Adrian...playability of MK and MB

[longfellow]

???Looking for a little assistance in getting both these games to play without freezing and memory read errors....but no CTD...I have never had a problem with BK, BH and RT as stand alone games even withall mods included and what makes it worse is that that there appears to be no pattern ie gamma flash..stuck units etc..I have searched the CDV and Active forums for a while now and have tried about every suggestion...both add-ons are installed to RT directory and there are no patches/additions in there, just what came with the retail cd...no files in RT are dated after MK or BAR.. ..I have relatively "up-to-date??" system (gig ram, 6600 Nvidia 128 meg ram Win xp (updated) and believe me I think I have tried just about everything ...changing Bios settings....defraging..wiping free space... separate drives for RT.. reformatting...new memory...everthing short of new video card...(I am retired and fixed income).. would be grateful if you could offer some suggestions as what I have been able to play of the game I like very much
Thanks

hope I am in the correct space here to ask this question??

[Adrian Taylor]

Sorry to hear you are having problems. If there are no obvious causes for the freezes it would seem to point towards video drivers/video card as you have penty of RAM (minimum 512MB, but 1GIG is recommended especially with Windows XP). Although a long shot is that your memory may be causng an issue.

Have you tried installing MK & MB in the Blitz directory? You will need to do this manually unless you un-install RT first using the Windows Registry.


Adrian

[longfellow]

Hi....Thanks for your timely response, Adrian....I originally had them in the Nival/Blitzkrieg directory but I had too many CTD's there and ramdom freezes but no "memory could not be read errors" so I uninstalled the original BK.....there was no stability with BH either therefore RT seemed to be my last alternative..I actually have tried about eight sets of Nvidia drivers ..no luck..I will try installing the memory in different banks as it's not brand new and I can't return it....maybe upgrade video card but dealer told me to wait... not too much better out there for the money at this moment and better to wait....anyway thanks for the help and for getting back to me so promptly
S

btw runs on my laptop ....sluggish, but it runs with no errors..Toshiba P30 ATI card 9200 and 500 meg ram but Win XP Home not Pro (desktop)...mean something???

[Adrian Taylor]

Hmm, as it works on your laptop with a different ATI card it would point that the freezes may well be video card/memory problems. I have had both here in the office. Certainly when we got several repeated memory errors and freezes it turned out to be faulty memory. The Blitzkrieg engine is quite memory hungry and with the larger missions in MB and MK any issues with memory are likely to occur.

We use ATI cards exclusively and have had no problem in the past. Also I know others with Nvidia who have had no problems. However, I have found out that the new 3d oriented cards will have problems running Blitzkrieg. I now have a new machine with twin Nvidia 7900 GT cards and Blitz freezes are the time.


Adrian

[tedo]

Hi!

I have 6600 GT 256mb and 512 ram and both add-ons work like a charm. Everything st on full and maximum resolution in game. I have P4 3.04 Ghz. Never had any ctd or error messages. But maybe i just have good configuration. I have this computer almost 2 years now.

Maybe u have some problems with motherboard? Do your other programs or games also close with ctd?

[BBFred]

Thanks for the report Tedo, could you share with him what driver and version of it you are using?

Just a shot in the dark but the behaviour you report longfellow makes me think of a bad memory module... You could test each independently in your system by removing the other, see if you still get game.exe errors.

You may also want to check your memory settings in your BIOS. Some applications, like Blitzkrieg, can start generating errors with memory boosted to its maximum possible performance. Settings on Auto in the BIOS may make your memory more stable.

HTH

[longfellow]

Hi Guys...pardon the familiarity....
Thanks for the responses

Tedo...
I am running an Athlon 3200 + A7N8XE board and only 128 meg ram in my video card ..that could be the difference but I would be grateful if you would let me know what drivers you are using...84.21 is what I have...only other applications that crash are the 3D intensive type...Doom 3 and Quake 4...but they ran worse when I had the ATI 9800...probably because these apps are Nivida friendly or so I am led to believe

BBFred...
Thank you for your suggestion...Bios settings are all set at optimal...nothing "souped up"...only thing I have adjusted is to shut off fast writes and AGP 8x as per other threads I have followed...the memory module may in fact be the problem..I have 3 banks of memory but only 2x 512 installed in banks two and three..nothing in bank one...is that the norm??...techie said to do it that way..I did get MB to run yesterday most of the day but w/o the enviro pack update..does that tell me something??

Thanks again for the responses

L

[longfellow]

I have a screen shot I would like to show you sorry for the "ignorance" but will you show me how to post it

[Adrian Taylor]

You will need to load your screen shot up to the net somewhere and then post a link to it from his thread (use the picture icon above).

Not sure why MB works without the Enviro_Update.


Adrian

[Steelwedge]

longfellow said:

I have a screen shot I would like to show you sorry for the "ignorance" but will you show me how to post it

This is a good place to host your pics
www.imageshack.us/

Note: Before you can upload your screenshot image you need to change the file format to .jpg.

Once hosted there just copy/paste the line in "Embeddable Code" / "Forums" in your message.

[longfellow]

hope this works "]http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/5610/screenshot0011bb.jpg]

[Adrian Taylor]

Hi Longfellow,

Corrected the link above ;D

This is a problem with RT. LaPlata replaced the Panzer 38(t) details with their Panzer IV H as I recall. We forgot to include new icons for MB. So, it will show as a Panzer IV in the depot, but in play it will be the Panzer 38(t).


Adrian

[longfellow]

You're right.....Ta very much.....thought maybe that was part of the problem

L

[thinkman]

longfellow:

I noticed you are running an nforce2/MCP-T motherboard in a 2x512mb configuration.

See if there is a 2T command rate BIOS or setting that you can use.

I've had these issues with an AN7 (nforce2) + 2x512mb (dual sided) memory, specifically with MB & MK.

Neither Memtest86+ nor Prime95 would indicate errors, but infact, the nforce2 was running on the very limits of what its memory controller could take using default 1T command rate. Especially at 200fsb(+) dual channel.

MB/MK are exceptional at sniffing out these sort of problems.

Basically it comes down to the memory intensive nature of these games, and the inadequacies of the nforce2 memory controller when paired with high density RAM.

Add to the mix PCI latency imbalances (starved soundstorm), IRQ sharing problems, driver issues and that dreaded gamma flash issue and you are asking for trouble.

[longfellow]

Thanks thinkman for the advice.....I have no 1T/2T command in my Bios or Dramm configuartion option in advanced chipset configurations ...do you think putting the mem in slots one and two instead of two and three would help..?