Technical questions - crashes

[Guest]

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

I've done a full wipe and reload of my desktop. I've installed WinXP
Pro. The machine is an AMD 2100+, on a Gigabyte 7VRXP motherboard,
with 512 MB of ram. The ram checks out fine with MemTest86.

All WinXP patches are up to date, including Directx v9.0b.

The graphics card is a GeForce 5700 Ultra (128 MB ram), with the
latest drivers (5672).

Frame rate varies from 25 to as high as 130, depending on my location
in game. Aside from brief snags when loading up new areas (like every,
um, whatchamacallit building in Vivec), the game runs very smoothly.

But every 15 minutes or so, the game just crashes. Some times it
disappears, leaving me at my desktop, and other times it sticks at a
black screen, with the sound effects stuttering in the background.,
forcing me to hit reset.

I've done a Google search but haven't turned up anything concrete. Are
there any technically oriented Morrowind sites out there? Anyone have
any suggestions about things to try?


--
Exodus 22:18 can kiss my pagan ass
www.lokari.net

 

[Guest]

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

Lokari wrote:
> I've done a full wipe and reload of my desktop. I've installed WinXP
> Pro. The machine is an AMD 2100+, on a Gigabyte 7VRXP motherboard,
> with 512 MB of ram. The ram checks out fine with MemTest86.
>
> All WinXP patches are up to date, including Directx v9.0b.
>
> The graphics card is a GeForce 5700 Ultra (128 MB ram), with the
> latest drivers (5672).
>
> Frame rate varies from 25 to as high as 130, depending on my location
> in game. Aside from brief snags when loading up new areas (like every,
> um, whatchamacallit building in Vivec), the game runs very smoothly.
>
> But every 15 minutes or so, the game just crashes. Some times it
> disappears, leaving me at my desktop, and other times it sticks at a
> black screen, with the sound effects stuttering in the background.,
> forcing me to hit reset.
>
> I've done a Google search but haven't turned up anything concrete. Are
> there any technically oriented Morrowind sites out there? Anyone have
> any suggestions about things to try?
>
>


Have you checked the temperature of your components, especially the
video card, after one of these crashes. This was one of the biggest
problems I had when I changed my video card to the Radeon 9700 Pro as it
put out a lot more heat. Another thing to check is the power supply
voltages to make sure that the load from running in 3D is not causing
problems. You might also want to see if a different version of the
drivers for the video card helps. Finally if you notice the game
slowing down noticeably just before one of these crashes you may be
running up against the memory leak bug with the game. The only solution
to that one is to save and exit the game.

> --
> Exodus 22:18 can kiss my pagan ass
> www.lokari.net

 

[Guest]

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

"Michael W. Ryder" <mwryder@_worldnet.att.net> wrote:

>Have you checked the temperature of your components, especially the
>video card, after one of these crashes.

That was one of the hints I stumbled across in my search. I have a
case from 3DCool, and have most of the fans disabled (noisy), but I
turned the two that blow over the video card back on. Temp is running
at 35C/95F.

>Another thing to check is the power supply voltages to make sure
>that the load from running in 3D is not causing problems.

It's a 300 watt supply, which should be adequate. Of course, wattage
isn't the only relevant aspect. The voltages seem fine, but I can't
really look at them while under the Morrowind load.

>You might also want to see if a different version of the
>drivers for the video card helps.

I tried the Omega driver (www.omegacorner.com), with no joy. I've just
downloaded a couple of others from NVidia, and will be trying them.

I'm also going through the step-by-steps from the Morrowind home site
forums, trying a variety of things. Most of the things I'm doing seem
to make the problems worse - I can't actually get into the game at all
any more.

I'm concerned that my audio may be involved - I'm using the built-in
audio on my motherboard. Creative AudioPCI. There don't seem to be any
driver updates available anywhere for it. At some point here I'm going
to try disabling the audio completely at the OS level, and see what
that does. I've got a perfectly good Turtle Beach card in the basement
I could try, as well.

Thanks for the reply. I'll keep plugging along.


--
Exodus 22:18 can kiss my pagan ass
www.lokari.net

 

[Guest]

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

Lokari wrote:
> I've done a full wipe and reload of my desktop. I've installed WinXP
> Pro. The machine is an AMD 2100+, on a Gigabyte 7VRXP motherboard,
> with 512 MB of ram. The ram checks out fine with MemTest86.
>
> All WinXP patches are up to date, including Directx v9.0b.
>
> The graphics card is a GeForce 5700 Ultra (128 MB ram), with the
> latest drivers (5672).
>
> Frame rate varies from 25 to as high as 130, depending on my location
> in game. Aside from brief snags when loading up new areas (like every,
> um, whatchamacallit building in Vivec), the game runs very smoothly.
>
> But every 15 minutes or so, the game just crashes. Some times it
> disappears, leaving me at my desktop, and other times it sticks at a
> black screen, with the sound effects stuttering in the background.,
> forcing me to hit reset.
>
> I've done a Google search but haven't turned up anything concrete. Are
> there any technically oriented Morrowind sites out there? Anyone have
> any suggestions about things to try?

