Far Cry 2 crashing issue

[)Cayman(]

Hi,

it seems that when in game it crashes a ridiculous amount,

detailed symptoms;

screen freezes, then goes a little darker, then back to normal, then goes black with the same brightness change every second or so. the sound is playing throughout. i have to alt f4 to get back to desktop

sometimes the crash sort of stops and i can resume playing, only to crash again after a few seconds a play

it happens after a few seconds or after 5 mins. the thing is, some days i can play it for hours on end with no problems whatsoever, and then some days it crashes constantly!

IT DRIVING ME CRAAAAZYYY!!!


to prempt any unhelpful posts, no offense, i've updated all my drivers for EVERYTHING (specs below). the only driver that is slightly out of date is the display as the latest one was causing CTD's!...im on catalyst 8.11/8.12

registry has been cleaned, havent defragged for about a month




specs:
dell dimension e520
intel core 2 duo 6300 @1.86ghz
2gb DDR2 ram @ 400-667 mhz
ASUS EAHD 4670
XP SP3
integrated sound
350w DELL PSU.- i know its feeble but as i said above it is proven that it works!!!!!!!

thanks in advance!!

PS, all other games run fine (cod4 etc) and this problem only occurs in single player mode!

[darklord_v]

list your temps and voltages .

[RockmasteR]

I'm gonna give a sound fix, as audio devices could cause lots of problems in games.
just try it and you will not loose a thing

ok here we go :

open Control Panel and open audio and sounds devices

under speaker settings click advanced now click on performance tab
now you need to move the pointer near the Hardware acceleration two steps to the left (so the description under hardware acceleration would be Basic...)

now apply the settings and try the game again.

if that didn't work for you try this thread :

it's for assassin's Creed but it meant to be for games that spend lots of memory even if you have 2 gigs of RAM

here is the thread : http://www.techsupportforum.com/gami...d-crashes.html


EDIT : OH AND YOUR PSU IS SO WEAK!!!

it'll damage your PC components I think you should take Mcninjaguy's advice and get a 650 W PSU or at least a 500 W

[Mcninjaguy]

its your PSU

no way that your dell 350w PSU could power a 4670 properly.

Corsair 650w PSU (same price as the 550w PSU)
$100
after rebate $75
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139005

[)Cayman(]

yes my psu is weak, but as i said, on more than 2 occasions i've been able to play it for at least 3 hrs with absolutely no problems!....this suggests its a software or RAM or overheating issue does it not?

i've tried ur fixes and they dont seem to work (also doing what ubisoft told me to do aswell- refresh rate 60,1280x960, affinity to one core.)

any other suggestions?

also that RAM pro thing confused me, dont know if i did it right....

[RockmasteR]

you just need to launch the RAM software, i'll show in the system tray (it'll show you how much RM you have free)

launch the game and load a saved game, when you are playing minimize it and right click on the FREERAM XP Pro and choose free 10%
return to the game and see if it crashes after a while or not, if not that should do it and you need to do the same thing when you exit and reenter the game again.

[Mcninjaguy]

your PSU has proven to me that it doesn't work when you say your computer has had random restarts and it only occurred when you start a game

[Tiber Septim]

I agree, the PSU is very weak.
Have you checked the voltages when idle and under load? If the system is drawing too much from the PSU, there's a good chance the voltages will fluctuate beyond a safe range, which will cause the crashes, restarts etc.
You can use programs like SensorsView or Everest to check the voltages.

[)Cayman(]

Originally Posted by Mcninjaguy

your PSU has proven to me that it doesn't work when you say your computer has had random restarts and it only occurred when you start a game

at no point did i say i had random restarts!!

THE POINT im trying to get across is that it cant be a problem with my psu as i've been able to play this game for hours on end WITH NO PROBLEMS!

im planning to invest in some faster RAM, will that fix it?, gonna get 2 gigs of 800mhz OCZ or corsair....

also........heres a strange thing that happens with it........

when im loading a save game and the splash screens of the far cry 2 world come up with the loading spinny thing and the quote thing, if it takes THREE splashscreens before im in game, the game will run fine indefinetly. BUT when there are only 2 SPLASHSCREENS during loading the game will do aforementioned crash/freeze thing. also when the game sound effects dont cut in the the loading it will run fine too, but when they do i have the crash/freeze issue.


