campaign no prob...can not play battles

**Kampfgruppen** · April 14, 2009, 11:43 PM

I purchased the game the day it came out.. i have 2.66ghz 512 mbp of ram, direct x 9 win (32bit) sp 2.. i have instaled and reinstalled the game, i have all updates, i was able to play demo no prob, my graphics card is raidon mobility x1800 i have most recent updates (had to use moibility modder b/c my alienware would not take the download) for the most part I have had Blue screens when I have tried to load battles from campaign (never any problem playing campaign game.. only on battles!!)... when i have loaded road to independence, or any tutorial i have always had blue screens!!....once i got a hafl loading bar.. but only once, each and every other time i get the blue screen.
I have enough memory, enough ram and up to date drivers.. i am not sure why it will not work, i have been on these forums searching since the damn thing came out... no idea.... any ideas would be greatfull.. i have spent probably as much time trying to find the answer to my problem as i would have spent playing... thank you for anything!!!!!

**cracks2** · April 15, 2009, 01:57 AM

Hi There,

You could be a bit more specific with you system specs, Duel core? 512mb system ram or graphics?
It sounds to me like your just above the Minimum system requirements for the game.

So from what I have personally experienced is setting your graphics higher than the automatically detected settings can cause CTD's when playing battles. Tried and tested...

I'm not saying automatically detected settings are always 100% good or correct only that pushing LOW to HIGH can affect your battles.

**Kampfgruppen** · April 15, 2009, 02:09 AM

ty for reply. it is 512 ram but I know that the computer is a bit over min for the game.. i have had those bastards geeksquad come out (they are goodthough.. just expensive) and they could not give me an answer. there are no CTD it is all blue screen.. but i have about 70 g free on the drive the game is on.

**Kampfgruppen** · April 15, 2009, 02:12 AM

i set my battles to low, all settings to low. when i had the demo my computer was able to run a bit over medium settings.. i dont think it should have but alienware ran it fast even for the settings idk... but when I instaled. and since then, no good, always been able to play campaign map.. never been able to play battles or road to indipenence/quick battles.
ty for help

**cracks2** · April 15, 2009, 02:40 AM

By popular demand, here are the minimum specs for Empire: Total War:

2.4Ghz single core processor
256MB Gfx card (DX9 compaitble)
1GB RAM (For XP, 2GB if using Vista)

Well you are actually 50% under the minimun ram allocation, I think that this is your problem.

Find out what type of ram you have and buy 1 extra gig, its cheap and easy. good luck. :p

**Kampfgruppen** · April 15, 2009, 11:12 AM

I'm sorry, i was a bit out of it last night, i have duel core 1.66ghz.. which i was told would be fast enough to run the game, and 2GB of RAM. I think i had been reading so many posts before the number 512 was just in my head when i was typing.

**johannasroberts** · April 15, 2009, 11:41 AM

It could be a problem with your RAM itself. Does it crash to blue screen often when you run graphic intensive stuff? Did you have the geeksquad members test your hardware to ensure it wasn't damaged or corrupted? I had a similar problem a few years ago when playing the old rome total war and in that case it turned out to be bad RAM shipped from the factory.

**Kampfgruppen** · April 15, 2009, 12:36 PM

when i play World of warcraft i have no problems, when i play call of duty, always about 45 min in i get artifacts and some glitches, but i have never had any problems with MTW2 or RTW..i play those on highest settings no problems.

**SirVulf** · April 16, 2009, 02:45 PM

Originally Posted by Kampfgruppen

I'm sorry, i was a bit out of it last night, i have duel core 1.66ghz.. which i was told would be fast enough to run the game, and 2GB of RAM. I think i had been reading so many posts before the number 512 was just in my head when i was typing.

Nope not enough for the processor. Min requirements shows you need at least a 2.4GHz proc. Just because it is dual core doesn't make it 3.22GHz...

it just means you have two processors running at 1.66GHz which means that since ETW is single threaded, you have one processor at 1.66GHz running the game.

**Legionnaire151** · April 16, 2009, 03:35 PM

Not to mention the RAM deficiency. I recommend, humbly

, you upgrade your CPU to 2.4 and the RAM to 2 GB. RAM is fairly cheap nowadays and for roughly $50 you can purchase a ( assuming you have a budget ) Pentium Dual-Core @ 2.5 GHz.

**Brusilov** · April 15, 2009, 12:37 PM

What resolution are you playing at?

I'd also suggest turning unit size down to the minimum - you can always turn settings up when you see your system can load battles.

**Kampfgruppen** · April 15, 2009, 03:53 PM

I'm playing at the lowest res, i have tried it in window mode, as well as other res' i put the unit size to smallest. the campaign runs well and fast, not sluggush at all, just some weird thing about the battles

**Brusilov** · April 15, 2009, 03:59 PM

Originally Posted by Kampfgruppen

I'm playing at the lowest res, i have tried it in window mode, as well as other res' i put the unit size to smallest. the campaign runs well and fast, not sluggush at all, just some weird thing about the battles

I think the campaign is more CPU intensive and battles are more GPU intensive. You need to see them as two different games for the requirements.

With the way 'fog of war' happens on the campaign map there can be a fair amount of detail to move around but nothing like the battle map.

**Kampfgruppen** · April 15, 2009, 04:12 PM

I dont have much else running when I try the game, actually barely anything else. I have been looking at different things and ideas all over the internet, do you know if my "virtual memory" and "total page fileing size" would have any effect on this issue, or is that unrelated?

**Kampfgruppen** · April 15, 2009, 04:19 PM

I do have steam and the game saved on my D drive, which has the bulk of my storage space, my C drive has about 60GB and i've used 48, my D has 100 and i've used about 45...any reason that it might not be getting enough computer time b/c it is on the D drive?

**irishron** · April 15, 2009, 04:19 PM

Unrelated. Vitrual memory and page file size are harddrive size related and does nothing to any more info any fatser to the screen. What's in ram and the cpu and gpu pushing every bit of it at once is all the speed you're going to get. If it has to swap with the harddrive you just lost that much time to the monitor.