Immersion interference: The Game Keeps Freezing!

CerebroDragon · 03-23-2005, 04:50 AM

Urgent call to Morrowind Technician Tweakers Anonymous!

Well, at first it only froze every so often and I could put up with it, but recently its been happening with more alarming regularity (every half hour or so) I've got Morrowind and Tribunal installed, so I downloaded the patch from the Elder Scrolls website to put me up to V1.4. Trouble is, I'm still suffering from game freezes which leave me no choice but to reset the PC. Here's some specifications which are admittedly, barely meeting requirements....but are still running things well enough to be playable.

AMD Duron 800 Mhz
Win 98 SE
504 Megs RAM
Radeon 9200 SE (Downloaded most recent drivers when I got it, a couple of months ago...)
DirectX 9.0

I started eliminating all progs from the system tray when playing to see if it helped, but unfortunately the problem has persisted.

After conducting a search of the forums, I found an old topic where Vesselle suggested that a particular nocd crack eliminated all freeze problems. Can anyone confirm this? It didn't really seem feasible to me. But I might end up trying one out.

To add salt to injury really, I've also had a sound clipping problem which doesn't allow me to watch the introduction properly. I tried all of the acceleration fixes as suggested on the technical support readme, but all in vain. I've never really had sound problems in any recent game until Morrowind....but perhaps I need to try to find updated drivers for my dodgy ol' inbuilt VIA soundcard. Or upgrade it. One day....

Anyway, I've been stuck searching for a dwarven puzzle box for half the afternoon and are fed up quicksaving every two minutes!

So I'd very much appreciate any ideas, tips at least to stop this freezing problem.

Cheers,
Cerebrodragon.

Radek · 03-23-2005, 05:15 AM

IIRC, 800 MHz CPU is the value from the "hardware requirements" on the Morrowind box. As we all know, these "hardware requirements" are always the bare minimum, and you always need a hardware one level better, if you want the game to run smoothly.
Try 800x600 video mode. If it solves something, then it might be the CPU. The rest of your hw and sw seems to be okay.

My personal experience. First, I have tried Morrowind on 750 MHz PII, Riva TNT2 Ultra and 256 MB RAM. Completely unpossible, even in 800x600. Frequent freezes, the same you are writing about, crashes, errors in graphics, and so on. Now, I have Athlon XP 2200+, GeForce 4, and 1 GB RAM. No problems, except notorious game crashes. But these crashes are a problem of Morrowind and not a problem of hw or sw.

Luvian · 03-23-2005, 05:32 AM

I used to play this on mt p2 333mhz with an ati 128 megs graphic cards.

The cities were a huge pain, but I could still move around.

Then I put it in a p3 800mhz witht he same card, and it went well. This time I only laged a little in the cities.

CerebroDragon · 03-23-2005, 05:43 AM

Thanks for the quick response Radek.

I'm already in 800x600 mode - had to reduce this earlier on in the video tweaking process to get a playable framerate.

For everyone else's sake, I thought i'd record the minimum specs according to the technical support file on the Morrowind/Tribunal bootscreen:

Windows Me/98 128MB RAM
* Windows XP/2000 256MB RAM (Windows NT NOT supported) (tick)
* 500mhz Intel Pentium III, Celeron, or AMD Athlon processor. (tick)
* 8x CD/DVD-ROM Drive (tick)
* 1 GB free hard disk space (tick)
* Windows swapfile
* DirectX 8.1 (included)
* 32MB Direct3D Compatible Video card and DirectX 8.1 compatible driver (tick)
* DirectX 8.1 Compatible Sound Card (tick)
* Keyboard, Mouse (tick)

Recommended System Requirements:
* 800mhz or faster Intel Pentium III or AMD Athlon
* 256 MB RAM
* Nvidia GeForce 2 GTS, ATI Radeon 7500 or faster video card

So basically I seem to meet everything ok, providing these reccomendations aren't being too modest. [img]smile.gif[/img]

But I'd still possibly put a question mark on my CPU, since its a Duron, not a Pentium or Athlon and would probably equal a middle-lower end PIII.

I'm still searching forums for other answers/solutions, so I'm not giving up just yet. [img]smile.gif[/img]

armageddon272 · 03-23-2005, 02:55 PM

Well, if you can't find the solution to the freezing. I have one word for you: F6. Use it frequently.

