Menu freezes

Post by **Levitation** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 11:06 pm

Hi there

I recently got into playing Q3 Arena, and since I got a "new pc" in my room (actually it's an old one: AMD Duron 700 Mhz, 576 mb ram, GeForce FX 5500 128 mb) I wanted to play it over here as well.

Well now I installed Q3, but when I start it I'm able to browse through the menu and after 10 seconds it suddenly turns black and makes 3 times the scroll sound and it gives a "runtime error".
My pc should be way powerfull enough to play this game, because on my mothers pc (AMD Duron 900, 320 mb ram, S3 Savage 4 16 mb) it runs smooth and our family pc (AMD Athlon, 512 mb ram and GeForce LE 7300 256 mb) does the job very well.

I installed the latest drivers of my GF, DirectX and the latest Q3 1.32 point release, but nothing seems to work.

Could somebody help me out here? 'Cause it's driving me nuts...

Thanks in advance.

Post by **axbaby** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 1:25 am

any other games a problem?
could be a heat issue

Post by **Levitation** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 10:24 am

I haven't tried that out yet. Which game should be a good one as a test on this system?

Post by **axbaby** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 11:24 am

good question

unreal 2 "may be called unreal tournament?"
try a old benchamarking programs like http://www.futuremark.com/download/3dmark2001/

make sure your system is getting proper cooling .. look for dirt around all fans including the cpu/video card.

Post by **Levitation** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 1:36 pm

I tried the benchmarking program, but it didn't found any problems.

My pc was cleaned already, so I suppose it should get proper cooling.

I also installed Max Payne 1 (min. system requirements: 450 Mhz, 96 mb ram and 16 mb graphics card => so somewhat like Q3 Arena) but it also doesn't work. When it tries to open the menu, it immediately switches back to desktop followed by a runtime error.

Dammit...

Post by **Scourge** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 3:58 pm

What is the exact runtime error?

Post by **Levitation** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 5:50 pm

The message is:

Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library

Runtime error!

Program C:\...\Quake3.exe

abnormal program termination

click! (Normally the background is black.)

Post by **Scourge** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 6:32 pm

That's probably related to directx or vid drivers. What OS are you running?

edit: lIke if your running 98se and trying to use dx9 you're probably going to have issues.

Post by **Levitation** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 7:14 pm

Nope, I'm running Windows XP Professional with DirectX 9 and the latest drivers (November 2006) of my GeForce...

Post by **axbaby** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 9:58 pm

-disable background application you don't need running.
-scan computer for viruses or malware -spybot search and destroy
-scan the computers harddisk for errors -windows scandisk
-scan memory for errors -memchecker

all the tools for scanning are available using google

start/run box > dxdiag.exe

- this tests direct-x for errors and compatability

Post by **Levitation** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 11:36 pm

Well, now I did a format c:, and even that doesn't solve the problem...

Post by **Foo** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 11:38 pm

Are you running a software firewall?

Post by **axbaby** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 3:29 am

time to troubleshoot your hardware if a format and windows re-install didn't resolve the problem.

Post by **Levitation** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 10:36 pm

Well today I tried a few things.

I changed the color quality on my desktop from 32-bits to 16-bits, without result.

Also I changed the ram-cards from place, and I changed one from my mothers AMD with one of this pc (both 256 mb ram PC 133), because the three Apacer rams (1 x 64mb & 2 x 256mb) in this pc had "PC 133 CL 3" on it, except for one 256 mb, that one said "PC 133 CL 2". But that didn't occured to be the problem either, so I tried to replace the GeForce FX 5500 with an old AGP video card (4 mb), but with that one Quake 3 wouldn't start at all...

But this afternoon I installed Unreal Tournament 1, and in the menu there was some sort of red appearance with on the background still the original menu screen. And when I tried the benchmarking software program again, in the game-test there was one example where I could also see this red color.

