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.026 hard lock / crash PLUS sound loop?? :-(

CoffinDancer

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howdy!! :)

i'm currently running an ATI X1950Pro 512mb pc-i(e?)
on an Asus A8S-X 64 F2 XP3800+ @2119.3...

i'm running the .026 ATITool ONLY to override the default fan speed
(40%) to set the speed to a constant 100% - no overclocking or any other adjustments.

when i fire up Battlefield 2, after a period of play (can't judge duration, but doesn't seem to be consistent) i get a hard lock / sound loop which requires me to reboot...

now, i know i'm running a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card - i've had no (other?) problems with it, but they haven't put out new drivers for it since '03.

now that i think of it, i think i have EAX enabled in-game but it's suppposed to be supported with these drivers - i'll turn it off and check results tonight.

i'm planning on replacing it with the Razer Barracuda AC-1 on the next $bean day, but...

this lockup seems eerily similar to a lockup / sound loop problem which seemed to be running rampart a few years ago - long enough ago that i don't even remember which card / games
were affected (Creative SoundBlaster, maybe?).

now, initially i tried changing ATITool to NOT startup with windows XP, thinking that maybe it was being "activated" before the vidcard drivers were actually running, borking some settings in the process - no change, still got the lockup...

i checked the ATITool log.text for the temperature monitoring; the GPU had hit the 62 - 63 range, but the log also indicated that it had hit this temp before a number of times before the crash without a problem;

i checked my cpu and mobo temps, cpu temp is at or below 60 - once again i've had no problems with that temp in other games / apps...

so what mystifes me is that if i don't activate ATITool at all, i can then go on to play through a number of maps with no problems whatsoever?

as i said before, if it weren't for the ATITool / lack thereof consistency, i'd SWEAR this was a sound problem, but... ?

anybody else run into anything similar to this?

thanks,
CD

P.S. - forgot to add full system specs, as i am always quick to remind
other seeking help... :)

System Specs:

Asus A8S-X 64 F2 XP3800+ @2119.3

4.5gig Virtual Memory on secondary drive

2gig matched Corsair XMS Pro series PC3200

Win XP Pro SP2

Sapphire/ATI X1950 Pro PCIe 512mb vidcard, 7.7 drivers
and ATITool for fan control and temp monitoring

Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card, 4193 drivers

Sony STR-DE485 A/V receiver

Klipsch 5.1 speaker system
and 200-watt Pioneer receiver uncoupled for
powering Paradigm subwoofer unit
or Turtle Beach EAX-51 5.1 surround headphones

Samsung Syncmaster 22" CRT
for fps gaming at 1600*1200*85

Razer Boomer Speed mouse

Saitek X52 flight controller

Logitech G25

running TDU on Sony HDTV KP51W5500 (16:9)
at 1920*1080*60fps

Suspect AI at keyboard
 
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Namslas90

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Check in game sound settings and select Hardware audio renderer.:toast:
 

CHINNO

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Hey. I'm getting the same problem. Started about 3 days ago.

PC Specs:
AMD ATHLON 5600 X2
GALAXY 8800GTS 320mb
2gb Geil DDR2 667 Ram
2x WD500GB hdd
CORSAIR 620W Modular PSU
Gigabyte M61PM-S2 (rev.2.0)

System Load Temps: (used speed fan and ATI Tool)
CPU - 38
Video - 58
HDD 1 - 32
HDD 2 - 26


What i have done so far:

- Complete uninstall and reinstall of bf2
- Un installed all drivers and re installed
- System restore to 4 days ago (before the problem showed)
- stress tested in NTune for 2hrs
- ran 3dmark06 3 times in a row

Still not working :cry:
 

zyap

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strange i got the same thing when i play call of duty... tried running a few other games like brothers in arms and c&c 3 but there i dont'have a hard lock ..

also benchmarked my memory, my cpu and my gpu for 12 hours... all did fine so it's pretty strange but i'm not sure if it is ati tool who causes the problem

Pc:
Asus p5w deluxe
intel C2D E6600
Ati x1900xt
ocz 2gb platinum
650 W thermaltake toughpower..
 

tydalwave

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I just recently started having the same problem...

Hard lock (with sound looping) requiring reboot after playing certain games. Happens randomly around 15-45min in.
Enemy Territory = lock
Bioshock = fine
C&C 3 = fine

I overclock my cpu as well as my gfx card so the 1st thing I did was stress test everything.
Ran Orthos (cpu stress) for 48 hours with no problems.
Ran Memtest a number of times without issue.
Played hours of Bioshock with various gfx clocks without a problem. However, even with
reduced clocks and max fan speeds ET (cica2k3) would lockup.
All temps were well within acceptable limits.

