Tacticular Cancer: We'll have your balls

  1. Having trouble staying logged in? Note: We are rpgcodex.NET not .COM. Trying to login via .com will cause issues. Make sure you are on rpgcodex.net to login and all will be fine.

    And if the Password Recovery doesn't work (there was an error transitioning accounts during the upgrade), use the "contact us" link right down the bottom right of the forums and harass us about it. Include your account name and its e-mail address (or whatever parts of it you remember).

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Arcanum - Technical Problem

Discussion in 'General Gaming' started by Diogo Ribeiro, Apr 25, 2004.

  1. Diogo Ribeiro Erudite

    Diogo Ribeiro
    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2003
    Posts:
    5,704
    Location:
    Lisboa, Portugal
    Apr 25, 2004 Stats Ignoring
    #1
    Click here and disable ads!
    Basically, my problem is this. The game constantly freezes on me. It doesn't have a pattern per se; it just randomly freezes, several times in a row. The thing is, if i press the Windows key on my keyboard and just move the mouse pointer around, the application is minimized and it returns me to my desktop, where i can maximize the game and keep playing it. If this just happened once or twice, i'd be fine; but it happens recurrently (yesterday it froze ten times in a row; as soon as i maximized it, it froze again). Sometimes it freezes hard, and i have no choice but to reset the computer.

    The strange thing is it only happens with Arcanum and Planescape: Torment. All other IE games, and even the Fallouts, are immune to this.

    For the record, just some overal info about the situation:

    1) I have an original version of the game (it's a Sierra Best Seller Edition, though :? )

    2) I have the lastest patch (arcanum_en_1074)

    3) I have an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro (128 Megs) and 512 RAM. Anti-aliasing, anisotropic options, Vsync, TRUFORM, etc., are set to be left at the discretion of the application (none of these options are enforced).

    4) This happened less with the standard version of Arcanum, but the standard version led more often to me having to reset the computer. Arcanum Safe Mode doesn't give me the same reset problem as much, but freezes way more often.

    >So, any ideas?

  2. POOPERSCOOPER Erudite

    POOPERSCOOPER
    Joined:
    Mar 6, 2003
    Posts:
    2,242
    Location:
    California
    Apr 25, 2004 Stats Ignoring
    #2
    hey

    Are you using the window key just to minimize the game and do other stuff on your computer? You might want to try using alt-tab or alt-esc and see if that makes a difference. Arcanum and Planescape aren't as popular are polished as the others so doing an alternative to alt-tab might make them screwy.

    Try updating your video drivers or reinstalling directx. I'm not too sure, but you might wanna check some arcanum forums to see if anyone else has had this problem.

  3. Diogo Ribeiro Erudite

    Diogo Ribeiro
    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2003
    Posts:
    5,704
    Location:
    Lisboa, Portugal
    Apr 25, 2004 Stats Ignoring
    #3
    No, i'm not multi-tasking while playing it; using the Windows key is the only way to handle the game's ocasional freezes. Even Alt-Tab won't work. I have to hit the key so it'll place me in the desktop, otherwise it won't work.

    As for video drivers and Direct X, they're all up to date. Mebbe the game has a problem with more recent versions of it?

    But yeah, i'll check other forums as well. Thanks for the advice, though.

  4. Seven Barely Literate

    Seven
    Joined:
    Aug 20, 2003
    Posts:
    1,728
    Location:
    North of the Glow
    Apr 26, 2004 Stats Ignoring
    #4
    What type of motherboard do you have?

  5. Diogo Ribeiro Erudite

    Diogo Ribeiro
    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2003
    Posts:
    5,704
    Location:
    Lisboa, Portugal
    Apr 26, 2004 Stats Ignoring
    #5
    An ASUS motherboard. More specifically, an ASUS A7V8X (with the VIA KT400 chipset).

  6. Diogo Ribeiro Erudite

    Diogo Ribeiro
    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2003
    Posts:
    5,704
    Location:
    Lisboa, Portugal
    Apr 26, 2004 Stats Ignoring
    #6
    Curious thing. I have two CD drives, a regular CD-ROM (LG) and a CD-RW (Sony). Some months after i installed the Sony drive, the LG drive went rogue, and everytime i put a CD in it, and close the tray, the PC lockups. and gives me a BSOD, with an error message somewhere in the line of 'Kernell_Stack_Error". Curiously if i restart the computer, the drive will read normally - i just can't open the tray, place a CD in it, and close it :shock:

    Now, given i couldn't divine the problem, i went to use the RW drive until i could get around to analize the other one more thoroughly, and i was using the RW unit for Arcanum. Now, i'm under the impression that Arcanum, like others, has a SecuROM check as well, and if i recall correctly, this could cause errors such as the one as i'm experiencing.

    So i place the Arcanum CD on the regular tray, go trough the usual BSOD, reset and log in. When i start playing it, it actually manages to run quite well, and i haven't experienced any freezes (until now).

    EDIT: Scratch that. Using the regular drive is even worse.

(buying stuff via the above links helps us pay the hosting bills)