Computer Problem Out of Video Memory

**chilidog** · 08-19-2005, 01:59

Howdy yall. I'm new to the Org. I spend a lot of time at EZBoard. My problem: I can't fight battles. I get the message "Hard sprites failed to load. DDER_OUTOF VIDEOMEMORY (8876017C)" I also get a strange trapezoidal shaped image that covers about half the campaign map. What's going on? Here are my specs:

Windows XP Home Edition 2002 version Service Pack 2
2.2 GHz Intel Celeron
40 GB Ultra DMA, 28.56GB free
128 MB DDR
48 Max Read CDROM
3D Intel Extreme Graphics AGP, Intel 82845G Graphics Controller, High Color, 1024x768 screen area, 75Hz refresh rate.

I have no problems with the campaign map.

I appreciate any help.

**EatYerGreens** · 08-19-2005, 04:04

Quick anwer: -
128Mb RAM is listed on the back of the CD case under 'Minimum Specifications'. In other words, set the lowest screen resolution the game will support and turn off all the SFX/Fauna bells and whistles.

Choose the smallest unit size and try to get a custom battle started, with 16 units on both sides. If that works okay, increase unit size and repeat the process until it just starts to struggle a bit and that should be your optimal level for campaign mode.
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Remedial measures:-

Look up the specifications for your Vid Card and find out how much on-board memory it has. Let us know as it may help diagnose what's wrong.

The problem is that AGP cards are designed to 'borrow' motherboard memory at times when the demands of what is being displayed are particularly high. Chances are you don't have enough spare mobo RAM to cope with whatever shortfall the gfx card is suffering from.

I have a thing called Freemem Pro and, after I've done the routine shutdown of background tasks before running MTW (playing offline, so this includes closing Mcafee VirusScan, Firewall and Security Centre), Freemem tells me that just Windows XP SP2, at the desktop is using up something like 280-290 MB of RAM (I have 1 Gig).

If you hear a lot of disk activity on your PC (or watch the HDD activity LED if you can't properly hear the HDD chuntering) almost every time you open a major application or game and frequently while the program runs, then it's a sign that your swapfile is getting heavy useage. Most home users will happily tolerate this sort of thing but it's a symptom of not having enough motherboard RAM and it is most noticeable in the form of slow/poor performance in games.

Next, check your motherboard specifications to see what memory types/speeds/configs it can support (eg DDR/SDD/other), how many pins per strip and so on. Write this all down for when you visit the parts shop. Actually, online stores seem to offer the best in memory prices but it fluctuates from week to week, apparently. Pick the right week and order a gigabyte, if your mobo can support it.

Install as instructed and be prepared to bin/mothball your old memory strips, or sell them off, if you can.

Important:- buy the extra RAM before you splash out money on an expensive new vid card since that probably won't fix the problem by itself. Even a 512Mb gfx card may attempt to borrow system RAM from time to time and, as I've said, I reckon 128Mb isn't even enough for the XP SP2 operating system by itself, let alone adding the game on top.

HTH