Have I fallen into the support abyss?

[Peeking Duck?]

Thought I had found the problem last night when someone posted a thread about other ATI cards having issues, but that didn't work either.

Just to repeat what's happening:

Game starts fine, loading scenario progress bar gets to %75 complete, then system reboots.

Even after renaming sound and video folders. More info in the thread below. Thanks in advance for anyone with possible solutions!

tm.asp?m=646851


cheers,
-Peek

[derwho]

Hmm. The only thing I can think about is that you should test your memory. I know, it's Kingston or another good brand - but they make mistakes too.

Use memtest86, it's freeware but it's the best on the market. You can get it from:

http://www.memtest86.com

Please use v3.1a and run it a few times just to make sure you don't have a contact problem that comes and goes.

[Mr.Frag]

Sorry PK ... if others were having similar problems, there would be somewhere to go but you seem to be the only one having reboot problems which really points directly to your PC hardware/software as the problem, not the game.

Do you have any other games as a point of reference for comparison purposes?

[Peeking Duck?]

Well, UV 2.30 was working fine. Also, I bought UV 1-2 days after it went on sale and never had any problems running it on this very machine. I've uninstalled it attempting to resolve any possible conflicts with WitP. Have other games working well, including some graphically intense ones like CoD and Planetside. In fact, WitP is the only thing giving me problems, so that's what has me stumped.

Have tested memory by ripping each stick out and booting. Makes no difference as WitP still causes system reboot, although it does affect my FPS in the shooter games.

I'v reseated power supply and checked to make sure it's what I thought it was (400w) and also made sure all my cards/drives/cables are properly connected. Just have no clue what could be causing a complete sys restart everytime I fire up WitP

Thanks again for the help Mr. Frag. Hope I've given you some information to further my cause

cheers,
-Peek

[derwho]

Have tested memory by ripping each stick out and booting. Makes no difference as WitP still causes system reboot, although it does affect my FPS in the shooter games.

That actually does not test the memory. What you get is a simple BIOS test that just does a really rough and quick test on the memory (basically just reads how much there is). Additionally, if you boot up the OS with a specific memory configuration you might - or might not - get stuff loaded into a certain part of the memory that might be corrupted.

The only real way to test it is to use a special hardware-based memorytester or to run a tester program (ie memtest86) on your PC.

[Peeking Duck?]

ORIGINAL: drwho
The only real way to test it is to use a special hardware-based memorytester or to run a tester program (ie memtest86) on your PC.

Wasn't aware of that. Will do straight away.

cheers,
-Peek

[derwho]

One other thing that came to my mind:

Do you get anything in your Windows logs? Check Application and System logs for something - anything that would match the time of a crash.

Are you running IRQ sharing? If yes, disable it right on. You don't get anything positive out of it. A good way to find out is to look at your bootup messages when you start your computer. After it has detected your hard drives you should get a quick screen that says what other hardware it has detected and what IRQs it has assigned them. You can pause the screen with the "Pause" key on your keyboard. Every component should have a unique IRQ. If some component is using the same IRQ as another you have a problem.

Another thing that you might want to test is disabling everything that's not absolutely necessary from your Operating System. This can be done quite safely by following this quick instruction (for Win XP, quite the same for all Windows) :

Right click "My Computer" and select "Properties". Select "Hardware". Select "Hardware Profiles". Copy your current profile and give it the name "Original". Close the "Hardware Profile" screen by clicking "OK".

Select "Device Manager". Do you have any devices that have a red cross over them?

In "Device Manager", expand "Sound, video and game controllers". Locate your soundcard and double click it. Under "Device Usage" (should be "Use this device (enable)"), select "Do not use this device (disable)".

Do the above for your "Network adapters", "Ports (COM & LPT)", "Modems" (if you have one), "Infrared Devices", "Universal System Bus controllers" (this depends a little on what USB stuff you have, if you have a USB keyboard this is a bit tricky, otherwise disable everything).

After this, reboot. Your computer will ask you which hardware profile it should load when it starts booting Windows. Select the profile that you made the changes to, not the one you copied and renamed "Original". If everything else seems to work fine, try starting WiTP.

[Luskan]

go into your bios and turn hyper threading off if you have it. Can cause all sorts of games to go whacky - caused WITP to run amazingly stupidly incredibly slow in one of the earlier builds (has been off and running great ever since).

Also, load up your task manager (ctrl alt del) and check out your processes. Lots and lots of them can be shut down, but only shut them down once you figure out what they're for. This will reduce the possibility of memory conflicts.

[Bombur]

ORIGINAL: Peeking Duck?

Thought I had found the problem last night when someone posted a thread about other ATI cards having issues, but that didn't work either.

Just to repeat what's happening:

Game starts fine, loading scenario progress bar gets to %75 complete, then system reboots.

