WCIII and Radeon8500

Starion15

Distinguished
Apr 28, 2003
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Hey all.

So, here is my (current) problem. I have this game, known as Warcraft III. And, I have a Radeon 8500. Unbeknown to me, they hate eachother with a passion. Atleast when mixing in my computer they do. Has anyone else had any problems running the game with a Radeon 8500? I've tried switching to Cat 3.4. I had it on 3.5's at first. Now I have the Omega 3.5's. None of these will work. I've concluded that its video card related since (against everything the voices in my head said) I plugged back in my old Radeon 7000. Its runs it just fine (like it used too). 'Normal' WCIII freezes, as does the Expansion. It will usually run anywhere from a minute to 5 minutes, then "freezes", or rather I cant move the mouse and nothing is responding, the sound continues however. <i>Most</i> of my other games run great (Rise Of Nations freezes about an hour into the game). Yea, I think thats it.

And no, Kazza cant be beaten! j/k

*Drifts off asleep*
 
You might want to check out Blizzard's <A HREF="http://www.blizzard.com/support/?id=mwr0555p" target="_new"> WCIII Video Issues </A> page. 8500 is supported, though they have a few known issues listed.
 
It is probably not a driver/software problem.

I had a very similar problem with my 9500. I went through all of Blizzard's ideas, nothing worked. On a hunch, I ran a mobo util to monitor my voltages. Putting a load on the graphics card made my 5V rail voltage drop below tolerances, and BAM. Crash.

Even though I had a nice beefy PS it had been damaged by a voltage surge caused by a nearby lightning strike. I found this only when I removed it completely from the mobo and saw the scorch marks. WC3 was the only prog that gave me trouble; probably because it's the only 3d game I play consistently that puts a load on the radeon.

Replacing the PS completely ended the problem. I play WC3:TFT regularly, no crashes since it happened.

Is your PS big enough? Is it working properly? You might want to try monitoring your voltages to see if they are getting out of spec. Just an idea to check, since I know Blizzard doesn't suggest it.

<b>1.4 Ghz AMD T-Bird underclocked to 1 Ghz...just to be safe!</b>