Treeburst155 Posted November 17, 2002 Share Posted November 17, 2002 Is anybody getting frequent crashing in CMBB? I seem to get it with every driver I've tried. I might be OK for a couple days and then I start crashing again every few minutes. Sometimes reinstalling drivers helps, sometimes not. It's like the computer goes into an "I hate CM" mode. I really can't play the game. It's that bad. I'm not really looking for help here. I've tried everything, even two different OSes. The crashing persists. I'm just interested to know if any other Ti4200 owners are having major problems. Thanks! Treeburst155 out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WWB Posted November 17, 2002 Share Posted November 17, 2002 Next time the crashing starts, try letting the computer rest for a few hours. Sounds like a heat issue to me, not a driver issue. I have a 4400 and have had no issues. WWB 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Treeburst155 Posted November 17, 2002 Author Share Posted November 17, 2002 I have a $50 HSF setup carefully installed with Arctic Silver III, in a $200 case with four fans. Room temp is currently 68 degrees. Also, it will crash within minutes of boot up in the morning, soon after I start CM. My CPU temps read in the mid 30's (Celsius). I can run CPU "warmer" programs forever. I can run 3DMark2001SE for over an hour. It's not a heat problem. It all began when I went from GF2 to GF4 and the later drivers (28.xx). It happens in WinME and WinXP. I'm going back to the GF2 and experiment with older and newer drivers. I'll bet my CM probs disappear. Treeburst155 out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major Jerkov Posted November 18, 2002 Share Posted November 18, 2002 Had the same problem with my GF4 Ti 4200. I think I've found the solution. 30.87 drivers with 2x aa. Havent had a problem since I set it too 2x(every other mode crashed it). Only drivers and aa combo that have worked for me. GL. Prior to that it was crashing randomly, and often. [ November 17, 2002, 06:21 PM: Message edited by: Major Jerkov ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Treeburst155 Posted November 18, 2002 Author Share Posted November 18, 2002 Thanks Jerkov! That's what I'm getting here, FREQUENT random crashes. I'm glad somebody knows what I'm experiencing. I'll try 2X FSAA with the 30.87s. My fingers are crossed. Treeburst155 out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offtaskagain Posted November 18, 2002 Share Posted November 18, 2002 What brand of Ti4200 are you using? I've heard of some Gainward 4200s having instability issues. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StellarRat Posted November 18, 2002 Share Posted November 18, 2002 I have a Gainward 4200 with 128 megs and have had zero problems with anything. Running the 40.whatever drivers now. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WWB Posted November 18, 2002 Share Posted November 18, 2002 Originally posted by Treeburst155: I have a $50 HSF setup carefully installed with Arctic Silver III, in a $200 case with four fans. Room temp is currently 68 degrees. Also, it will crash within minutes of boot up in the morning, soon after I start CM. My CPU temps read in the mid 30's (Celsius). I can run CPU "warmer" programs forever. I can run 3DMark2001SE for over an hour. It's not a heat problem. It all began when I went from GF2 to GF4 and the later drivers (28.xx). It happens in WinME and WinXP. I'm going back to the GF2 and experiment with older and newer drivers. I'll bet my CM probs disappear. Treeburst155 out.Ok, I will agree that it aint heat. My box runs at 50 C or so and I dont get heat issues with extended CM sessions, so I would bet you don't. Possibly bad hardware, but it works for everything but CM. When it was crashing in XP did you get anything in the errorlog? WWB 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major Jerkov Posted November 18, 2002 Share Posted November 18, 2002 I do have a gainward, but this is the only game that has problems... well, had problems. I play a$$-loads of graphic Intensive games... w/o a hitch, and one that is not as demanding as CM it should run w/o a hitch... but go figure, tweaks here, tweaks there... GW is one of the better Nvidia based cards... GS pls. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Treeburst155 Posted November 18, 2002 Author Share Posted November 18, 2002 Aha!! I was just coming in here to post my "Beware of Gainward Ti4200" message, and you guys are already talking about it. Here's the deal. I took out the Gainward Ti4200 Golden Sample and put in the trusty old GF2 Pro. I can't make CMBB crash at all now. It's as stable as a rock with ANY driver. I'm using the 40.72's right now. I still get the FSAA weirdness that everyone gets, but I don't crash. Is the 4200 defective? I doubt it because it runs everything else just fine. The Gainward Ti4200 Golden Sample just is not compatible with CM. I should mention that I bought one of the very first of these video cards. Gainward had them on the market before anyone else and I grabbed one. The thing overclocks really high. If it wasn't for CM, I'd say it's an excellent card. To me it's just a very expensive piece of junk hardware. Anyhoo, I can play CM now, even with a little anisotropy. All is well in my world. Beware the Gainward Ti4200 if you want to play CM!!!! Treeburst155 out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major Jerkov Posted November 18, 2002 Share Posted November 18, 2002 Well, if this is the only game you play, stick with your GF2 and a 600mhz cpu, shouldnt have a problem. Otherwise... Did not my suggestion work? Interesting... Why play with a gf2 when you can with a gf4.. gah.. OH, btw, many newer VC's have a problem with older games/engines. Tink bout' 17! [ November 17, 2002, 11:50 PM: Message edited by: Major Jerkov ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Treeburst155 Posted November 18, 2002 Author Share Posted November 18, 2002 Well Jerkov, I can't use the 30.87s with WinXP. I tried your 2x FSAA with the 30.82s to no avail. There's a HUGE thread about the faulty Gainward cards at MadOnion.com. Everyone is RMAing their cards and getting replacements. It seems there's a bad capacitor on many of the earlier 4200s. My card is all packed up and ready to ship tomorrow. BTW, CM is a rather CPU intensive game. It'll heat up a CPU something fierce. CM can use all the CPU it can get, and I don't think it minds a fast video card either. 