PC freeze playing MOHAA

[Grumps]

[trimmed]

I didn't know firewalls restricted local disk access. I can add it
to the exclusion list though or switch it off. It's only the
resident Windows firewall.

No, firewalls don't restrict local disk access, but i just thought
that perhaps it has got into a pickle and thinks the drive it is
trying to read is on a network. Are the files loaded and saved
locally, or have you setup a network drive, or even an external drive
perhaps?

It's all local.
[trimmed]

 

[GT]

[trimmed]

2. Perhaps your firewall is preventing local disk access.

I didn't know firewalls restricted local disk access. I can add it
to the exclusion list though or switch it off. It's only the
resident Windows firewall.

No, firewalls don't restrict local disk access, but i just thought
that perhaps it has got into a pickle and thinks the drive it is
trying to read is on a network. Are the files loaded and saved
locally, or have you setup a network drive, or even an external drive
perhaps?

It's all local.

Must be file related then - either video driver, or a MOHAA system file.
Elliminate these things in the easiest order. Patch the game first, then
mess about with video drivers, but the game isn't that old and I run both it
and Wolfenstein without any difficulty on both my old Ati card and my newer
nVidia card (same PC otherwise).

 

[VanguardLH]

Then try booting Windows into its Safe Mode and make sure that the
anti-virus doesn't run in Safe Mode or you disable it (and any other
security or anti-malware programs). That's about a clean an
environment you will get without having to do a fresh install of
Windows. That's assuming the game will play under Safe Mode. Some
won't.

I forgot to ask: Does MOHAA let you select whether to use OpenGL or
DirectX? If so, have you tried running it using DirectX instead of
OpenGL?

 

[Grumps]

I forgot to ask: Does MOHAA let you select whether to use OpenGL or
DirectX? If so, have you tried running it using DirectX instead of
OpenGL?

I haven't seen that option, but I'll take another look.

 

[Grumps]

[trimmed]
2. Perhaps your firewall is preventing local disk access.

I didn't know firewalls restricted local disk access. I can add it
to the exclusion list though or switch it off. It's only the
resident Windows firewall.

No, firewalls don't restrict local disk access, but i just thought
that perhaps it has got into a pickle and thinks the drive it is
trying to read is on a network. Are the files loaded and saved
locally, or have you setup a network drive, or even an external drive
perhaps?

It's all local.

Must be file related then - either video driver, or a MOHAA system file.
Elliminate these things in the easiest order. Patch the game first, then
mess about with video drivers, but the game isn't that old and I run both
it and Wolfenstein without any difficulty on both my old Ati card and my
newer nVidia card (same PC otherwise).

Games is patched to latest from EA.

It's not the PSU as I just replaced this with a 500W Seasonic.
And it's not hyperthreading as I just turned of one of the CPUs.

Next, drivers....

 

[kony]

There is nothing (that helps) in the event log(s). The PC just dies.

A better description of _exactly_ what the system does might
have been helpful, since it doesn't actually die it does
some other thing whether that be freeze up (then what is on
the display?) or reset or power off or ??
Regardless, my next comment makes this fairly unimportant.

I agree, there may not be a working driver for this card to enable this game
to run; but there must surely be a fix/workaround somewhere.
It's so strange that starting this game from the beginning will result in
normal play. Only when loading a saved game does it cause a freeze a short
while later.

The graphics card manufacturer says it is almost certainly an EA fault as
the card works fine with everything else.

Because it only freezes when loading a saved game this is
definitely a game flaw, not video card or power, etc.
Either don't save games anymore or keep checking back on a
game patch, and be sure the game developer knows about this
problem. Also search and ask about possible solutions in
gaming forums. I don't know if that developer has their own
(web) forum but that would be one of the first places to
start looking and asking.

 

[Grumps]

A better description of _exactly_ what the system does might
have been helpful, since it doesn't actually die it does
some other thing whether that be freeze up (then what is on
the display?)

Sorry, I thought I'd mentioned what happens.
All other games play fine.
This game (MOH:AA) plays, from the beginning, without fault.
Loading a saved game will result, after about 30s (or sometimes longer), in
a system freeze. The screen freezes, the sound plays (in a loop), after a
few seconds the screen will go black and video output stops. This PC does
not have a reset button, so it has to be power-cycled.

or reset or power off or ??
Regardless, my next comment makes this fairly unimportant.



