Could It Be My Sound Card?

[Zebodog]

From ATI:
https://support.ati.com/ics/support/...asp?deptID=894

From Bioware forums:
http://nwn.bioware.com/forums/viewto...&forum=49&sp=0

[ 09-03-2006, 11:27 PM: Message edited by: Zebodog ]

[Albromor]

First, Zebodog, I want you to know that I *REALLY* appreciate you hanging with me on this.

The Bioware link was an eyeopener in that I have an X800GTO video card and I have the latest Catalyst driver. If I am reading the post right the writer suggests going to the Options first and tinker with that before hitting the load button, correct? So either the latest driver didn't fix the issue or my error message may contain other issues. If I am not mistaking I think I remember it saying something about nwnmain.exe, or some such thing.

I am going to attempt to install the game again. Do you recommend the 1.67 or the 1.68 update at this time? If the error log comes up how do I copy it for reference? Thanks again.

[ 09-04-2006, 01:04 AM: Message edited by: Albromor ]

[Zebodog]

I would probably try a basic install with no update and see if that works. If not install 1.67 and try again. If 1.67 doesn't work try 1.68. Try one at a time so as to eliminate as many variables as possible.

Did you try disabling sound and trying to run NWN? If it still crashes with sound disabled you can rule out your sound card.

At this point I'd probably also try reverting your drivers back to a 5.x version to see if it is in fact the newer drivers. ATI recognizes it as a known issue all the way back to 6.1. Directly from the Catalyst 6.1 release notes:

Neverwinter Nights: Playing the game under Windows XP on a system containing an ATI Radeon X800 series, may result in the game exiting to the Windows desktop and an error message being displayed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-21466

[Albromor]

Zebodog,unless ATI gets their braintrust in gear I don't think I am going to be playing NWN due to the constant crashes that even the latest Catalyst driver can't fix as your highlited message clearly indicates.. Why the X800 series cards has this particular issue I have the faintest idea. Well I now know it isn't my audio card.

I sure hope the X800 cards are going to work for NWN2!

Oh yeah, one more thing. My BSoD is due to my Sunbelt Kerio Firewall. After much research and an analysis of my minidump I have 100% confirmation.

[Zebodog]

Have you tried earlier driver versions for your ATI card?

[Albromor]

Its the X800 architecture itself because other ATI models are running this game with the latest 2 Catalyst drivers without a hitch.

[Zebodog]

I took a look at the Release Notes from some earlier versions, Catalyst 5.5 and 5.10 to be exact.

The 5.10 had issues with ATI 9600, but no mention of other NWN issues. The 5.5 made no mention of issues with NWN. Both versions support the X800 so it's possible you may have some success with earlier versions of the driver.

As new drivers are released, optimizations are made for secific game engines and newer cards. Ultimately this causes problems with older games and cards, but since their older they don't receive much more attention from a driver development stand point since the demand is for the new high powered Oblivion, Prey, HL2 drivers that work best on the X1900XTX and other high end cards. The faster your card runs on new games, the more you'll sell since everybody wants the fastest.

That's the problem with a Unified Driver. It can't be all things to all cards. Pick the best driver for your card not necessarily the newest driver for the newest card.

[ 09-08-2006, 09:04 PM: Message edited by: Zebodog ]

[SpiritWarrior]

Hey Zebo, quick question. I was looking at my IRQs and I saw that my vidcard shared the same IRQ with "Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio". Is that my soundcard? Mine is onboard (it works fine in games etc. it's the newer kind) but I wasn't sure whether this was the onboard sound showing up here or something else. If it is, and I wanted to change the IRQ how would I do it? Since I can't remove the soundcard that is.

My audio adapter comes up as made by "Sigmatel" and shows up in the 'audio devices' as
"Audio Adapter Intel 82801GB ICH7 - High Definition Audio Controller [A-1]". I think this is the same thing, no?

[Albromor]

SpiritWarrior, if you are not having problems then don't attempt to change your IRQ settings. It is a Windows XP thing and Microsoft makes it very clear that to do so will cause significant problems. XP sets the IRQ numbers as needed and if they are shared it is because your OS has determined it is the best course to take.

[ 09-21-2006, 02:43 PM: Message edited by: Albromor ]

[Zebodog]

Yup, if it ain't broke don't fix it.
There's no way to fix the IRQ assignment of onboard hardware without re-installing Windows without ACPI...You just don't want to go there.