I tried disabling my sound card and playing without sound. Result: same lockup but without looping sound.

Finally, I looked into drivers/atitool. Lastly becuase I hadn't updated or changed either of them in months.
I found by simply closing ATITool the lockups ceased. This is as far as I've gotten.
I'm not sure what exactly is causing the lockups. They started about a week ago with no obvious change in driver/hardware/software. This system worked flawlessly for months prior.


Anyway,
Just wanted to post my experience here as well...

Afterthought:
Around (i think) the time this started happening I noticed Punkbuster updated itself
and began running these processes:
PnkBstrA.exe
PnkBstrB.exe
These new services run as admin and, I believe, are designed to give punkbuster enabled games access to admin functions from usermode.
I think this new design is a result of requirements for Vista's new driver model..
So.. Battlefield 2 and Call of Duty are both punkbuster enabled.. are they not?
And Bioshock/C&C3 are punkbuster free(?).
The cause may be an incompatibility between The new punkbuster and ATITool. The timing seems to support that.


System:

C2D 6300 @ 2870mhz (410x7)
Asus P5W DH Deluxe
OCZ 6400 5-5-5
ATI 1900XT @ XTX core/mem
2x 74GB Raptors 16mb RAID0
700W OCZ PSU
LG 20" - 1680x1050

ATITool .26
Catalyst 7.1 w/ CCC
WinXP SP2
 
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zyap

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lol tydalwave.. i tried excactly the same things as you... run memtest and bench gpu and cpu for several days... no problems... i really think it's somewhere in the software not in the hardware cause i can run collin mc rally durt @ ultra and it doesn't crash (it's around the thoughest game for you gpu atm) so pretty strange..

what you say may be right cause only call of duty uses pb, all the other games i've tried not.
i tried:
company of heroes (opposing fronts)
collin mc rally dirt
c&c 3
brothers in arms rth30 and eib
medal of honer airborne

they all run fine... pretty strange huh? i also reinstalled call of duty and there haven't been hardlocks now for some hours however there was a moment it looked like it.. hope someone has a solution..
 

dctokyo

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Well, just had to join to let everyone know that my PC had the same problem.
I send Even balance this email.

"Well I did notice that since the last PB update on the 18th August my game has been locking up my system at random times. Maybe it's PB doing it.
during this time the screen was frozen and the sounds would loop. So bad was the system hanging that taskmanager and all other apps showing on the second monitor had also frozen. After investigation I determined it was PB as it didn't happen if I connected to a non PB server."

they replied " Do you have any of the following tools running on your system, and if you do please turn them off prior to starting the game. RivaTuner, ATITool ,PowerStrip.

Well I had the ATI tool running, so when I turn it off I am now able to play BF2 without my PC hard-locking on me.

So there is a problem with the ATI tool running in the background when the services PnkBstrA.exe and PnkBstrB.exe are running.

Well I use the ATI tool to control my x1950xtx GPU fan and I do not use CCC.

Any other way I can control the GpU fan?
 

tydalwave

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Thanks for the info, dctokyo

Now we know that Even Balance (punkbuster) is aware of the problem.

The question now is: Who is going to fix this issue and when?
Did they give any indication in the email that they were working on a fix?
or are they going to leave it in W1zzard's (atitool) hands?


Games /w PunkBuster
  • America's Army
  • Battlefield 1942
  • Battlefield 2
  • Battlefield 2142
  • Battlefield Vietnam
  • Call of Duty
  • Call of Duty 2
  • DOOM 3
  • Enemy Territory
  • Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars
  • F.E.A.R.
  • Medal of Honor: Airborne
  • Prey
  • Quake III Arena
  • Quake 4
  • Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield
  • Rainbow Six: Vegas
  • Return to Castle Wolfenstein
  • Soldier of Fortune II
  • War Rock
 

dctokyo

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Hi tydalwave,

They only wrote this to me. The message was from this person at Even balance ( "Glenn Courington" )
(Note #5: Do you have any of the following tools running on your system, and if you do please turn them off prior to starting the game.

RivaTuner
ATITool
PowerStrip

If you don't have any of these running and you are still getting the freeze, can you tell me what sound card you have and can you give me the name and version of the driver associated with it?)

So they are not saying that the PnkBstrA.exe and PnkBstrB.exe are the reason. But it is, Only after these two services starting running on my machine did I have problems.
But since I have not ran ATI Tool, I have no problems to play on a punkbuster server but I wish to use the ATI tool to control my video card fan.
 

zyap

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lol pretty strange that pb and atitool can't run together... if you would maybe you can send them an email asking if they're going to do anything about it...

nevertheless it's great you found the problem... it's good to know that it's not my videocard with a broken core or bad memmory...

what is strange is why does the hardlock appear after the pb update... i've played 3 years call of duty with atitool controlling my fan and never had these hardlocks and since i'm back from holiday (3 weeks now) i have them randomly... sometimes updates are shit:cry:
 

dctokyo

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Well, I did them an email asking if they're going to do anything about it, but everyone else here needs to do the same thing, they need to know how many people use the ATI tool and are having problems with their new PB.
 