Because it only freezes when loading a saved game this is
definitely a game flaw, not video card or power, etc.
Either don't save games anymore or keep checking back on a
game patch,

I have the latest patch. I know (from other replies here) that this game
should work ok in my type of system configuration.

and be sure the game developer knows about this
problem.

They certainly do. So far they've requested the results of running dxdiag.

Also search and ask about possible solutions in
gaming forums. I don't know if that developer has their own
(web) forum but that would be one of the first places to
start looking and asking.

Thanks. I'll give that a try.

 

[Grumps]

Thanks. I'll give that a try.

Wow! There are so many people having issues (or had issues) with MOH:AA.
One comment on a forum gave a new atioglxx.dll file that should be placed in
the game's root. This has been mentioned in this thread too. So I thought
I'd give that a try.

Now, this PC's windows\system32 has atioglx2.dll and opengl32.dll, but no
ati*.dll in the game's root.
I put this old atioglxx.dll in the game's root, and (just to be sure)
renamed the windows\system32 relevant dlls so they wouldn't be found. I
noticed that opengl32.dll cannot be deleted; well, you can delete it, but it
comes right back!

Running MOH results in a message saying that the opengl system could not
initialise. The only way to make it get past this stage was to put the
atioglxx.dll back in windows\system32 (putting the old atioglxx.dll here
makes no difference) - so I conlcude that (on my PC) MOH never looks in its
root for atioglxx.dll.

 

[kony]

Wow! There are so many people having issues (or had issues) with MOH:AA.
One comment on a forum gave a new atioglxx.dll file that should be placed in
the game's root. This has been mentioned in this thread too. So I thought
I'd give that a try.

Now, this PC's windows\system32 has atioglx2.dll and opengl32.dll, but no
ati*.dll in the game's root.
I put this old atioglxx.dll in the game's root, and (just to be sure)
renamed the windows\system32 relevant dlls so they wouldn't be found. I
noticed that opengl32.dll cannot be deleted; well, you can delete it, but it
comes right back!

To do this effectively you can either temporarily disable
windows file protection, or the easier way is before you
delete or rename the file you want to be rid of, first put
the old file in the system32/dllcache folder, which is where
windows first looks for a backup copy of the file it's
restoring, so having replaced the file there you can delete
the \system32 file and it'll copy the older one you want.

However I'm not clear about why you need to hide the files
in the system32 folder at all, wasn't the point of putting
the driver file in the game root folder such that it
wouldn't need to be changed elsewhere?

Running MOH results in a message saying that the opengl system could not
initialise. The only way to make it get past this stage was to put the
atioglxx.dll back in windows\system32 (putting the old atioglxx.dll here
makes no difference) - so I conlcude that (on my PC) MOH never looks in its
root for atioglxx.dll.

I don't know, you might ask the person who posted that in
the forum.

 

[Grumps]

To do this effectively you can either temporarily disable
windows file protection, or the easier way is before you
delete or rename the file you want to be rid of, first put
the old file in the system32/dllcache folder, which is where
windows first looks for a backup copy of the file it's
restoring, so having replaced the file there you can delete
the \system32 file and it'll copy the older one you want.

Ah, thanks. I saw a file copy in the dllcache folder. Wondered what that was
for.

However I'm not clear about why you need to hide the files
in the system32 folder at all, wasn't the point of putting
the driver file in the game root folder such that it
wouldn't need to be changed elsewhere?

That's correct, but it was obvious that the file in the game's root folder
was not being used. So this was my attempt to hide the win\sys32 files to
force the game to use its root dll.

 

[GT]

Sorry, I thought I'd mentioned what happens.
All other games play fine.
This game (MOH:AA) plays, from the beginning, without fault.
Loading a saved game will result, after about 30s (or sometimes longer),
in a system freeze. The screen freezes, the sound plays (in a loop), after
a few seconds the screen will go black and video output stops. This PC
does not have a reset button, so it has to be power-cycled.

But you still haven't answered my question. When MOHAA freezes, does it
definitely take the system with it? Try the Num lock test I mentioned
before. If the numlock responds, then windows is still working and just the
game has crashed.

