ukilledthecat

I decided to upgrade a few things in anticipation of the release of Battlefield 2. So today, I upgraded my RAM from 512-1GB, no problem. Because I have an aging Dell 2350, my range of video card options shrinks considerably with only the old PCI slots. So I went to Best Buy and picked out the best thing they had for my system,an ATI Radeon 9250 256Mb PCI, installed it, no problem with that. But when I go to try the demo of BF2 or Battlefield Vietnam and 1942, I get an error, the game crashes and I'm p***** off. When I try the demo, the graphics are screwed up and an error saying that the video card got stuck in an infinite loop and had to restart. So I have the latest drivers and DirectX dl's. but the DxDiag app says that none of the 3D acceleration, draw capabilites and whatnot are unavailable. Any help or should I be shopping somewhere else?

Alex9fa21

I'm having a problem with the SAME exact card. I cant see Red/Green or anything like that.

UncleMacro

It could be some kind of driver problem. Please run DXDiag and then click the "Save All Information" button and save the dxdiag.txt file. Then include dxdiag.txt in your next post as an attachment. It's very handy in tracing down driver problems.

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buckyball20

I am having the same dang problem. My system runs fine using fairly high-end games... Swat 4, Silent Hill 4, Deus Ex 2 all run flawlessly with great graphics. Buuut, after downloading the 546Mb Battlefield 2 Demo, lo and behold... nothing. The processor panics when the game hits the login screen (I assume that that is when the graphics are initialized). Since I cannot wait to play BF2, I was hoping someone might have some advice.

I formatted my PC to make sure it wasn't some obscure problem, installed the latest catalyst drivers, and tried again - same problem.

The error message that comes up is one from "VPU Recover" saying that the graphics card must be reset. I did try turning of VPU Recover to no avail.

Results from dxdiag, and an excerpt from BF2 Demo Readme file (vid. card compatabilities) follow. Thanks to anyone who takes the time to help me.

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 6/14/2005, 22:43:10
Machine name: BRYN
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: HP Pavilion 061
System Model: DT156A-ABA A336N
BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.0
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.60GHz
Memory: 504MB RAM
Page File: 536MB used, 691MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
DirectX Files Tab: No problems found.
Display Tab 1: No problems found. DirectDraw test results: All tests were successful. Direct3D 7 test results: All tests were successful. Direct3D 8 test results: All tests were successful. Direct3D 9 test results: All tests were successful.
Sound Tab 1: DirectSound test results: All tests were successful.
Sound Tab 2: DirectSound test results: All tests were successful.
Music Tab: DirectMusic test results: All tests were successful.
Input Tab: No problems found.
Network Tab: No problems found. DirectPlay test results: The tests were cancelled before completing.

--------------------
DirectX Debug Levels
--------------------
Direct3D: 0/4 (n/a)
DirectDraw: 0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (n/a)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (n/a)
DirectPlay: 0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow: 0/6 (retail)

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: RADEON 9250
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: RADEON 9250 (0x5960)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_5960&SUBSYS_20021002&REV_01
Display Memory: 256.0 MB
Current Mode: 800 x 600 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: SyncMaster 753DF(T)/ 783DF(T), MagicSyncMaster AQ17DF
Monitor Max Res: 1280,1024
Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6542 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 5/12/2005 20:15:28, 228864 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
VDD: n/a
Mini VDD: ati2mtag.sys
Mini VDD Date: 5/12/2005 20:15:07, 1198080 bytes
Device Identifier: {D7B71EE2-1A20-11CF-3C6A-0800A0C2CB35}
Vendor ID: 0x1002
Device ID: 0x5960
SubSys ID: 0x20021002
Revision ID: 0x0001
Revision ID: 0x0001
Video Accel:
Deinterlace Caps: n/a
Registry: OK
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Not Available
DDraw Test Result: All tests were successful.
D3D7 Test Result: All tests were successful.
D3D8 Test Result: All tests were successful.
D3D9 Test Result: All tests were successful.

Battlefield 2 only supports the following video cards:

Radeon X700 (PCIe)
Radeon X600 (PCIe)
GeForce 6600 (PCIe)
GeForce PCX 5900 (PCIe)
GeForce 5800 Series (AGP)
ATI Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition
ATI Radeon X800 PRO
ATI Radeon 9800 Series
ATI Radeon 9600 Series
ATI Radeon 9550 (RV350LX)
ATI Radeon 9500 / 9700 Series
ATI Radeon 8500 Series
ATI Radeon X300 Series
NVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra
NVidia GeForce 6800 GT
NVidia GeForce 6800
NVidia GeForce FX 5950 Series
NVidia GeForce FX 5900 Series
NVidia GeForce FX 5700 Series

(NOTE ATI Radeon 9250 absent from the list... maybe I am wasting time!)

