The Official ETW Hardware Problem Solving Thread

[Babblearossa]

Ah ok thanks... So dose having double the ram help at all? And is there a way to convince the game I know best?

Extra ram doesn't help if the game doesn't need it, 2 GB should be enough but you might try
quitting any other programs in case one of them was using a ton of ram.

Your problem sounds like it's the video card driver though, I had no luck at all with nvidia 182.06,
182.08 was better and is playable but I'm still having trouble. I'm happy with the ones greyblade
recommended above, I can finally alt-tab to windows desktop w/o crashing! I have a 8800 GTS 320 mb,
these have worked for at least a couple people, but couldn't find these listed in nvidias 'driver archive'.

Here's the links to them at nvidia.

Nvidia 180.48 XP 32bit(typical xp)
Nvidia 180.48 XP 64bit
Nvidia 180.48 Vista 32bit
Nvidia 180.48 Vista 64bit

[Subotan]

I finally got my computer back up and running again. Thankfully, I was able to reactivate the drivers from the Windows Recovery Console in the bios. However, I have lost access to my old graphics card, and am currently running off my motherboard. I hope to be able to get my new card working, but that doesn't like it will happen in the near future. Subo out.

[Tsavong]

Humm thanks

unfortunetly that driver dose not support my 8600GTS. i experemented with some diffrant drivers but dident get much luck, i guess ill have to live with the game not looking as good as its demo did or M2TW for that matter.

It looks hored on land maps with water as thats just a big black streek on the land were the river should be and they looked realy nice in the demo :(

[Babblearossa]

I finally got my computer back up and running again. Thankfully, I was able to reactivate the drivers from the Windows Recovery Console in the bios. However, I have lost access to my old graphics card, and am currently running off my motherboard. I hope to be able to get my new card working, but that doesn't like it will happen in the near future. Subo out.

You never said what your old card was, what your new card is, what m/b you have or what operating system you're running ( xp/vista ).
I searched and saw lemur recommended an asus card, if you got one of those you should go to the asus support forum where they'll be more expert. vip.asus.com

in xp to switch to new videocard, or update drivers even, i do this.
( oh first I download 'driver sweeper' google for it, is at guru3d, free program )

start button -> settings -> control panel -> Add or remove programs

and uninstall drivers there, i have nvidia card so it's listed as 'Nvidia' there.

then reboot, hit F8 key a lot ( right as computer starts, before windows ) and select 'safe mode' to boot to.

run driver sweeper, select ONLY video driver to clean up after.

* at this point i'd switch old card for new if switching cards *

reboot to normal windows ( running at some realllly low resolution )

when hardware wizard thing appears saying it's found new hardware CLICK CANCEL

go to where the new driver installation files are ( downloaded or on cd, whatever ) and
install using those.

[Subotan]

I have no idea how to checjk the motherboard, and I have a Sapphire card. I'm running XP. My old card soesn't matter, because it's not like I'm ever going back to that now.

The only graphics driver I have running is on the motherboard; last time I disabled that, I got a black screen that I was unable to see out of.

[Otto Khan]

i think my issue may be a hardware problem so here goes.


after playing for twenty minutes to a half hour my laptop will just shutoff. i've played with the power management settings, to no avail. and whenever i turn my pc back on the battery meter will still read full. i'm at a loss on this one and would appreciate any help i could get.

[A Very Super Market]

Plug it in?

Oh, and take the battery out when you do that as well.

[Otto Khan]

nope, A Very Super Market, that wasn't it either. this blows i can play just enough to get a tease. booo!!!

[Babblearossa]

I have no idea how to checjk the motherboard, and I have a Sapphire card. I'm running XP. My old card soesn't matter, because it's not like I'm ever going back to that now.

The only graphics driver I have running is on the motherboard; last time I disabled that, I got a black screen that I was unable to see out of.

your old card might matter if you've incompletely uninstalled the drivers, still, sounds like you might have a defective card, it happens. if you can't even get to windows you should be talking to sapphire experts, I think their semi-official support forum is

http://www.vgaforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=4

[Octwian]

Hello,

I've one problem. When i choose campaign or tutorial, during the loading pointer stop about 50 % in loading. Then move back and goes again forward, and again move back. What should i do? Any tips?