600 mhz would barely run a large scenario I'll bet. Treeburst155 out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick_Oz Posted November 18, 2002 Share Posted November 18, 2002 This is an interesting thread for me as I'm contemplating upgrading my trusty P-3 866 (running Win 98) which uses a GF-2 32mb card. It has given great service for two years but CMBB challenges it on the bigger maps. My original plan was to simply increase the RAM from 128mb to 512 DDR, switch my OS to XP (fingers crossed) and boost the CPU speed up to 2ghz. I had also been thinking of swapping my GF-2 32-mb card for a G-4 Ti 4200 64mb. But in light of the discussion, perhaps the RAM and CPU upgrades would be enough to handle CMBB and I could just keep my Creative G-2 card (I use the drivers that came with it..no problems at all). It would certainly save me some dough .. and possibly some headaches... comments or advice? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major Jerkov Posted November 18, 2002 Share Posted November 18, 2002 If it can be "fixed" there is no problem, and the one with cm is so minor as to be only a nusance. Take everything you read with a grain of salt, and know how every techgeek will be climbing up the walls if he finds 1 thing wrong... with a game, a vc, or a cpu... hmm maybe inferiour ram? Gah. To reiterate my erratic ramblings, if you return your vc just on word of mouth, and 1 faulty performance... DONT BUY ATI! LoL. And dont buy any games that might be "state of the art", as they will surely cause you and your comp many, many headaches. BTB, I had a amd600,v3k 16, and 512ram, and I played cmbo flawlessly. Oh yea, bout' the heat issues, must have been a fluke... cause it definitely was the Dets... heh. [ November 18, 2002, 02:00 AM: Message edited by: Major Jerkov ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Treeburst155 Posted November 18, 2002 Author Share Posted November 18, 2002 The problem, Jerkov, is that MANY games are crashing for MANY Gainward Ti4200 owners with the same pink checkerboard pattern. In my case, only CM is affected, but I don't play many other games. It is much more than a nuisance when you crash in the middle of an orders phase every 2-5 minutes. Mick OZ wrote: "My original plan was to simply increase the RAM from 128mb to 512 DDR, switch my OS to XP (fingers crossed) and boost the CPU speed up to 2ghz. I had also been thinking of swapping my GF-2 32-mb card for a G-4 Ti 4200 64mb. But in light of the discussion, perhaps the RAM and CPU upgrades would be enough to handle CMBB and I could just keep my Creative G-2 card (I use the drivers that came with it..no problems at all). It would certainly save me some dough .. and possibly some headaches... comments or advice? " Mick, I would go ahead and get the 64MB Ti4200 if I were you. Just stay away from Gainward's cards to be on the safe side. There IS a very real problem with some of them. If you are going to WinXP you should have AT LEAST 256 MB of RAM, IMO. 512MB would be better. CM works fine with WinXP/Nvidia except for FSAA. You can use FSAA 4X but you have to go to the desktop (escape) and back to see the text. In a PBEM game, you will not be able to see the name of the turn file as you type it in at the end of your turn, EVEN IF you escape to the desktop and back. The move to Win XP did NOT improve the performance of CMBB for me. It is, however, a nice OS in general IMO. Any of the newer CPUs would be a significant improvement over your 866 mhz. I'd go with an Athlon XP 1800+ or a 2 gig Pentium. The high end CPUs cost to much for the performance gain you get IMO. Treeburst155 out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonp Posted November 18, 2002 Share Posted November 18, 2002 Hello, I have an Athlon 1900+ with a Gainward 4200 w/ 128 megs of ram and I run everything perfectly. I had all kinds of problems initially with other GeForce 4 cards (4400 and 4600 though). I then decided to go with the Gainward 4200 and have not had a problem since then. I also am overclocking it since it is a gold sample. jonp 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Treeburst155 Posted November 18, 2002 Author Share Posted November 18, 2002 Yep, not ALL Gainward Ti4200s are defective, only some of the earlier ones. I just sent my 128MB Golden Sample to Gainward for replacement. They were very agreeable on the phone. They know they have a problem with their earlier Ti4200s. The replacements people are getting are noticeably different in appearance (HSF setup). I would still stay away from Gainward Ti4200 because you don't know if you are buying one from an early batch or not, especially if you buy online. Treeburst155 out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misery Posted November 18, 2002 Share Posted November 18, 2002 Originally posted by Treeburst155: [QB]Well Jerkov, I can't use the 30.87s with WinXP...[QB]Treeburst155, Here's a link to 30.87 for 2k & XP if you still need it. Haven't tried them so I don't know if they will work. 30.87 Download 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Treeburst155 Posted November 18, 2002 Author Share Posted November 18, 2002 Hmmmm....somehow I missed the XP 30.87s on the Guru3D site. Anyhoo, it's too late now cuz the card is speeding its way to Gainward as I speak. Thanks anyway for taking the time to post the link. Treeburst155 out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonp Posted November 18, 2002 Share Posted November 18, 2002 Hmmm I have seen that problem with other cards as well (I cant remember the brand names I tried before Gainward. I think I tried 2 other ones) Anyway, I got my card pretty much as soon as they came out. Is it "all" early cards that are bad or just a batch of them? Thx jonp 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Treeburst155 Posted November 19, 2002 Author Share Posted November 19, 2002 jonp, If your card is not crashing frequently, you're OK. It's not ALL the earlier cards. You would know it if you had a bad one. If you start crashing to a strange checkerboard pattern all the time you can return the card to Gainward. I have the toll free number on file if and when you need it. Until then, don't worry about it. Gainward makes good stuff IMO. They just had a bad batch. Treeburst155 out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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