# Problem with Company of Heroes and Several other games



## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

for a while now ive been having problems with company of heroes: opposing fronts. if i let the game choose the automatic settings, which is around medium for most settings, whenever i try to start a skirmish, the game will start to load and then the screen will suddenly go black when the progress bar reaches about 3 quarters done. i've got no clue what could be causing this as the original worked fine. ive found that if i drop all settings to low, the game will wor but only for about 5 minutes, at which point the performance of the game drops dramatically, becoming almost unplayable. ive also found that when i quit the game, i am no longer able to use other games as they refuse to start up, usually with a message saying that either the graphics card does not meet minimum requirements or an issue with directx.

battlefield 2 also has graphical problems. the terrain of a level sometimes completely dissappears so that i must restart the game or the screen will momentarily turn black then come back to the game, allowing me to continue playing. ive also noticed that the longer the computer is left on before any game is started, the more likely it is to experience such a problem. as such, restarting the computer allows me to play certain games, but for a limited time only

There are other games such as the cod4 demo which refuses to even start, it begins to load the demo level and then crashes. i suspect that the problem may be driver related as this would explain why after experiencing issues such as this, i am unable to start other games up (i.e. the driver stops responding)

my computer's specs are:

Pentium 4 3.06GHZ
1 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS 512MB (latest driver)
Directx 9.0c
80GB Hard Drive
Windows XP


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## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

so anybody got any idea what could be doing this? i've tried using the nvidia beta drivers but that doesn't seem to help, neither does changing to a regular driver


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## Van Hel Singh (Jul 24, 2006)

Have you tried reinstalling the game?


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## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

yes, but it still crashes in the exact same place with the automatic settings and slows down about 5 minutes in with everything set to low


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d (Jan 31, 2007)

What are your temps and voltages use speedfan (in my sig)


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## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

the temps its showing are:

CPU: 42C
Internal Temp: 36C
Remote Temp: 37C
HD0: 33C
Core: 48C
Ambient: 0C

According to the config, the core is the graphics card and these temperatures are when i'm not running anything

The voltages its showing are:

+2.5V: 1.5V
Vcore: 1.5V
+3.3V: 3.3V
+5V: 5.07V
+12V: 12.00V


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## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

i've also found out that the game will only crash if shaders are set to high which is to be the automatic setting. if set to low, i can play it but all other settings are defaulted to low as well but after playing like this for several minutes the game slows down too much to even play


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

hmm those temps are a bit high for an idle computer.lets try the temp readings under load.run prime95,and rthdribl at the same time this will simulate a gaming load.then we will see how hot it is getting under a load.


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## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

i ran both of the programs for about 10-15 minutes and got the following temperatures:

CPU: 68C
Internal Temp: 48C
Remote Temp: 56C
HD0: 35C
Core: 60C
Ambient: 0C


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d (Jan 31, 2007)

your cpu is overheating how many fans do you have?


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

i have to agree with owned your cpu is getting to hot.how long have you had this pc?is there a dust buildup in the fans,and heatsinks?if so a can of dust off,or something similar may fix it.


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## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

i've had this computer for maybe 2 years or so. some time last year it had a problem with it overheating except that time instead of just slowing down, it would crash to a bsod. the problem that time was a faulty heatsink. as for how many fans, i'll have to get back to you as it means opening up the computer again. the last time i opended it was to replace the psu and put in 1 gb stick of ram so i'll see what i can do about the dust.


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## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

i opened up the comptuter and managed to remove a large amount of dust that had buillt up on the motherboard, heatsinks and the ans. there seems to be only 2 fans that i can find, one near the processor and the other on the video card. after removing the dust i left the side casing open and ran those two programs again to see if the temperatures would change

CPU: 57C
Internal: 42C
Remote: 49C
HD0: 33C
Core: 57C

i also tried out company of heroes again. the first time i used the automatic settings and it crashed in the same place (during loading of a map). then i tried it with all settings set to low. the game ran smoothly for a few minutes but then began to slow down again. the temperatures i got at this point were:

CPU: 47C
Internal: 41C
Remote: 44C
HD0: 37C
Core: 48C

when i had this problem before i was usually able to get the game to move faster again by using alt+tab and then going back into the game but this no longer seems to work.

after this i put the side casing back on and checked the temperatures again while under use

CPU: 62C
Internal: 44C
Remote: 51C
HD0:36C
Core: 59C


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

yvcw said:


> There are other games such as the cod4 demo which refuses to even start, it begins to load the demo level and then crashes. i suspect that the problem may be driver related as this would explain why after experiencing issues such as this, i am unable to start other games up (i.e. the driver stops responding)
> 
> my computer's specs are:
> 
> ...



you think it could be driver related what driver are you using?


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## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

at the moment its the nvidia 169.09 beta driver, but i've also tried the 169.04 beta, the 163.75 normal driver and the 163.71 normal driver. the problems started only after i installed opposing fronts and now even if i uninstall it the problems with the other games are still there. i also updated the driver around the same time (to the 163.71 driver)


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

the times you have tried reinstalling it.have you been deleting the files for it?i would also run regedit,and get rid of all registry entries for it as well.


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## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

i tried reinstalling again, this time after doing what you said by deleting any leftover files and deleting registry entries. it seems though the game does a good job of uninstalling itself and took the registry entries with it. when i tried playing it ater reinstalling, the same problems came up again, crashing during loading with auto settings and extremely slow gameplay with low settings after a few minutes. however i tried using a different game that had been having problems lately with slow gameplay (dawn of war) and this is now working just as it did before i installed opposing fronts


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## Van Hel Singh (Jul 24, 2006)

Do you have the same problem with the original company of heroes or just opposing fronts?


