Crash to Desktop Vista x64 - NO, NOT the same as all the others

[bagpiperdude90]

See reply 18 for the fix to this issue

Ok,

I've searched high and low, and can't find a single thing that will fix my symptoms. I'm about ready to dual boot XP Home as well as Vista Ultimate x64 just to get rid of this darn problem.


So for a week or two, I had ZERO problems, minus a few random PB kicks, from PR - once I set the texture sizes to medium. Everything was good... training worked, played a few real rounds, and was having a blast.

Today, I'm having weird, consistent crash to desktop with no error message. I play in windowed mode, and no notification comes up. I have a huge page file setup, have tried with and without the large address aware patch (I have the EA download version of BF2, and used the correct exe for that). The problem just randomly popped up, and I have no idea whats going on.

The odd thing is, it is also happening in vanilla BF2.

Here's what happens:

Open PR, log onto a server, join a team, and within 4 or 5 minutes, it just goes to the desktop.


From last week to today, I have:

changed graphics drivers
tried setting up a joystick for PR, which didn't work
that is ALL

I've rolled back graphics drivers, even though I have played a while with the new drivers just fine. Still the same issues.

I have not yet uninstalled BF2 and reinstalled it all. However, I have cleared all BF2 cache so it was like a clean install, and I still had issues. Any ideas? I'll dig out my old XP CD and just dual boot if nobody has any ideas...


Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16ghz
4GB RAM
EVGA Nvidia 8800GTS 320MB
2x WD 640GB Drives in RAID mirroring
Wired ethernet connection

thanks for reading.

[bagpiperdude90]

This might also help - but I get the "fatal error" sound but no notification when I exit PR (but not BF2) normally. You know... click the exit button on the menu.

If it crashes to desktop, no error at all - noise or anything.

[Mj Pain]

I had this problems yesterday (kinda).
Loads maps, starts the game then crash without error message.
Tried it three times with same result.

I shut down my computer and restarted.
After that PR worked again

[ConSs]

I suddenly started having this problem as well. It's really annoying, I get a CTD a few minutes after I join, right when I'm ready for battle. Gonna try restarting my pc and see if it helps.

[thepalerider]

You don't need a large page file with 4 gigs of ram.( in Vista use a fast flash drive 1-2 gigs for ready boost). You should be just fine with 1-3 gig page for XP.
Sounds like you have a system issue going on.
Do you play any other FPS without CTD or other proublems?
You said "but I get the "fatal error" sound but no notification when I exit PR"
Do you mean when you CTD or when you quit out?
Many motherboards will shutdown when the cpu gets to hot to protect it. Your video card may be doing the same thing
Things to check:
Check ram (boot from Vista disk and run memory test)
Overheating cpu
Underpowered//overheating video card
psu starting to fail
Defrag hard drive
Disk check next reboot
open case check fans/motherboard for dust /loose wires

Not to long ago I had a CTD when ever I got into a vehicle. Turned out I had a damaged shader file. I fixed it with a backup.

Hope it helps
good luck

[bagpiperdude90]

Thepalerider,

The "fatal error" noise is only when I exit PR correctly, in the usual way.

My computer is way overpowered for PR... it doesn't use much CPU, and I can run my CPU at 100% for hours on end (video encoding for business) and its fine. So I know its not hardware. I just uninstalled PR and BF2... I'll reinstall and we'll see what happens.

I also did a system restore back to when it worked. No luck there.

[bagpiperdude90]

uninstalled / reinstalled BF2, still the same thing happens both in BF2 and PR.

Any other ideas?

[thepalerider]

Backup
then delete your BF2 folder (the one inside your documents folder) to rule out
corrupted preference files.
Restarting the game will make a new one. Just link to your online account and you should be good to go. Play for a little while with the 'defaut' settings. If your CTD is gone (cross your fingers) then all you need to do is replace your new '001' or '002' profile folder with the old one to get all your custom settings back.

Good luck

[SnipingCoward]

you might need to get an additional program to thoroughly remove the remains of the old driver


I get the fatal noise 2x when i close pr and if i dont something is really wrong! (XP64)


in addtion, regarding pagefile:
when you are in game use taskmngr to check for ram usage then adjust the page file to

ram + pagefile >= used ram + 500mb [pagefile>=0]

eg:
4GB + pagefile = 3.3 GB + 500mb | since 4GB > 3.8 GB => pagefile = 0
means: i dont think you need a pagefile at all for pr (might need it for rendering though)
(i am running no pagefile with 4GB and XP64)

[Chaoticzero]

I have been having the same problem.

Every time I join a game I crash within 2-5 minutes. I've ran in windows mode, and I don't get any errors. I know it's not my ram it stays at 70% usage the whole time, and my pc is not overheating.

So far I have tried the following things to fix it with no luck.

Restarting my pc
Closing all of my background programs
Updated Punkbuster
Lowered graphic settings

I'm starting to think this might be a driver problem. Would any happen to know where I can download older Nvidia drivers?