[Xerxes74]

I was wondering if I could get alittle help here before I pulled my hair out completely...

I just installed Empire...
Everything seems to run fine... I select my campaign, select a faction... the map loads up...

After approx. 5 minutes of play the game freezes EVERY SINGLE TIME... most times it will turn off my monitor, other times it will reboot my machine, still other times the monitor will go blank, then come right back to the screen it froze on.

-There are no error messages on screen or in any system logs.
-There is no overheating.

This does not happen with any other game I play on this computer...

I have upgraded my video drivers to the newest versions... this did not help.
I changed the game video settings to the lowest possible selections as per the knowledge base,
this did not help...

Has anyone out there experienced this?
Anyone have any advice or suggestions?
My next step... is to maybe reinstall the game?

My Specs...
- Athlon64 3200+ (2.21mhz)
- 1.25 RAM
- Vid Card = RADEON X1650 w/ 512 memory. (ATI driver: using Catalyst 9.2)

SOS. SOS. SOS. SOS. SOS.

[Immortales]

Hello!

Although many may complain about their problems with ETW I think mine is quite different:
The game produces a BSOD after the initial copyright screen. It says:
„Driver_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_ EQUAL“
STOP 0x0000001d (0x000000, 0x000002, 0x000001, 0xb5b33b9a) save dump.exe
Chaud.sys – Address B5B33B9A base at B5B28000, Date Stamp 43b4611b

This error is permanent and hasn’t changed after updates of the game and the graphics card.

Hopefully anyone can help!
Thx

System:
Win XP Professional Service Pack 3
Core 2 Duo T7200 2000MHz
Nvidia GeForce Go 7900 GS 512MB
Main memory: 2GB RAM

[Barkhorn1x]

Hi i am just writing to see whether you think i will have any problems. My computer specs. are:

Windows XP Home
AMD Athlon 2600+
1.512 GB RAM
128 MB Dedicated INVIDIA

any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Banick

Your specs are very low and you do not have a real video card - you have an "integrated' video card with your mobo. You will not be able to play with that sety-up.

[dreamerh]

First post after looking at this site for years!

I started a game on the minimum video settings (my PC is around about the minimum) and it played quite happily.

I then decided to try and change the settings up one by one to see what my PC could tolerate, but on my first attempt my saved games would not load; they get so far and then the screen goes white and then it crashes to desktop (CTD). Subsequent re-loading of the game and then setting the graphics back to the lowest didn't solve the problem (even after a re-boot).

My last resort to get the game back was to start a new campaign, which then worked just as happily as before.

I have since had the first patch for my game and I am loathe to try and see if I can change the graphics in case I lose my current saved game as before. Any ideas?

System:
Core 2 Duo E6400 (2.16Ghz Dual Core)
2GB RAM
ATI 1950XT Graphics Card with Latest Catalyst Drivers

OS: Windows XP SP3

[Quillan]

I have almost no problems with the game. The only issue I'm finding is the movies are stuttering, they stall and pick up again every couple of seconds. I'd think that the movies are bink video rather than game engine generated cutscenes, so video settings should not apply. Anyone else having this issue?

If it's important, it's a new computer.

E8400 Core 2 Duo processor
4 gigs ram
9800 GT video card
Windows XP with SP 2

[Barkhorn1x]

I have almost no problems with the game. The only issue I'm finding is the movies are stuttering, they stall and pick up again every couple of seconds. I'd think that the movies are bink video rather than game engine generated cutscenes, so video settings should not apply. Anyone else having this issue?

If it's important, it's a new computer.

E8400 Core 2 Duo processor
4 gigs ram
9800 GT video card
Windows XP with SP 2

Try this fix if the video plays OK and it is just a sound issue.

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...40#post2170340

[Quillan]

It's a video issue. Imagine you were watching a movie on a DVD player while your 3-year-old was playing with the remote hitting the Pause button over and over. That's what I get. Start-stop-start-stop-run three seconds-stop-start-stop...

