36 replies to this topic

[MikeyPI]

As I asked before have you tried running the default game or something like Hoopah's LA mod (unaltered) to see if it still crashes after a specific duration.   Your comp has an integrated chipset (amd).  I had a similar chipset on one of my laptops and it ran the game, albeit lighting was prone to causing lag.  Until you have either tried the default game and/or LA mod or similar low-demand spec mod I cannot speak further for your situation.

 

Looking @ your DX diag your machine has a total of 6 gigs ram, of which roughly 5.6 is available for the os to start with, your video card "dedicated" memory is the missing portion of the 6 gigs... Your OS will consume around 1 gig it's self just for the normal operation of the system at a minimum. Leaving around 4.6 gigs +/- for programs/operations..  But realize your video card has the ability to consume more of the physical memory if it is similar to the AMD chipset I had previously, so it is possible it is consuming more memory for the video card than the "dedicated" 500 mb or so it takes off the bat.

 

Whatever is left after that, would be around (ballparking) 3 gigs can go to the video card, 1 gig for the system run, leaving 2 gigs for the game and other applications to run on if the video card chews all that it can.  Make sure that when trying to play the game you shut down any anti-viruses you have running on your machine, some of them will try to check the game as it runs (because it runs scripts) and that can cause excessive resource consumption.  But ultimately, the computer is not ideal for gaming, so try the things I've suggested above before I can even consider any other alternatives you may try.  Obviously, make sure the computer is set to "high performance" for it's power setting and not power saver or balanced as they will reduce the available power to the machine.

 

Moderator note:

Don't double post like that please, you asked yesterday and did not really need to ask any help today... One day is not really enough to call a topic missed by people, and while I understand that you really want help to get this resolved, it really isnt appropriate to double post on this forum, especially when such a small time has passed since you've last posted.

[ck4life_tweets]

In regards to it crashing on default game, Yes, it crashed after exactly 2 minutes and 5 seconds from the start of the application. 

And to my surprise, Mayberry Mod didn't crash.

And for the Los Angeles mod, it crashed after 3 minutes, 24 seconds.

However the second time I tried the Mayberry Mod, it crashed. 

[MikeyPI]

What I would like you to do is this:

Delete the logfile.

Load the game:

Play Mayberry mod 'till crash. (log the estimated time it ran before crash)

Cut logfile and paste to desktop, rename it mayberry crash log.

Load game again:

Play LA mod 'till crash. (log the estimated time it ran before crash)

Cut logfile and paste to desktop, rename it LA crash log.

Load game again:

Play default game (no mod) 'till crash (log the estimated time it ran before crash)

Cut logfile and paste to desktop, rename it default crash log.

 

Once that is done post them here and I will look at them independently to see what the common problems are (if applicable).

 

From my perspective it sounds like the computer is running out of resources, which the game is known to have a memory bleed (remember memory bleed doesnt just mean physical ram alone).  When I say running out of resources it can mean the GPU is being overtaxed, the CPUs, or the Ram.  Once I see your logfiles from those scenarios I've asked for above I can try to give you a few more possible things to try that may make a difference.  I had a similar setup to yours and mine was stable with the game, albeit with some lag when the lights got excessive so there is probably a way to get it to work with some stability on yours.

[ck4life_tweets]

Mayberry crashed after 8 minutes 

LA mod crashed after 3 minutes 25 seconds [Crased right after loading again]

Default game crashed after 1 minute 6 seconds. [Crashed right after loading again]

Attached Files

•  LA mod crash.txt   480.03KB   9 downloads
•  Mayberry crash.txt   472.79KB   12 downloads
•  Default game crash.txt   247.17KB   8 downloads

[MikeyPI]

In all three instances it's abruptly terminating, ironically both mods are making it further than the default did, with far more usage for both of those before it went kaput.

So that part of it is strange to me..

 

You can check under the amd catalyst control panel and see if you can change the settings to override the application's defaults, force it to use settings which you choose via the amd control panel may increase stability... The other option for you to attempt to do is to run the game on one core:

http://forum.emergen...me-on-one-core/

Some people say this increases stability, but I've never had to do it myself.  Guess it depends on the particulars of the processor unit.

[ck4life_tweets]

still crashes

[MikeyPI]

Then I'm outta ideas as to why your game is unstable, especially since it's doing the reverse of what most people's game does when it has performance problems.  Usually mods make them worse, in your case it seems more unstable with the default game.  Given that it's the steam version I am at a loss as to what else can be done to help you out.  Your computer isnt optimal for gaming, but usually switching the power settings to "high performance" will offset the laptop issues to a point, though with this game it can be very fickle with certain computer configurations more than others.  Maybe someone else can think of something but for me I'm out of ideas on what to do to help you out if none of the ideas I've given helped even a bit.

