce 9600 gso.. and same thing happens every time.. it started with Last Remnant.. and from then it happens with Alpha Protocol, Ghost Worrior, Batman... i cant se solution in this posts.. so can anyone help me?