(CTD/freeze/BSOD/crashes) Poss Solutions UPDATED 19/04/05

[Battle Pope]

I got my system back up and running on the new HDD... a WD 80 gig w/8MB buffer.

I partitioned it to 20/20/remainder so I'll have a 20 for winXP/Norton/etc, a 20 for media files, and roughly 35 for games and such.

My old drive I'm just going to reformat and slave it as a single partition called "The Data Ocean".

So anyway, the system is working again and I'll report tonight about if the CTDs are still a problem.

EDIT: Also worth mentioning I turned around my side panel casefan so it blows on the videocard and Overdrive now reports a temp of about 10 degrees cooler. Go figure.

[ukdevcom]

Well, I've tried everything in the list now, and still no joy. I don't understand why they can't at least provide info as to why it's crashing to desktop. Everything else in my collection works straight out of the box, so that leads me to the conclusion that this is just quite simply buggy, untested software.....

Oh...and, the fact that we even have such a big long list of things that could possibly make it go wrong just reinforces this comment.

[Battle Pope]

ukdevcom, I seem to agree - there is anwfully long list of things that everyone is saying "could" be wrong with the game... I don't know if I'd say "untested", but definitely "buggy". Not as buggy as WH40k Firewarrior was, but still buggy.

Still, if I can get the damned thing running I'll at least feel like I got my money's worth.

EDIT: I also seem to note that it's kind of funny how a lot of the things that they list as being "problems" aren't related to their application... Seems like a little bit of fingerpointing to me. I mean, I know that keeping your processes to a minimum and keeping your drive maintained and in good order is all common sense and a good idea anyway, but even if you don't care for your PC entirely properly, shouldn't the application be robust enough that it doesn't render itself unplayable in seemingly random fashion? I mean, I know that the folks that developed this aren't exactly world renowned with huge financial backing (Epic Games/UT2k4 for instance) but I recently purchased Chaser for under $20 and as of this moment I have had better luck with my $18 budget title than this $38 high profile one. Just my two cents.

In all honesty I would entirely LOVE to play this game - it seems that it offers just about everything that Freelancer didn't, but as long as the CTD issues keep popping up, I will only be able to get far enough to 'wet my appetite'...

[SnowGhost]

even if you don't care for your PC entirely properly, shouldn't the application be robust enough that it doesn't render itself unplayable in seemingly random fashion?

No. It is not an applications fault or problem if the underlying system is not in a stable state. You must maintain your system in a good state. It's a part of owning a computer, just as having your car serviced is part of owning a car (You do change the oil in your ca, right?). If you can't do it, you have to find someone who can.

If you have a faulty OS, how can the game possibly be stable?

That would be like saying that roads should not be of good quality, and ford/GM should just make cars that can handle crap roads. The problm is the road, not the car.

As to Battlepope : your running your CPU way over spec. Overclocked parts are running out of spec, and I don't think you should bitch about any software not running correctly in this situation. For all you know, X2 may be stressing a part of the CPU that Prime95 never touches. That part may be less tolerant of being overclocked than other parts of the CPU. Have you tried returning your CPU to spec and seeing if it runs OK then?

The game does work at least tolerably well, and 1.3 has reduced my CTD's to zero, though dying has about a 25% chance of locking up the game, so I try and avoid that. Once I get a M2, I think I'll be safe from such a situation. I have a non normal PC (Dual MP 2800+ CPUs and a truly ancient sound card, Diamond MX300). It works for me.

[Battle Pope]

First of all, I just got through installing and trying X2 on this machine, and as I stated earlier, it's a CLEAN MACHINE. No nothing. Not even Norton yet. I also cleaned out MSconfig of everything that isn't necessary to run the OS or game. I installed the game, rebooted, patch to 1.2, reboot, patch to 1.3, reboot. Started a campaign, no problems till the 2nd mission when back in Argon Prime when the pirates attack: The sound cut out in the middle of the attack and then I made it back to Home of Light, sound was back, tried to open the main menu... CTD.

All my hardware has been extensively benched and tested, and I have been using this rig at this clockspeed for almost 6 months without issue. Everything is well inside tolerable heat parameters, and Prime95 shows no errors on ANY of its tests. Plus this rig has seen almost 30 other recent (last 2 years) games, and none except NFS:U gave me problems, and that was on my old GFX card.

Just to quell all the "kwitcherbitchin" posters, I will now try backing off my CPU speed and try to play it again...

EDIT: Also, I realize that I was in error by stating the line about the application being robust enough to handle an unstable machine... I was at work and had just gotten through with a heavy load of payroll at the time so I'd gone out of my head a bit. I concede that the application has no control over bad maintenance, but in my particular case, the problems aren't due to bad maintenance... if anything this computer is OVER maintenanced.

[SnowGhost]

Try putting msconfig back to it's defaults, in case your turning off something that the game needs that you don't think it should. The dependencies can be odd. Especially if you disabled a lot of services (Services you don't want should be set to manual, rather than disabled. This way, if teh system says 'Hey, I really need this service, it can still start it. If it's disabled, it just can't start the service)

I assume you do, but I'll ask anyway. Do you have the latest Nforce drivers for your motherboard?

