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Game freezing! Need help!


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Hello! This is my first time posting. First of all, I'd like to say that this game is incredible. I downloaded the demo about a month ago, and just had to get the disc. I got it a few weeks ago, and I've been playing it every night since then.

Unfortunately, I've been having a problem which I ignored at first (because I thought it was a one time thing), but now it's starting to drive me insane. Whenever I play a scenario the game freezes up on me, usually sometime after my tenth turn. There's no discernable pattern to it. It usually freezes while I'm plotting my next turn, or replaying the last one. Hitting "escape" or the "ctrl+alt+delete" buttons seems to have no effect, and I'm forced to restart the computer. I hope this is something that's easily fixable, as I was planning on starting up a PBEM game. I'd appreciate any help. Thanks!

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If you're overclocking your CPU or possibly your video card, then that could be a culprit also. Usually an overclocked video card will lock up CM fairly quickly - rather than taking time to occur. The same may be true for CPU overclocking (where the FPU doesn't quite accomodate the overclocking as well). So it is possible for 2D to look fine and not have any problems with your current settings, but a 3D game like CM may trip up with certain overclocking measures.

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Thanks for your responses. I don't think it's a heat problem, as I've played other games for long periods of time, and haven't had freezing problems. I have a Real3D video card, which doesn't have an overclocking feature. I tried deleting the preferences file, and rechecking my graphics hardware. I'm running DirectX8.0, and when I check it, it's set for 800x600 monitor resolution, and optimal refresh rate. But when I do the graphics hardware test, the only "can you see this?" message that I can see clearly, shows a resolution of 640x480. And it doesn't show the refresh rate, like it says it should in the manual. I can see the "can you see this?" message for the 800x600 resolution, but it flickers on and off. I'm running Windows, and my desktop is set for 800x600. The CM disk I got is the 1.11 version. I tried the graphics hardware test with the disk as is, and with the 1.12 patch downloaded, but there seems to be no difference.

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Is the "0288" the version of the drivers that you're using ? These are the latest drivers that are posted at Real3D's site:

Starfighter PCI (top one is for Win9x):

http://www.real3d.com/support/starfighter/drivers/pci/sfpci_drivers.html

The Starfighter series of cards appear to be based on the Intel 740 chipset. Unfortunately it is considered a sub-par 3D performer with some incompatibilities. Do you know what motherboard you're using ? A non-Intel chipset-based board may have some possible problems.

Assuming that you're running Windows98 here are some Intel 740 drivers (excuse the long URL):

Intel 740 (v. PV40_9):

http://appsr.cps.intel.com/scripts-df/filter_results.asp?strOSs=17&strTypes=BIO%2CDRV&ProductID=76&OSFullName=Windows*+98&submit=Go%21

There are also some BIOS updates on the subsequent pages of this download (numbers at bottom of page), but I don't know if they'll work with the Starfighter card (since it may or may not have a flashable BIOS chip).

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I have the latest update for the Starfighter, and my motherboard is non-Intel based. Could that be the problem?

I think I'll just purchase a new video card, considering the poor performance of the Real3D card. Are there any you could suggest that would be compatible with a non-Intel based chip-set? As I stated before, I only have one other game (Age of Empires), and I doubt I'll be getting anything else for a long time. Basically, I'm looking for something that'll run smooth with Combat Mission.

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If you have an AGP slot I'd recommend either a TNT2 or a GeForce2 MX (which should be less than US$120 over the Net). Depending on how fast your CPU is, you may not get the full potential out of these video cards. However they should be completely compatible with CM. I'm not sure if the GeForce2 MX comes in a PCI version, but the TNT2 does (if you don't have an AGP slot). A number of the incompatibilities video cards usually have with motherboards is due to their AGP implementation. So PCI cards are usually a safe bet if you're not overclocking the PCI bus (running a non-standard Front Side Bus frequency - anything other than 66, 100 or 133Mhz). AGP cards have a few performance benefits over PCI cards (primarily in moving textures to display memory - which is an important factor for CM).

The Age of Empires game is 2D, so the problems you're seeing with CM won't be duplicated with it.

I'm not sure how to recommend the Intel drivers. You may want to uninstall your "Starfigher PCI" drivers and install the Intel OEM drivers (which are probably newer). Unfortunately there's no guarantee that these will work with your video card or work with CM (there are several revisions of the Intel740 graphics chip). But it may be worth trying before you purchase another video card (which you may want to do anyway).

[This message has been edited by Schrullenhaft (edited 03-12-2001).]

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