The Official ETW Hardware Problem Solving Thread

[Babblearossa]

Hi all,
even now with the 9.6catlyst i can't play empire total war for more than 20 minutes!it doesen't matter if settings are low or ultra, randomly the screen freezes and the audio start to emitt strange sounds in loop like wistles or smthing metallic, i can't even go to windows and i have to reboot. I've not such problems with other games like unreal tournament 3 that stress cpu and graphic card.
here's my hardware:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450
Mainboard: P5E3 WS PRO
RAM: DDR3 2048MB
Hard Disk: 200GB
ASUS HD 4850
sound card: inside the motherboard
Alim: ezcool 1050 W

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

i put my DXDiag in spoiler

use SPOIL in the tags instead of SPOILER, I did the same thing.

This is speculation ...

Might be audio drivers, and might nevertheless be bad memory on your video card. M2TW is what stressed my previous card enough to get it RMAed ( and replaced with a better one for free, yay ),
I'd tried testing other games to see if my problem was M2TW or the card, they didn't have problems
but it was actually the card ( damn 7900s ).

Anyhow only things I can think of are update audio drivers, try a couple different video driver versions, try the update to ETW that's due on monday and if none work then contact support at your
video card maker. My 7900 was fine for the first 9 months then started showing problems in M2TW as I said, by the time I got off my lazy arse to return it it was showing artifacting on bootup text screen even.

[Tony.Montana.]

so you think it's a memory problem?
I've tryed all the catalyst from the 9.3 to 9.6...I should try an older one?
I know about the patch of monday and I hope it'll fix my problem. There's a way to understand if my card's memory RMAed (what does it mean? xD)
thank you

[Tony.Montana.]

I've tryed the new patch but the freez occur with the same modality...
I've disabled my audiocard from bios (it's integrated in the motherboard) but the problem was not there
I've tested my cpu and ram with prime95 for 8 hours and it gave me no error.
I really don't know what to do...can someone help me?

[Babblearossa]

I just think it's possible it is. Only thing you can do is eliminate possiblities,

try a few graphics drivers ( you've done this ) if they all have problem it's probably not driver issue.

try a couple sound card drivers,

if after both those your still seeing problems the only things I can think of are,
physical problem with graphics card, memory or processor ( this happens especially if you overclock but even sometimes not )
physical problem with main memory on machine ( doubtful but it's happened to me )
corrupted install of ETW ( which means uninstall, then remove

C:\Documents and Settings\YOURNAMEHERE\Application Data\The Creative Assembly\Empire folder
** after copying your save games from it **

and then reinstall the game.
)

RMA is when you return the card or memory chip to the manufacturer and they replace it, any 4850 would still be under warranty. Before returning it you generally have to contact their support on whatever support forum they use.

[Tony.Montana.]

thank you for help Babblearossa,
about the sound card driver: I've disabled it from the bios and i run game with no sound and the freeze happen in the same way, I think we can take out this possibilities..or not?
my prime95 tests don't exclude a bit the possibility of a phisical problem of the ram or cpus?(i don't overclock)
you know if there is a program to test/stress graphic card memory?

I try to reinstall game in the way you suggest me, and try more old catalysts..
thank you again

[Babblearossa]

Yeah I think that rules out sound, and there haven't been a lot of posts about catalyst drivers causing trouble so it's doubtful it's them.

if prim95 passes your cpu is probably fine, OCCT is also a good system stresser, it tests GPU now though I haven't used that much as it's new and I haven't been playing with overclocking.

There's also Furmark and ATITool for stressing graphics cards.

[Tony.Montana.]

maybe..I was thinking....format c:\ ??
can solve it...?

[Tony.Montana.]

ok I've formatted end when I watched the intro cinematic my PC power off and when i power it on my 4850hd don't do the same...I get it to assistance and I'm actually playing with my old 2900xt and all it's fine!
So thank you for help and cya!