Umm....help please? BF2 won't run!

[WondaWoman]

Ok - having a slight technical hitch with playing BF2.... it won't load up.

I installed BF2 + SF - everything went fine.
All heady and excited to get playing so I double-click on my shortcut....PC starts making all the good thinking noises.
Next thing I see is that my PC has rebooted. :eek: No error messages. Nothing.
Next thing i see is my PC loading up and i hear that annoying Windows jingle starting in the background.

I checked my min req - as far as I can see I meet them. I uninstalled all of it and reinstalled just BF2 - same thing. I shut down all unecessary apps from running and excitedly tried again - dejavu.

This is where my technical-solve-it know how ends. :confused:

Drusky said i should ask you guys + provide you with my system specs. (my pc is a hand-me-down from Darnit)

--------------------------------------------------
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 (2.80GHz)
Memory: 512mb (am in the processing of getting another 512mb)

Video:
- RADEON 9200 AGP
- 256mb
- running at 60Hz

20.3gigs free on me hardrive
--------------------------------------------------

Just remember i am a girl with limited geeky-technical-know-how.... i pretty much know where the ON button is, even though i have a degree in computer science and info systems (yeah - try figure that one out, i know i have :D )

Please give detailed instructions in lay(wo)mans terms... :o

[Megnut3025]

Ooh Ohhhh Ooohhh Oohohoohoh ASK ME ASK ME!!!!

I know whats wrong....

YOU NEEEED a technically minded husband like mine to do this stuff for YOU! :woot:
So So SO
What did I win for the BESTEST answer??? :D

[WondaWoman]

The insane asylum called again to ask if i knew where you were hiding.... i might actually tell them this time...

[rainy]

Okay, the Radeon 9200 and 512 megs might be cutting it a bit short. Your problem sounds like you are getting a bluescreen with immediate reboot.

Go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Event Viewer and check for any red crosses under the System section. If you find several entries of the same kind, post them here (click the button below the two arrow buttons to copy the message, then paste it into a post.) Maybe that brings us somewhere.

[rainy]

Another thing: ask Darnit or Drusky to get the latest ATi driver for your Graphics card. That might also be causing problems.

Thats all I can think of now.

[WondaWoman]

Ok - went throught the list. Only two red crosses:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7034
Date: 2006/09/13
Time: 08:36:04 PM
User: N/A
Computer: WONDAWOMAN
Description:
The Application Layer Gateway Service service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s).

AND

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7011
Date: 2006/09/13
Time: 09:40:44 PM
User: N/A
Computer: WONDAWOMAN
Description:
Timeout (30000 milliseconds) waiting for a transaction response from the SymWSC service.

[WondaWoman]

I will talk to Darnit tom. He's getting me extra 512 mem - 512 is skimming the line.
Tks for the help :) Much appreciated

[rainy]

Okay, those messages are not much to go on. Dang, and I thought I'd be clever ;)

Those extra 512 megs will help. Also, check the size of your page file. You want it to be at least 1GB. One of the men there should be able to help you ;)

[Alluvium]

"BF2 + SF - everything went fine. "

yeah bf2 algerbra for you .


OKies on a more serious note, that file "symWSC.exe" is the important on from your virus check prgram,[so said our angorious leader google atleast]

so what might be happening is bf2 is not set up to be able to run online, you need to add it to the list of progs allowed to run online.


Gooooooogle also says that, the 'Application Layer Gateway Service'

" Provides support for 3rd party protocol plug-ins for Internet Connection Sharing and the Windows Firewall."


AKA i think your firewall/antivirus is giving you uphill, get newest drivers for your graphics card...

um i dunno this is just what google told me :p

[sss]

is this the first time bf2 is being run on this pc?
if not.. then goto my documents and rename the battlefield2 folder... so when you startup it see's there isn't one and then it reacreate all default profiles including GFX settings

[spAc3dd]

Sounds like a resource conflict to me. Maybe the Soundcard or the Graphics card. Are you using an on-board soundcard, or an add-in one? You can tell that it's on-board if your speakers plug into the back of your PC right by your USB, network and PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports. The plug they plug into is usually green.

[Bass]

Sounds like some hardware glitch ... unfortunately about the only way to resolve that would be to replace h/w components till it works, and you've found what was causing the problem. Obviously first check that all the devices are OK (in Device Manager), and there are no resource conflicts.

Once you (/Drusky) have (/has) done that, then wait for an unattended PC, and start "borrowing" bits of hardware from that PC to try & track down what it is in your PC ...

[WondaWoman]

Thanks for all the advice guys... going to upgrade my memory and graphics card

Will also check that my antivirus stuff is not causing the issues. I just bought bitdefender since Norton gave me the whole " you subscription had ended " thing. Thanks for that tad of advice Alluvium ;)

i have an onboard sound card - but don't think that is the prob.

Think my best tactic now is to blackmail Darnit into helping me out (I don't want to break a nail! :D)

[Pios]

hehe,
Wonda: Maybe you should werrrr. ask yer BF to take a look and all you know !!