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## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

only with opposing fronts, the original worked perfectly


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## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

it seems the better performance from dawn of war has gone. i'm now getting an error on starting dawn of war saying 'failed to intialize video card' which is what happens after the computer is left idle for a few minutes. it's usually solved by retsarting the computer but this is what makes me think that the driver or the video card is responsible.


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

hmm have you scanned for viruses,and spyware?


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## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

yes, in fact yesterday i updated my anti virus software (trend micro internet security) and it ran a scan and found nothing


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

the errors you are having could have been infections thats why i asked,but its good you do regular scans.next thing i would try is a scandisk to check your hard drive for mechanical errors,bad sectors etc.


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## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

i ran a check disk and it didn't seem to find anything on either partition of the hard drive. i tried to load a skirmish again in opposing fronts with settings set to the automatic ones and it crashed out of the game but this time instead of only giving a black screen it went back to the desktop. the desktop however was diplayed in very strange colours and lines all over the screen and could only be fixed by restarting the computer.


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

be sure you have the newest version of direct-x


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## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

the installer says i've already got the latest version installed (november 2007)


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

ok just wanted to be sure.i will research your problem,and re-read the entire thread for anything i might have missed.


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## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

i'm not sure whether it helps or not but i've noticed that just before the game becomes laggy the screen flickers and the game pauses for a few seconds


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

hmm that is an interesting point.what brand,and model of power supply do you have?


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## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

i can't seem to find the brand but there is a big blue K on the side of it. also on the side it says the model is: P4-400W. this is a power supply which has been in the computer for about 4 or so months now as the last power supply had to be removed as the fan no longer worked


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## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

i seem to have just discovered another problem although for the moment it seems to have disappeared. when i started up the computer it got to the desktop and as this wsa still loading everything froze. i was unable to move the mouse or use the keyboard, even though the computer was still running. the computer then made a beeping noise and the screen then went black, although the computer was still running. i've had the beeping noise happen before, when i had accidentally started the computer without putting the video card into its slot properly. as i mentioned this seems to have disappeared for the moment but im not sure what would have caused this


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

lets test that power supply under load.download prime95,and rthdribl run both at the same time while monitoring the voltages.


edit: oops lol i already told you to get those,but you only gave temp readings while running them.my bad i should have asked for voltage readings to.


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## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

not a problem. the baseline readings were

+2.5V: 1.5V
Vcore: 1.5V
+3.3V: 3.3V
5V: 5.07V
+12V: 12.06V

after running the programs for 15 minutes

+2.5V: 1.47V
Vcore: 1.45V
+3.3V: 3.3V
5V: 5.1V
+12V: 11.88 (although every so often it dropped to as low as 11.81V and went as high as 11.96V)


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

the voltages are fine its normal for that 12v to drop a bit under that kind of load.


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## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

i have found now that counter-strike source no longer works either. it gets to the point where it is loading a level and just freezes requiring me to restart the computer. i've tried reinstalling the 163.75 driver to see if it would work for anything but so far nothings changed


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

also try memtest to make sure the ram is ok.


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## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

i ran memtest and it got about 2 seconds into the second test and then stopped.

it had on the right side of the screen something saying Test 2 Errors: 16582 so im assuming that this is probably been whats causing the problems. it also had some other information down the bottom of the screen saying things like: Max contigious errors: 2 and Errors per memory slot: 0:229

the 1 gb stick thats in the slot is only a few months old, after i decided to replace the 512mb stick that was there. i might try putting the 512mb stick back in to see if that does anything


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## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

for the moment i can't find the 512mb stick but wehn i do i'll see what happens. could bad ram be causing this and if so what can i do about it?

edit:
just ran memtest on a different computer that, although is slower and has less ram, is relatively stable but i still got 12000 errors or so on the second test


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## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

ran memtest again, and found that it passes tests 0, 1, 5 and 7 and fails tests2,3,4 and 6


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## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

ok i moved the 1gb memory stick to the second slot to see if that would make any difference. still got the same errors with memtest. tried company of heroes with automatic settings. it crashed out but instead of my requiring me to restart the bug report box came up. now however whenever i try to start it up again i get an error message saying: 'Failed to find a supported hardware rendering device. ensure that your system meets the minimum requirements for the game. verify that directx is properly installed and that you have the lastest drivers for your system' i'm also getting an error when trying to start dawn of war saying 'failed to initialize video card'. this problem willl probably resolve itself ater i restart the computer but will most likely come up again a few minutes into using something.


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## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

i managed to find the 512mb stick of memory and now things seem to be working properly again, although at a much reduced pace due to the reduced amount of ram and company of heroes is now only playable on low anyway. also i ran memtest again, and although this ram is working fine, it still came up with errors.


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

that 1 gig stick is either bad,or just not compatible with your system.id rma that stick of ram,and get a replacement.


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## yvcw (Nov 17, 2007)

well i probably won't be able to get new ram until i get a new motherboard as this one is quite old and if i want to use a newer video card i'd need a pci-e slot. i seem to be having a problem now trying to run call of duty 4, it again plays alright for maybe 20 minutes and then crashes out with some error saying 'direct x has encountered an unrecoverable error. please see the readme for possible solutions.' it seems that just before this happens that same screen flicker that happened in company of heroes occurs.


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