ATI X1800XT, AMD X2 4800, Quake 4 crashes

[ManFromToronto]

Hi, I've just purchased a system and am having a little trouble getting Quake 4 to run in Ultra High, 1600 x whatever.

I spared no expense on the hardware ....
ATI X1800XT, AMD X2 4800, Asus A8N-SLI Premium, 550W PS, 2 GIG RAM (Kingston - from the HCL of the Asus board).

I've not overclocked or anything.

Once it is finished loading a saved game, instead of seeing a "Click here to continue", the game exits and I'm back in Windows. There is an error in the event log which tells me very little.

"The description for Event ID ( 0 ) in Source ( ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: 7. "

I'm using the Catalyst 5.12 drivers. I've not tried 5.13 yet (posted today) but there is no mention in the release notes on fixing anything for Quake.

I've never had to chase this type of thing down before.

Any ideas?

 

[ChipDeath]

First of all, looks like a nice rig Did you buy it ready-made, or is it a self-build?

Anything else give you problems? Try running stuff like 3dmark, Prime95 Torture test, memtest86 and other games. If nothing else gives a problem then it's either the game itself(bad disk?) or some driver incompatibility type problem(more likely).

If you can test with more varied things it'll help pinpoint the problem.

At the moment, it could be:
dodgy game;
driver incompatibility;
Power supply problem;
memory problem;
motherboard problem;

..etc.

 

[ChipDeath]

Forgot to mention - how well ventilated is your case? What sort of CPU/System temps do you have? (under load preferably)

 

[baracuda73]

are you using the ATI catalyst 5.12 drivers suppoed to be improvements for the x1800 with quake 4

 

[ManFromToronto]

Thank you for your replies.

I have a SONATA2 case.
The ATI card is running at 37 (idle) 47 (load).
I've not installed ASUS probe yet, so I don't know what the CPU temp is.

I've installed HL2 and tried it at 1600 x 1200 (high everything) and AF 4x.
It runs without a problem.

I've installed the ATI 5.13 drivers ... no change.
I've installed the Quake 4 1.4 patch ... no change.

It runs quake 4 for a while at 1200x1024 then freezes.
At 1024x768 I didn't seem to have a problem, however I didn't play for very long at that res.

I've tried the 3dmark05 (free version) and it worked fine. Scored 8900ish.

I'm not sure if HL2 uses the same amount of video memory that quake does (set to ULTRA). I understand that 512 Meg of RAM is required to run high resolutions on Ultra. Perhaps it's the upper range of the memory on the ATI card that has a problem.

Is there some test available that will tax all the memory on the graphics card?

 

[RichPLS]

Here is a very good intense 3d Graphic benchmark program.
SPECviewperf 8.1
http://www.spec.org/gpc/downloadindex.html

 

[plenkor]

Sounds like a driver issue. It's no secret that ATI OpenGL drivers are not as mature as their DirectX support.

Do you have any problems with newer DirectX-based games?

 

[ManFromToronto]

Sounds like a driver issue. It's no secret that ATI OpenGL drivers are not as mature as their DirectX support.

Do you have any problems with newer DirectX-based games?

As I just got this machine 2 days ago and it's Christmas, I've had little time to enjoy the new toy.

The only game I've tried was HL2 for a few minutes today and it ran without incident.

The machine is a brand new. I never put it together.
They installed XP Pro SP2 and the drivers.

I've updated the AC'97 drivers, ATI drivers and patched the game.
It's a vanilla install. Uncorrupted by non standard software.

There have been many quake issues with sound drivers, but it works fine at lower resolution and quality settings so I don't think it's a sound driver problem.

I'll try DOOM3 tonight and see if similar symptoms exist.

 

[ManFromToronto]

Here is a very good intense 3d Graphic benchmark program.
SPECviewperf 8.1
http://www.spec.org/gpc/downloadindex.html

Ouch, 1/2 a gig. Perhaps I'll let it go tonight.
Thanks for the link.

Mark.

 

[RichPLS]

Here is a faster link, I am getting 80KBs download currently.

http://www.servodata.com.pl/ftp/pub/Testy/SPECViewperf81.exe

 

[baracuda73]

I would then try the alternate drivers for either Omega or from DNA they certainly run better FPS than the ATI drivers and could be better for quake 4. Also are the chipset driver the most current.

 

[ManFromToronto]

I could try different drivers, but I guess I'm more worried about why Toms Hardware can run tests without problems on the same hardware and drivers that I have, and report no crashes.

Quake 4 1600x1200 @ Ultra results are everywhere. A few of the tests are using the exact same core components I am (ATI X1800XT, AMD X2 4800, Asus A8N-SLI Premium). There has not been any mention of issues.

I'm downloading the SPECViewperf81 test program mentioned by "RichPLS" tonight and will see if it can do some kind of exhaustive memory test on my video card.

I just want to make sure that it is not some defective high range memory on the card that other games are using.

I want to exchange the card as quick as possible.
In the past, ATI has given me a referb as a replacement card and I hope that if I act quickly, it will be replace by a new one.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. I'll keep trying.

 

[ManFromToronto]

These are my results with the SPECViewperf81 tests...

Run All Summary

---------- SUM_RESULTS3DSMAXSUMMARY.TXT
3dsmax-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 17.45

---------- SUM_RESULTSCATIASUMMARY.TXT
catia-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 13.09

---------- SUM_RESULTSENSIGHTSUMMARY.TXT
ensight-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 25.13

---------- SUM_RESULTSLIGHTSUMMARY.TXT
light-07 Weighted Geometric Mean = 12.25

---------- SUM_RESULTSMAYASUMMARY.TXT
maya-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 14.52

---------- SUM_RESULTSPROESUMMARY.TXT
proe-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 16.07

---------- SUM_RESULTSSWSUMMARY.TXT
sw-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 13.10

---------- SUM_RESULTSUGSSUMMARY.TXT
ugs-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 17.61

I'm not convinced that they caused the high end memory to be used, but they did run without a problem.

I'll have to do the support thing, first with the quake people and next with ATI.

Thanks for the help thus far.

Merry Christmas.

 

[RichPLS]

Your scores tore up my X800XT!
That machine screams.

 

[ltcommander_data]

Make sure you install the latest Quake 4 patch. Intel and id software have worked to make patch 1.0.5 patch dual core compatible. It gives a 63% improvement at lower resolutions. It might not help much at the high resolutions you want since you'll still be GPU limited, but every little bit counts. There might be a bug fix for your problem in that patch as well.

 

[ManFromToronto]

Make sure you install the latest Quake 4 patch. Intel and id software have worked to make patch 1.0.5 patch dual core compatible. It gives a 63% improvement at lower resolutions. It might not help much at the high resolutions you want since you'll still be GPU limited, but every little bit counts. There might be a bug fix for your problem in that patch as well.

One of the steps I've taken was to update the quake drivers. This was the second thing I did. What I did not do was ensure that I was taking advantage of SMP by issuing the command "r_useSMP 1" in the console.

It worked. The game ran smoothly at 1600x1200 Ultra with AF 4. I suppose any self respecting geek would have turned this on first and went for the big bang (and had no problems).

I hope this thread provides assistance to other readme file skimmers like myself.

I'd like to thank all that have contributed to this thread. I've learned a few things.

Happy holidays.