Bad Crashes, Please Help!

TSRBradG

Hello Wendigo ,

In addition to removing the ram as phi sugggests, just on a hunch, uninstall AVG for a test and let me know is anything changes.

**Wendigo**

Uninstalled AVG. Didn't help.

I downloaded a memory test utility and ran it overnight to test my RAM. No errors came up. I'm trying the thing with pulling the DIMMs now, but assuming that the test was accurate and my RAM isn't bad, what else could it be?

The errors I get nowadays are quite odd. The game will run fine for 30 minutes, or even an hour, but eventually, either while I'm just randomly running around or if I try to use a hardline to teleport or am forced to reconstruct I get a tasty blue screen of death. It says it's caused by my video card driver attempting to write to read-only memory. Dubya Tee Eff?

**Wendigo**

Update: I've tried the DIMM swapping thing with dubious results.

The first time, I crashed the same way I have been, this time attempting to access a construct.

On the second pass, I locked up jacking in from the Hardline. No BSOD, the game just became totally unresponsive.

I'm very confused and I'm starting to go through MxO withdrawal. Could BOTH sticks really be bad even though they pass every test I can find to run them through?

**TheEx** · 03/10/2007 09:15:58

You know, amidst the hardware talent that runs rampant in these forums, I feel almost silly trying to help out, but here I go anyways. Its a long shot, but there is an old shool trick you can try if the problem is indeed to do with your RAM. Though this will probably not yeild you much of a result at all, you may be having a contact problem, if the RAM itself seemes intact (no burn marks or scoring) then the contacts may be gummed up, the best way I know of to clean them up is to run a pencil eraser over the contact strips (the little brass/copper keys that fit into the RAM slots). Not that I expect that to actually help you out, but I didn't see it mentioned so I thought I'd throw it out there. Sometimes all a machine needs is a thorough cleaning (though likely that is no the source of your issue).

On a much more likely note, I have in the past worked on machines that have had the same shady results from RAM tests. Though I've only seen it in laptops, one or more of the RAM sticks may be bad, even if they pass the tests, unfortunately the tests themselves sometimes (depending on the tests and the situations) check for different things to test the RAM's functional operation. Best bet, is if you have a spare machine lying around with enough RAM in it to play MxO you might try swapping it out and testing the game then. There is also a possible, however highly unlikely, chance that the RAM sockets on your mother board have a problem...but that is pretty unlikely I would think.

**NOTE**

Before ever attempting to even touch anything inside your machine remember to discharge any static electricity you might have on you, a simple way to do this is to simply keep in contact with the metal frame of your machine though that can be tricky if you have to use both hands or maneuver yourself oddly to get at the machine.

**NOTE**

**jeffers**

Could possibly be the case, RAM testing I haven't gone into to much so will have to pass on giving a definitive answer.

One other random thing to try, although I very much doubt it will make any difference, but will be interesting to see in any case but I suspect Phi/BradG are going down the right route. If you load dxdiag up and click on the sound tab and try lowering the hardware acceleration to none and load the game and test that. If you can play without crashes, try increasing it to low an test that and repeat to see if it makes any difference. If of course it makes no difference at all, then just put it back up to full and hopefully wait for the next response from BradG/Phi.

Jeffers

**Wendigo**

Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse...

I was having a bit of success with my RAM swapping project; I had gotten the game to run (albeit with monstrous lag) with one of my two 512 MB memory sticks in. Though my system locked up at jack in a couple of times, I hadn't experienced any of the BSOD crashes I was getting before. I was strolling along headed for a hardline, when suddenly BSOD.

Upon reboot, I now get the message "Loading PBR for descriptor 2...done" then on the next line "Bad PBR". I know enough about computers to know this is really bad. Ive run all of the diagnostics from the Dell utility Partition, and everything passes, but I can't get the machine to boot.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!

**jeffers**

Looks that it might need you to restore your computer and losing all your data.

Firstly though, just make sure that you have reseated all the RAM correctly in your computer again.

Otherwise, I'd take a look at the notes here unless Phi or BradG or anyone else has any other suggestions.

Jeffers

**Wendigo**

A pox on Dell and all their kin!

I've got the PBR thing fixed, but I'm so freakin' scared to even try MxO again. There's no chance of me missing the anniversary event, so what else can I do without risking total failure again?

**phi**

PBR errors = Can't load Primary Boot Record

Bad news. You want to replace your RAM and HDD ASAP as the RAM is faulty and the HDD is egtting boot sector errors. It might be time to consider that upgrade.

**Wendigo**

New RAM and HDD are here! SMILEY

Two crashes in the last hour! SMILEY

Pretty stumped, please help me. I'll repost my diag info in a bit.

Xintax

Wendigo wrote:

New RAM and HDD are here!

Two crashes in the last hour!

Pretty stumped, please help me. I'll repost my diag info in a bit.

hmm yeah i was already wondering where you went =\

**Wendigo** · 03/22/2007 03:54:55

It seems the crashes are getting more consistent at least. Let's narrow this down.

It always seems to be after I've been in-game for a short period of time (10-15 minutes).
The most frequent cause is attempting to use a hardline or an Archivist.
The process is always the same: First the sound makes a weird crackling noise, then goes into a loop of whatever sound it was. The screen then goes black, and comes back as a BSOD. The error message is that an attempt was made to write to read-only memory. The guilty party is nv4_disp.dll - my video card driver.

So we know it's not bad hardware now, so what the hell is going on? Remember, I didn't change anything when all of this started, I just went from being able to play for as long as I want, to total repeated failure.

Here are the updated spec files: MSINFO DXDIAG

**jeffers**

I'm not sure what else to suggest, it's stumping me completely.

Had another dive through the Dell website for your computer and notice there's an updated driver for your sound card on it, but then there's a more upto date version on the creative website also.

Maybe download those and give them a shot see if they make any difference, I'll keep thinking though.

Jeffers

**Wendigo**

Old drivers FTW!!!

I pulled out the oldest video card driver I could find and just enjoyed my first crash-free MxO experience in months. Thanks to all who chimed in to help!

**jeffers**

Glad it's sorted (at last!) SMILEY

Jeffers