CTD/reboot problem - please help | Forums

[past caring]

Hi all - seems I only ever post here with technical issues - sorry.

I bought the game on release - but stupid here overlooked the fact that I needed a drive that would cope with a DVD-ROM, not your bog-standard CD-ROM.

Anyway, I did some serious upgrading - amongst other things my previous vid card was one of the old GeForce MX440s and not up to spec. Current system looks like this;

M/board: ASUS A7V8X-X
Vid Card: Galaxy Glacier GeForce 6800 GT
Memory: 1024 MB SD RAM
Processor: AMD Athlon XP 3200+ 2.2 GHz
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value*
DVD RW: NEC 2510A 8X
Monitor: Iiyama ProLite E431S
O/S XP Home (SP2)

Everything has latest drivers. The sound card, whilst not top of the range, still represents an upgrade for me - was previously running onboard sound.

I'm not a techie - got my mate to fit all this new gear - and yes, he did remember to disable the onboard sound.

Anyway, problem is this......

I'm getting CTDs - half the time with reboots - on playing any game. I've not yet patched SHIII at all - but got a couple of CTDs. However, my previous vid card wasn't able to cope with Rome: Total War - so I've installed that and I'm getting CTDs/reboots there too.

Similarly, a game I was able to play before upgrading - Hidden and Dangerous 2 - is now also getting the CTDs/reboots.

So this isn't a SHIII issue - unless it's something to so with StarForce. But that would seem odd - I don't burn/copy CDs or DVDs and have absolutely no software for such on the PC.

Any help would be gratefully received - even pointers as to where I might get this one sorted.

Cheers.

(I will get to see some of you lot on the open seas at some point.....
)
_________________
Oh, you wet, you weed, you mite! I will utterly tough you up!

[past caring]

Hi all - seems I only ever post here with technical issues - sorry.

I bought the game on release - but stupid here overlooked the fact that I needed a drive that would cope with a DVD-ROM, not your bog-standard CD-ROM.

Anyway, I did some serious upgrading - amongst other things my previous vid card was one of the old GeForce MX440s and not up to spec. Current system looks like this;

M/board: ASUS A7V8X-X
Vid Card: Galaxy Glacier GeForce 6800 GT
Memory: 1024 MB SD RAM
Processor: AMD Athlon XP 3200+ 2.2 GHz
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value*
DVD RW: NEC 2510A 8X
Monitor: Iiyama ProLite E431S
O/S XP Home (SP2)

Everything has latest drivers. The sound card, whilst not top of the range, still represents an upgrade for me - was previously running onboard sound.

I'm not a techie - got my mate to fit all this new gear - and yes, he did remember to disable the onboard sound.

Anyway, problem is this......

I'm getting CTDs - half the time with reboots - on playing any game. I've not yet patched SHIII at all - but got a couple of CTDs. However, my previous vid card wasn't able to cope with Rome: Total War - so I've installed that and I'm getting CTDs/reboots there too.

Similarly, a game I was able to play before upgrading - Hidden and Dangerous 2 - is now also getting the CTDs/reboots.

So this isn't a SHIII issue - unless it's something to so with StarForce. But that would seem odd - I don't burn/copy CDs or DVDs and have absolutely no software for such on the PC.

Any help would be gratefully received - even pointers as to where I might get this one sorted.

Cheers.

(I will get to see some of you lot on the open seas at some point.....
)
_________________
Oh, you wet, you weed, you mite! I will utterly tough you up!

[Soulcommander]

I have alot of questions for you.
I also have your problem..
BUT I would like to know several things.(Your system seems fine for specs.)

1.Did the game freeze with sound stuttering and then a blue screen then reboot?
2.Did this rebooting and crashing occur with other games before the install of SHIII?
3. Do you notice that when you start up rome total war that your graphics have become choppy?
4. What error messages were you getting when you get back into windows after the reboot?
5. Check your event viewer and list any error messages there for us. Heres how you get there:
Start, settings, control panel, performance and maintenance,admin tools, double click event viewer, double click application and look in there for errors and do the same for system.
POst these here.

I am trying to understand what is going on myself. Tell me if you see any atapi errors too! They will be listed in the event viewer. Scroll through all of it!


Thanks,,
SC

[past caring]

Hello Soulcommander - thanks for taking the time

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">1.Did the game freeze with sound stuttering and then a blue screen then reboot? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Nope - just a plain old CTD.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">2.Did this rebooting and crashing occur with other games before the install of SHIII? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Nope - but then you have to bear in mind that I installed the new DVD RW, video card, CPU and sound card all in one go - specifically so I could play SHIII and Rome total war. I installed both games immediately after installing the new hardware. So it's hard to say whether it's a problem specific to my system - or caused by one of the games.

With my old system I could play the historical or custom battles with RTW - but the game would freeze on the load screens for the campaign or prologue. That doesn't happen now - and the graphics are fine. Just CTDs

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">3. Do you notice that when you start up rome total war that your graphics have become choppy? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Nope

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">4. What error messages were you getting when you get back into windows after the reboot? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Only got one despite several reboots - system recovered from a serious error, or some such.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">5. Check your event viewer and list any error messages there for us. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

There's quite a few - though I can only find one specifically related to SHIII;

"Faulting application sh3.exe, version 1.0.0.1, faulting module d3d9.dll, version 5.3.2600.2180, fault address 0x0004e925"

Interestingly, I've just had another CTD whilst paused in the tutorial. But nothing shows up as an error in either system or applications.....

