# COD4 crashes on certain maps



## Shell97 (Aug 11, 2008)

I am having problems playing COD4 in sp & mp. My pc will either reboot or totally shut down at various points in the game. I have tried everything that I have read on Activision's site and various other places. And nothing works. I have found one server that doesn't give me any problems at all and lets me play for hours, but it is becoming boring only being able to play on one server.


This is my system (just built on July 17, 2008)

Mother Board Model Name : GA-MA790X-DS4(rev. 1.0)
--------------------------
M/B Rev : 1.0
BIOS Ver : F5c
Serial No. :
Purchase Dealer :
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VGA Brand : Nvidia Model : 8800gt
CPU Brand : AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+
Model : Windsor Speed : 3.01
Operation System : Win XP SP : 3
Memory Brand : Corsair Type : DDRII
Memory Size : 2GB Speed : 800
Power Supply : OCZ 700 W
Realtek Onboard Sound- Version: 5.10.0.5473 - DirectX 9.0c

I am not running a sound card due to the fact that I ran outta cash when building my system & was told that the gaming mobo I put in my system has really good onboard sound. But I am going to be getting a sound card within the next month.



Things I have tried....

Turned sound to Basic
enabled the stereo mix
changed the mssmp3.asi to mssmp3.bak
turned off firewall & virus scanner (always do this when playing COD4 or AA)
uninstalled & reinstalled game (twice)
uninstalled and reinstalled each patch one at a time & made sure the game changed to the newer version
made sure all other programs where turned off b4 running the game
Ran Defrag and ScanDisk
Had P/S checked by local PC store to make sure voltages were ok and my P/S is fine
Checked my pc's temps and they are as follows:
GPU 42 °C (108 °F)
GPU Ambient 32 °C (90 °F)
WDC WD1600AAJB-00WRA0 29 °C (84 °F)
(Those temps are idle temps, but after playing COD4 for a couple hours on the 1 and only server that causes me no problems, my temps only go up a few degrees...ex GPU 60 and GPU Ambient 44)

I have done pretty much everything I have seen online to do to fix the problem. And nothing works. Is there anything else I can try?? I am at a lose on what else to do. Please help me!!!


----------



## Sgt_nick_fury (Sep 23, 2008)

I have the exact same problem. It always results in a hardboot when it happens...it does seem to be centered around certain maps over others, and I think may even be connected to certain sound effects. 

I have the GA-MA78GM-S2H motherboard I beleive both boards use the ALC889A Realtek onboard sound, and I am 90% sure this is what is causing the problem. 

I have done everything you have done plus taken driver cleaner and completely removed all previous drivers for both nvidia and ati.....(ati from IGP on that mobo), and I am also running an 8800GT, I put the latest drivers back up but still have the same problem. 

Sometimes after the crash when windows restarts I even hear a sound loop briefly from game that crashed etc as computer starts back up....(weird), further leading me to beleive it has something to do with the sound and memory. 

It has to be something specialized though because plenty of people have the ALC889A hardware and run it fine. It's something to do with Gigabytes version of the driver, or how it relates to the 8800GT or something....but it is even MORE specific in that it's only THIS game that I have the problem.......I can play other games indefinately with no problem....

Your not alone, I have read other messages to it....but it seems the magic combo is an 8800GT, an ALC889A onboard sound, and COD4.......I have almost zero faith Activision, or Realtek is going to look into this. 

OH and I don't think it's an Nividia issue, tried with no sound and there was no problem.


----------



## Sgt_nick_fury (Sep 23, 2008)

I am in desperate need of Help! 

I am still having this issue. I went back and tried to lower speed of ram to 667 instead of 800 just to see if it was memory stressing....no dice...I have tried underclocking Everything....no dice..... I have reinstalled everything but NOTHING and I mean nothing seems to work i even used Driver Cleaner to completely clean my system of ANY uneeded drivers....which actually did seem to help performance for some reason, but still I get random reboots in COD4 and only in COD4....most notably it happens most on Creek for some reason. 

I'm starting to think i have a bum Graphics card....exxcept it ONLY does it in COD4, and certain maps more then others, by far Creek is the worst. 

Again My set up....

GA-MA78GM-S2H Motherboard

Realtek ALC889A onboard sound

Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition

Antec earthwatts EA500 500W ATX12V v2.0 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply 

Evga 8800gt

pqi POWER Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)

Windows Xp

WD RE2 Enterprise 400gb HD


----------



## 54nch0 (Nov 18, 2008)

did you ever find a resolution, Nick? I'm having the same issue and I sent my video card back and got a new one 9800GT XFX. Our systems are pretty much the same.


----------



## Sgt_nick_fury (Sep 23, 2008)

54nch0 said:


> did you ever find a resolution, Nick? I'm having the same issue and I sent my video card back and got a new one 9800GT XFX. Our systems are pretty much the same.



Yes I still have the problem though not as much now....(one thing I do Is fresh reboot before I play now.....which makes it seem to take longer before the problem....again does that mean memory is a factor also? a leak?) 

All I can tell you is what I have tried....lowering clock speed mem speed etc has NO effect.....it's not a heating issue. No mix of drivers fixes the problem as of yet. No settings on sound, or even in tweaking in the registry for the ALC889A seems to fix it. No mixture of tweaking the Nvidia drivers seems to effect it. 

It seems to be something about the combo of this game Nvidia 8800 and 9800 cards, and Realtek ALC889A onboard sound causes some sort of memory leak somewhere....and the longer your system has been going the more likely it will crash....BUt ONLY in COD4.....it's by far the most bizarre problem i have encountered in 25 years of monkeying with PCs....

It makes me pine for the horrible memory tweaking required with extended memory and UMB crap just to get games to load on a 286....

Some people with some mobos have the problem others do not...but ultimately it's an issue with the GAME and they can't blame the hardware....as this is the only THIS game the problem comes up. 

I beleive the reason it has to do with certain maps has something to do with certain effects being used on those maps.

It's annoying and it didn't raise it's head until a patch or two ago before that there was no problem.....but I guess there are not enough of us for them to care enough to do anything about this.....if anyone has ideas. i'd love to hear them i have exhausted every tech idea i can think of.


----------