UncleMacro

To buckyball20 (cool name by the way):
All of the cards on their BF2 list are DirectX 9 cards with the exception of the Radeon 8500 which is a DirectX 8.1 card. A Radeon 9250 is basically a cut-down version of the 8500 and is also a DirectX 8.1 card. It's kind of odd that they would support an 8500 and not support a 9250 but given that your drivers look fine and it works fine with other games, it may be that they just won't support your card. There are also some slow DirectX 9 cards like the FX5200, FX5500 that they claim not to support. I would think that it would run on a 9250 but a bit slowly. That's normally the way game developers operate. If it can work on the card then they let it run even if it performs poorly. The only way you'll know for sure is by searching around on game forums and see if you can find someone running it on a 9250. If there isn't anyone, then EA may be very strict about what kinds of cards they'll accept.

__________________

buckyball20

UncleMacro, thanks for the reply... I have tried to find someone with success using the 9250, but have found nobody as of yet. I did find somebody running a similar system setup (same RAM, slower CPU, same OS) with a Radeon 9200- I am inclined to think the 9250 would be a better model, but could not find out for sure.

Maybe this is my punishment for looking for good value instead of a quality graphics card.

Oh and BTW... #$%& you EA.

buckyball20

This from the ATI website: product comparison of ATI Radeon 9200 series.

CARD
1) Performance
2) Frame Buffer Support
3) Memory Interface

Radeon® 9200SE (AGP Only)
1) Fast
2) 128MB DDR
3) 64-bit

Radeon® 9200 (AGP and PCI)
1) Faster
2) 128MB and 256MB (AGP only)
3) 128-bit

Radeon® 9250 (AGP)
1) Faster*
2) 128MB and 256MB
3) 128-bit and 64-bit

Any ideas why the 9200 would run BF2 and not the 9250?

UncleMacro

Your 9250 is the 256MB model which means you have 128 bit memory. So the only difference between a 9200 and your 9250 is that the GPU runs at 250MHz for the 9200 and 240MHz for your 9250. Other than that they are identical. The fact that you have 256MB on a low-endish video card may also be upsetting the game. I don't know of any way to force the ATI drivers to act like you only have 128MB. Have you tried uninstalling your current Catalysts and trying older ones? I haven't heard of problems with the newer ones on 9250s but that could be a reason why someone else with the same hardware can run a game and you can't. Since BF2 crashes immediately, it has nothing to do with overheating and since it's a PCI card it has nothing to do with AGP problems. This just sounds like a software problem but all you can try is various versions of the Catalysts. Keep in mind this is a demo so it could also be bugs in EA's or ATI's software. This thing is new and it may take some time to work the bugs out.

__________________

ukilledthecat

Okay, now that I see that EA refuses to allow this card to play it's game, which I'll find out tomorrow when it is released, what do I do if it doesn't work.

I have the ill feeling in my stomach of corporate product scandal. I'm reading that there really are no more PCI cards out there. And considering that PCI-Express is really a new technology, do these companies expect everyone who wants to play the latest games to run out and buy a brand new computer when the one I have works fine as is?

Save buying a new motherboard, what, may I ask are the PCI-bound people supposed to do? I mean, my comp just rounded it's third year of loyal service. And reading articles from January, PCIX slots on motherboards is than half a year old and already the market has been cornered.

Gah! I will be irritated, highly, if I can't play my game tomorrow. I can understand that the technology is always changing, but so is the same with automobiles, and we don't buy a new car every year. It's like saying that you can't drive on the road unless your car is a gas/electric hybrid. I don't know, I said that if I needed to buy a new computer to play this game, I would, but I simply don't have the capital to go all out and splurge on a machine that will last more than a few months technology-wise.

UncleMacro

Personally, I think you should be equally irritated with Dell for producing a machine which doesn't have an AGP slot. It would probably add about $5 to the cost of the machine and make your life a lot simpler. I see loads of people come through here with chipsets which could handle AGP slots just fine but the OEMs remove the AGP slot and put out hobbled computers. They're basically unexpandable computers. Usually when people buy computers with integrated video they don't realize the lack of flexibility that is built into most of them and the OEMs don't make any attempt to warn people.

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ukilledthecat

What brand of systems should I look at in the future, besides Dell, of course?