Seraph · 03-23-2005, 07:33 PM

What is F6 supposed to do?

WSBoaBoa · 03-23-2005, 07:46 PM

Currently having the same type of issue with crashing. I could never figure out how to make it stop cashing or limit the crashes myself. Heck I would love to find out why it crashes in the first place. My specs are differnt then yours though so I doubt its memory leaks or a speed issue...

P4 3.2, 2GB of RAM
9700 ATI vid card
SB Audigy 2 sound card

armageddon272 · 03-23-2005, 08:00 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Seraph:
What is F6 supposed to do?

Quick save. A glitchy game-owner's best friend.

CerebroDragon · 03-24-2005, 02:14 AM

Oddly enough, after updating my soundcard drivers, doing a simple revolution of msconfig start up progs and eliminating all background resident programs, I was able to enjoy a nice two and half hour session of the game completely freeze-free. So that's a good sign. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Freezing isn't as common as the dreaded CTD's according to other game forums I searched, so I hope I don't cop too many of those...but I suppose with a game of this magnitude, its almost inevitable to suffer something.

But yeah, have no doubt that I'm pretty intimately connected with Quicksave by now.

(F5?)

Stratos · 03-24-2005, 10:01 AM

Let's hope it runs well from now then, eh? [img]smile.gif[/img]

The only problem I have with Morrowind is that it exits to Windows occasionally but then again, all games does that nowadays.

03-23-2005, 04:50 AM	#1
CerebroDragon Red Wizard of Thay Join Date: March 2, 2003 Location: Ballarat, Australia. Age: 46 Posts: 878	Urgent call to Morrowind Technician Tweakers Anonymous! Well, at first it only froze every so often and I could put up with it, but recently its been happening with more alarming regularity (every half hour or so) I've got Morrowind and Tribunal installed, so I downloaded the patch from the Elder Scrolls website to put me up to V1.4. Trouble is, I'm still suffering from game freezes which leave me no choice but to reset the PC. Here's some specifications which are admittedly, barely meeting requirements....but are still running things well enough to be playable. AMD Duron 800 Mhz Win 98 SE 504 Megs RAM Radeon 9200 SE (Downloaded most recent drivers when I got it, a couple of months ago...) DirectX 9.0 I started eliminating all progs from the system tray when playing to see if it helped, but unfortunately the problem has persisted. After conducting a search of the forums, I found an old topic where Vesselle suggested that a particular nocd crack eliminated all freeze problems. Can anyone confirm this? It didn't really seem feasible to me. But I might end up trying one out. To add salt to injury really, I've also had a sound clipping problem which doesn't allow me to watch the introduction properly. I tried all of the acceleration fixes as suggested on the technical support readme, but all in vain. I've never really had sound problems in any recent game until Morrowind....but perhaps I need to try to find updated drivers for my dodgy ol' inbuilt VIA soundcard. Or upgrade it. One day.... Anyway, I've been stuck searching for a dwarven puzzle box for half the afternoon and are fed up quicksaving every two minutes! So I'd very much appreciate any ideas, tips at least to stop this freezing problem. Cheers, Cerebrodragon. __________________ Diddledy High, Diddledy Low, Come Brave Blood Sheep, You've a goodly way to go. - Brilhasti Ap Tarj

03-23-2005, 05:15 AM	#2
Radek Red Dragon Join Date: April 3, 2001 Location: Prague, Czech Republic Posts: 1,586	IIRC, 800 MHz CPU is the value from the "hardware requirements" on the Morrowind box. As we all know, these "hardware requirements" are always the bare minimum, and you always need a hardware one level better, if you want the game to run smoothly. Try 800x600 video mode. If it solves something, then it might be the CPU. The rest of your hw and sw seems to be okay. My personal experience. First, I have tried Morrowind on 750 MHz PII, Riva TNT2 Ultra and 256 MB RAM. Completely unpossible, even in 800x600. Frequent freezes, the same you are writing about, crashes, errors in graphics, and so on. Now, I have Athlon XP 2200+, GeForce 4, and 1 GB RAM. No problems, except notorious game crashes. But these crashes are a problem of Morrowind and not a problem of hw or sw. __________________ My name is Demon\'s Last Day. Yes, the last one.