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Im not sure if these applies, but in Vista Ultimate 32 bit I was having a issue of getting kicked by punkbuster everytime I played Battlefield 2142. I did not happen under windows xp.

I am not using atitool, but when I went to punkbusters website and downloaded "pbsetup",
selected battlefield 2142 then updated it, the problem went away.

Like I said I don't know if this is related to your issues, but it may be worth a try.:eek:
 

dctokyo

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Im not sure if these applies, but in Vista Ultimate 32 bit I was having a issue of getting kicked by punkbuster everytime I played Battlefield 2142. I did not happen under windows xp.

I am not using atitool, but when I went to punkbusters website and downloaded "pbsetup",
selected battlefield 2142 then updated it, the problem went away.

Like I said I don't know if this is related to your issues, but it may be worth a try.:eek:

The Vista issue is a admin problem that Xp does not have.

If you are running the ATI tool and try to play any game that uses PB your PC will have problems.

As for the "pbsetup" that was the first thing that I tried but it did not solve the problem.

As I mention above, ATI tool is the problem if you are trying to use it at the same time you play a PB game, and yes Even Balance the maker of PB knows this.

If you do not believe me please run the ATI to0l while you play BF 2142 or any game that uses PB with the lastest update.
 

dctokyo

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Well just got this from Even balance

They wrote:

" At this time, ATITool cannot be running when playing a PB-enabled game. We apologize for the inconvenience."

Now what?
 

Nektopoli

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Well just got this from Even balance

They wrote:

" At this time, ATITool cannot be running when playing a PB-enabled game. We apologize for the inconvenience."

Now what?

Any up-date on a fix either from ATI tool or from even balance?

NP
 

AKA_Dawg

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I had problems for months after getting my X1950XT last year with BF2 laggin and locking. Turning off the temp monitoring( so it doesn't display temp) eliminated all problems for me, BF2, and PB. Might be worth a try.
 
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Turning off the temp monitoring( so it doesn't display temp) eliminated all problems for me.

Yea I run atitool with it turned off aswell because it can cause issues in some games. It you want to fix your fan speed on a x1900 you can easily flash the bios with you fan settings and you wont ever have to use atitool.
 
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I had problems for months after getting my X1950XT last year with BF2 laggin and locking. Turning off the temp monitoring( so it doesn't display temp) eliminated all problems for me, BF2, and PB. Might be worth a try.

I've been having a hell of a time with BF2 locking up on servers using PB since the update at the end of August. After two weeks I finally got the same email from evenbalance mentioning ATI Tool.

Evenbalance:
If after the most recent update, are you still getting this freeze? If so, do you have any of the following programs running, and if so, do you still get the freeze after shutting them down:

RivaTuner
ATITool
PowerStrip



Wish I knew about this before all the pain in the ass troubleshooting.::mad: Unfortunately they are right, with ATI tool off I no longer get lockups. What the hell evenbalance?:shadedshu I'm going to try turning off temp monitoring as mentioned and see if that helps.

I'm giong to write them back and ask if they have a workaround or plan a future fix. I have a feeling that they will just say don't use ATI Tool. :nutkick: I don't plan to stop using ATI tool and really like the temp monitoring.

FYI if anyone else has this issue V .26 & .27 both have the same problem. IF PB wont fix this problem hopefully W1Z can figure something out.

Back to testing...

Edit: With temp monitoring disabled the game still locks up as long as ATI tool runs.
ANY ideas?:confused:
 
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I think it's safe to say they won't be fixing anything it's ATI TOOL's problem :wtf:

Quote:
At present, it looks as though ATITool will need to be changed, as the freeze of PunkBuster is a result of it, not the other way around. We'll continue to look into it, but it appears that this is something that ATITool will need to address.

I love being reminded when I forget to turn off ATI tool too :slap:
 

uwackme

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hmmm

I found a different solution, maybe it'll help. I use AArmy, and same big update in August screwed it all up. PB being the issue, I could run on non-PB servers all night long, but PB and 10-20 min hard lock.

I srtup a second XP install on an IDE drive, nothing but XPpro totally up to date, all the correct drivers, atitool, and AArmy. Thats it, works flawlessly. If I install anything else in the way of software... El-LockO. I just boot into the IDE OS to play.

But Ill try the temp montor off and see tonight, thanks.
 
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