Even after renaming sound and video folders. More info in the thread below. Thanks in advance for anyone with possible solutions!

tm.asp?m=646851


cheers,
-Peek

My suggestions

1-Load Dr. Watson in memory and try to locate what is causing the trouble.
2-Test your system with Norton WinDocto (if you have Windows 98, of course). I was experienceing system locks with scen#2 and, after I fixed the system, those troubles disappeared (althought they ressucitate if I enable sound....[:(])

[Peeking Duck?]

After attempting the troubleshooting tips outlined by DrWho I succeeded in disabling my NIC. Obviously, I've now restored it, but I believe I've tried everything now. Thanks DrWho, unfortunately it didn't work, or possibly I didn't follow your instructions correctly.

That being said, I've done just about everything aside from f-disk and reinstalling the OS (which for obvious reasons I'm not willing to do).

Strangely enough, I have UV 2.30 installed and running again without a glitch. I'm completely baffled as to why UV will run fine, but my system reboots when trying to run WitP.

Erik, if you see this, you mentioned there were some step-by-step instructions for troubleshooting hardware/software compatibility issues and I would like to ask you to forward them to me so I can continue to troubleshoot. Otherwise, I might be out of $80.

Thanks again to all who've offered help, it is very much appreciated and I know I can get this thing running with a little more help from my friends [:)]

cheers,
Peek

[FirstPappy]

I didn't see anyone asking you to go into the ATI adapter troubleshooting tab and slide the slider down to no acceleration. Did you try that? Sorry if I missed it.

[Peeking Duck?]

ORIGINAL: Pappy

I didn't see anyone asking you to go into the ATI adapter troubleshooting tab and slide the slider down to no acceleration. Did you try that? Sorry if I missed it.

I saw that in another thread Pappy. Yes, I tried that but still no luck - I'm stumped. Thanks for trying to help, Pappy!

cheers,
Peek

[Cmdrcain]

ORIGINAL: Peeking Duck?

ORIGINAL: Pappy

I didn't see anyone asking you to go into the ATI adapter troubleshooting tab and slide the slider down to no acceleration. Did you try that? Sorry if I missed it.

I saw that in another thread Pappy. Yes, I tried that but still no luck - I'm stumped. Thanks for trying to help, Pappy!

cheers,
Peek

You have done a dxdiag?

It is weird you would reboot, usually what I read is people crash to desktop, o/s stays up and all but your saying you reboot.

I doubt it is ATI unless it is a particular card, I use an All in Wonder 32mb radeon which is ATI

What about the Mode? I run in 16 bit Medium

[Peeking Duck?]

ORIGINAL: Cmdrcain
You have done a dxdiag?

Yes sir. Posted in the thread I linked to at the beginning of this thread.

ORIGINAL: Cmdrcain
It is weird you would reboot, usually what I read is people crash to desktop, o/s stays up and all but your saying you reboot.

Agreed. Apparently I am the only one having this problem. Which leads one to believe it's not software related. However, I do think it's some combination of this software and my hardware, although I'm not sure exactly what.

ORIGINAL: Cmdrcain
I doubt it is ATI unless it is a particular card, I use an All in Wonder 32mb radeon which is ATI

Running an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro (with latest drivers).

ORIGINAL: Cmdrcain
What about the Mode? I run in 16 bit Medium

32 bit

Again, thanks to everyone trying to help. It is very much appreciated.

cheers,
Peek

[Peeking Duck?]

Interesting...

Got further than I have before in that I got to see the game somewhat.
Loaded the combat save file and it actually played the entire Japanese turn, but when it switched to Allied turn I got the dreaded reboot.

Not sure what that means, but it did give me a sliver of hope that this issue might be resolved.

Of course, after that, I tried to run the saved combat turn again only to get blue screen error each time. So, in a sense, I'm back to square one. Would really appreciate some input from Erik or any Matrix person.

Many thanks in advance for those who deign to reply!

cheers,
Peek

[Mr.Frag]

You sure you are not overclocked?

You are posting the *exact* problems for an overclocked machine that has been pushed just a little too far.

[Erik Rutins]

Peek,

Can you e-mail me at erikr@matrixgames.com? I want to follow up personally and give you a chance to try the current patch to see if it helps you out at all. Thanks.

Regards,

- Erik

[Peeking Duck?]

ORIGINAL: Mr.Frag

You sure you are not overclocked?

You are posting the *exact* problems for an overclocked machine that has been pushed just a little too far.

I've never OC'd anything. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't because the case I bought doesn't really have much room for additional cooling unless I wanted to get silly with money.

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutens
Peek,

Can you e-mail me at erikr@matrixgames.com? I want to follow up personally and give you a chance to try the current patch to see if it helps you out at all. Thanks.

Regards,

- Erik

Will do, Erik. Currently still at the office, but will write as soon as possible.


As always, thanks to Mr Frag and Erik for their continuing efforts.

cheers,
Peek

[Peeking Duck?]

Erik,

E-mail sent yesterday.

cheers,
Peek