Your descripton makes it sound like it may be sound related, because that failed first.

There is a post somewhere about disabling sound codecs. If the search worked, I'd try and hunt it down. But anyway, Control panel, sound, hardware, codecs, properties, properties. Try re-arranging the order of the codecs. You probably won't need the indeo one. I suggest moving the Fraunhofer codec (Thats MP3) to the top.

Some people claim to of had large performance increases doing this. I didn't see anything change.

[Battle Pope]

OK, Clocked down my processor, loaded up X2, and played for about the same amount of time before getting another CTD. This time the sound didn't flake out, so the sound incident might have been a fluke I think.

I have the latest Nforce drivers from the Nvidia website, and the latest Catalyst drivers from the ATi site.

I also checked the fragmentation on the partition (x2 is the only thing on the partition ATM) and it's telling me there are no fragmented files. Deep Scandisk tells me there are no bad sectors.

Just reset MSConfig to default startup and moved Fraunhofer codec to top priority, so we'll see how it works.

[Battle Pope]

I had a spot of insomnia last night so I just laid there thinking about what could possibly be conflicting with the game to cause CTDs...

None of the components are overheating, so it couldn't be a component safety measure...

All the tests I've run on the CPU and RAM show good, no problems or page faults...

Last night when I double-checked my BIOS after clocking my CPU down, I did notice that some jackass (me, a while back) set the memory timings to "aggressive" instead of "SPD", so I'll see if that has an effect.

I have 512MB RAM, so that should be enough... I don't really want to spend a hundred bucks to upgrade.

Another note - The newer ATi drivers have some Services that run in the background... I wonder if any of those could be making trouble...

I don't intend to return the game, like many have already, I just want to see it either patched up or at least playable...

[ukdevcom]

Well, I'm still totally frustrated, but I'm going to go against my original plan of taking the thing back. I'm just hoping that they'll get it sorted soon and get it patched. Figure I should support em, even though I've shelled out nearly £40 for something that only works for 20 mins.

So, come on guys, if you're monitoring this thread, give us a patch....ppppppllllleaaaaase....

[Battle Pope]

On a side note, I have experienced a significant boost in not only performance but a slight decrese in CTD since the fresh install... it doesn't CTD as bad as before, but it still does it. I think that for now, if I saved often and as long as the savegame doesn't get corrupted, I could probably do fine without much time loss due to CTD. Not that I'm going to just sit on my hands - I want to see these issues resolved and I don't mind speaking up about it to help Egosoft.

I would recommend to just about everybody - drivespace is so cheap nowadays (roughly $1US/GB, depending on where you buy) that a new drive to start over on is very affordable.

[Battle Pope]

I think I have finally conquered my CTDs! I just got through playing for almost 2 hrs with no CTD. I'm saving as often as I can remember either way.

One of two things could have been causing them: either my memory timings causing something to go wacky, or the Soundstorm system tray process... Those are the only two changes I've made.

Either way, I'll keep everyone posted of my findings.

[veelad]

Soundstorm system tray process

whats this "soundstorm system tray process" Battlepope
Ive never heard of it before, is it to do with your particular sound card ?

cheers

[Battle Pope]

Well, I run an Nforce board with the onboard Soundstorm audio chip. The little process that I refer to is simply a shortcut that sits in the system tray which takes you to the Soundstorm configuration utility. The Nforce drivers install it automatically.

Oh, and also, I did upgrade via Windows Update to WMP9 Series... Dunno if that did anything either

[caljar2001]

At the moment I cant even do the 1st mission before it crashes
The mission tells me to go to the sector south of home of light but a moment after entering the system I crash to desktop.
I have tried going round the side via red light but when going into the last system I get the same crash.
Something in the system is crashing the game as all the other gates I have tried have been fine
Its now too late to take the game back to the shop have tried your recomendations still no good and the instructions have no address to sent the game back.
What can I do as I have a unplayable game?
Is there a address I can send it to to get my money back?
I am using windows 2000 if that helps

Carl Roehead

[Battle Pope]

Have you patched the game? What exactly is your hardware configuration?

[ukdevcom]

That is my exact same problem, (first mission) although my crash happens when I go through the gate to Ore Belt. I've taken all the recommendations on-board and even restarted the game, but it still crashes at the same spot over and over again.

They really need to get it sorted out, or offer us our money back if they can't fix it.

EDIT: And yes, I'm patched up to v1.3

[Battle Pope]

Sorry, but I really can't help you... My CTDs were at random, I don't know what to say if they are at fixed times.

