Lugaru locks up at random times

Person99 · Post by **Person99** » Tue May 22, 2007 9:59 pm

My basic problem is that at any time, while running, attacking, or even loading, Lugaru will just stop completely, and lock up my computer, requiring me to restart.

I checked the troubleshooting and did what it said, and tried again, I get about 5-15 minutes game time, then the screen goes black and my computer freezes.

Lugaru is the only game that does this.
I am running on Lugaru v1.6 (I think)

Here are my computer specs:
Video card: ATI Radeon 9700 pro.
OS: Windows 2000 Professional.
Ram: 512 MB DDR
Sound Card: Whatever my built in is
Processor: 2200+ AMD Sempron

Also, I am not sure if Lugaru is supposed to do this or not, but Lugaru remembers how many challenges I have completed, but every time I restart the game, my campaign is completely reset to the first level.
Since I can't beat the game in 15 minutes, this is a problem.
Edit - Ah, Lugaru only saves on exit, not freeze.

Can anyone help me fix this?

rudel_ic · Post by **rudel_ic** » Tue May 22, 2007 10:31 pm

Before you do anything else, please upgrade all your drivers. This may help with video card overheat issues (further discussed below).

Please turn on the bluescreen feature of Windows. I don't remember how exactly that is done in Win2000, but it should be "Properties" of your "My Computer" icon on the desktop, then some of the later tabs ("Advanced"?). There's an option to immediately reboot on failure; deactivate it.

You will then get a bluescreen next time the computer freezes. Post the failure code here. It should be something like IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, STOP 0x0000000A and similar. Check this example to understand what is interesting for further analysis: http://cdk.windowspage.net/forum/FAQmws/bsodxp0a.gif

Aaaanyway.

There are two possibilities that I immediately think of reading your post:

Experience wrote: 1

Your memory may be corrupt.

Download the "ISO image suitable for creating a bootable Memtest86 CD-ROM" here.

Burn the ISO image with a CD burning tool that can burn ISO images.

Setup your BIOS to boot from CDROM.

Boot your computer with the CD in the tray that is configured to boot.

Let all the tests run at least once. If you get errors, your memory seems to be corrupt. This is only fixable by replacing the corrupt memory module.

Experience wrote: 2

Your video card or your CPU may overheat.

Play the game till the computer freezes, then reboot into the BIOS and check the CPU temperature.

If it's below 85 degrees Celsius, then the CPU is okay.

Check the video card temperature with a tool from your manufacturer - go to their site and download the fitting tool.

If the CPU overheats, throttle it down. If the video card overheats, contact ATI support.

Person99 · Post by **Person99** » Tue May 22, 2007 11:16 pm

Well, I have the latest version of my drivers.
I turned on blue-screen mode, and played lugaru, and after about 10 minutes, it froze.

As a video card heating test, I played Sauerbraten in windowed mode in a high-detailed level with every option I could turn on, and watched my video card temperature.

I noticed nomatter what I did, it stays at exactly 70 degrees F.

So I opened my computer case, discharged the static off my fingers on a piece of metal, and felt my video card (Because there is no way doing all of that would make it exactly 70 degrees F)...

I found the problem when my video card literally burned skin off of my fingers.

It has to be at least 200 degrees F.

Maybe 90 degrees C would fit.

I think that something in Lugaru is keeping my motherboard from turning into a biscuit by freezing.

I have the latest version of my drivers, my room stays around 65-85 degrees F.
Can anyone help me keep my video card from burning a hole in the wall?

Post by **David** » Wed May 23, 2007 12:13 am

Is the fan working?

rudel_ic · Post by **rudel_ic** » Wed May 23, 2007 1:04 am

That's a problem that occurs with newer graphics cards. The drivers really go to the edge when you don't cap the framerate, thus, the gfx card tries to reach the max fps and overheats. A way around this would be turning on VBL Sync in the config.txt. In the line after "VBL Sync:" in the config.txt file in the folder Data, replace the 0 with a 1 in notepad.

Refer to this post.

David wrote: VBL (vertical blanking line) sync may actually make it slower; you may be thinking of VBO (vertex buffer objects). VBL synchronization basically caps your fps at a factor of the monitor refresh rate to prevent "tearing" (displaying the display buffer while it is between frames). VBL sync will make it appear smoother if you have a higher fps than your refresh rate, but otherwise it may make it run slower.

I read about this general issue in a Lessons Learned on gamasutra, btw.

Edit: Yeah, here it is - Postmortem: Stardock's Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords (Page 3)

Brad Wardell wrote: What went wrong:
[...]
Because we focused so much on working on older, slower machines we missed the group of users who were buying the latest/greatest 3D cards and putting them into their existing computers which weren't well ventilated enough to deal with the GPU getting hot. If we had, the game would have had GPU throttling built in and a lot of problems fixed. For non-developers reading this, GPU throttling doesn't slow down the game, it just puts a sleep(10) call between frames if the frame rate is getting ridiculously high. GPU throttling has no negative on performance. It just keeps the card cooler.

