Fatal Graphics Error

[itendsinashes]

I am unsure if this is the proper place to ask but I am having a problem with getting Medival 2 total war to run. It starts for a second shows the medival 2 banner background then minimizes and says 'Fatal Graphics Error' also the computer sometimes pixelates and freezes then sometimes it recovers othertimes has to be manually restarted. I am told it is a error with the graphics card driver, but the newest driver I found was from 2010 and from a off site. I got the game to work once last night for several hours by constantly restarting the computer but now it wont work again. I can't get to the settings page either to minimize it in order to get it to work, any help would be really appreciated here are the full specs:

Toshiba Satellite A355-S6935
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T6400
4GB SDRAM 400GB HDD
16" Diagonal widescreen TruBrite display
802.11a/g/n wireless
DVD SuperMulti with Labelflash
Genuine WindowsVista Home Premium Service Pack 2
(SP1 64-bit version)
ATI Radeon Mobility HD 3650 with 512 MB
Intel Centrino inside
harman/kardon

I think that's everything info wise you'll need. So further information yes the graphics card works, how do I know? I play Star Trek Online with max graphics and it runs fine with little lag and looks beautiful, Medival 2 requires a lot less graphics and when it worked ran smooth no lag what so ever at max graphics. I know I'm no expert either though so I have no idea what's really wrong hoping someone else knows, can help me out. I have Rome Total War and Medieval 2 Total War, Rome is from a disk Medieval is from gamestop download, I have not tried to play RTW yet I jumped right into Medieval as I wanted to try to take over Europe as the English. I would greatly appreciate any help I'm out of ideas. I want to buy Empire Total War but I wont till I know it will be able to be played. (This was a repost, as I am not sure where to post this and am just trying to get it viewed in the correct thread, posted as well in personal advice.)

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

You should ask in M2 Techincal help or The Basement

[irishron]

Moved from GD to Tech
Post your dxdiag. I have a bad feeling why.

[itendsinashes]

Thank you I didn't know and couldn't find where to put this.

[irishron]

Click the Go Advanced button on the Quick Reply box, click the paperclip icon, and attach the full file.

[itendsinashes]

What am I supposed to attach?

[irishron]

dxdiag.txt that the dxdiag program generates.

Click Start,
in the box above it type dxdiag,
on the bottom of the dxdiag, click "Save all info" button,
save it to your desktop,
and attach it to your next post.

[itendsinashes]

I have attached the DxDiag.txt file after having ran it and saved it to desktop.

[irishron]

www.realtek.com.tw and see if you can install the latest High Definition Audio codecs.
Try the game with all settings either minimum or off.
Check your temps and voltages. Being Vista, is it about four years old now?

[itendsinashes]

The problem is I have no way of getting to the game controls to lower the setting, I open medival 2 it loads for a second then minimizes, crashes says Fatal Graphics Error. So I can't get to the settings to stop this problem

Do I choose this one?
64bits Vista, Windows7, Windows8 Driver only (Executable file)

[irishron]

Choose Vista.
Have you tried a clean install of the game?
Between this thread and your other one in the Basement, I have a bad feeling either parts are starting to fail or you have a case full of dirt or both. The reason I said check your temps and voltages. The only reason for it not to work, again, is something now underpowered by a graphics chip failing, a power supply that keep up, or a layer of dirt keeping them from breathing. A can of compressed air at WalMart is cheaper than a new laptop.

[itendsinashes]

That's what confuses me, I play star trek online just fine, starts up quickly, no problems. Max graphics, not sure if you've seen it but that game has some of the best graphics anywhere, super clean, crisp, very detailed all HD. M2TW has good graphics but no where near star trek onlines graphics why this makes no sense. if it was a bad graphics card or something it wouldnt even start star trek online it makes no sense.

[irishron]

I haven't played Star Trek of any kind in over fifteen years.
If you're playing online, how much of it is cloud instead of your computer?
This game has been known to be a stress test. It uses only one core of your cpu for everything including units, buildings, outrageous polycount textures, shadows, grass, sun angles, rain, snow, glints, trees, and the graphics card does not even count into the equation until you get past here.
How hot is your laptop before you even try to load it? How hot is it when it tries and fails? Get a 10C to 20C jump real quick?

[itendsinashes]

it stays ice cold, even after playing the game for six hours straight the one time I got it to work it didnt warm up at all this computer is pretty strong surprisingly. It heated up more after leaving it on for twelve hours then it did playing the game it still let me minimize reopen when it worked and had huge battles no problem no lag when the units were fighting or the calvary charging in

[irishron]

Maybe time for a fresh install of Windows.
If you say that, it pretty much rules out hardware. Your original description sounds hardware but I've been wrong before and I'll be wrong, again.
Software can be a different story. Do you have any emulators, virtual drives, cd/dvd burning software, utilities, torrents, warez? What other games do you have installed?

[itendsinashes]

Just M2TW and Star Trek Online, I don't have any of that stuff but perhaps you're right I need a fresh install of windows. A friend gave me a exact link of an AMD driver most updated , so I chose install, I didn't unistall the old one not sure it matters but anyways I installed it and still had the same problem. Related note, giving my specs that you saw. Should the laptop once fixed be able to play Empire Total War, Napoleon Total War just fine?

[irishron]

You can uninstall it yourself, run Driver Sweeper in Safe Mode to clean up, then install your download.

Edit: Dumb question.
What would happen if you uninstalled both games and just did a clean install of Medieval2?
If this passes, it's a copy protection problem.

[itendsinashes]

I can't unistall, install M2TW. Gamestop App wont let me, it didn't let me install either just finished downloading and said 'installing' then after five minutes everything was loaded onto the computer so I couldn't set the settings, or choose any options gamestop does it their way. There is no unistall option also so I guess I would have to go through gamestop app to unistall, reinstall with the same problem most likely. I'm hoping this is a simple problem after a google search I noticed I wasn't the only one, a lot of people had the 'fatal graphics error' so I'm guessing it's just a driver problem not properly updated or just a setting problem with the game it's self. I tried loading other random games onto the computer they all worked fine. So it's just the Total War series that I'm having problems with.

[irishron]

Are you sure Gamestop's download and install is not bad?
It would be the first I heard of Gamestop having one but it is not unheard of since Direct2Drive was licensed to download it.
Of which makes me wonder if your antivirus and/or firewall are not letting everything including your game permissions through. This would not be a first either.

[itendsinashes]

Ah I see. I'll try to reinstall it after I turn off my firewall/anti virus/anti spyware and hope that goes towards fixing it.