[BUG] CPU crash

[Corinthian Hoplite]

My computer (not the game) crashes randomly while playing Warband. It never happened in M&B before, and seems to occur most often in faction/troop/equipment menus, but not exclusively.

My system:

Windows XP
Intel Pentium Dual CPU E2180 @ 2GHz
2GB RAM
Realtek HD Audio output
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE (185.85 driver)
DirectX 9.0c


I am running Warband on DirectX 7, AAx0 and everything else maxed out except grass density.

 

[Oaktree]

Do you mean crash to the desktop, or shut down? If its to the desktop, then this was happening to me over and over on a server I was trying to join (the most populated at the moment) right when I got to the faction select screen. I went to try another server and it worked fine.

 

[Corinthian Hoplite]

I mean shut down. The CPU resets.

 

[Styo]

I mean shut down. The CPU resets.

Make sure your Hard drive has free disk space. Then make sure your CPU (Central Proccessing Unit) has enough Heat Sync on it. Or atleast fresh Heat Sync on it.

Sounds to me like when you get into a server and while your trying to pick a faction and equipment, the map is already loaded therefore the CPU starts getting hotter due the the graphics, so before you get to play it automatically shuts down to prevent damage to the CPU.

Let us know if that helps.

 

[Corinthian Hoplite]

That would make sense if it had happened before in M&B or other games, but it hasn't. Also, at times it crashes well into the game, not the beginning.

 

[Styo]

Lower your settings, and use DirectX9. Make sure all your Drivers are up to date. Including windows.

 

[Corinthian Hoplite]

I started playing with DirectX 9 in the first place. It started crashing and slowing down, so I turned to DirectX 7 and raised the rest of the settings. I can easily get 50fps with that configuration, I doubt it's a precessing problem.

 

[Trelow]

Really sounds like a heat problem if the CPU is shutting down/resetting. Try logging your temps. I use SpeedFan, seams to work well enough.

Edit: What is your power supply? If you are sitting at borderline in voltage then your vid card could be drawing enough juice to cause the CPU to fail. Doesn't look like you are overclocking, so it's unlikely.

 

[Corinthian Hoplite]

230V

No overclocking.

 

[Darkness]

Really sounds like a heat problem if the CPU is shutting down/resetting. Try logging your temps. I use SpeedFan, seams to work well enough.

Edit: What is your power supply? If you are sitting at borderline in voltage then your vid card could be drawing enough juice to cause the CPU to fail. Doesn't look like you are overclocking, so it's unlikely.

Either you are overheating or your PSU is dying. I had this issue when my PSU was on the fritts. New PSU = problem solved.

 

[Corinthian Hoplite]

None of that makes sense! Why would the computer overheat while running Warband easily if it doesn't when running much heavier games?

Even M&B singleplayer with near-maxed settings+DirectX9 wouldn't overheat. With more people onscreen, which were AI controlled, making things heavier.

 

[Trelow]

Are you running any background processes while attempting to run Warband?

 

[Darkness]

Really sounds like a heat problem if the CPU is shutting down/resetting. Try logging your temps. I use SpeedFan, seams to work well enough.

Edit: What is your power supply? If you are sitting at borderline in voltage then your vid card could be drawing enough juice to cause the CPU to fail. Doesn't look like you are overclocking, so it's unlikely.

Either you are overheating or your PSU is dying. I had this issue when my PSU was on the fritts. New PSU = problem solved.

Hmm... how to say this.... It sounds like your PSU dying or going on the fritz. How much ram do you have?

 

[Corinthian Hoplite]

Are you running any background processes while attempting to run Warband?

The same as usual: Firefox and Windows Media Player, as well as MSN at times. Apart from anti-virus, of course.

But I run those along with all games, I doubt they're a defining factor.

Really sounds like a heat problem if the CPU is shutting down/resetting. Try logging your temps. I use SpeedFan, seams to work well enough.

Edit: What is your power supply? If you are sitting at borderline in voltage then your vid card could be drawing enough juice to cause the CPU to fail. Doesn't look like you are overclocking, so it's unlikely.

Either you are overheating or your PSU is dying. I had this issue when my PSU was on the fritts. New PSU = problem solved.

Then the PSU would die with the other games, too.

 

[Trelow]

Try killing the extraneous processes anyway. If nothing else you can rule out a conflict there.

edit: and not to knock the game, I love it. However it is an indie game, and it is beta. Not exactly super optimized. I can run nearly anything made full settings at 60+ FPS, yet M&B (and Warband) are a strain. They run well, but it's work for the system.

 

[Darkness]

It may be random, or you don't play games on the settings that trigger the power supply to fail. How would warband possibly just kill your power completely? No errors, no anything. Just ka-put. If this was do-able, I would think viruses would have long picked it up. Or windows would have long blocked it from happening.

I know when I had this issue back when my comp was new, I could play Warcraft3 but as soon as I played some other games it would power off/reboot.

 

[Archonsod]

Go into control panel, system, advanced and the recovery settings and turn off reboot on error. You should get a BSOD message which would be useful, though I expect it'll finger the nvidia driver in this case. Alternatively it should have recorded it somewhere in the system log (Event viewer -> system).

Could be overheating on the card, do you have a temperature sensor onboard?

Other likely suspect would be the texture buffer. Does the rgl log complain about anything?

 

[Corinthian Hoplite]

Go into control panel, system, advanced and the recovery settings and turn off reboot on error.

Will do, thanks.

Could be overheating on the card, do you have a temperature sensor onboard?

No, I don't believe I do.

Other likely suspect would be the texture buffer. Does the rgl log complain about anything?

How do I access it?

Anyway, shouldn't all these issues have come up with singleplayer M&B? I've been playing that since 0.808 with ever changing settings and even different computers, no system crash whatsoever.

 

[Archonsod]

Depends. If as I suspect it is the graphics card then it could be the HDR or new shader effects behind it, it shouldn't be using them in DX7 mode but it wouldn't be the first time

The log or BSOD should show more. AFAIK the Warband rgl.log should be in the Warband folder, but if it is a driver issue then it's likely to have killed it before it could write to the log. It should however record any severe error in the Windows system log.

 

[Corinthian Hoplite]

Did as you suggested and got a blue screen. Somewhere in the beginning was: "DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL"

Further down was "nv4_mini.sys" and a bunch of apparently irrelevant stuff afterwards.

Maybe it IS a driver problem. I'll download the newest.