What could this be? Because it starts to seem the problem actually IS the GeForce... But I find that strange because I only have that graphics card in my pc, and my desktop also uses that and it just works perfect. Only games are a problem...

Thanks btw for the many response 'til now, I really appreciate it.

Post by **axbaby** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 1:06 am

could be that you have too weak a power supply for a geforce fx card?

i think mimimum rating for your computer would be around 300 watts but the more the merrier.

does the graphics card fan spin?

did games like q3 ever work before?

random pixel oddities could be bad graphics card ram or heat.

Post by **Levitation** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 6:40 am

Well I got the pc second hand from someone my mom knows, and his son always used the pc to play games, so I suppose Q3 should've worked before.

Weird stuff...

Post by **Tormentius** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 6:46 pm

Levitation wrote:
What could this be? Because it starts to seem the problem actually IS the GeForce... But I find that strange because I only have that graphics card in my pc, and my desktop also uses that and it just works perfect. Only games are a problem...

Your graphics card might still be toast since 3D isn't used on the desktop. It sounds like whenever you do anything 3D-intensive the computer errors out (and Q3 is pretty intensive for older systems, especially anything like a Duron 700). In my opinion that would point to the video card. Can you swap it out with one you know works to test?

Post by **Levitation** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 8:53 pm

Tormentius wrote:
Levitation wrote:
What could this be? Because it starts to seem the problem actually IS the GeForce... But I find that strange because I only have that graphics card in my pc, and my desktop also uses that and it just works perfect. Only games are a problem...
Your graphics card might still be toast since 3D isn't used on the desktop. It sounds like whenever you do anything 3D-intensive the computer errors out (and Q3 is pretty intensive for older systems, especially anything like a Duron 700). In my opinion that would point to the video card. Can you swap it out with one you know works to test?

Hm I guess not, maybe the S3 Savage 4 of my mom's pc, but I believe that one is onboard.

How big is the chance the videocard actually is broken? Because if it's about 90% sure the problem will be solved by buying a new graphics card, I'll just by a new GeForce FX 5500 in the local computerstore. (I saw one for 45 euros, approx. 40 US dollars.)

Post by **axbaby** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 9:20 pm

my wager

40 % Power supply problem 60% video card problem

Post by **Foo** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 9:40 pm

Can you indulge me for a moment and try installing an older version of the geforce video drivers?

Post by **Levitation** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 10:07 pm

Foo wrote:Can you indulge me for a moment and try installing an older version of the geforce video drivers?

I already tried that. Running Quake after the format c: without updating the GF drivers

no result...

Well this is one hell of a sh*tty problem I say.

Post by **Foo** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 10:12 pm

How about sound drivers? Can cause the same symptoms.

Post by **Levitation** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 6:36 am

Foo wrote:How about sound drivers? Can cause the same symptoms.

Yeah I know, but I searched for drivers for my soundcard (AC'97 Audio controller (WDM)

onboard) and I couldn't find the right drivers anywhere. The ones on the site didn't work and I couldn't find any working ones with Google either.

Hmm.

Post by **Levitation** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 12:41 pm

UPDATE: My mom asked her collegue (from whom she got the pc) if the GeForce has actually ever worked. (His son always used the pc for games.)

Now it seems it has never worked there either, and the card is only 1 year old and so never used and brand new (there was a 4 mb videocard in it when I got the pc, and I got the GeForce in the opened box), so maybe the problem's the power supply then?

I'm sorry for the many many questions, but I just can't help the urge to fix this stupid problem.

Post by **axbaby** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 4:04 pm

i'm a bit confused .. the open boxed video card is the one that came with the pc,and that video card does not work?

i would spend $40 on a brand new video card first ,it's not too much money.i have had one year old video cards fail and because the video card has never been confirmed as working i suspect the video card

if that fails then it's the psu ..if that fails it's the ancient motherboard clashing with the video card .. in that case you may as well upgrade to a better video card ,cpu and motherboard.