Memory Dump problems

[Leilani]

hallo hallo!

ive tried running SI and classic on two completely different machines now, both of which easily meet the recommonded specs

the trouble is slightly more worrying than crashing to the desktop...its usually when i try zoning (e.g. porting or walking through dungeons/SI ports). I can pretty much guarentee that i will receive a blue screen mentioning "Physical Memory Dumps" and sometimes it gives me a nice little filename like cmaudio.sys or scsi.sys

both pc's are running xp home with amd processors and geforce graphics cards. ive even received blue screens saying "exception cannot be handled" on win2k with classic daoc (pentium3 with crappy spec)

im sure i cant be the only one unlucky enough to receive this, most will probably be quick to say "xp haha" but win2k doesnt like generating textures for SI - and i believe wind2k is the operating system renowned for eating up hardware when gaming

one pc has also had problems outside of daoc but the second one is fresh from all badness, so im blaming the game rather than faulty hardware

ive tried formats, driver updates, bios updates, windows updates, but it seems too coincidental to have this game do the same on two machines for it to be faulty hardware.

has anybody experienced the same or similar problems? its most frustrating when im even using their stupid recommended brands!

thank you!

-lei

 

[Belsameth]

did you updatre all drivers? not just your videocard drivers?
ie. sound drivers and mobo drivers? since

cmaudio.sys or scsi.sys

hints in that direction

 

[Leilani]

oh yes everything!

and just about every file you can think of has appeared in the dumps, from usb to scsi to graphics...really doesnt help to look at them! theres probably even been an iexplore

ps boooo! its mini me lendra/atlanta! roar ive migrated exclusively to midgard/excalibur! how are you /poke!

 

[Belsameth]

Lendra!

hmm, the 2 things I can then think of is either a heating problem, but more likely bad memory..
any other graphically heavy stuff that you run? or just DAoC?

tho re-reading your first post now a hardware defect wouldn't make much sense
have you tried searching in the Mythic support database? it's quite a bit more extensive then GOA's own

 

[Leilani]

just daoc really!

this second pc im using is fresh from someone thats played lots of games with no problems, it would be interesting to know if other xp (home) users have problems especially xp home people with geforce cards.

my bet is its awful coding on you know whos part, but then there should be more people with these problems!

my pc (the first one) has had problems booting up after the memory dumps, and has even crashed out of normal mundane type tasks, so even if the dumps caused that they are no longer exclusive to daoc

i severely doubt its overheating problems, geforce are good at getting hot but it should surely boom out whenever rather than zoning (plus i can play for hours or minutes and it does it)

if people reading this have no idea its bye bye daoc, all its doing is messing up mine and otherses pc's

 

[Belsameth]

Originally posted by Leilani
my pc (the first one) has had problems booting up after the memory dumps, and has even crashed out of normal mundane type tasks, so even if the dumps caused that they are no longer exclusive to daoc

esp in WinXp this is usually a hardware fault, I've no idea bout the other one I'm afraid

 

[Leilani]

/shrug more than a coincidence to me

i think its daoc messing up my hardware seeing as its during zoning/porting. my pc ran fine with daoc for many moons, then with no hardware or driver changes it came up with this. i dont think there was, but maybe a patch around that time has made things go boom

hopefully more people will read this in the next few days and they may have some friendly support! lets hope i dont have to resort to rightnow eek! /hug!

 

[andyr00barb]

How's the virtual memory setup on these PCs out of interest? Anything other than the windows default?

 

[heilel]

I have a similar setup as you do and I've been looking into this problem extensively.

I'm sad to say, there are issues with AMD processors combined with Geoforce cards.
This problem gets worse when you use an Nforce chipset with the above.
And if you use Win2k it gets even worse.

So I'm gonna goto Win XP next, which performs better.
Also, if you're using the Nforce chipset, use the Nvidia nforce Unified drivers, DAOC support recommends those.

However, my investigation continues, and I'll get back to you.

 

[Leilani]

oh dear oh dear!

i actually tried the unified driver on the second pc and managed to zone a few times without crashing, but i also threw in loads of other updates and didnt play for too long so its too early to stamp "solved" yet i think. it didnt like SI at all, instant dumps occurred when walking towards the zone thing! its classic client ive been playing with

ive tried playing with virtual memory, caching, shadowing, but its never helped so always went back to the optimized defaults

somebody told me they had memory dump problems a lot, so they changed from winxp to something else and there was no problem. its a shame about you having the same problem, hope between us we find a solution!

another person was telling me to try a pentium4 processor which i am planning on doing next PC, but cant afford to do that now!

thanks for replying! its sad, but a little more reassuring knowing its not just my horrible luck taunting me

hope you manage to play safe from crashing soon!

-lei

 

[heilel]

Originally posted by Leilani
oh dear oh dear!

i actually tried the unified driver on the second pc and managed to zone a few times without crashing, but i also threw in loads of other updates and didnt play for too long so its too early to stamp "solved" yet i think. it didnt like SI at all, instant dumps occurred when walking towards the zone thing! its classic client ive been playing with

That's sounds like a bummer.
I don't get an error every time I zone, but it'll hapen a few times over a long evening of play.

ive tried playing with virtual memory, caching, shadowing, but its never helped so always went back to the optimized defaults

I haven't chenged any of theose settings, mostly been playing around with drivers/BIOS etc.

somebody told me they had memory dump problems a lot, so they changed from winxp to something else and there was no problem. its a shame about you having the same problem, hope between us we find a solution!

What other OS did he use?

another person was telling me to try a pentium4 processor which i am planning on doing next PC, but cant afford to do that now!

Yeah, my old pc is a pentium 3 and it never crashed once.
So I'm pretty angry that this problem occurs on my new PC.

 

[heilel]

Ah!...just remembered..

One thing I read recently is that the geoforce cards can have issues with Directx 9.
So I'm gonna get one of those Direct X uninstallers (it's not an official uninstaller, but they work fine) and revert to DX 8.1

It may help.

 

[Leilani]

ack! i got the problem with directx 8.1 or 9

it might be worth visiting windowsupdate.microsoft.com if you havent already, theres a few patches that supposedly stop freezing up certain games or videos when playing, but ive crashed with fully up to date and full unupdated!

ack im not sure of the other os he used, but there should be a few options for virtual memory or shadowing in the bios, one called video cache was disabled but didnt help when enabled /cry

 

[heilel]

I may have solved the problem for myself anyway.
I use PC3200 RAM and an Epox Motherboard.

PC3200 RAM can be very fussy with the settings in bios.
So I changed it from auto to the following setting.

Memory Frequency = 100%
Memory Timing = Expert
T(RAS) = 7
T(RCD) = 3
T(RP) = 3
CAS Latency = 2.5

You need to check your specific type of RAM, so don't just type in these in your BIOS.
You will have different settings for your RAM. (unless you have PC3200, Corsair RAM 2.5 latency that is)


Anyway, DAOC has been running for about 3 hours so far with no crash, *crosses fingers*

 

[Leilani]

yay for you! where do you find that kind of information from?

 

[heilel]

Originally posted by Leilani
yay for you! where do you find that kind of information from?

I went to my Mobo manufacturer's site ( www.epox.com) and scoured the technical documentation and help.

I recommend you start at YOUR Mobo manufacturer site.
And look for forums related to it as well.

 

[Leilani]

wee thank you! i dont have time right now but will set aside many hours for scouring the internet!

does it look like your problem is resolved now? i loaded up SI on the second computer after the unified drivers and had a memory dump without even zoning, but classic client seems ok on this one

let me know how its going! thanks!

-lei