Just another idea to try - Have you tried running the game in compatibility
mode? Try launching it in Win98 compatibility. Just to see what happens!

 

[Grumps]

But you still haven't answered my question. When MOHAA freezes, does
it definitely take the system with it? Try the Num lock test I
mentioned before. If the numlock responds, then windows is still
working and just the game has crashed.

No response to numlock.

Just another idea to try - Have you tried running the game in
compatibility mode? Try launching it in Win98 compatibility. Just to
see what happens!

Yes. Exactly the same.

 

[dynax]

"kony" (e-mail address removed) wrote in message
-
"Grumps" (e-mail address removed) wrote in message
"kony" (e-mail address removed) wrote in message
-

trimmed
-
Also search and ask about possible solutions in
gaming forums. I don't know if that developer has their own
(web) forum but that would be one of the first places to
start looking and asking.

Thanks. I'll give that a try.-

Wow! There are so many people having issues (or had issues) wit
MOH:AA.
One comment on a forum gave a new atioglxx.dll file that should b
placed
in
the game's root. This has been mentioned in this thread too. So
thought
I'd give that a try.

Now, this PC's windows\system32 has atioglx2.dll and opengl32.dll, bu
no
ati*.dll in the game's root.
I put this old atioglxx.dll in the game's root, and (just to be sure)
renamed the windows\system32 relevant dlls so they wouldn't be found
I
noticed that opengl32.dll cannot be deleted; well, you can delete it
but
it
comes right back!-

To do this effectively you can either temporarily disable
windows file protection, or the easier way is before you
delete or rename the file you want to be rid of, first put
the old file in the system32/dllcache folder, which is where
windows first looks for a backup copy of the file it's
restoring, so having replaced the file there you can delete
the \system32 file and it'll copy the older one you want.-

Ah, thanks. I saw a file copy in the dllcache folder. Wondered wha
that was
for.
-
However I'm not clear about why you need to hide the files
in the system32 folder at all, wasn't the point of putting
the driver file in the game root folder such that it
wouldn't need to be changed elsewhere?-

That's correct, but it was obvious that the file in the game's roo
folder
was not being used. So this was my attempt to hide the win\sys32 file
to
force the game to use its root dll.

Guys, I've got the same problem. Three days ago I bought myself a H
3870, and COD4, BF2, TDU, are all runing fine, but MOHAA isn't!

I've tried several things:

I installed catalyst 7.11, 7.12, 8.1 and the Omega drivers. But stil
it isn't working. Then I made some steps from another forum, but i
didn't work for me. I've noticed there are a lot of people havin
trouble with the HD3870/HD3850 and MOHAA. I found a thread on ATI'
forum
http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=227&threadid=91477.

I'm getting quite tiered of this. I think it's a conflict between th
HD3870, the Driver and MOHAA, because before the HD3870, I had
X1950XT, and MOHAA worked fine with that card

 

[Grumps]

Guys, I've got the same problem. Three days ago I bought myself a HD
3870, and COD4, BF2, TDU, are all runing fine, but MOHAA isn't!

I've tried several things:

I installed catalyst 7.11, 7.12, 8.1 and the Omega drivers. But still
it isn't working. Then I made some steps from another forum, but it
didn't work for me. I've noticed there are a lot of people having
trouble with the HD3870/HD3850 and MOHAA. I found a thread on ATI's
forum:
http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=227&threadid=91477.

I'm getting quite tiered of this. I think it's a conflict between the
HD3870, the Driver and MOHAA, because before the HD3870, I had a
X1950XT, and MOHAA worked fine with that card.

I knew it wasn't just me, thanks!
EA have suggested several things, but none make any difference.
I think the ball lies in ATI's court. They, so far, haven't given a reply to
my support question (except the automated one).
Still, I can get MOHAA working on my other PC with an ATI 1950, or I could
replace the new 3850 with the old (and crap) nVidia 7300LE.

It's weird that my problem is only after loading a saved game. It's also
confusing as to why only some people have an issue with MOHAA and the 3850.

 

[kony]

I knew it wasn't just me, thanks!
EA have suggested several things, but none make any difference.
I think the ball lies in ATI's court. They, so far, haven't given a reply to
my support question (except the automated one).
Still, I can get MOHAA working on my other PC with an ATI 1950, or I could
replace the new 3850 with the old (and crap) nVidia 7300LE.

