PC crashes/freezes during battle

[M.A.D.]

My PC frequently crashes or freezes during battles. I've gone through all the Activision recommendations for this sort of problem but these have made no difference. They are now suggesting that I reduce the size of my page file, I will give this a try but I cant see it making any difference either. I have read several posts suggesting that it may be a cooling or hardware fault but as I can run other intensive games such as Unreal Tournament 2004 I think this is more a MTW problem. Any ideas anyone? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-wall.gif

[Schrodinger's Cat]

Hello M.A.D. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif
I have a similar problem. I've tried a few things but I can't get it to work properly. It doesn't occur often, so it's only a problem on the large battles, especially more than one a turn. I just tend to play through, saving every turn or so, but it is really irritating.
I suggest you have a look in the apothecary. There was someone who had a similar problem who fixed it by updating the drivers for the motherboard, so that's something you can try. I just put my problem down to the overall rubbishness of my PC, but yours sounds like it shouldn't be that.
Anyway, good luck. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-2thumbsup.gif

Schrodie's Cat

[M.A.D.]

Thanks Schrodie, all my drivers are up to date and my PC is pretty well spec'd. I work for an IT support company and someone here has told me there is a directx patch which isnt available on the normal updates. Havent been able to find it yet but if I have any joy I will let you know.

Cheers
Mutual Assured Destruction
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

[octavian]

what size units are you running? this could make a difference if your machine is slightly below par for the game.

and welcome the org M.A.D. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

[M.A.D.]

I am running with a Athlon XP2100+ processor, 512Mb RAM and a FX5600 256Mb graphics card. I think that should be enough. Thanks anyway, I have a few things to try. watch this space...

[Navaros]

i had that problem too and have conclude it's caused by my POS chipset which wouldn't take my VIA GART driver on a Win 98 SE OS

if you have a VIA chipset than maybe that's your problem. just a wild stab in the dark but hey it happened to me so it could happen to other people too

[Gregoshi]

Hi M.A.D. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

Here is a basic question: are you having trouble with STW, STW/WE, MTW or VI? Do you have the patches?

[M.A.D.]

I'm running VI, with the patches. I managed to download an older driver for my graphics card last night and it seems to be running better. Needs more testing though

[SpencerH]

Did you try the extra cooling? In may case, I had the problem with RoN and the game would crash at virtually the same time after starting (i.e. same level of graphics complexity). Just opening the case gave me an extra 10 min before the crash, which suggested something was too hot. With MTW, the crashes are very infrequent but do occur if I've had a lot of very intense battles. It never crashes though with extra cooling.

I think it can be hard to judge how demanding a game is for the video card. I would never have guessed that 10 min into RoN was more demanding than MTW or some other games, but for some reason it is.

[Gregoshi]

Quote[/b] (SpencerH @ May 14 2004,09:27)]Did you try the extra cooling?
You shouldn't need that Spencer. After all, MTW/VI is such a cool game. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Do you have an update for us M.A.D.?

[M.A.D.]

I havent tried the extra cooling. I'm pretty sure its not down to that. MTWVI is the only game that crashes my PC and I'm also a big fan of Unreal Tournament 2004 which is pretty intense for the PC as well as the gamer. Also, the game will crash at the same point if I go back to a previous save and get into the same battle. I can avoid this using auto resolve or by taking steps to avoid the battle altogether. I'd say its defintely down to the game but I am going to try playing with the sides off just to rule out cooling.
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-computer.gif

[Gregoshi]

M.A.D., some more questions:

In your first post you mentioned battles and the last post you talk about one battle. Does this happen in multiple battles?

Does the crash/freeze actually happen in the battle or in the pre/post battle parts? By pre/post battle I mean the loading screen, preview/unit selection screen, battle results screen, etc.

Have you had this problem from day one or did it run fine for a period of time and then start having the problem?

What version of Windows and DirectX do you have?

What kind of sound card do you have?

While you collect your answers to these questions, I'm going to move this over to the Apothecary for their TLC. You will be able to respond to this thread in that forum.