Oh wait you are speaking about BF #2 ..
Sorry

[WondaWoman]

Pios: i'm still ignoring you and any comments made!

very funny! :ras:

[WondaWoman]

Ok.

Got more memory (now have 1 gig)
Got latest ATI driver (courtesy of Darnit)
Got second harddrive (not running out of space anytime soon!)

So i merrily load everything up again....BF2 actually loads and the lady comes on and says "welcome to ....blah blah.."
I get in a frenzy, the excitement is tangible, i grab my headset then....Poof! Up comes this 'friendly' little message telling me something about my VPU recovery resetting my graphics accelerator becasue it is no longer responding to the graphics controller. [paraphrased]

Right. So not wanting to harass any of you yet, i confer with the Oracle (google) and look through the forums and discover other peons with such problems. I follow their instructions...i.e. set my AGP to x4 via SmartGart. Still no luck.

I don't get past the whole "welcome to battlefield....blah blah" I sometimes have a mouse pointer with a black screen or an options menu with no mouse pointer!

Darnit says he has no clue. So here i am (again) wishing to heck that someone will give me a divine answer!!!

[rainy]

Okay. The best route now is probably to figure out if the problem lies with your hardware (ie graphics card) or software (ie Windows).

See if you can borrow someone else's graphics card (it needs to fit into your PC though, so forget about all those PCI-E leetness whores ;) ). Have someone help you with all this if necessary. Uninstall the graphics driver, shut down the PC, exchange the graphics card and if necessary, install the graphics driver for the new card. See what happens. If the game runs then, it is likely that your own graphics card is shot, or that the drivers are completely mixed up. Put back your own graphics card, then run a program like Driver Cleaner (www.drivercleaner.net) to remove all old drivers, then reinstall the newest ATi driver. If it works, fine, If not, I would say your GFX is shot. But look for a second opinion before you throw it away ;)

[Alluvium]

delete the directory

\My Documents\Battlefield 2\Profiles\


you will have to re type in your usewrname , and re set up your controls, but it might fix the graphics issue

[Darnit696]

Damn and I thought I was the oracle...:|







:)

[WondaWoman]

Thanks Rainy - I'll try do what you suggest. Will start hunting down an accessible graphics card....

Hey Darnit....you need your pc???? :D

[Brawler]

will bf2 run on a 9200?

[WondaWoman]

according to ea support it will if you set the AGP to x4 - unfortunately i do this and it keeps on reverting back to 0x when i restart. :( pah!

[Bass]

The problem lies further back up in this thread .. around the part where you mention "Radeon" ..

NVidia FTW !!!! ;)

:D

[rainy]

/me :spanky: Bass

Not helping! ;)

But funny nonetheless :D

(I also prefer NVidia)

[Alluvium]

yeah i dunno, check the list of supported graphics cards

[WondaWoman]

decided to make my life less frustrating and just update the flippin' graphics card *sigh*

/me waves goodbye to all her buckazoids.....*sigh*

[stoke]

Hope WW choses NVidea this time ...

[Bass]

Hmm .. Wonderwoman - just be aware that upgrading your screen card unfortunately *might* not solve all your PC problems.

Personally I would recommend it anyway, as it is the best route to a better game experience, except if you're going to be doing a technology upgrade in the near future. So don't spend a grand on an AGP card now, if you might need to upgrade the motherboard and CPU in the next month or so ... otherwise go for it ! :)

[Alluvium]

I just cracked the case Guys :p


the 9200 i have lying around , does not run BF2 ....


so im 100% sure it is the graphics card, being queer

[WondaWoman]

argh! PE is soooo limited in PC stuff!

Managed to find a place that can get me a AGP Nvidia 6800. So will prob go that route... :)

[gus]

Nice upgade. That 6800 is a lot faster than the 9200 and should make your graphical problems in BF2 go away.

[stoke]

me looks at me 6600GT and sighs.

[FeralBanana]

Anyone know an AGP GFX XYZ card that I can get for under R1000 that's better than a GeForce FX 5700LE?

[Pios]

ewww PCIe FTW !!!

[Bass]

Hmm Feral - only ones (I would recommend) on Bethesda's pricelist are:

Nvidia® GeForce™ 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 AGP 8X TV-OUT DVI R 987.00
Nvidia® GeForce™ 6600 256MB DDR AGP 8X TV-OUT DVI R 749.00

+VAT

[FeralBanana]

:hmmm:

Can they run BF reasonably? :S

I'm kinda sick of putting everything on LOWEST and still getting less than 25 FPS ;)

[Bass]

Well, that depends a lot on the rest of your system too ...

Does anyone else have a 6600GT ? Maybe they could say what framerate they get. BF2 is mainly CPU bound (after a certain point obviously), so adding a 7900GTX (if you could) might not have any effect on your framerate if the CPU is the limiting factor.

That said, if you do have a decent CPU, but a bad screen card, then upgrading the screen card might have a huge effect - Rainy experienced that, I think... :D

[FeralBanana]

Well... Try clicky clicky the 'my system' thingy :p

(Btw, ask TG about the whole pink thing, I PROMISE I didn't add it ;))

[gus]

6600GT runs BF2 well.

