Possible game closing randomly or Vista feature?

[Simon Berube]

I have been playing games on Vista with only a slight performance hit, but
in Warcraft 3 TFT, I had an issue one time where the game simply closed
without warning. I assumed that this was a Windows Vista feature as that
hasn't ever happened to me with WC3/XP. I thought that maybe Vista decided
to close the program because it sensed the video card was being stressed.
It wasn't being stressed actually, but it's a possible explanation and I was
wondering if anyone knows more that could help me out.

Does anyone know if Vista monitors/samples to see if the software is
affecting the hardware adversely? I know this might have been a random
fault/error, too.

Thanks.

Simon
http://sberube.net/

 

[Dale M. White]

Well, you're one lucky fellow if you've never expereince this before. I say,
you're not playing enough games when they are first released. Maybe you
should try over-clocking, that's a way to get it.

It actually has a name and a popular accronym. It's called Crash to Desktop
or CTD for short. Supreme Commander is a pretty good game to experience a
CTD or a BSOD. All the Battlefields, and especially BF-V and BF2 had the
problem when they were first released.

Vista itself doesn't really monitor this, unless it popped up letting you
know it had a problem. Most CTDs are where exe file just implodes as if you
hit the exit key, and so Windows doesn't even know there was a problem. Most
of the CTDs I get\got is when I was trying to overclock the CPU\Memory too
hard. It was my way of knowing, that was too much.

On a side note, I played about 3 hours straight of WC3 under Vista64 and
didn't have any CTDs. So I it's safe ot say that it's probably not the game
that's at fault. You may see it again, if you do and it becomes often, then
there is probably a conflict with your video\sound or some other driver. Or
it could be that your CPU or video card got to hot, though you will normally
get a system that reboots itself with that.

 

[Simon Berube]

Alright, thanks. I didn't think CTD was the case. I see it pretty often in
Battlefield series just like you said, but that's the first I've had for
WC3. At my favorite LAN center, it's become an expectation from BF games.
It happened pretty often with Desert Conflict, especially.

I don't overclock because it's never worth it to me. I play a good deal of
games, but when I have tried slight overclocking in the past, bad things
have happened!

I wouldn't have expected WC3 to crash like that with 2Gb RAM, X2 4400+,
6800XT and nothing else open on Vista. Maybe for a game that would push the
limits of my hardware, you know? Hmm, now that I think about it, I don't
remember if this happened on Vista 32 or 64. I've decided to choose 32-bit,
because even though I was pumped about finally buying a 64-bit OS for my
64-bit processor, Adobe isn't ready to develop 64-bit support. It saddens
me I guess... I ordered the 64-bit Vista DVD because I expected the 64 bit
OS to be a bit more polished, but really it's kind of buggy.

Thanks for replying!

Simon

 

[Dale M. White]

I don't think it has anything to do with pushing the system. it just has to
do the right thing the right way, or is that, teh wrong the the wrong way
and CTD it goes. I think any 3D program that takes moer than 64Meg of ram
and 20% CPU has the chance to CTD. I seldom get as many CTDs as some people
do with teh Battlefield family. Maybe once every 30 hours of play, at least
under XP

with Vista, the drivers are still being ironed out. I was playing Supreme
commander and it was only reporting 50%CPU usage and 1GB out of 2GB of ram
usage and so far, I've gotten 2 BSODs and 3 CTDs under Vista in about 15
hours of play. About the same amount of play time under XP and only 1 CTD.
So it's one part game and 2 parts drivers, in this case I'm sure it's the
video drivers.

Plus you have a nvidia card, and if you are following the threads, nVidia is
having alot of problems with vista right now. Thoguh I heard the 101.41
drivers have worked great for most people, but they are still in beta. I
say, give it another 2-3 months and you won't see any CTDs in games like
WC3:FT

 

[Guest]

good call here Criksee

The older a game is the more this option will need to be used under a brand
new OS like Vista.

 

[Dale M. White]

I disagree. I played Warcraft 3 and Quake2 under Vista32 and Vista64 and
they both play fine without any special Compatibility mode. The symptom was
a single crash to desktop after a period of playing. The compatiblity mode
is to get the game to run period. Once the game is up, running and playing,
the Compatibility mode doesn't hold much value.

Not to mention, nVidia has had a slew of problems under vista, to the point
some fellow is trying to start a class action suit against them.