Game freezes

**Speiz** · April 15, 2009, 10:22 AM

Hi All,

Problem only occurs in battles. Completely randomly the game freezes and locks everything up. My pc becomes completely unresponsive making a weird noise. I have to hit the restart button every time. It happens maybe 50 % of the time and is becoming extremely annoying. I have uninstalled and re-installed but no improvement. All these bloody restarts can't be good for my computer....

My rig: 780i, E8400, GTX 260, 4 gig RAM, Vista home premium, nothing oc'd. Normally very stable, don't really get any problems except with this masterpiece of a game.

Is this a known issue, any ideas, solutions? Please help!

Cheers

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

The game is screwed. Wait. And wait...

**Brusilov** · April 15, 2009, 03:10 PM

I'd check your temperatures. This was happening to me with my GTX280s in SLI mode - I downloaded SpeedFan and used it to monitor the temperatures - they were all running high. It's easiest if you use a second monitor to watch them - at least when your PC freezes up you can see what they are.

I was also told about a program Prime95 which runs your system at 100% and is a useful 'stress test'. The first time I ran it my PC locked up after 5 minutes.

The PC has now gone back to the suppliers. One thing that was discovered is that the machine was supplied in overclocked condition when it had not been ordered as such - apparently they don't provide that service.....

**Speiz** · April 16, 2009, 05:41 AM

Thanks, i didn't think of that. Maybe I'll get something to monitor those temps and see what happens.

**Brusilov** · April 16, 2009, 05:51 AM

Originally Posted by Speiz

Thanks, i didn't think of that. Maybe I'll get something to monitor those temps and see what happens.

No problems - I used SpeedFan - http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

There must be others that work as well.

It was my System / CPU that was running high temperatures not the graphics cards. I'd had a utility to monitor them that was supplied with the cards I had.

I was told about a program to run to stress test you system (it hammers the CPU at 100%) - it's called Prime95 ( http://www.freewarefiles.com/Prime95_program_19638.html ).

When I first ran it my system locked up after 5 minutes......

**Legionnaire151** · April 16, 2009, 11:48 AM

Originally Posted by Speiz

Thanks, i didn't think of that. Maybe I'll get something to monitor those temps and see what happens.

For your GPU temps you can try

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

For your CPU temps,

http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

Prime95 is a good program to test system stability. Minimum test time is 2 hours, but the recommended is 24 hours +. Run this and Core Temp at the same time to help determine your heat issues.

**Brusilov** · April 16, 2009, 06:57 PM

Originally Posted by Legionnaire151

For your GPU temps you can try

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

For your CPU temps,

http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

Prime95 is a good program to test system stability. Minimum test time is 2 hours, but the recommended is 24 hours +. Run this and Core Temp at the same time to help determine your heat issues.

Thanks for the links - I've downloaded the CPU temps one. +rep

**Legionnaire151** · April 18, 2009, 03:05 PM

Originally Posted by Brusilov

Thanks for the links - I've downloaded the CPU temps one. +rep

My pleasure to help Brusilov. Good stuff should be passed around

**Speiz** · April 16, 2009, 10:02 AM

Hi Brusilov,
Thanks for the links mate I downloaded both. I am doing this stress test as we speak, my pc has been powering through it for a while now. It's passing all the tests, temps are all within normal range. I am really starting to think the problem is not my pc... No surprise there I guess. I do play other games apart from ETW, which are also quite demanding on hardware, and never have any problems running things on high or max settings. Also there is nothing unusual about my pc, all parts are from well known manufacturers, it is beyond me why I am experiencing such a major problem. And I don't see anyone else complaining about this problem here on the boards, so it's unlikely that it's the game...

**Brusilov** · April 16, 2009, 10:27 AM

I think ETW can be quite memory intensive. Maybe on the strategy map part of the problem is the way that 'fog of war' works compared to previous versions of the TW series. I am fairly sure that both RTW and M2TW have everything you can't see 'blacked out'.

Don't forget that the game is trying to keep track of all the factions and is probably working harder than you think.

Anyway, as your problem is on the battlefield - the one thing you could do for a while is to lower all the graphical settings (a lot) and see what happens in a battle. If you have no problems then it's pointing in the direction of your card.

Edited: When my PC got stuck in battles it definitely sounded like the sound was the problem, however, with the high system and CPU temperatures was the real problem.

**Speiz** · April 17, 2009, 11:21 AM

Thanks guys. It doesn't seem like there is anything wrong with my machine. I did the prime95 torture test, left it running overnight.... no errors found, all tests passed. I have a few applications monitoring temperatures, they're all within norm. I also let my brother play his games like GTA4 and Crysis, made sure setting are on max. Everything running smoothly, no complaints there. I have uninstalled and reinstalled ETW a few times just to be sure.... I get the same crap. Battles freezing up and now CTD from the strategic map too. I'm starting to think that ETW is seriously flawed. Whilst the game itself might be awesome it is nevertheless unplayable. At least for me it is... pretty appalling.

**bars** · April 17, 2009, 06:05 PM

Originally Posted by Speiz

Thanks guys. It doesn't seem like there is anything wrong with my machine. I did the prime95 torture test, left it running overnight.... no errors found, all tests passed. I have a few applications monitoring temperatures, they're all within norm. I also let my brother play his games like GTA4 and Crysis, made sure setting are on max. Everything running smoothly, no complaints there. I have uninstalled and reinstalled ETW a few times just to be sure.... I get the same crap. Battles freezing up and now CTD from the strategic map too. I'm starting to think that ETW is seriously flawed. Whilst the game itself might be awesome it is nevertheless unplayable. At least for me it is... pretty appalling.

Yea, I have the same problem as you. My computer passes stress test too and I can play Crysis, maxed, no problem.
ETW freezes every 1-5 minutes and I have to restart. This never happened with previous TW games.

**Brusilov** · April 18, 2009, 10:15 AM

Originally Posted by bars

Yea, I have the same problem as you. My computer passes stress test too and I can play Crysis, maxed, no problem.
ETW freezes every 1-5 minutes and I have to restart. This never happened with previous TW games.

I think it's been pointed out elsewhere that you cannot compare a strategy game with a first person shooter like Crysis. There is a lot more going on in the background in ETW than there is with Crysis (where most units are in a fixed position until the player gets closer).

ETW is a lot more resource hungrier than previous TW games.