UncleMacro

A lot of the people around here including myself build our own computers. That way we know that we are getting quality parts and can plan any future upgrade paths. It can be a bit intimidating the first time you build one but once you get the hang of it, it's no big deal unless you get a DOA component. The last time I actually bought a prebuilt computer was a 66MHz 486 from Gateway so I'm a little out of the loop when it comes to that kind of computer. If I was looking for a prebuilt computer today I'd make sure it has a PCI-Express x16 slot with a decent video card. Maybe someone else can chime in with brands they like (or hate the least).

__________________

Compumaniac12

im a modder of bf2 and ive been obsessed with battlefield for 2 years, i was surprized to see these specs aswell, but to give ya some hope, i bought a geforce 6200 (not on the list) and other then some drivers not likeing me and saying i need to update, it runs perfect... i have heard of some 3rd party drivers that will allow a 9200 and stuff to run bf2, look on totalbf2 and other fan sites, becuz as far as video cards running, theirs 1 simple cuttof the card has to be dx8.1 or 9 supporting. if it is then it should run bf2, tho it may take work to get their.

hairypolack

hey guys i recently purchased the game on the 22nd and instead of getting a game about chinese people fighting americans with terrorists and stuff i got a $50 problem that sent me on a wild goose chase trying to find out just "why?" i am the lucky person with the ATI Radeon 9250 256mb PCI card. I downloaded the demo shortly b4 the game came out and i got errors with the main screen. The game would loadup FINE, i would get the EA games intro in the beginning and then the DICE one shortly after. I would be able to see the Opening video intro with all the fighting at the factory and then? Then a woman comes on and says "Welcome Sold-" where the screen then cuts out into a fuzzy gray screen and locks up there for several seconds. shortly following that is the main screen but i cant click on anything. after several seconds THAT dissapears into a black screen and then it reloads the main menu however this time i lose my pointer and i cant even pretend to click on anything. This is where i thought, ok, a bug in the demo. HA, then i spent $50 on a game that i had to run to 3 different stores to try and find one that wasnt understocked or sold out. Got home, installed and what do u know? yep[ that same shitty problem that i had in the demo. the SAME problem to the tea. and here i am trying to trouble shoot it. I presume they will come out with a patch or something to help out us losers who spent 150 sumodd dollars on a video card that works fine with half life 2 but hmm, WTF EA?

Daniel_K

Hi Guys I am having the same problem with the Radeon 9250... I am using the Battlefield 2 Demo- All of the opening screens go buy fine but as soon as it tries to go the the first game screen, (I assume where you loggin as a player) I get a Blank screen and the music is still playing. Then a VPU recover dialouge box popus up and says its message. After it not working i downloaded the latest catalyst and driver for my video card but the problem still precisted... Is there any way that you can help me make BF2 work with my computer. I have 1.8 Ghz, 512 ram, and the ATI Radeon 9250.... I really want to play Battlefield 2, I have been checking EA's site for new screenshots and videos- I am really anxious to play. I have read the Read Me and saw that this video card is not suported, but i dont understand one thing, i am playing all sorts of other games that are videocard demanding and they work fine...

Thanks
From Daniel

Daniel_K

Hi Guys

I have found the answer to why Battlefield 2 wont work on the Radeon 9250. I emailed ATI and got a reply back... Exact message below:

We have responded to your issue.
Solution:
Battlefield 2 will not run on a Radeon 9250. This is as per the system requirements as stated on the EA Web site.

http://eatech.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/e...i=&p_topview=1

Ticket Information:
Ticket #: 737-833072
Date Created: 6/25/2005 7:20 PM EDT
Category:

To update or check the status of this Ticket:
- Go to: http://support.ati.com/ics/support/d...icketID=833072
- Log in, and you will be automatically taken to the Ticket page.


Customer Care
ATI Technologies Inc.
ati.com

So I guess that BF2 wont run on the 9250 and I am MAD at the Customer service Rep from Emachines that sold me the 9250 to replace my ageing 32mb video card, I got succered into that deal.

Hiero

yea i have the same problem i have a dell dim 3000 w/ radeom 9250 256 mb
mine stops at the account menu w/ the music still playing.

i was hoping for a solution...

But now it sucks..

oh well, i'll just wait for it to come out on the PS2

btw the intro was awesome.

blackMesa

Do any of you happen to know if you can run HL2 on this card?
By the way, don't feel suckered, when he sold it to you, he probibly didn't know that it woulden't run some of your games. This is the BEST card you can get for a PCI slot.

Polak:
All I could imagine was all the while you loading the game, you must have found a secret enterence to another dimention, because I don't remember any lady commin up on screen and saying stuff. Are you sure she didn't say praise allah or something?

My friend just bought this card for his dimention 2400 in hopes of playing Half Life 2. I let him know it may not run too great, but he said go ahed and isntall it anyway. Anyone know average FPS perhaps, something along those lines?



Mesa