Crashes to desktop while optimizing shaders

[Mr_Patton]

Hello gents, I have a small but annoying problem I hope you can help with.

I've been trying to re-install BF2 after a period of inactivity and have failed at every attempt. Often the patch will fail or some other problem will occur.

Anyhow, I've just installed it again and successfully applied the new 1.3 patch. My problem now is one I experienced earlier with 1.22:

When I try to join a game, singleplayer or multi, the game will crash to desktop while optimizing shaders. It always crashes while on the "animations" portion. I get no error message to accompany it.

Solutions I've tried: I went into the documents folder and deleted the contents of the BF2 cache to force it to re-optimize, which did not fix it. I lowered video settings severely, which did not fix it. I've double-checked that my firewall has an exception for the game and that my PowerISO program was disabled in case there's some sort of auto-detect issue.

Anyhow, I'm rather frustrated - the game used to work fine. If you can offer any ideas, I'd be grateful. If it helps, here are my specs:

AMD Athlon XP 2600+
1GB RAM
Radeon 9600 All-in-wonder (latest Catalyst installed)
NVIDIA Nforce Audio
Latest drivers for all of the above

I know the Radeon 9600 isn't that great, but the game did play before.

Thanks again.

Update: I've just uninstalled my Catalyst drivers, since they are pretty much useless on a computer as underpowered as mine, and it fixed the problem a bit.

Now, instead of crashing on animations, it crashes an additional 1/3 of the way down the bar at Geometries.

[Get ShoRTy]

Re: Crashes to desktop while optimizing shaders

Clean out your cache files

[Mr_Patton]

Re: Crashes to desktop while optimizing shaders

I've already tried that. I think it's something to do with my drivers.

I just received a "Sanity" error of all things claiming a block wasn't sane.
I'm about to resign myself to the fact that BF2 will never work again.

Alright, I tried the cache files again. Now it crashes 10% sooner along the bar. I got another sanity error - it reads:

BF2 Memory Error
Memory.dll: sanity check: block size -86398424 (3272.07MB) doesn't seem sane.

It's like the game is making up errors and throwing them at me now.

Any ideas?

Update: I reinstalled for the umpteenth time, since each time I try that the problem becomes different. I played the vanilla game with no patch and it optimized fine. Then I applied the 1.3 patch which, of course, failed at 8% like it does 50-75% of the time. I've re-downloaded the patch from EA countless times.

This is either the lowest-quality game ever made, or some higher power doesn't want me to play again.

[Get ShoRTy]

Re: Crashes to desktop while optimizing shaders

read post about removing memory and reinstalling. Also clean BF-2 and SF off system, rebout clean install full patch

[Mr_Patton]

Re: Crashes to desktop while optimizing shaders

That didn't show up under search, and I don't have time to read every post on the forum right now.

I completely remove all trace of the game after every failed installation (I don't have SF if that helps). Keep in mind I've been having this problem even after a reformat, and I can't think of anything more curative than one of those.

If you can point me towards this memory post, I'll read what it says. I doubt if it will help though, because the issue seems to be with the shaders - when I manage to patch successfully, it's always a crash during optimization (and only after I apply a patch).

Does anyone else have any experience with shader-specific problems?

[wootoow]

Re: Crashes to desktop while optimizing shaders

Since you seem to be at your wits end, give this a try. Reinstall like you have so many times before but dont install the 1.3 patch just yet. Start the game and let it optimize the shaders(you said it worked fine pre 1.3). After its done, exit BF2 and go to your My Documents\Battlefield2\Profiles and copy that profiles folder to your desktop. Now install the 1.3 patch and after its done, copy that profile folder back into your my documents\bf2 folder. This may bypass the optimization process.

Good luck and let us know if it works.

[Mr_Patton]

Re: Crashes to desktop while optimizing shaders

I tried that, but I'm afraid it didn't work either.

[Rahman]

Re: Crashes to desktop while optimizing shaders

hello Mr Patton i dont know if this is a coincidence but i have the exact same system as you and i also crash at 62%, optimising shaders - geometries.. and have tried practically everything aswell.