03-23-2005, 05:32 AM	#3
Luvian Ironworks Moderator Join Date: June 27, 2001 Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada Age: 44 Posts: 6,763	I used to play this on mt p2 333mhz with an ati 128 megs graphic cards. The cities were a huge pain, but I could still move around. Then I put it in a p3 800mhz witht he same card, and it went well. This time I only laged a little in the cities. __________________ Once upon a time in Canada...

03-23-2005, 05:43 AM	#4
CerebroDragon Red Wizard of Thay Join Date: March 2, 2003 Location: Ballarat, Australia. Age: 46 Posts: 878	Thanks for the quick response Radek. I'm already in 800x600 mode - had to reduce this earlier on in the video tweaking process to get a playable framerate. For everyone else's sake, I thought i'd record the minimum specs according to the technical support file on the Morrowind/Tribunal bootscreen: Windows Me/98 128MB RAM * Windows XP/2000 256MB RAM (Windows NT NOT supported) (tick) * 500mhz Intel Pentium III, Celeron, or AMD Athlon processor. (tick) * 8x CD/DVD-ROM Drive (tick) * 1 GB free hard disk space (tick) * Windows swapfile * DirectX 8.1 (included) * 32MB Direct3D Compatible Video card and DirectX 8.1 compatible driver (tick) * DirectX 8.1 Compatible Sound Card (tick) * Keyboard, Mouse (tick) Recommended System Requirements: * 800mhz or faster Intel Pentium III or AMD Athlon * 256 MB RAM * Nvidia GeForce 2 GTS, ATI Radeon 7500 or faster video card So basically I seem to meet everything ok, providing these reccomendations aren't being too modest. [img]smile.gif[/img] But I'd still possibly put a question mark on my CPU, since its a Duron, not a Pentium or Athlon and would probably equal a middle-lower end PIII. I'm still searching forums for other answers/solutions, so I'm not giving up just yet. [img]smile.gif[/img] __________________ Diddledy High, Diddledy Low, Come Brave Blood Sheep, You've a goodly way to go. - Brilhasti Ap Tarj

03-24-2005, 02:14 AM	#9
CerebroDragon Red Wizard of Thay Join Date: March 2, 2003 Location: Ballarat, Australia. Age: 46 Posts: 878	Oddly enough, after updating my soundcard drivers, doing a simple revolution of msconfig start up progs and eliminating all background resident programs, I was able to enjoy a nice two and half hour session of the game completely freeze-free. So that's a good sign. [img]smile.gif[/img] Freezing isn't as common as the dreaded CTD's according to other game forums I searched, so I hope I don't cop too many of those...but I suppose with a game of this magnitude, its almost inevitable to suffer something. But yeah, have no doubt that I'm pretty intimately connected with Quicksave by now. (F5?) __________________ Diddledy High, Diddledy Low, Come Brave Blood Sheep, You've a goodly way to go. - Brilhasti Ap Tarj

03-23-2005, 02:55 PM	#5
armageddon272 Symbol of Cyric Join Date: September 20, 2004 Location: Maine, feel sorry for me Age: 34 Posts: 1,163	Well, if you can't find the solution to the freezing. I have one word for you: F6. Use it frequently.

03-23-2005, 07:33 PM	#6
Seraph Quintesson Join Date: September 12, 2001 Location: Ewing, NJ Age: 43 Posts: 1,079	What is F6 supposed to do?

03-23-2005, 07:46 PM	#7
WSBoaBoa Elite Waterdeep Guard Join Date: January 22, 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Age: 53 Posts: 36	Currently having the same type of issue with crashing. I could never figure out how to make it stop cashing or limit the crashes myself. Heck I would love to find out why it crashes in the first place. My specs are differnt then yours though so I doubt its memory leaks or a speed issue... P4 3.2, 2GB of RAM 9700 ATI vid card SB Audigy 2 sound card

03-24-2005, 10:01 AM	#10
Stratos Vampire Join Date: January 29, 2003 Location: Sweden Age: 44 Posts: 3,888	Let's hope it runs well from now then, eh? [img]smile.gif[/img] The only problem I have with Morrowind is that it exits to Windows occasionally but then again, all games does that nowadays. __________________ Nothing is impossible, it's just a matter of probability.

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