PLZ help, im getting to the end of my tether with this game.......





oh and shen i went to set the ram for far cry 2 i saw this......;



looks like i've managed to install it twice....however no.2 seems to have less stuff in it, its missing all the dll's and DAT files.

could this have caused the problem?

[Tiber Septim]

Yeah, I have no idea how you managed to do that.
Do a complete uninstall/reinstall, see if that works.

Anyway, even if your PSU isn't causing you problems right now, it will eventually. I strongly recommend keeping an eye on your voltages, using the program/s I listed above. If you see the +12v rail drop below 11.4 or go above 12.6, consider getting a better PSU.
Another thing to check is how many amps are running on your +12v rail. For a card like that you would want at least 26 amps. Anything less would be affecting performance.

[Mcninjaguy]

thats hilarious I have no idea how patient you are but I guess that took a lot of testing to get that figured out.

I think the freeramXp program thing needs some time to free up ram or something that's just odd

[RockmasteR]

What are you doing!!!!!
that's not how it works LOL!!!

just launch the freeram XP pro software, and minimize it to tray, don't launch the game from the software, just launch the game as always,
then minimize it when you start a new game, and just right click on FreeRAM Xp pro, and select to free 10% of RAM, it'll take 2 seconds

[)Cayman(]

kk, will do, SO PEOPLE!!!! ARE WE SURE THAT MY PSU IS THE PROBLEM?????????

i can get a new one. 550w enough???????

its a bit annoying really cos i bought my card cos i didnt want to get a new psu (hd4670 has not power connectors) i was gonna get a 9600GSO lol....and now i need a new PSU for THIS ONE!!!!!!!!

so are u sure?

[Mcninjaguy]

yes I am 100% sure you need a new one

[Tiber Septim]

Originally Posted by )Cayman(

kk, will do, SO PEOPLE!!!! ARE WE SURE THAT MY PSU IS THE PROBLEM?????????

Have you checked any of the things I have listed in my previous posts in this thread?

Have you checked the voltages when idle and under load? If the system is drawing too much from the PSU, there's a good chance the voltages will fluctuate beyond a safe range, which will cause the crashes, restarts etc.
You can use programs like SensorsView or Everest to check the voltages.

I strongly recommend keeping an eye on your voltages, using the program/s I listed above. If you see the +12v rail drop below 11.4 or go above 12.6, consider getting a better PSU.
Another thing to check is how many amps are running on your +12v rail. For a card like that you would want at least 26 amps. Anything less would be affecting performance.

[)Cayman(]

ok, im in the process of testing the things u've said tiber....

although, upon calling the ubisoft helpline (i thought it was a software problem), one of them said my cpu was too slow....its a core 2 duo 6300 @1.86ghz. i know its not the fastest thing in the world but its well within the system requirements of the game...he also kept saying it wasnt a duo..but it has 2 EFFING CORES!!!!...and i hvae proof if anyone wants it.

so i dont think he's right....do you?

so...for a dell dimension e520....do i need a specific type of PSU....i think its BTW or somin but ATX will fit?..i really dont know, im very new to psu's and what all the numbers and abbreviations mean....so tell me what i need to find out!??!!!

[)Cayman(]

neither of those programs, everest or sensorsview, are allowing me to monitor voltages or any power levels....hmmm

[Mcninjaguy]

go into your bios to view PSU voltages

don't worry that ubisoft support guy is just an idiot

[Tiber Septim]

Originally Posted by )Cayman(

he also kept saying it wasnt a duo..but it has 2 EFFING CORES!!!!...and i hvae proof if anyone wants it.

I don't know what he was smoking.
Yeah, it's not the fastest, but it should still be playable and I doubt it would cause the crashing.

[Mcninjaguy]

whatever he was smoking should be stopped I bet Dell supoort is using the same stuff. Bad don't do drugs at all especially if you do support for games.

Yea slow CPU would cause lag not crashing!