It's weird that my problem is only after loading a saved game. It's also
confusing as to why only some people have an issue with MOHAA and the 3850.

Even if there is something about the 3850 driver which is
incompatible with the game, that the game works fine until
something about that game is different by loading a save
point, seems to indicate it is a game problem. If it were
purely a video card problem it seems likely it would result
without having to load a saved game, that the video driver
is a constant while the saved game running is the variable.

 

[Grumps]

Even if there is something about the 3850 driver which is
incompatible with the game, that the game works fine until
something about that game is different by loading a save
point, seems to indicate it is a game problem. If it were
purely a video card problem it seems likely it would result
without having to load a saved game, that the video driver
is a constant while the saved game running is the variable.

This is far too confusing for me!
If it's a game problem, why is it specific to this card? Weird!

EA have said try manually unistalling the game. Which I will do later today.
They've said that this game has never been tested with this card; and I
guess they'll never do it either (old game).
After I suggested that they solve this issue as MOHAA is one of the only
(the only?) WWII fps with an age rating of only 12, they said that EA tech
support have no links with the developers so my suggestion probably won't
result in a devlepment investigation.

I'll also try a complete re-install of XP (I can borrow a new disk from
work), and see what happens.

 

[dynax]

-
I knew it wasn't just me, thanks!
EA have suggested several things, but none make any difference.
I think the ball lies in ATI's court. They, so far, haven't given
reply to
my support question (except the automated one).
Still, I can get MOHAA working on my other PC with an ATI 1950, or
could
replace the new 3850 with the old (and crap) nVidia 7300LE.

It's weird that my problem is only after loading a saved game. It'
also
confusing as to why only some people have an issue with MOHAA and th
3850.
-

Even if there is something about the 3850 driver which is
incompatible with the game, that the game works fine until
something about that game is different by loading a save
point, seems to indicate it is a game problem. If it were
purely a video card problem it seems likely it would result
without having to load a saved game, that the video driver
is a constant while the saved game running is the variable.

For me it's not only when I open a save.file, I only play this gam
online, so if I play online the game crashes after about 30 seconds t
2 minutes. I think it's a driver problem.

BTW: I'm going to send back my 3870, and get a nVidia 8800GS for it

 

[Sleepy]

This is far too confusing for me!
If it's a game problem, why is it specific to this card? Weird!

EA have said try manually unistalling the game. Which I will do later
today. They've said that this game has never been tested with this card;
and I guess they'll never do it either (old game).
After I suggested that they solve this issue as MOHAA is one of the only
(the only?) WWII fps with an age rating of only 12, they said that EA tech
support have no links with the developers so my suggestion probably won't
result in a devlepment investigation.

I'll also try a complete re-install of XP (I can borrow a new disk from
work), and see what happens.

Not sure if this has been mentioned but do you have the game installed to
the default location?
There have been games that don't behave well when not installed in the usual
C:\Program Files\ etc ....
i.e on a D drive or suchlike. Patches dont find the game .... savegames
arent stored in the right place etc...
its poor programming but has been known to happen.

 

[kony]

For me it's not only when I open a save.file, I only play this game
online, so if I play online the game crashes after about 30 seconds to
2 minutes. I think it's a driver problem.

BTW: I'm going to send back my 3870, and get a nVidia 8800GS for it.

It could be a driver problem for you, it's not as though
there could only be one type of problem that crashes a game,
it could even be a specific specimen of video card with bad
memory or overheating, or OS settings, PSU, etc.

I hate to crap on ATI drivers but I would do as you are and
get an nVidia card as I prefer their drivers, but even if it
works after that it doesn't necessarily mean the fault was
in the ATI driver, rather than the game. Games often have
quirks that require patches for certain video cards, though
usually the patch covers all the issues they resolved up
till that point not just suport for a new card.

 

[Grumps]

Not sure if this has been mentioned but do you have the game
installed to the default location?
There have been games that don't behave well when not installed in
the usual C:\Program Files\ etc ....
i.e on a D drive or suchlike. Patches dont find the game ....
savegames arent stored in the right place etc...
its poor programming but has been known to happen.

Yep, it's in the default location. But it was worth pointing out, thanks.