Two things, First 1.3 patch ETA.

[CaMeL_UK]

He is Right. BSOD happen all the time on my XP Machine. I found out that this was due to a problem with my modem driver. The reason you dont see them very often on xp, is that generally when a system hangs it automatically restarts. If you turn this option off under advanced properties of my computer and startup and recovery. Un-tick that and then you may see a few more.

The only time x3 causes a complete system shutdown is when the game minimises, and i try to maximise. It seems to be an issue with re-initialisation of the Video drivers, but i learnt that as long as i end the task rather than try to reopen x3 the game works fine and this is the only bug that i have found.

On another note if you believe that your system was new 1 year ago you are very sadly mistaken, that system is fairly dated by now especially your graphics card that model has been around for 2 years.

Hope you dont give up on x3 it really is a great game

[Trevelvis]

I really hope it gets released before the 28th November as thats the day I move House and not sure how long it will be before I get the internet back so pllllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssseeeeeeeeeee can you relese 1.3 before then Thanks

[Laroo]

Go to an internet cafe or a library in your new loaction, if the worst come to the worst.

[ShoC]

Is there any chance of any form of info as to what the patch might contain i.e

Bug fixes or some additions or is it top secret Argon military stuff

[Al]

There will certainly be bug fixes and hopefully some more optimisation. As for anything else we'll just have to wait and see.

Al

[hobi]

Hi,
back to the original poster...
I don't have blue screens ususally but I had a LOT crashes to BIOS...
The atomatic reboot usually happened after some time playing (like 2-4h) and
visiting many systems. It usually occured after going thrugh a gate or docking
to a station. In general in connection to speech output. One thing I noticed is
that the game was swapping a lot before.
I can avoid the problem by using small textures and minimum shading.
Maybe it helps for him too.

Hobi

For reference my system:
Athlon 64 3000+
1GB mem
ATI 9800pro 128MB
Audigy 2ZS
Logitech Wingman 3d
Win XP SP2

[shadowfawx]

I keep seeing posts where people are blaming computer systems for this games inability to funciton. I'd have to say that after extensive testing, this is not true on my machine. I too have had numerous problems with X3, and have spent the last 2 weeks testing different methods of getting her to at least function somewhat properly.

The game engine itself is pretty much fubar at the moment. Why do I think this? I can take X3 and run its lowest settings at approximately 10fps average, then I can take all the settings to maximum and I get 25 fps average. That in one step shows that the system is not being asked to preform more than it is capable of. Another example: I have proven "on my system" that by modifying my ships to lets say be capable of speeds of 1000, I can definately see at least a 12-15 fps boost especially noticeable when firing a large volley of lasers. Stop the ship or slow the ship down and instantly I lose FPS.

Little things like this need to be officially looked at and dealt w/ long before any new content is added to X3. Remember that the majority of the community still are not satisfied with the product they have bought, happy to own it yes... just not satisfied with the product.

[Cycrow]

yeah but performance issues are completly different to BSOD

[shadowfawx]

You are right...

Since I installed X3, everytime I reboot my PC I have to go and remove my dvd rom then reinstall it for it to read any dvds / cds.

It's weird, unacceptable, things like this that are happening that shows the "rush" was on when the game was released. My hat goes off to the team who still exists to finish the game.

[Leroy The Badger]

FYI:

My game also blue screened but it was down to RAM. Removed it and the game ran better that it ever has.

[Skinman]

Shadowfawx... the dvd problem is not X3, it's the Starforce III drivers used in the copy protection.. if you visit the Starforce webby, you can get tech help from them on that problem.

As for people insisting that X3 is inherently unstable and unplayable.. I haven't had a CTD/BSOD/lockup/graphics error yet. Infact the only problem I have is bits missing from the plot (not the actual missions, but the in-game (not rendered) cutscenes).

Anyway here's sys specs if your interested...

Asus Nforce 4 Sli Mobo
AMD 3200+ 64bit
1 Gb Ram
Nvidia 6600 GT PCIe (7.7.7.7 64bit drivers)
2x 120 Gb SATA's
DVD RW

and this is the reason I think it's stable -

Windows XP x64

[lukethegordie]

You are right...

Since I installed X3, everytime I reboot my PC I have to go and remove my dvd rom then reinstall it for it to read any dvds / cds.

It's weird, unacceptable, things like this that are happening that shows the "rush" was on when the game was released. My hat goes off to the team who still exists to finish the game.

That sounds like a starforce issue. Im in abit of a rush so ill post later the threads on starforce.

[Jams79]

In reply to the OP, if it helps any i had very similar problems a couple of days ago (random BSOD's and system shutdowns).

After a few hours of pulling my system apart i discovered the problem was the PSU (think it was dying of lung cancer never seen so much tar not on a road). After replacing this the system runs fine it might be worth checking.

[Syphen]

So I’m going to retract my "the system is in perfect condition" statement after I uninstalled and opened the case I found that the heat sink on the Chipset had broken loose of its clips. Actually it ripped the clips right out of the mother board. So anyway, that’s fixed. It runs a great deal better. The only issue is that in intense combat the graphics lag like crazy but that's due to the video card being a ATI pos (why I ever bought ATI I’ll never figure out).

Thanks for your ideas and information all and I don't mean to sound or be ungrateful but, I’ve been in the IT business for over 15 years as I said in my original post. I'm well aware of the resources that are at my disposal for trouble shooting any hardware or software related issue.

Now if I could just get X3 to give me an error message with an error code when it crashes or locks up instead of just CTD with "Program Ended with Unspecified Error".