Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Lockups with a new system whilst playing a particular game.

May 31, 2007 9:21AM PDT

I am currently having a problem with a game called Silent Hunter III/GWX (the 'Grey Wolves Expansion' mods package) on my recently upgraded system. I used to have a socket A system, I though it would be a great idea to upgrade to an AM2 system with DDRII 800. Unfortunately not as things turned out.

Old system:

Sempron 3000+ (socket A),
X2 Gb PC 3200 DDR,
ATI X800 XT,
Audigy 2,
Asrock K7VT9A-pro Mb,
X1 Maxtor SATA 1.5 Gb/s HDD,
Windows XP - Home (Service pack 1).


My current system:

AM2 AMD 64 Athlon 3200+
X2 Gb DDRII
ATI X800 XT
Audigy 2
MSI MB
X2 Maxtor SATA 1.50 Gb/s HDD.
Windows XP - Home (Service pack 1).

I am currently having a very similar sounding problem with SHIII / GWX on my recently upgraded system. I used to have a socket A sempron 3000+ with sata HDD and 2 Gb DDR. I though it would be a great idea to upgrade to an AM2 system with DDRII 800. Unfortunately not as things turned out.
The dvd, GWX setup files, mods and patches are exactly the same ones I used when I installed the game on my old system on which everything worked fine. Now, after between 30sec and four minutes, the whole system locks up completely. I thought this might just be a problem with the GWX installation or possibly some of the mods, but I have tried the stock 'vanilla' game with and without the 1.4b patch, sadly with the same result.
I have replaced all the GXW and mod files from different download sites incase they were corrupted. Both the HDD which I have tried the game on have been reformatted. I even went to the extent of stripping the system down and reassembling it and replacing the sata data cables. No improvement.
I thought possibly my Zone Alarm might be responsible, but it had caused no problems on my socket A system, so I couldn't see why it would start now. But I tried a fresh SHIII/GWXC installation after first uninstalling and stripping out any and all ZA files. With no improvement either. I have updated my MB chipset drivers, tried eight different versions of the Omega drivers, even though they worked fine on the old system. All my other games work fine such as Tomb Raider Legend, Myst 4 and 5 and others, no problems at all. The rest of the time my system works fine, no issues at all with any other applications or software. The O.S has been reloaded three times just in case.
Right the way through from vanilla to fully patched and modded GWX 1.03 the lock ups continued.
Is it just that SHIII/ GWX is incompatable with my system somehow or is there any way of fixing this. Please.......anyone

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Sorry for the double post everyone, I'm new to this.
May 31, 2007 9:00PM PDT

Sorry for the double post everyone, I'm new to this.

- Collapse -
Suggestions..
Jun 1, 2007 2:14AM PDT

First, I recommend installing Service Pack 2 on the machine. There are a number of system fixes in SP2 and it may help.. See the link below on how to do that:

Preparing Your Windows XP Computer For SP2

Although you mentioned the motherboard/chipset drivers, have you also updated all other drivers?.. I've seen an audio driver cause issues such as your's.

How much RAM? Tried removing all but one stick of RAM and running the game? If nothing, add a stick and check again, etc. It would run slower but if there's a problem with the RAM, it might show up with one of the sticks.

Next, you don't mention the power supply.. How big? 500+ Watts?

Hope this helps.

Grif

- Collapse -
Locking This Thread
Jun 1, 2007 2:18AM PDT