AOM - Video Freezing - HELP PLEASE!!!

[Guest]

Some background. I've had AOM for well over a year now, and I've NEVER experienced this problem before. I have all the newest drivers and have updated EVERYTHING possible.
I've uninstalled and re-installed the game numerous times now. I've defraged and cleaned up.

I haven'te played the game for a few months, and the problem has now appeared.

The problem: At various (any) stages during the game, the video will hang. The audio continues normally, the mouse pointer moves fine, but the video FREEZES completely. It is still there and looks fine, but doesn't move at all.

I've noticed that the game is running my CPU at 100% as well.

My system: AMD Athlon 1800 (1.54ghz), NVidia GeForce2 MX/MX 400 with 64MB ram, 256MB ram on MB, Creative SB Live! and a 40GB HD with about 22GB free. I can't remember the MB for the life of me, but it has a VIA KT chipset.

The computer is running fine and I have no other issues. Just this stupid problem. Sometimes, it'll only freeze a few times, others it'll freeze so often it makes the game pretty much unplayable. Freeze lasts approximately 15 to 30 seconds per.

That's all the info I can think to give you right now. If you need anything else, ask and I'll do my best to answer.

I've spent more than a few hours trying to solve this problem and nothing has worked so far. I'd really appreciate any help you guys can offer.

Thanks in Advance,

Rex

Edited to add: I remember it's an ASUS board. Also, the freezing will occur at any point, including when I'm setting up a game. For instance, on the VERY first menu (choosing single player, etc...) it will freeze as well.

 

[Neil Dela Osa [MS]]

Hmm... I'd suspect some other software or process running in the background
since the game used to run fine on your computer.

Do you have any software firewalls or virus scanners running? Do you have
Seti@home or something similar on your computer? I've also being reading
posts of software problems caused by a cd copy-protection program named
StarForce. What new games have you installed in the last few months? Have
you confirmed that your computer is free from spyware and viruses.

--
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties and confers no rights.
Please do not send email directly to my alias. This alias is for newsgroup
posting only.

Some background. I've had AOM for well over a year now, and I've NEVER

experienced this problem before. I have all the newest drivers and have
updated EVERYTHING possible.

I've uninstalled and re-installed the game numerous times now. I've defraged and cleaned up.

I haven'te played the game for a few months, and the problem has now appeared.

The problem: At various (any) stages during the game, the video will hang.

The audio continues normally, the mouse pointer moves fine, but the video
FREEZES completely. It is still there and looks fine, but doesn't move at
all.

I've noticed that the game is running my CPU at 100% as well.

My system: AMD Athlon 1800 (1.54ghz), NVidia GeForce2 MX/MX 400 with 64MB

ram, 256MB ram on MB, Creative SB Live! and a 40GB HD with about 22GB free.
I can't remember the MB for the life of me, but it has a VIA KT chipset.

The computer is running fine and I have no other issues. Just this stupid

problem. Sometimes, it'll only freeze a few times, others it'll freeze so
often it makes the game pretty much unplayable. Freeze lasts approximately
15 to 30 seconds per.

That's all the info I can think to give you right now. If you need

anything else, ask and I'll do my best to answer.

I've spent more than a few hours trying to solve this problem and nothing

has worked so far. I'd really appreciate any help you guys can offer.

Thanks in Advance,

Rex

Edited to add: I remember it's an ASUS board. Also, the freezing will

occur at any point, including when I'm setting up a game. For instance, on
the VERY first menu (choosing single player, etc...) it will freeze as well.

 

[Guest]

Well, I ran the game in the "video safe" mode (an option in the game) where the game runs in a small window at reduced size and graphics detail. While playing, I monitored Windows Task Manager.

No processes were running that I could see (at least not showing above 0% CPU usage), no other applications were running, the CPU was showing 100% usage on the graph, though.

The game CONTINUED this freezing behaviour even in this "video safe" mode.

I have a very clean and spyware, adware, virus-free computer that is checked and cleaned regularly.

AOM is my most recent game-install, and that was months and months ago. I've since removed EVERY installed game EXCEPT AOM, and I still have the problem. My comp appears to be in top-notch running condition, yet the problem persists.

Help!!!

 

[Paul Smith]

No processes were running that I could see (at least not showing above 0%

CPU usage), no other applications were running, the CPU was showing 100%
usage on the graph, though.

Right well AOM should consume all CPU time as possible. So seeing 100% when
you start the game is perfectly normal.

The game CONTINUED this freezing behaviour even in this "video safe" mode.

I have a very clean and spyware, adware, virus-free computer that is

checked and cleaned regularly.

Right, I'd go with what Neil said - everything points to something else
running that's upsetting it of, it could be a virus scanner running, a
firewall or any other tiny little applications. So close all those down.

Check in msconfig (Start - Run - type in 'msconfig') go to services and
start up, uncheck things you don't need starting up with your computer, for
testing this out it's pretty safe to simply uncheck all non-Microsoft
services - although you may need some later on for other things.

You could also try creating a new user profile, the profile I'm on has been
shifted from computer to computer for about 3 years now, so it's bound to
collected some junk along the way, I had trouble with X2 and Rise of
Nations, yet creating a new user profile solved them. So that might be
worth trying as well.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
http://windows.dasmirnov.net/ Windows XP Resource Site.
http://www.halflifeportal.com/ A Half-Life fansite.
http://www.doom3portal.com/ A Doom 3 fansite.

*Replace nospam with smirnov to reply by e-mail*

 

[Guest]

OK, I deselected every NON-Microsoft process and startup item, rebooted and tried the game.

It froze when I clicked "Start" on the game setup menu.

I'm not having fun.

Any other suggestions guys? How do you go about changing your user profile? What does that entail and what would the benefits be?

 

[Dave Calder]

Hi Rex,
I don't know if this will help but I was having what sounds like the same
problem as you with AOE2 and the trial version of AOM. I tried everything
for months without success until I uninstalled my sound blaster sound card
and physically removed it from my motherboard and put it back in a different
slot. This fixed the problem, apparently there was a hardware conflict of
some sort. I still don't completely understand it but its fixed!
Hope this is some help!
Dave C.

 

[Guest]

Any suggestion is a good suggestion. I was planning a thourough interior cleaning of my PC in the near future. It can't hurt to try your suggestion, so I'll give it a shot. Thanks.