Freeze issue

[Tabris]

Alright, I can run KOTOR II on my laptop, its not that advanced, barely meets the system requirements and is even vista. I install the game on my desktop which is xp and much more advanced and five minutes in to play time my computer freezes. Same issue I'm having with MOTB. My best guess is that I've got some conflicting thing but that's just a guess and I have no idea how to check that. Has anyone else encountered this problem? I really don't want to play this game on my laptop, tiny screen and low frame rate.

[mainstreet]

Alright, I can run KOTOR II on my laptop, its not that advanced, barely meets the system requirements and is even vista. I install the game on my desktop which is xp and much more advanced and five minutes in to play time my computer freezes. Same issue I'm having with MOTB. My best guess is that I've got some conflicting thing but that's just a guess and I have no idea how to check that. Has anyone else encountered this problem? I really don't want to play this game on my laptop, tiny screen and low frame rate.

 

Is your desktop dual core?

 

May want to try blocking KOTOR2's access to one of the cores...

 

(Alternatively, reinstalling is always worth a shot...)

[Hassat Hunter]

Posting the systemspecs may help (check the options in the launcher, then check specifications. Ask for more information and save it in a *.txt file; post the content here then)

[Tabris]

Well I solved this problem, I turned off Vsync and it was solved. But now I have a new problem. Two actually. One right after any cinematic, my screen gets messed up, things are barely visible, everything looks like a tv station with a bad signal. It goes away when I turn Frame Buffer Effects on or off, but makes reading the dialogue after a cinematic rather hard. I then have a new freezing issue, every half hour to two hours in to game play the game freezes, my cursor becomes a box of lines, and my hard drive stops. I've tried re installing it, didn't get me anywhere. System specs are as follows.

 

SiSoftware Sandra

 

System

Host Name : MLKUHNHENN

User : Matthew

Workgroup : WORKGROUP

 

Processor

Model : AMD Sempron Processor 3100+

Speed : 1.81GHz

Model Number : 3100 (estimated)

Cores per Processor : 1 Unit(s)

Threads per Core : 1 Unit(s)

Internal Data Cache : 64kB, Synchronous, Write-Back, 2-way set, 64 byte line size

L2 On-board Cache : 256kB, ECC, Synchronous, Write-Back, 16-way set, 64 byte line size

 

System

Mainboard : Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. nForce

Bus(es) : AGP PCI IMB USB i2c/SMBus

Multi-Processor (MP) Support : 1 Processor(s)

Multi-Processor Advanced PIC (APIC) : Yes

System BIOS : Award Software International, Inc. F18

Total Memory : 1GB DDR-SDRAM

 

Chipset 1

Model : Nvidia Corp nforce3 CPU to PCI Bridge

Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 804MHz (1608MHz data rate)

 

Chipset 2

Model : Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Athlon 64 / Opteron HyperTransport Technology Configuration

Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 804MHz (1608MHz data rate)

Total Memory : 1GB DDR-SDRAM

Memory Bus Speed : 2x 201MHz (402MHz data rate)

 

Video System

Monitor/Panel : Plug and Play Monitor

Adapter : RADEON 9600 SERIES

Adapter : RADEON 9600 SERIES - Secondary

Imaging Device : Lexmark 2400 Series

 

Physical Storage Devices

WDC WD2000JB-00GVA0 (ATA) : 186GB (C:) (E:)

OEI-USB CompactFlash (USB) : 62MB (I:)

OEI-USB SM/MS/SD (USB) : N/A (J:)

TSSTcorp CD/DVDW TS-H552U (ATAPI) : 646MB (D:)

FY5722J TAH418Z (SCSI) : N/A (F:)

 

Logical Storage Devices

Hard Disk (C:) : 128GB (10GB, 8% Free Space) (NTFS) @ WDC WD2000JB-00GVA0 (ATA)

Added-space (E:) : 58GB (3.4GB, 6% Free Space) (NTFS) @ WDC WD2000JB-00GVA0 (ATA)

KOTOR2_1 (D:) : 646MB (CDFS) @ TSSTcorp CD/DVDW TS-H552U (ATAPI)

CD-ROM/DVD (F:) : N/A @ FY5722J TAH418Z (SCSI)

3.5" 1.44MB (A:) : N/A

Removable Drive (I:) : 61MB (58MB, 95% Free Space) (FAT) @ OEI-USB CompactFlash (USB)

Removable Drive (J:) : N/A @ OEI-USB SM/MS/SD (USB)

 

Peripherals

Serial/Parallel Port(s) : 2 COM / 1 LPT

USB Controller/Hub : Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller

USB Controller/Hub : Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller

USB Controller/Hub : Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller

USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub

USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub

USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub

USB Controller/Hub : Generic USB Hub

USB Controller/Hub : USB Composite Device

USB Controller/Hub : USB Printing Support

USB Controller/Hub : Generic USB Hub

USB Controller/Hub : USB Mass Storage Device

Keyboard : Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard

Mouse : Microsoft PS/2 Port Mouse (IntelliPoint)

Human Interface : HID-compliant device

Human Interface : USB Human Interface Device

 

MultiMedia Device(s)

Device : NVIDIA

Edited October 24, 2007 by Tabris

[Hassat Hunter]

I believe the Movie-glitch is a known one with outdated ATi drivers... try installing new ones.

 

As for the crashes; no idea. But the lines suggest an overheating problem.

[O P T]

Logical Storage Devices

Hard Disk (C:) : 128GB (10GB, 8% Free Space) (NTFS) @ WDC WD2000JB-00GVA0 (ATA)

Added-space (E:) : 58GB (3.4GB, 6% Free Space) (NTFS) @ WDC WD2000JB-00GVA0 (ATA)

 

I suspect that detail right there isn't helping you any.

