Crashes and freezes during game play

[elric132]

I have owned a copy of HoMM5 since shortly after it came out. I found the game to contain many bugs, the most frustrating of which were frequent crashes and freezes.

At that time I also verified that my drivers and directx were up to date. I gave up on the game after the first couple of patches failed to improve the situation.

Recently I decided to try the game again after a prolonged period of time hoping that patches that have been put out in the interim may have resolved the problems I was experiencing. I downloaded the latest patches and again updated my machines video drivers and directx.

Unfortunately, the results are the same. Crashes as well as freezes that sometime bring my computer to its knees are fairly common after periods of play of between a few minutes to an hour or 2. The events do not normally occur during combat(although I can't exclude such cases), beyond that I can't pin them to any particular event.

I have tried to look through your forum for a solution to problems that are the same or similair to my own. There were many such cases. Unfortunately, the answers were diverse and from the cases I examined often didn't resolve the problems described. They were also commonly dated 2006.

I am offering you a breif list of my system specs parsed from a recent DxDiag run. As best as I can tell my components meet or exceed all of the games requirements. Any assistance or guidance you can provide would be appreciated.

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 10/15/2007, 16:30:06
Machine name: TIMSPC
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: eMachines
System Model: Product Name
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 3200+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.2GHz
Memory: 768MB RAM
Page File: 346MB used, 1435MB 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

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: Radeon X1300/X1550 Series
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: ATI Radeon Graphics Processor AGP (0x7142)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7142&SUBSYS_030B1002&REV_00
Display Memory: 256.0 MB
Current Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (75Hz)
Monitor: ViewSonic A90f+
Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200
Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6698 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
-------------
Sound Devices
-------------
Description: NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) Audio
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: NFORCE_VAD
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Type: WDM
Driver Name: nvapu.sys
Driver Version: 6.14.0442.0030 (English)

Thank you ahead of time for your assistance.

[elric132]

I have owned a copy of HoMM5 since shortly after it came out. I found the game to contain many bugs, the most frustrating of which were frequent crashes and freezes.

At that time I also verified that my drivers and directx were up to date. I gave up on the game after the first couple of patches failed to improve the situation.

Recently I decided to try the game again after a prolonged period of time hoping that patches that have been put out in the interim may have resolved the problems I was experiencing. I downloaded the latest patches and again updated my machines video drivers and directx.

Unfortunately, the results are the same. Crashes as well as freezes that sometime bring my computer to its knees are fairly common after periods of play of between a few minutes to an hour or 2. The events do not normally occur during combat(although I can't exclude such cases), beyond that I can't pin them to any particular event.

I have tried to look through your forum for a solution to problems that are the same or similair to my own. There were many such cases. Unfortunately, the answers were diverse and from the cases I examined often didn't resolve the problems described. They were also commonly dated 2006.

I am offering you a breif list of my system specs parsed from a recent DxDiag run. As best as I can tell my components meet or exceed all of the games requirements. Any assistance or guidance you can provide would be appreciated.

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 10/15/2007, 16:30:06
Machine name: TIMSPC
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: eMachines
System Model: Product Name
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 3200+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.2GHz
Memory: 768MB RAM
Page File: 346MB used, 1435MB 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

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: Radeon X1300/X1550 Series
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: ATI Radeon Graphics Processor AGP (0x7142)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7142&SUBSYS_030B1002&REV_00
Display Memory: 256.0 MB
Current Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (75Hz)
Monitor: ViewSonic A90f+
Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200
Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6698 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
-------------
Sound Devices
-------------
Description: NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) Audio
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: NFORCE_VAD
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Type: WDM
Driver Name: nvapu.sys
Driver Version: 6.14.0442.0030 (English)

Thank you ahead of time for your assistance.