[stoke]

I can give you my framerate when I gets home at about 17H00.
Me running a Gigabyte PCIe 6600GT 128MB.

[WondaWoman]

*sigh* would someone in this room please start talking in real english...all these abbreviations and numbers??!!!

/me hides in the corner with her Dummies guide to speaking Geek.

[Bass]

Just ask what you're not sure of WW .. we'll fill in .. :)

[rainy]

Anyone know an AGP GFX XYZ card that I can get for under R1000 that's better than a GeForce FX 5700LE?

Computer Corporation has a Legend 6600GT AGP 128MB for R959, IIRC. It's the same card I have, and I play with 40-50fps at 1024x768, All details high except lighting and shadows, 2xAA.

[FeralBanana]

Jeez Rainy! That's pretty good! :D

Franks!

[WondaWoman]

Ok...so if a guy has offered me a nVidia 6800 AGP for R1350 - is that overpriced?

[stoke]

Well .. the first link here is a 6800 for 1959.
http://www.sybaritic.co.za/store/advanced_search_result.php?osCsid=c7537f5441e9a917ce742f5664130852&search_in_description=1&keywords=6800&osCsid=c7537f5441e9a917ce742f5664130852&x=0&y=0

That's all I could find ... rectron no longer stock 6800's.

[Bass]

The 6800 for R1350 isn't a bad price ...

[Megnut3025]

No Bass ... R1345 is a "good" price :p

[Bass]

Yup ! It is actually .. :D

[SaintMg]

Ok...so if a guy has offered me a nVidia 6800 AGP for R1350 - is that overpriced?

does this guy have 2 ?

is it a 128 or 256 ?

[stoke]

Saint .. Please check if yer motherboard can handle AGP x 8 ... I think your MB can only do AGP x 4.

[SaintMg]

yeah thanks stoke i did go and check it is an 8 x

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=1724

currently running a radeon 9200 128 mb

[stoke]

Kewl ... so then why didn't you buy the 6800GT AGP at RAGE ?

[rainy]

How much better is a 6800GT over a 6600GT?

[TG]

Loads!

Ask XEye - he's played on my vanilla 6800.

[gus]

See:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/08/28/vga_charts_summer_2006/

[stoke]

My hexperiance : Roughly double the speed.

"Saint's" PC is still running the 6600GT 128MB, and mine is running a 6800GT 256MB and the FPS's double on the same settings, but I of course upped my detail levels.

I am also pwning much easier now .. it just seems soo much more responsive.

[Bass]

I am also pwning much easier now .. it just seems soo much more responsive.

Interesting that you say that Stoke - I was actually thinking exactly the same thing last night on SF when you killed me twice in a row !! (*gasp*) [Not that I'm THAT difficult to kill ;)]

.. and the second time I came hunting you with my DAO too ! :D

Seriously - I thought then that you were suddenly a lot more difficult to kill than you had been previously - previously I would have sauntered up casually, and blasted you away with the DAO while being hit by one or two of your bullets and losing maybe half my health. I guessed that I had taken you down to about 1/4 health when you got me ...

/me makes mental note to rather kill Stoke viciously from behind, rather than facing him in future ... ;)

[rainy]

Sooo... who's gonna get me a 6800GT AGP for christmas? :D

[stoke]

@Bass ... yea ... it was an absolute pleasure to have my bullets actually hit you for a change.
@Rainy ... By christmas there should eb a bunch of second-hand 6800's being sold.

[Edit=Bass] Grrrr .. I'm sure it was ! ;)

[rainy]

stoke: Then you can buy me one of those ;)

[WondaWoman]

does this guy have 2 ?

is it a 128 or 256 ?


Hmm...not sure. He hasn't got back to me yet. Think I'll give him a call and motivate him...want me to see if he can get another one????

[stoke]

The 6800 GT is 256 else it's not a GT. The GS is 128 methinks.

[WondaWoman]

Yup its is 256mb and the guy says he gets the delivery in next week.... :bounce: can't wait :D

[SaintMg]

Kewl ... so then why didn't you buy the 6800GT AGP at RAGE ?
:slap: oh well you still got there number and have to go see them some time soon unless you did that today or if you would mind i could go wif you on sat that is if i can get my lazy ass out of bed

[stoke]

The new card is in my car. Un-luckily we communicate like the management here [at my work].

[WondaWoman]

:woot: My problems are solved :woot:

Got my brand new shiny graphics card installed - thanks for the help Darnit!
(yes Bass its a Nvidia :D)

So BF2 is now up and running....just wish our ping would co-operate too :(

Thanks for all the help and advice from the diff peeps :) Esp Ga5can who patiently tried to MSN me instructions on how to get things running with my 9200 - even though it was a pretty futile experiment! :D

[Bass]

Well done WW ! Glad you went for the best brand :D

Been good to see you on the battlefield ! :)

[sss]

i used to run with a 9000 64meg just dandy