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Very Strange Issue!


cj.23

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Bought the game tonight and really enjoying it. However something very strange happens. When I try to save the game during the tutorial in the Met sequence my computer dies - I don't mean the game crashes or blue screens - I mean my power supply is interrupted and my PC turns off and on again?!! This is not happening when I run other programs so I am totally confused. I have installed both patch 2 and patch 3. The only other issue is that sometimes Anna is replaced with a black box and then the black boxed area slowly replaces more and more graphics till the game is unplayable. Any ideas???

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Well Schez. told me I needed to upgrade to Direct X 9, which I thought I had on my machine after last night, so I upgraded again and tried to play once more, but then I got a blue screen of death next time it crashed and a message saying my on board graphics are not compatible with Direct X 9.0, which rather surprised me. Unfortunately I'm running an HP Pavilion s7610.uk with Windows XP, and I can't use a standard INTEL driver update, as the drivers are apparently customised and INTEL warn me I need to check HP for specific driver updates. So I wandered over to HP, and found no updates since the April 2006 drivers I'm already running. Sadly my PC is just too old I fear to run the game. Given it has taken me since the announcement of the Ars Magica Kickstarter to afford the game, I can't see I'll be able to upgrade my computer soon but at least I worked out what the problem is. Sorry to ask so many questions before, I was just hugely disappointed after finally getting the game when I could nto get it to work :( Unfortunately, that's down to may antiquated 2006 hardware!

 

cj x

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Yeah the blue screen said down to my graphics driver: powered down to prevent damage to my system. I tried installing the drivers but exactly the same as before. Never mind ill get a decent job one day and buy a new pc. Ghostbusting doesn't pay well! x

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Hi zooqueen I jest but I'm researching poltergeists right now. I'm an academic parapsychologist -- my area is apparitional experience really. so not really a ghostbuster but close I guess. :) When I'm not doing that I write Ars Magica rpg books.

 

Hey shame about the game, but one day I'll get a new pc!

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Hi zooqueen I jest but I'm researching poltergeists right now. I'm an academic parapsychologist -- my area is apparitional experience really. so not really a ghostbuster but close I guess. :) When I'm not doing that I write Ars Magica rpg books.

 

Hey shame about the game, but one day I'll get a new pc!

 

Very very cool! :) Have you written any papers?! Photos posted online maybe? hehe *very eager here*

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Er...can I butt in with an opinion?

 

The problem described seems very similar to the failsafes of a power source or motherboard. The worst an incompatible/bad game did for my computer was to restart it (bad command to the video card) but never proper shutdown, unless it seriously overheated (and I mean very serious) so you might want to check your motherboard and/or power source for failure. This is not an issue computers from 2006 would have, if they were not experiencing some damage.

 

Did you test other games with it?

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Er...can I butt in with an opinion?

 

The problem described seems very similar to the failsafes of a power source or motherboard. The worst an incompatible/bad game did for my computer was to restart it (bad command to the video card) but never proper shutdown, unless it seriously overheated (and I mean very serious) so you might want to check your motherboard and/or power source for failure. This is not an issue computers from 2006 would have, if they were not experiencing some damage.

 

Did you test other games with it?

 

I can play King of Dragon Pass (which I think came out in 1996?). I don't own any other games except the ones bundled with Windows I guess -- Solitaire, Minesweeper etc.. It works fine for wordprocessing, Paint Shop Pro and web browsing. No signs of overheating, and yep not a full shutdown, exactly as you say -- restart on bad command to graphics card. Running the HP analysis programme reveal no issues, but I'm completely stuck. Any ideas? :)

 

cj x

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Er...can I butt in with an opinion?

 

The problem described seems very similar to the failsafes of a power source or motherboard. The worst an incompatible/bad game did for my computer was to restart it (bad command to the video card) but never proper shutdown, unless it seriously overheated (and I mean very serious) so you might want to check your motherboard and/or power source for failure. This is not an issue computers from 2006 would have, if they were not experiencing some damage.

 

Did you test other games with it?

 

 

OK what I have done. Run DXDIAG - all works properly.

 

Checked my display info - as follows -

 

Name Mobile Intel® 945GM Express Chipset Family

PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27A2&SUBSYS_2A44103C&REV_03\3&11583659&0&10

Adapter Type Intel® GMA 950, Intel Corporation compatible

Adapter Description Mobile Intel® 945GM Express Chipset Family

Adapter RAM 224.00 MB (234,881,024 bytes)

Installed Drivers ialmrnt5.dll

Driver Version 6.14.10.4543

INF File oem4.inf (i945GM0 section)

Color Planes 1

Color Table Entries 4294967296

Resolution 1440 x 900 x 60 hertz

Bits/Pixel 32

Memory Address 0xFFA80000-0xFFAFFFFF

I/O Port 0x0000EC00-0x0000EC07

Memory Address 0xD0000000-0xDFFFFFFF

Memory Address 0xFFA40000-0xFFA7FFFF

IRQ Channel IRQ 16

I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB

I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF

Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF

Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\ialmnt5.sys (6.14.10.4543, 1.11 MB (1,166,972 bytes), 21/09/2006 16:16)

 

Possibly physical damage as you say, but I'm not getting any other errors :(

 

cj x

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...Yeah, well a 1996 game isn't that demanding. Do you have a program that tells you the exact temperature of your components? If not, try Open Hardware monitor. If it is an overheating problem, could you get it cleaned?

 

If it is a restart due to bad command, then you need another driver.

 

I might come back with a different suggestion soon. Am typing on phone and the screen is tiny.

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...Yeah, well a 1996 game isn't that demanding. Do you have a program that tells you the exact temperature of your components? If not, try Open Hardware monitor. If it is an overheating problem, could you get it cleaned?

 

If it is a restart due to bad command, then you need another driver.

 

I might come back with a different suggestion soon. Am typing on phone and the screen is tiny.

 

Hi MadHatt,

 

Well I can take the components out, and guess I can do it in a fairly static free environment if need be. Using Open Hardware Monitor I got readings well within range for my CPU - just checked!

 

Thanks for all the help, and if you have any more ideas do shout. If i knew what component needed replacing I'd do it, but with a non-standard case the Pavilion comes with I might be better just buying a second hand pc not quite so old as this one!

 

cj x

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