1). Use amd catalyst to override the game's configurations and use what the catalyst wants it to.

2). Try running on one processor core instead of all of your cores.

3). Ensure you are on "high performance" for your power profile (found in windows under the battery icon) instead of balanced or power saver.

4). Lowering the game's settings to be less demanding on your video card.

 

If none of that has helped even a bit, you can try to update the video card drivers, but that's probably not going to make much of an impact, nor would trying different directx versions since the game does load even if it is unstable as it is running.

[ck4life_tweets]

Yeah i've done all that

Do developers help? When I run on one core it crashes before I even start playing. And the LA mod and Default mod crash at about the same time, only seconds after it starts. However, the MayBerry mod is pretty much trial & error. 

[MikeyPI]

To be honest the devs won't be able to help you very much if at all on this issue, they would likely point out to you that your system has a 1.4Ghz processor, where their system requirements are for a 1.7Ghz processor and call it quits at that point.

 

I am less inclined to go by the system requirements, as I have in many many instances ran games with less than recommended system performance, while it lagged a bit more than an optimum machine, it still ran it in spite of being less than the recommended requirements.  Your processor is a bit low, so it could be the culprit of the problems you encounter, especially if you have many things running in the background while playing.  A way you can check that is to open up the task manager, under the performance tab, while playing the game check what your CPU is running at in percent.  If it is nearly peaked at 100%, you've found your problem.  Ultimately to resolve it would require shutting down anything else that runs in the background that you possibly can.  Things like anti-viruses, web browsers, any third-party software that runs on the machine that is not essential to it's operation (IE if it aint windows, it should be terminated).  Outside of trying to do that type of deal and reduce the CPU load from other programs/apps while trying to play the game there really isnt any other solution that could help you.

 

Truth is, for my systems I've usually been .1-2 ghz shy when my system was able to run it anyway, the amd chipset may not have enough power at 1.4 to make up the difference, especially when coupled with the integrated video card coupled with it.  I'm sorry I can't be more helpful, but that's where you're at with your situation, coupled with the fact this game is pretty bad about optimization in of it's self, along with the underpowered processor is probably why you're having the issues you've having.

 

Try shutting down anything and everything you can in the background and hopefully that will make it to where you'll get a more reasonable timeframe of gameplay (around 30 minutes) before it falters or fails.

[ck4life_tweets]

I'll try on my old gaming desktop (really old), it has a 2.4 GHz processor, I think it should run since the game was made in 2006, do you think it will?

The GPU is the only reason why I had to get a new computer to run games. The computer I bought after my gaming desktop has been having issues for a very long time, which is why I always use my laptop with an HDMI cord, which is advertised as a "gaming laptop".

 

Another thing is when I originally bought the game I remember this laptop was overclocked at around 2.7 GHz I think, however, I accidently deleted Windows off my computer, My game had no problems before Windows was deleted. It hasn't been overclocked since then. So I will go try overclocking again. 

 

Another thing, regarding my old gaming desktop, does it meet requirements? 

 

• Windows Vista Home Basic 
• AMD 64 Athlon 3800+ 2.4 GHz Single Core
• NVIDIA GeForce 6100
• 2.75 GB of DDR2 (After it is taken away)

edit: Computer is now overclocked, I went low this time @ 2.2 Ghz. I will now try to see if it will stop crashing. 

[MikeyPI]

Your older machine while dated would probably suit your needs better than your laptop will. Overclocking your laptop to 2.7 from a 1.4 would probably be unwise as laptops arent known for great cooling systems anyway to begin with. Overclocking that far will likely result in shortened CPU lifespan if not outright cooking it from the cooling system being inadequate.

 

The only thing that is a bit low for your desktop is the ram, which is a very cheap easy fix if you've got a 64 bit OS, the nvidia card would be more suitable than the AMD HD chipset that your laptop has anyway(especially if it's not integrated and is a dedicated chipset), the processor is still better performance wise than the laptop is.  If I were you I'd use the desktop for EM4 and you'll probably have a better gaming experience.  Your laptop is by no means a "gaming" laptop, it's configuration has a good bit of ram included, outside of that everything else about it is inadequate for serious gaming. A good number of computers are frankly advertised as things they are not designed/built to do, most of the "gaming" laptops out there are insufficient for most current games out there, having a 1.4Ghz processor and an integrated video chipset alone places it into the "multimedia" laptop category, as I said with overclocking it you'll run the risk of cooking the processor unit, even if it lets you overclock it you'll likely hurt it's lifespan.