Well you've given us a good clue already. You have the latest driver
for your sound card? If you do then try turning the sound quality
settings down in game options. There are often more problems with sound
issues in games than video. And yes, a sound problem can get you
dropped to the desktop quick.
McG.

>
>
> --
> Exodus 22:18 can kiss my pagan ass
> www.lokari.net

 

[Guest]

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

Lokari wrote:

> It's a 300 watt supply, which should be adequate.

Sometimes the 300W is in fact only printed on sticker. What is the
manufactor of the PSU?

> Of course, wattage
> isn't the only relevant aspect. The voltages seem fine, but I can't
> really look at them while under the Morrowind load.

Motherboard Monitor 5 running in background...

> I tried the Omega driver (www.omegacorner.com), with no joy. I've just
> downloaded a couple of others from NVidia, and will be trying them.

What about other games? Are they OK?
What mods did you installed?

> I'm concerned that my audio may be involved - I'm using the built-in
> audio on my motherboard. Creative AudioPCI. There don't seem to be any
> driver updates available anywhere for it. At some point here I'm going
> to try disabling the audio completely at the OS level, and see what
> that does. I've got a perfectly good Turtle Beach card in the basement
> I could try, as well.

In morrowind.ini, in General section insert:
Disable Audio=1

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[Guest]

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

PeterC@nym.alias.net.almost (nospam) wrote:

>Your system sounds kick-ass.

Shhh. My SO might hear you, which will make my potential upgrade plans
much harder to implement. My 8x AGP capable video card is languishing
on a 4x motherboard, poor little thing.


>Oddly enough, you may get better performance by limiting
>your frame rate. Wait! Hear me out.

I know you're right. I finally used my brain and went to the Morrowind
forums, and read the guides there. I set my max fps to 60, just as you
recommended. That worked fine for me last night.


>Hint: a game FPS faster than your monitor is
>pointless (I suspect your monitor isn't running
>at 130). 😀

A $200 Samsung 19"? No, not nearly 130



--
Exodus 22:18 can kiss my pagan ass
www.lokari.net

 

[Guest]

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

nospam wrote:
||

<some (more) snipapge>

||
|| Hint: a game FPS faster than your monitor is
|| pointless (I suspect your monitor isn't running
|| at 130). 😀
||

I thought it was a FPS faster than double your refresh? Something to do
with the monitor having to scan twice per frame? Have I got bunk info here?

Cheers,
-joe.

--


________________________________________________
I must be lost: I've passed the point of no return
three times in the last hour.

 

[Guest]

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

aR2r <ar2r@mod-works.com.spamuniet> wrote:

>> New possibility. I notice on my motherboard that the four 'can'
>> capacitors nearest the CPU are "boiling out".

>Let me guess - Abit or Epox ?

Gigabyte. I take it those others suffer from the same kind of trouble?

I don't know much about the internal physics of capacitors, but I have
to believe that having the resin leaking out will affect their
electrical properties and behavior, which in turn will affect the
whole motherboard operation. Surely this is not a good thing.

In the past I've uses Asus motherboards with good success. The only
reason I went with Gigabyte this time is that the on-board audio of my
last Asus picked up an annoying amount of noise from other
peripherals. I mean that I could hear a high-pitched whine on my
speakers every time I moved my mouse. Truly irritating to a
perfectionist like me.

Since I've about committed to not using any on-board audio, especially
if it's Creative Labs, I guess I should look to Asus again. They've
got a pretty good reputation, and I can get a basic board for about
$75. Maybe I'll investigate MSI this time around, too.

What a PITA. The cost doesn't bother me, and installing a motherboard
isn't a big deal - takes about an hour or so to go over the
connections twice to ensure everything is right before hitting the Big
Red Switch. But the research effort to pick the best board for the
price is annoying, and it really irritates me that the current board
is having these problems when it really isn't very old.



--
Exodus 22:18 can kiss my pagan ass
www.lokari.net

 

[Guest]

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

Wed, 09 Jun 2004 16:34:29 -0500, na alt.games.morrowind, Lokari napisa³(a):

> Gigabyte. I take it those others suffer from the same kind of trouble?

Yep. Specialy good-old Abit BH6 and others, some of the Epox 8RDA+ IIRC.

> I don't know much about the internal physics of capacitors, but I have
> to believe that having the resin leaking out will affect their
> electrical properties and behavior, which in turn will affect the
> whole motherboard operation. Surely this is not a good thing.

Exactly, I think you shuold visit some good electronic workshop, and ask if
they can replace these caps with new one, it may help.

> Since I've about committed to not using any on-board audio, especially
> if it's Creative Labs, I guess I should look to Asus again. They've
> got a pretty good reputation, and I can get a basic board for about
> $75. Maybe I'll investigate MSI this time around, too.

AMD platform?

> What a PITA. The cost doesn't bother me, and installing a motherboard
> isn't a big deal - takes about an hour or so to go over the
> connections twice to ensure everything is right before hitting the Big
> Red Switch. But the research effort to pick the best board for the
> price is annoying, and it really irritates me that the current board
> is having these problems when it really isn't very old.

You should check some forums and hardware usnet groups, mayby someone will
give you solution...

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