[sebcrabbe]

Cheers for the suggestions shadowfax2 & Kaine the game is now running sweet as a nut (and appologies I have'nt replies sooner I have'nt played the game in a month as I've been in .net progging hell )

What actually fixed the game fully was a combination of ripping the whole PC apart again and reseating everthing (which removed randon win crashes - a more common cause of pc faults than most people expect), guiding all the wires in the pc in a way that maximised airflow and removing all nvidia drivers and installing much earlier graphics variants which although reduced the framerate by 10 has made the game stable.)

in reply to Kaine, yes you are absolutely right, and what I said was a bit mis-sleading, although I covered the top in thermal gease i only applied a very thin layer so that the whole top of the processor could conduct heat to the heat sink. Also my motherboard does support temp sensing and i have it set to auto shutdown at 65'C

Edit: The Shuttle site itself also recommended the covering of the whole cpu top in thermal grease as a drastic measure to aid cooling so im not alone

i don't know if this is of help to anyone else but in my setup the nvidia drivers 53.03 seem to be quite unstable (i have early variants of MCP-T & crush 18G chipsets) and installing earlier variants has done wonders

[SPINNER]

I previously posted this in X universe
forum as I could not get in to Tech Support.
I think that this may touch a few sensitive spots with some of you and if I resolve it as I hope I may tomorrow it will help others.
Somekind feedback I had was that my Graphics card was too old.
I will install a Geforce 128mb FX5900 when it arrives tomorrow. I have also purchased an addition 512 Mb of PC3200 DDram taking my 2ghz AMD system up to 1gb.
If this does not fix my "hardware" related problems that "must" be causing my CTD as described below than I'd like to no what Super Comp must be running to play this game. CRAY comes to mind. ( actually thats probably out of date compared with some of the PC you can buy now).

I would like to Know waht it is in locations such as the "Ore Belt" that triggers a CTD on perhaps under spect systems.

Anyone?



I am old enough to have used the original Elite on 5 1/4" Disk as well as frontier.
I was delighted to find by chance X2 and purchased it without hesitation.
Im sure glad that GAME the retailer has a 10 day money back policy.

This is really a posting for the Tech Forum under CTD but I cant get the right to comment as there is no access.

So I hope this falls on sensitive ground.

I have installed the game on three machines of varying specs form donkey to rocket and I get different results . The middle spec system running XP CTD's before loading. This is the only PC with an Nvidia card albeit a MX200 32MB card.

The Donkey starts and runs but its a painfull experience even at 800 x 640.

The rocket is an AMD XP2400 2Gig with 512Mb pc3200 ram and the install is on a totaly clean dedicated fast drive fully tested and defraged.
The Graphics card is a Matrox Millennium G550, mabe not the fastest most upto date card but that should'nt matter.
I have patched to 1.3 and the game runs OK, to a point.
I can start the initial mission and I can get through some of the gates. the north gate out of the initial system CTDs immediately. I can go to the System of light and get my PC part then travel to the Ore belt system.
As I approach the station I CTD. I can fly around to my hearts content as long as I dont enter deep into the sytem
Hey...... Why not try another route. Go form the system of light (or What ever) into the RED Light system. Fly around free a a bird no trouble. Head into the Cloud System again no problem. Sneak back into the Ore Belt hopping the code wont see me comming into the system from another gate, and surprise surprise the CTD Monster is waiting on the otherside to grab me by the BITs BYTES me and spits me back to the desk top.

This has to be poor code. I have been working with and commercially building PC since before they were PC's ....... Sinclair spectrum, Osbourn Portatbles, BBC Acorn, Mac II's etc, sold the all and serviced most in the days before the IBM and PC Clone. (There was life before Microsoft and MS DOS and it was quite good) .
I have yet to come across software that is so hardware criticle it is more than luck than judgement if you have a compatible machine. I Phone Germany today and asked someone....Actualy the only person available at Egosoft what to to. He told me to log my problem on the tech support forum. Go back to my earlier comment. Cant do that! .
I think they have all run off to the bahamas on the profits and left the customers to scratch their heads and write long tediouse monolgs about the griefe they'r having. OH VOT A LAUGH WE ARE AVING, HA HA HA VILL THEY EVER FIGURE OUT ZAT DIZ GAME WOZ NEVER MEANT TO VERK EXCEPT ON OUR SPECIAL GERMAN MACHINES MADE JUST FOR US.

If anyone with a good logical explaination get this message I would be delighted to have an answer and save the 20mile drive back to my nearest GAME store to return this ............Thing.
I realy do not want to build a PC Just to run a game no matter how many years I have had to wait for the return of this addictive genre.

[veelad]

I would like to Know waht it is in locations such as the "Ore Belt" that triggers a CTD on perhaps under spect systems.

I hate to say this, but CTDs dont seem to have any respect for any spec of machine, low, medium, high, or super duper.

they have fixed some of the CTD issues with both orebelt (i think that was a rogue lazer tower) and long property names, and it seems to have lessend the CTDs down for those whom have patched up correctly.

But, they are still occuring for some unknown reason, some are frequent and are making the game a real problem for a few players, and some CTDs are only once in a blue moon, like I have (I have had one CTD only in 1.3 patch).

I dont honestly think the spec of your machine will be a large factor, Im guessing it would be more likely a driver/codec/software/operating setup or application conflict between X2 and "something else" it does not like.

I really do hope your new card and hardware help, if it does, you should have a very nice rig to play the game in all its splendor