A couple of people have suggested either power supply or CPU fan - but the power supply is 380 watts and not that old, I put everything into a new Antec case only last Autumn. And I put in a new Akasa AK-827BL fan (designed for the Athlon 3400 XP=) at the same time as the new CPU....

[BigDaz99]

I recently added a TV tuner and a new HD in my PC and things started failing and crashing. I thought 400watts was overkill but an upgrade to 550watts seems to have sorted it out so the psu is an option. The easiest way to test that is to unplug devices you can like floppy drives, fans or whatever and see if it still occurs.

[Soulcommander]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by past caring:
Hello Soulcommander - thanks for taking the time

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">1.Did the game freeze with sound stuttering and then a blue screen then reboot? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Nope - just a plain old CTD.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">2.Did this rebooting and crashing occur with other games before the install of SHIII? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Nope - but then you have to bear in mind that I installed the new DVD RW, video card, CPU and sound card all in one go - specifically so I could play SHIII and Rome total war. I installed both games immediately after installing the new hardware. So it's hard to say whether it's a problem specific to my system - or caused by one of the games.

With my old system I could play the historical or custom battles with RTW - but the game would freeze on the load screens for the campaign or prologue. That doesn't happen now - and the graphics are fine. Just CTDs

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">3. Do you notice that when you start up rome total war that your graphics have become choppy? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Nope

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">4. What error messages were you getting when you get back into windows after the reboot? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Only got one despite several reboots - system recovered from a serious error, or some such.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">5. Check your event viewer and list any error messages there for us. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

There's quite a few - though I can only find one specifically related to SHIII;

"Faulting application sh3.exe, version 1.0.0.1, faulting module d3d9.dll, version 5.3.2600.2180, fault address 0x0004e925"

Interestingly, I've just had another CTD whilst paused in the tutorial. But nothing shows up as an error in either system or applications.....

A couple of people have suggested either power supply or CPU fan - but the power supply is 380 watts and not that old, I put everything into a new Antec case only last Autumn. And I put in a new Akasa AK-827BL fan (designed for the Athlon 3400 XP=) at the same time as the new CPU.... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Im afraid to tell you this but if you really want to end this CTD..Heres what I would do since your system is so new and has I suspect been reformated by your mate... I would reformat again. Pull your sound card out first... Leave your video card in.....and then add one component at a time after making sure your system is stable...Check event viewer too.... Its best when building ANY pc to always add one component at at time so that you can trouble shoot problems! Never throw it all together and turn it on. Star with just what you need to get things loaded. Cd rom drive or dvd drive and graphics card.

Make sure you check your processor temps ASAP when you get into your bios.. If they are running to hot your system can be doing the ctd.
I would look at this processor temp right now tomake sure its ok since you say it was just installed.

Do not install any games yet. If and when you do...Just ROME total war! Play it a while see about crashing..
If the system crashes....I would get yourself a 430 watt power supply. The 380 is a bit on the low side for your graphics card...And depending on how old the power supply is it could be causing the ctd too if the power is fluctuating.

I would be that the game SHIII is the problem but we don't know for sure since you did so much to your computer. Im sure if the guy that helped you build this is good at what he does and you need him to check the processor temps and the ambient temp (inside your case) he should be glad to help you! Just make sure its not your hardware first. A 450 watt power supply should be good for you too. You could go for a higher watt depending on what your later intentions are with building another pc.

But 450 should be just fine if you go that route.

Check your IRQs too in device manager...Its best if you can make sure the sound card and the video card are NOT sharing irqs with any other devices! If they are check your mobo to see what irqs are shared with certain pci losts on your MOBO. (Motherboard)

[misfired1965]

Well, I too have been having alot of problems with this game, and read alot on how to fix it.Well it works just great now. Now I notice your running an Antec case with the 380 power supply, that the same thing I have.I actually pulled out a stick ofRAM(now I'm down too 512) and the game runs beautifully. It truly is weird because I have done memory testing on both sticks and they run great independent of each other, but put the 2 of them together and my computer is unstable. I'm thinking that it might be the power supply, I have a cd rom unit, dvd/cd burner.dvd rom.....a nvidia 6600gt plus other things.Ibet if i were to add them all up.its taxing the supply..Anyways guys...try taking out a stick of ram, and give it a go.......

[Soulcommander]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by misfired1965:
Well, I too have been having alot of problems with this game, and read alot on how to fix it.Well it works just great now. Now I notice your running an Antec case with the 380 power supply, that the same thing I have.I actually pulled out a stick ofRAM(now I'm down too 512) and the game runs beautifully. It truly is weird because I have done memory testing on both sticks and they run great independent of each other, but put the 2 of them together and my computer is unstable. I'm thinking that it might be the power supply, I have a cd rom unit, dvd/cd burner.dvd rom.....a nvidia 6600gt plus other things.Ibet if i were to add them all up.its taxing the supply..Anyways guys...try taking out a stick of ram, and give it a go....... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Maybe your stick of ram wasn't a matched stick or possibly you needed to try a different slot for it. Some mobo's have specific requirements for that. Im sure it was a 512 you pulled out wasn't it? You weren't mixing? Me for one, not going to reduce my memory for just one game when all other games run fine that would be stupid.

[Akula_169th]

Not many (if any) will agree with this but when you make that many changes to your system it is BEST to reformat and reinstall your OS. I did and it helpaed all my CTD problems.

Cheers