 

With that amount of free space your HD's are almost certainly highly fragmented and you probably are having some virtual memory issues.

 

As a general rule of thumb try to keep at least 20% of your system drive free at all times.

 

I'm not sure just what you've got on those drives to make them so full, but I'd consider moving some stuff off to CD or DVD, and freeing up some space. Then defrag the drive.

 

A handy program to figure out where large files and folders are is Tree Size Free.

 

It integrates into the right click function and by simply clicking on your HD letter in Windows Explorer it will tell you exactly how much data is in each folder.

[Tabris]

My computer is filled with massive amounts of movie and cd rips from my collection. But the solution is simple. I'll just move about 20gb of it over to my external drive and I'll see if it changes anything. Thank you for your advice.

Edited October 26, 2007 by Tabris

[Tabris]

Right, cleared up 35gb of free space on my C drive, defragmented the whole thing...game still crashes my computer at now random times. Sometimes it will crash when I load a game, sometimes it will crash 2 hours in to it. No single action on my part seems to cause the crashes. There have been dozens of them and I haven't seen a pattern. I'm tired of playing this game hitting F4 every ten minutes. I'm about to just give up on the whole game.

I've reinstalled the game twice

Updated my video drivers

Updated my sound drivers

Updated Windows

Cleared off 25gb of music and movies

Defragmented my hard drive

Run full system scans for any malicious programs and viruses

Game still doesn't work.

[BenTheMan]

This may be a stupid question, but did you download the patches?

[Tabris]

No its a fair question, first thing I did when I installed the game was run the updater. I even ran it again just to make sure, and I did in fact have all the updates before the problem started. I don't think its a heat issue either, I can run Oblivion for hours at a time without any problems. Though I am tempted to hook up a second monitor, get my temperature gauge going and actually watch it as I play. Gut feeling is though that it isn't the problem.

[O P T]

Sorry the drive space solutuion didn't help.

 

The next logical issue is something else is running in the background and causing the problem

 

What are you using for Firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware, etc.?

 

A quick test would be to disconnect your system from the internet, turn off all of those programs, and see if it's any better.

 

You may also have stuff running in the background you don't need.

 

A handy program I use to help to keep unnecessary stuff from loading is Advanced Windows Care.

 

This program does a lot of other "optimization" stuff, but it includes a check of all the programs set to run at start up. It includes a feature to let you look the program up on line to find out exactly what it is and what it does, so you can make an informed decision on if it should or shouldn't run.

 

The third possibility is that some other program is running a scheduled task that sucks up resources or creates a conflict.

 

If you want to monitor the temperatures, you might want to run a program to keep track of that.

 

My motherboard came with a program called "Windbond hardware doctor". It continuously monitors, temperature, voltage, fan speed, etc. and is configured to alarm if anything exceeds a threshold.

 

Not all motherboards have the hardware to support this particular program, but it might be worthwhile to see if you can get one of the various software packages to work on your system. Do a google on "motherboard monitoring software" to get a bunch of candidates.

[Tabris]

Sorry the drive space solutuion didn't help.

 

The next logical issue is something else is running in the background and causing the problem

 

What are you using for Firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware, etc.?

 

A quick test would be to disconnect your system from the internet, turn off all of those programs, and see if it's any better.

 

You may also have stuff running in the background you don't need.

 

A handy program I use to help to keep unnecessary stuff from loading is Advanced Windows Care.

 

This program does a lot of other "optimization" stuff, but it includes a check of all the programs set to run at start up. It includes a feature to let you look the program up on line to find out exactly what it is and what it does, so you can make an informed decision on if it should or shouldn't run.

 

The third possibility is that some other program is running a scheduled task that sucks up resources or creates a conflict.

 

If you want to monitor the temperatures, you might want to run a program to keep track of that.

 

My motherboard came with a program called "Windbond hardware doctor". It continuously monitors, temperature, voltage, fan speed, etc. and is configured to alarm if anything exceeds a threshold.

 

Not all motherboards have the hardware to support this particular program, but it might be worthwhile to see if you can get one of the various software packages to work on your system. Do a google on "motherboard monitoring software" to get a bunch of candidates.

 

Right, did all that. I'm sure my system is running much better with a defragmented hard drive and all those unneccessary programs stopped. But the game crashes my computer anywhere from 30 seconds to 15 minutes now, so its becomming unplayable. I liked it better when I could get two hours out of it before it crashed. I really don't think this game is overheating my system since I can run more advanced and demanding games for hours without a crash. I appreciate all the help so far and would be grateful for any more suggestions.

[O P T]

Weird, I would not have expected disabling those things would make the crashes happen more often.

 

I did a quick google on Radeon's freezing with KOTOR2 and found a long thread on the topic regarding KOTOR and Radeon's freezing on the Bioware forums here.

 

Not sure if the same solution will help, but you might want to read through that therad to see if there are any things to try.

 

Something else to try, and it's a shot in the dark, is to uninstall, delete all files and folders left behind, and reinstall to a different location. I know you uninstalled and reinstalled once before, but that was before you freed up space on your HD. It's possible that some files got corrupted when they had to be split across multiple sectors. Putting them in a new location will mean any previous registry entries or any other stuff left behind from the previous install will be ignored.

 

I also found the LucasArts help forum here.

 

They don't seem to have a search function, or at least not for guests, so I couldn't find an exact match for your issue.

 

However, I did note that there were plenty of suggestions to disable the sound to fix crashes, most notably this thread. Most seemed to be Vista related, but again it's worth a try to see if it makes a difference.