Game Crashes and flashing screens

DzrtFox · #1 July 24th, 2005, 12:36 PM

OK I checked all tabs (and ran all tests) using DXDiag and no conflicts or problems were found. I had already checked background tasks and closed everything except for Explorer and Systray before running it.

I'm using an on-board sound chip, looking in my device manager it just says "Via AC '97 Audio Controller". All DirectSound tests run fine in DXDiag.

I will try running with sound off for a little while and see if it helps. I guess I should've clarified earlier that I am usually able to play a few turns before the freeze-up happens. It generally seems to happen after I've played 3 or 4 turns, but it has also happened 3 separate times when trying to play a single PBEM turn...

DzrtFox · #2 July 24th, 2005, 05:07 PM

I'm not 100% sure yet but it looks like turning sound off has fixed the problem. I even went back to full-screen mode (which seemed to freeze more frequently) and so far have made it about 20 turns into a battle with no problem. I will follow up if the problem reoccurs, but for now it appears the problem is sound-related. I know I have the latest driver for this chip, as one hasn't been released in quite awhile...

DRG · #3 July 24th, 2005, 05:30 PM

Quote:

DzrtFox said:
I'm not 100% sure yet but it looks like turning sound off has fixed the problem. I even went back to full-screen mode (which seemed to freeze more frequently) and so far have made it about 20 turns into a battle with no problem. I will follow up if the problem reoccurs, but for now it appears the problem is sound-related. I know I have the latest driver for this chip, as one hasn't been released in quite awhile...

Play a few times with the sound off then save a game and turn the sound back on again. Remember if you do crash the autosave will catch the last full turn so you won't be losing your games completely. If you can establish that sound off = Good and sound on = Bad let us know. You may be one of the few who has a problem with the MP3 sound files. If that does indeed turn out to be the problem the patch ( which will be released in a couple of weeks ) has instructions on how to convert the MP3's in the game to WAV format. This may not sound like a great solution but a full set of WAV files in an equivalent sound quality would be an 80+ MB download so converting is quicker and easier for everyone all the way around

Don

DzrtFox · #4 July 24th, 2005, 05:37 PM

OK I'll let you know how it turns out...

Thanks for the help.

DzrtFox · #5 July 24th, 2005, 06:50 PM

OK I'm almost positive it's the sound now.

With SoundFX off I finished my last scenario and played the first several turns of another scenario with no problem. I turned SoundFX back on and the game froze up within two turns. I rebooted, turned SoundFX back off, loaded my Autosave and finished the rest of the scenario without problem.

DRG · #6 July 24th, 2005, 08:09 PM

While you were playing with sound ON did the sound FX appear to be playing normally up until the freeze up??

Don

DRG · #7 July 24th, 2005, 08:17 PM

Just before your game locks up with sound on did you notice if there was an intensive use of sound just before the crash ?? i.e. gun or tank battles where lots of things were happening at once and did the crashes occur during your turn or the AI's turn ( or both ...)???

Don