Person99 · Post by **Person99** » Wed May 23, 2007 7:22 pm

Ah, thanks.

This just happened to me on Doom 3 too, but V-Sync fixed the problem for me on Doom 3.

Anyway...

Does anyone know of any good German translators? My screen's brightness is off, and Babelfish keeps telling me that the first menu item for my monitor is "Sushi beer", it translates the second option fine to "Degauss", but the other 10 are more stuff like "Sushi beer" and "Flirt", and another word I might get in trouble for saying...

And no, I found my way to Languages, and all I have are German, some middle-eastern languages, French (Which also sucks in Babelfish), and Chinese.

I don't really want to change my moniter's face, flirt, sushi beer, image, dollar, or things like that without knowing what they REALLY mean.

EDIT:

It pulled it on me again even with VB sync on.

Silb · Post by **Silb** » Wed May 23, 2007 7:48 pm

Your hero, Rudel_ic, is also a native German speaker! You can ask him.

Alternatively, try an online dictionary rather than Babelfish.

Alternatively, brightness should be Helligkeit (?), or luminosité in French.

Alternatively, you could just try sushi beers and flirts, they're not going to fry your monitor.

Usagi · Post by **Usagi** » Wed May 23, 2007 9:08 pm

The best sushi beer is Kirin Ichiban. But I wouldn't want it in my monitor.

Person99 · Post by **Person99** » Wed May 23, 2007 10:37 pm

Brightness on my monitor is fixed, thanks!

I found the problem - As it turns out, since my video card was made upside down (ATI Radeon 9700 thing???), the fan was sucking the dust off of my wireless card which was directly below it. So I just moved the wireless card down a slot, and now my video card is only hot enough to melt half of mars or turn my finger into a dusty stick.

Before, my video card could have worked as a secondary sun, and could have easily melted Venus and Mars at the same time.

Well, thanks for your guy's help!

As a test, I am going to play Lugaru and make a new campaign for myself.

I beat the original, I went through the Alpha Wolf and everything without any trouble.

Not even a VPU not responding warning.

Zantalos · Post by **Zantalos** » Wed May 23, 2007 10:44 pm

Cool, now you can play Silb's Sven campaign. It will blow your mind like so many mind bullets.

And do you guys have some kind of sixth sense? That was pretty cool how you guys fixed the problem so fast, I must say.

rudel_ic · Post by **rudel_ic** » Thu May 24, 2007 3:05 am

I see dead people. They're everywhere.

Seriously, overheating hardware is a common issue. In fact, the basic problem that prevents hardware manufacturers from going through the roof with high-performance hardware is heat. Nvidia and ATI tend to ignore that problem though.

Person99, unfortunately, your gfx chips may not last as long as expected now. When hardware overheats, it ages rapidly.

Whenever I get new hardware and put it into my computer, the first thing I do is benchmark it and watch the temperature.

Person99 · Post by **Person99** » Fri May 25, 2007 10:08 pm

I only got an ATI Radeon because all products were on sale at the store I got it at, and I got it because it was the best they had at the time.

I didn't know until a week after that ATI Radeons were not well known for their life span.

Mine has lasted a long time, and I really don't expect it to last any longer.

I am saving up to get a 512mb AGP (Since AGP is all that my computer supports, no PCI Express) ATI Radeon card.

It is a specific one that has around a 3-year life expectancy, instead of a 3 month.

Though it seems to be working okay now, maybe it will last another week?
Then I can use it as a carrot chopper and toast cutter (That automatically burns the toast while cutting the bread!).

And do you guys have some kind of sixth sense? That was pretty cool how you guys fixed the problem so fast, I must say.

Yes, we have a sixth sense.
I call it "Desperation to play Lugaru".

BunnyWithStick · Post by **BunnyWithStick** » Sat May 26, 2007 2:10 am

Are you saying this as if Radeons are bad?

Mine's an ATI Mobility Radeon 9550 and it seems pretty good. Also, it came with the computer. Getting a new graphics card seems less likely than getting a new computer around here.

Person99 · Post by **Person99** » Sun May 27, 2007 11:07 pm

ATI Radeons are very good video cards, always much more powerful then the Nvidia Geforce equals.

However, it is said that ATI Radeons tend to have a small life span, because of overheating.

Mine is working great with a fan blowing on it, and I think that is all an ATI Radeon needs to live, a powerful fan.

I am now beginning to believe that that is the only problem with the ATI Radeon cards is the built-in fan, because with the fan blowing on it, Oblivion (Yes, running on my old computer) is running without lag at all, no strange graphic effects, and I have most of the things turned up.

BunnyWithStick · Post by **BunnyWithStick** » Mon May 28, 2007 6:37 am

Phew, I'm glad that one of the only "New" things in the house is actually new.

And it also supports classic. Very useful.

*runs around in a circle like a fag™*