| Author |
Unable to play DS |
Atomic
Vice Admiral
Joined: January 28, 2004
Posts: 40
|  Posted: 2005-04-04 07:38
I am unable to play DS longer than 10-15minutes at a time, i have played versions 1.481 and 1.480 with no problems.i have un-installed DS removed all DS related folders and files and re-installed DS and it still crashes on me.
Firewalls have been turned off, i have used the lobby updater but it doesn't DL anything it checks but says i dont need updates.
Any help or info is much appreciated...
*The problems...
Click on any server from the lobby, atm it is Newbie and MV.
Goes to the DS screen with the loadup bar down the bottom.
Loads to about 3/4 or 60-70% then crashes.
But if i press the space bar it doesn't load the rest but takes me to the Play/Observe/Logoff screen then i can play for about 10-15 minutes then it crashes.
*My computer details....
OS : Windows XP H-E (Home Edition).
CPU : Intel Celeron ~1.1Ghz.
Video : Intel 82810 Graphics Controller.
Ram : 128 Mb (i know its not much but its what i have).
Internet Connection : BroadBand ADSL or ASDL one or the other.
Hard-Drive : 20 Gb.
Direct X : 9.0c.
Internet Explorer : 6.1 i think or 6.0, its definately over 4.
I think thats all of it, so if anyone has any help or info it is much appreciated. I have been away from DS for about 8 months so be gentle please.
Atomic.
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Drafell
Grand Admiral
Mythica
Joined: May 30, 2003
Posts: 2449
From: United Kingdom
| Posted: 2005-04-04 08:47
I am inclined to think that you might be having a problem with the Graphics card, which I beleive is intergrated
Mkes sure you have the most updated drivers rom Intel which can be dowloaded here:-
http://support.intel.com/support/graphics/intel810/sb/CS-009120.htm
Also, if you can try and make notes of exactly when the crashes occur. IE what you were doing, if you had just pressed a particular button etc. It may help us to find out if there is one particular thing causing your pc to crash, or just general instability.
Try the beta server http://beta.darkspace.net/index.htm?module=files.php&download_id=171
and see if you get the same problem of being disconnected when you play there. Please remember to read the Beta Guide before installing which is available here.
I hope this helps and that a solution to your problem is found soon.
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Rocki
Grand Admiral
Joined: August 13, 2002
Posts: 1029
| Posted: 2005-04-04 11:58
Installing some more RAM might help too if its nit the Gfx card... 128 isn't much to run XP on...
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Lord DowneyBUM (UK)
Fleet Admiral
Joined: January 13, 2003
Posts: 437
From: London England
| Posted: 2005-04-05 04:13
Would agree with the XP statement, for some reason, XP drains alot of power. An upgrade to 256 is easy, and very cheap.
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BackSlash
Marshal
Galactic Navy
Joined: March 23, 2003
Posts: 11183
From: Bristol, England
| Posted: 2005-04-05 10:25
256 isnt much either...minimum recommended is 512
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TheBumble
Cadet
Joined: June 24, 2002
Posts: 962
From: PALESTAR
| Posted: 2005-04-06 03:05
correct - all your statement's
to run XP under good conditions, you need to have 512 (HE), for the PRO, 1024 is better ...
this INTEL-chip is far away from "state of the art", but i guess, main problem here is, it normaly shares the RAM
so, if you have 128 (not sufficent for a "normal" use of XP) and your VID-chip demands RAM from there, you are "stranded"
perhaps, you can borrow some extra-RAM from a friend and try it out
keep us informed, please
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BackSlash
Marshal
Galactic Navy
Joined: March 23, 2003
Posts: 11183
From: Bristol, England
| Posted: 2005-04-06 03:20
Bumble, im such a fool, thanks for spotting that..
That, im pretty sure, is 80% the problem. The video card you have is intergrated, and whilst it can do the job, it leeches system RAM to do its job as it is not an actual graphics card, more of a chip on the motherboard.
When the system has been running for a while (with a game loaded), the hard drive loads things like textures etc into the GFX card onboard RAM so it can process it faster, it also uses this space to store anything that comes up a lot of the time. The problem here being that, your graphics card keeps wanting more memory for textures and the like (your graphics card probably doesnt have any real compresion or advanced techniques to use less memory). Since your system is ALREADY strugling to run XP (I dont know how you actualy got away with it for this long).
