Re: Freelancer hanging

Jimmy,

A splendid reply. OK I updated all of my drivers, including video, sound,
directx, and motherboard. I ran the game and it crashed almost immediatly.
I rebooted and went back into Freelancer. This tmie, I went into the
Performance settings and dropped all of the bars dopwn a few notches (such
as object detail etc). I then played the game and managed to play through a
dog fight which consistently crashed. I am now in the process of increasing
the performance bars one by one to see were the problem arises.

I am interested in the overheating comment - I have a pretty big server box
which came with 8 internal fans which are all blowing away. I am slightly
annoyed that games still suffer from these problems also. I havent really
played games for years, but I used to play Elite back in the ole days so
decided to by Freelancer. I thought that the game technology would have
stabalised much better than it seems to have. Oh well...I seem to have the
dogs nads of a computer system, and having to drop some of the performance
settings is annoying at best.

But thanks for such a verbose and helpful reply Jimmy, it was excellent.

Nick.
"Jimmy S." <Private> wrote in message
news:ukG$bSaPDHA.3192@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Hi Nick,
>
> Before troubleshooting that Freelancer "system hanging" issue, we'll
> update your Video drivers. Although Freelancer usually checks the
> video driver version and will recommend an upgrade if needed,
> updating video card drivers can solve most gaming issues.. if this is
> not the solution, then we may be looking at an overheating problem,
> or a lack of sufficient power supply to your system. But first...
>
> Me & XP users should create a restore point before any upgrades:
>
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/...stemrestore.asp
>
> Before you update your drivers, I recommend you upgrade to DirectX 9.0a:
>
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...&displaylang=en
>
> Keep any download accelerators or antivirus programs disabled.
> Here are the steps I recommend you use to update your driver:
>
> 1. To identify the make and model of your card, right click your
> Desktop, choose Properties / Settings / Advanced / Adapter.
>
> 2. Download the latest video driver for your card online, using
> http://www3.sympatico.ca/nibblesnbi...eo.html#drivers
> to find the website to download from. I also have advanced
> video driver and direct X troubleshooting steps on that page.
>
> 3. Save the .exe driver (or uncompress the zip file) to a folder
> in My Documents named after the driver version number.
>
> 4. Restart the computer in Safe Mode by pressing the F8 key
> about once every second as it's rebooting to pick Safe Mode.
>
> 5. Click Start / (settings) Control Panel / System / Hardware
> Device Manager / expand +Display Adapters / right click on
> the adapter, pick "Uninstall", and click No if asked to reboot.
>
> 6. Use Control Panel / Add-Remove programs to uninstall the
> previous driver (exe)software which may have been installed.
>
> 7. Restart the computer in Safe Mode by pressing the F8 key
> about once every second as it's rebooting to pick Safe Mode.
>
> 8. If the driver is a (exe)program file, GO DIRECTLY TO step 10.
>
> 9. When Windows prompts you to install the video adapter,* click
> "Install from a list or specific location", click the "Browse" button,
> browse to the My documents folder where you saved the driver,
> click on one of the driver files to begin installation. Go to Step
11.
>
> * If Windows doesn't prompt you to install the video adapter, click
> Start / Control Panel / System / Hardware / Device Manager /
> click the + next to Display Adapters / Doubleclick the Adapter /
> Update Driver... / follow the instructions in Step 9 to install
driver.
>
> 10. If / when Windows prompts you to install the video adapter, click
> "Cancel". Double click the driver program to install the new
drivers..
>
> 11. After you reboot, go to Control Panel / Display / Settings and
> choose 32 bit Color Quality, and 1024x768 Screen Resolution.
>
>
> TROUBLESHOOTING:
>
> Test your drivers using DXDiag: Click Start / Run / type: DXDIAG
> Click the "Test" buttons in the Display, Sound, Music & Network Tabs;
> If any of the Display options are Disabled and you cannot Enable them,
> your most likely solution would be to update your Chipset Drivers as per:
> http://www3.sympatico.ca/nibblesnbits/Video.html#v11
>
> Along with your Video card, Sound Cards, Motherboard Chipsets,
> and Video Monitors may also require updated drivers. Even your
> motherboard's BIOS may need to be updated for compatibility with
> your Video card. These steps are listed at: http://NibblesNbitsVideo.tk
>
> The latest video drivers sometime don't work with a particular game.
> (Check the Video suggestions in the readme.txt file in your game
folder/CD)
> If there's no suggestions, try an older (WHQL) driver, and/or if you still
> experience problems try a Beta driver, or even an Omega driver instead:
>
> BETA Drivers: http://download.guru3d.com/
> OMEGA Drivers: http://www.omegacorner.com/
>
> Do you have more than one video outlet on your card? If so, test the
> monitor using other outlet and disable the 2nd outlet if that doesn't
help.
>
> There you have it, if you have any questions feel free to post them! :-)
>
> --
> Cheers,
> Jimmy S.
>
> Additional Support Resources: My Zone.com Helpsite:
http://nibblesnbits.tk
> Microsoft Online Tech Support: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=376
> Game FAQ's: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
> My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any
rights.
> _________________________________________________________
>
> "Nick" <from@here.there> wrote in message
news:%23jM5YzXPDHA.3192@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> | Hi,
> |
> | I have just purchased freelancer and expected it to work perfectly on my
new
> | machine. But during the game, especially when flying or playing some
form
> | of video, it hangs but the current music plays until it has finished. I
> | cannot do anything other than reboot.
> |
> | I have the following spec:
> |
> | Pentium 4 3.02ghz
> | RAM 2GB
> | HDD 450GB
> | ATA Motherboard 533mhz
> | Windows XP Professional
> |
> | Not sure what else you would need to know. I am also new to XP - is
there
> | something I must set or do to play games more efficiently?
> |
> | Many thanks,
> |
> | Nick.
> |
> |
>
>