Lock-ups | Forums

[Budr]

Firstly, just to clarify, my problem is with a few games (Splinter Cell, DX: Invisible War and, to a lesser extent, TR: Angel of Darkness). I realise this means it is, more than likely, a problem with my system rather than the games but since Splinter Cell is one of them I thought this might be a good place to ask for help.

The games run absolutely fine at first but then lock up, for no apparent reason, to a pixellated screen (screenshot). Once locked the only thing I can do is to press the reset button on my system unit as nothing else will revive the system.

I'm not sure how relevant this may be but Angel of Darkness is the least affected and has only locked up a couple of times after prolonged play. Whereas, IW and Splinter Cell both tend to lock up after about 5-10 minutes making it impossible for me to play them.

I have installed all the necessary patches and all my hardware drivers are bang up to date but to no avail.

My current specs are:

Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600)
Athlon XP 2500+ ~1.8GHz
512MB RAM
nVidia GeForce Ti 4200 (128MB)
Creative Audigy Player
DirectX 9.0c

I was told that, in situations such as this, DxDiag is often useful so I ran it and have put the resultant text here

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I really want to play both Invisible War and Splinter Cell.

Cheers guysh.

[Budr]

Firstly, just to clarify, my problem is with a few games (Splinter Cell, DX: Invisible War and, to a lesser extent, TR: Angel of Darkness). I realise this means it is, more than likely, a problem with my system rather than the games but since Splinter Cell is one of them I thought this might be a good place to ask for help.

The games run absolutely fine at first but then lock up, for no apparent reason, to a pixellated screen (screenshot). Once locked the only thing I can do is to press the reset button on my system unit as nothing else will revive the system.

I'm not sure how relevant this may be but Angel of Darkness is the least affected and has only locked up a couple of times after prolonged play. Whereas, IW and Splinter Cell both tend to lock up after about 5-10 minutes making it impossible for me to play them.

I have installed all the necessary patches and all my hardware drivers are bang up to date but to no avail.

My current specs are:

Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600)
Athlon XP 2500+ ~1.8GHz
512MB RAM
nVidia GeForce Ti 4200 (128MB)
Creative Audigy Player
DirectX 9.0c

I was told that, in situations such as this, DxDiag is often useful so I ran it and have put the resultant text here

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I really want to play both Invisible War and Splinter Cell.

Cheers guysh.

[gnogtr]

It's probably because of that virual drive you've got, get rid of it.

<a><center>My system:

AMD 64 3400+ @ 2.31Ghz
1 gig of Corsair TwinX DDR PC3200 RAM
Radeon 9800 Pro video w/TV out core @450, mem @735
Windows XP SP 2
Antec TruePower TrueBlue True480 PSU
SB Audigy 2 ZS
LiteOn DVD+/-RW drive
Plexwriter CD-RW
160, 100, and 40GB harddrives
Asus K8T800 mainboard
Creative 5.1 surround system
Swiftech liquid cooling system

Additional PC version help:

http://www.pcgamessource.com

<font color=ff0000>XIII/Splinter Cell Tech/Beyond Good and Evil Tech Mods</font color=ff0000></a>
Drop me an Email</center>

[Budr]

I didn't even know I had a virtual drive! How do I go about getting rid of it?

[gnogtr]

Well, first you've got to figure out what program created it. Do you have Nero Burning rom, Alcohol 120% or Dameon Tools installed?

<a><center>My system:

AMD 64 3400+ @ 2.31Ghz
1 gig of Corsair TwinX DDR PC3200 RAM
Radeon 9800 Pro video w/TV out core @450, mem @735
Windows XP SP 2
Antec TruePower TrueBlue True480 PSU
SB Audigy 2 ZS
LiteOn DVD+/-RW drive
Plexwriter CD-RW
160, 100, and 40GB harddrives
Asus K8T800 mainboard
Creative 5.1 surround system
Swiftech liquid cooling system

Additional PC version help:

http://www.pcgamessource.com

<font color=ff0000>XIII/Splinter Cell Tech/Beyond Good and Evil Tech Mods</font color=ff0000></a>
Drop me an Email</center>

[Budr]

I've got Nero and Alchol 120 installed, is that bad?

[gnogtr]

Yup, get rid of Alcohol.

<a><center>My system:

AMD 64 3400+ @ 2.31Ghz
1 gig of Corsair TwinX DDR PC3200 RAM
Radeon 9800 Pro video w/TV out core @450, mem @735
Windows XP SP 2
Antec TruePower TrueBlue True480 PSU
SB Audigy 2 ZS
LiteOn DVD+/-RW drive
Plexwriter CD-RW
160, 100, and 40GB harddrives
Asus K8T800 mainboard
Creative 5.1 surround system
Swiftech liquid cooling system

Additional PC version help:

http://www.pcgamessource.com

<font color=ff0000>XIII/Splinter Cell Tech/Beyond Good and Evil Tech Mods</font color=ff0000></a>
Drop me an Email</center>

[EsP_OzZie]

You could just get rid of the Virtual Drive it makes by default?

[gnogtr]

Well, the whole point of Alcohol is to run isos and it can't do that without a vdrive, so no.

<a><center>My system:

AMD 64 3400+ @ 2.31Ghz
1 gig of Corsair TwinX DDR PC3200 RAM
Radeon 9800 Pro video w/TV out core @450, mem @735
Windows XP SP 2
Antec TruePower TrueBlue True480 PSU
SB Audigy 2 ZS
LiteOn DVD+/-RW drive
Plexwriter CD-RW
160, 100, and 40GB harddrives
Asus K8T800 mainboard
Creative 5.1 surround system
Swiftech liquid cooling system

Additional PC version help:

http://www.pcgamessource.com

<font color=ff0000>XIII/Splinter Cell Tech/Beyond Good and Evil Tech Mods</font color=ff0000></a>
Drop me an Email</center>

[Budr]

OK. So, I've unistalled Alcohol and updated a couple of obscure drivers I found to be out of date but it's still doing exactly the same thing.

I'm drawing towards the conclusion that I need a new video card. Anyone got any suggestions in the definitely-under-â£200 category?