I'll put it simply...
XP HE (home edition) needs 512mb ram minimum recomended to run.
A videon card nowerdays has about 64 - 128 default memory (256 on some). Onboard cards (like yours) use about 32mb system ram...
Take the 32mb away from teh 128 you have in your system, that leaves only 96mb for windows XP to work with...and thats not even including how much memory the game takes up.
Basicly..
You need more RAM and if you can, a new GFX card.
[ This Message was edited by: BackSlash *Jack* on 2005-04-06 03:20 ]
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Atomic
Vice Admiral
Joined: January 28, 2004
Posts: 40
| Posted: 2005-04-08 09:11
Thankyou for all your help...
I am currently saving for upgrades for my computer RAM is at the top of the list.DS is one of the better games online i like to play its in a class of its own.So another week or two and i will be able to upgrade easily.
Thankyou to all who helped.
Atomic.
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Tael
2nd Rear Admiral
Palestar
Joined: July 03, 2002
Posts: 3697
From: San Francisco Bay Area
| Posted: 2005-04-08 11:32
XP Home runs decent with 256mb, but not for gaming. If you plan to game or have other applications running in background you want 512mb. I have all my clients order their new workstations with that much, more for the CAD and Graphics Arts systems...
Also another thing to check, if you go on the internet a lot, see if you have spyware on your system.
Get Ad-aware, http://www.ad-aware.com
Or Search and Destroy (dont remember the URL) for free and scan your computer, you wil be surprised what they find. Lots of Malware slows you down too... But 128 is just to little memory for XP.
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AlleyCat
Cadet
Evil Empires Inc.
Joined: December 22, 2001
Posts: 148
From: Michigan
| Posted: 2005-04-12 12:50
I to have the same type of problem and it only started with the last patch.
OS: XP Media Center Edition SP2 (with all the firewall crap turned off that SP2 puts on)
CPU: Intel P4 3.2Gz
Memory: 2GB
Graphics: Radeon 9800XT (256MB)
Sound: SB Audigy 2 ZS Audio (8800)
Internet: Cable (378mb up/ 4gb down)
HardDrive: 250GB
DirectX: 9.0c
IE: 6.0.2900
I turned my AGP down from 8X to 4X and I can atleast play for a bit now (at 8X it crashes in seconds). At 4X, switching views too fast will crash it.
I think I will try with AGP off and see if that helps, don't have this problem with any other game.
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AlleyCat
Cadet
Evil Empires Inc.
Joined: December 22, 2001
Posts: 148
From: Michigan
| Posted: 2005-04-12 14:22
Setting don't make a difference, so I uninstalled/installed from scratch, we will see if this makes any difference.
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BackSlash
Marshal
Galactic Navy
Joined: March 23, 2003
Posts: 11183
From: Bristol, England
| Posted: 2005-04-12 14:48
The above sounds like a deffinate Graphics card driver problem or a problem with the AGP Motherboard port drivers.
Make sure your graphics cards drivers are up to date and that you have downloaded the most recent ATI Radeon drivers (3.4 Catalysts at the moment).
Omegadriver.net does some nice performance/quality ones, but stick with the official ATI ones if you seem to be experiencing problems. My other machine has 9800xt and runs DS no problem, so I know its definatly not the card unless it is damaged.
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AlleyCat
Cadet
Evil Empires Inc.
Joined: December 22, 2001
Posts: 148
From: Michigan
| Posted: 2005-04-13 17:54
I always run the latest drivers, and as I said I have no problem with any other game out there. I run a lot of games and CAD softwares and nothing ever had a problem with it.
Having said that I debugged my system from my laptop and discovered that DS makes my HDTV Wonder card send the graphics card a reset command.
As I no longer use this card simply removing it solved my problem.
I am curious if anyone else has used XP Media Edition with TV control and had it work ok (wonder is its a XPME issue)...could just be I needed to config the HDTV card different, but like I said, don't use so don't care (all good now).
[ This Message was edited by: AlleyCat on 2005-04-13 17:55 ]
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Tael
2nd Rear Admiral
Palestar
Joined: July 03, 2002
Posts: 3697
From: San Francisco Bay Area
| Posted: 2005-04-13 18:11
I'm wondering if XP Media Center is part of the issue. I have a copy of it but dont use it, I stick with XP Pro...
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