 

A tip moving forth is if you're into gaming, avoid the integrated chipsets, if you are into gaming you'd want a "dedicated" 3D chipset for your computers...  The Intel HD's and AMD HD's are for the most part meant for multimedia computers, even some of the Radeon and Nvidia chipsets are available as integrated chips, which ultimately perform similar to the Intel and AMD HD counterparts. These chipsets work well for web browsing, watching videos on the computer, and general windows tasks, but they are usually not great at rendering games, especially particles (like smoke), shadows, and dynamic lighting, and since most games make extensive use of all these things they tend to fall short of their dedicated counterparts.  I have an Intel  chipset, but the driver set that it uses along with the configuration of the system makes it capable of moderate gaming, but when compared to my dedicated chipset there is simply no comparison.

[ck4life_tweets]

2.7 Ghz is what AMD OverDrive gives me on Autoclock, it can surely go much farther i'm sure. The CPU temp rarely goes above 90, even in my least performing games [30-40 fps], unfortunately, the game still crashes despite the computer being overclocked. Since I put it to single core like you suggested, it has been crashing way earlier then before, even when its back to all 4 cores.

[MikeyPI]

Flipping it back to having the option to have more than one core just means more cores are available (which means more power available to use at once for it).  Putting it on one core in theory would increase stability as the game is designed for single-core processors (given when it came out that was what was available) but your processor doesnt have adequate power on one of 4 cores, if it were a dual core system it probably would have worked better for you.  Resetting the option to have more cores won't resolve the underlying issues for the game, you're perception is that something has changed, the reality is the only way something has changed is if the config file changed it's self to recognize the less power available on one core, not the system configuration.  You can check the config file for example or I can send you a "clean" one and put it into your game, either way, but ultimately the instability of your game is going to be present regardless to a single core (which means way less power for your system) or multiple cores.  

 

Your desktop is probably the best answer for your issues, your video card (amd HD) and processor combo are ultimately why you've encountered so many problems with this particular game.  Doesnt mean other games will have problems, but this game by it's very nature is way more demanding than it's age would suggest, part of the price of an un-optimized platform.

[ck4life_tweets]

Okay, the only problem is I think my desktop has a broker sound card, any recommendations for a new one? 

[MikeyPI]

In truth when it comes to the "big picture" soundcards arent too important, just make sure that whichever you shop for is compatible with your applicable sound source (speakers).  If your speakers need special hookups, make sure your new one is compatible for it.. Other than that most sound cards made today are about on the same par as far as sound quality goes... Just different connection options, so make sure it's compatible with your speaker output when you shop for a new one... That being said, you don't need a sound card to test a game properly, so I'd go ahead and load the game on there as-is and make sure the game runs well on it before I invested in new parts for it.

[ck4life_tweets]

I went ahead and tried the game on my desktop, and it runs very well and is stable.

Now, we are back to the sound problem. The sound on my computer via any audio device is horrible.

I am hoping this link will fix it.

http://www.pchell.co...chipmunks.shtml

Literally when I had that computer I would play games without the sound, for about 2 years until the PC became outdated and I had to replace it.


Well I feel Noobie, As I said this is a old computer and I was young when I operated, The reason why I have been having sound problems- I accidently deleted my sound driver a few years ago, which means I have been using a computer with absolutely no Sound Driver for the years I used it.

[MikeyPI]

Moderator note: I went ahead and merged your posts together, in the future when you've got something to add and nobody has posted since your last post, just go ahead and edit your existing post using the edit button found on the bottom right of your post.  We have a rule here that you can't post multiple times in a row (called double-posting).  So just use the edit button in the future if you've gotta add something and nobody has replied since your last posting.

 

I'm glad your desktop is stable for this game, so that's a perk for you at least, sorry your laptop isnt ideal but it sadly isnt to spec for the game (even with the game being old).  You can update the sound card if you wish, as I said they are very cheap parts to buy these days and most are pretty equal for regular sound systems.  Unless you get into the really really off-the-chart sound systems out there now, most will fit the bill for standard surround setups, just make sure that your computer has the required card slot (most likely PCI express PCIE) 24 bit is what you'd prefer for a sound card and that your speakers can be plugged into the card...  Really though if your existing one works, then in my book i'd just keep thing thing and make sure you've got the proper driver set for it.  Sound cards are one of those parts that from my experience generally don't die to easy and if they're doing the job, there isnt really a reason to replace it.  Far more often the speakers will go long before the card it's self starts failing.