[Barkhorn1x]

It's a video issue. Imagine you were watching a movie on a DVD player while your 3-year-old was playing with the remote hitting the Pause button over and over. That's what I get. Start-stop-start-stop-run three seconds-stop-start-stop...

Don't think the fix will help you then. Heck I don't even know if it will help me. I will find out when I get home.

[Terry]

Hmmm... This is the hardware solving thread and this is in regard to improving ETW so.... Where would one look to find out about good quality video cards that will run this game sweet..? reviews, recommendations etc..

Terry

btw, I have a nvidia 8600

[Ferret]

Why are the high and ultra graphics settings unavailible to me? The boxes are just greyed out and I can't see why...

[A Very Super Market]

The game decides whether or not you can run certain settings, and greys them out if it thinks you can't.

[Ferret]

Isn't there any way I can disable this? I'm fed up of only being able to see the sprites...

[Biggley]

big sorry to double post - but im a little bit irritated at no solution! gah! and to think i removed MTW2 to play this!!


help!

ive installed the game. naval battles and main campaign map run ok.

land battles were a bit rubbish low res etc - then i cranked it up to med settings.

now when i run the game i get the front page of credits then its black, bar the curser, and i still have audio.

WTF?!

help!

these are my stats - any help?

I can run Fallout 3 ok and warhammer online ok if thats any help.

here is my stats

System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 3/11/2009, 16:52:23

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.080814-1233)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Apple Computer, Inc.
System Model: iMac5,1
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T7400 @ 2.16GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2032MB RAM
Page File: 711MB used, 3214MB 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

[Babblearossa]

Hello!

Although many may complain about their problems with ETW I think mine is quite different:
The game produces a BSOD after the initial copyright screen. It says:
„Driver_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_ EQUAL“
STOP 0x0000001d (0x000000, 0x000002, 0x000001, 0xb5b33b9a) save dump.exe
Chaud.sys – Address B5B33B9A base at B5B28000, Date Stamp 43b4611b

This error is permanent and hasn’t changed after updates of the game and the graphics card.

Chaud.sys is an audio driver for Conexant audio thingamajigger, try updating your audio drivers.

[Biggley]

any chance anyone knows at what times the offical support line is open to call? and what days?

[Babblearossa]

big sorry to double post - but im a little bit irritated at no solution! gah! and to think i removed MTW2 to play this!!
/snip/
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 3/11/2009, 16:52:23

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.080814-1233)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Apple Computer, Inc.
System Model: iMac5,1
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T7400 @ 2.16GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2032MB RAM
Page File: 711MB used, 3214MB 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

what's that use for video? if you go
control panel -> display -> adaptor tab
it should say there, all i could suggest is update drivers for whatever chip that uses and contact support to see if there's a way to reset video to default settings.

[Babblearossa]

Isn't there any way I can disable this? I'm fed up of only being able to see the sprites...

What's your video card? Ultra is disabled on mine but the drop down menus list ultra texture settings.

I'd guess the reason is the ultra texture settings would use more memory than your card has but I can't see in your computer from here so it's just a guess. There's a blog post at the .com site where one of 'em details how much memory will be used by each setting at each resolution.

Oh, bet you could bump up the quality at a lower resolution if it is a video card memory limit reason.

[Babblearossa]

It's a video issue. Imagine you were watching a movie on a DVD player while your 3-year-old was playing with the remote hitting the Pause button over and over. That's what I get. Start-stop-start-stop-run three seconds-stop-start-stop...

well there's audio trying to go to the sound card while video is trying to go to the video card, either one pausing might pause the other.

[Biggley]

babble - thanks for the tip i will give a try.

[Tsavong]

Why are the high and ultra graphics settings unavailible to me? The boxes are just greyed out and I can't see why...

see this topic:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=113862

ETW limits what you cant handle for example my 8600GTS

i found a override in the TWCenter forums which is posted in that topic but use it at your owne risk and make a back up of the file you edit befor you do so.