Freezing and repeated sound

[The Laughing Man]

Re: Freezing and repeated sound

I've dumped V2.02 of Rivatuner and have updated to V2.05 have selected the options that are designed for Punkbuster during install and will try it out to see if it works tonight.

[godismyhomie]

Re: Freezing and repeated sound

I have been having the exact same problem. it has only just started happenning on my new computer, although it is much better than my old one.

I had already tried all the stuff listed in this thread before I found it but thought I'd contribute.

The only thing I can see that could be the cause, that hasnt already been said is a possible hardware conflict. I noticed that both myself and the topic creator have an X1950 graphics card (I have an X1950Pro). Is it possible that these could be linked to the crashes?

I have gone through every possible solution, and so far nothing has helped.
Since it started happening I have:
-reformatted (+ a new drive)
-updated drivers
-updated punkbuster
-regular virus/spyware scans
-not had Bioshock or Rivatuner installed, Xfire hasnt been running
-checked temps, no problems there

Hope we can all find a solution soon

[godismyhomie]

Re: Freezing and repeated sound

OK... I think the problem is caused by a software conflict.

I killed as many backgound processes as possible before I started playing, and YAY, no crashes I have played for hours today and its been smooth as anything :)

I havent had time to narrow down exactly what it was but some of the processes I killed were:

ATI Tool
AVG Processes
Fraps
Xfire

...and probably more.

Hope this helps :)

[OminousLull]

Re: Freezing and repeated sound

I've been trying to fix this for a month or two. It's not a hardware or overheating issue.
I'm leaning towards software conflict.

I have NVIDIA card so you can eliminate ATI Tool.
I don't use Fraps.

But I do use XFire and I have AVG. I quit the AVG control panel before I play, but several AVG processes continue. Let's get this figured out!

scottaii was also using XFire, could be the conflict.

[OminousLull]

Re: Freezing and repeated sound

For me I belive it was AVG causing the issues, probably a conflict with Punkbuster. I've been disabling all AVG processes in Task Manager before playing and no freezes after 2 nights of play. XFire was still running with voice chat, no problems.

[godismyhomie]

The AVG conflict sounds like the best bet. Disabling only the AVG processes worked for me too. :)

[The Laughing Man]

Well updating to the new Rivatuner solved the issue for me 10 days since my last post and not one crash so it's all good for me now.

[OminousLull]

The AVG conflict sounds like the best bet. Disabling only the AVG processes worked for me too. :)

Thanks for the work on narrowing this problem down, nobody has been able to come up with an answer for months.

I believe Punkbuster is causing the conflict with programs. I tried having Avast on during BF2 and I didn't have a long freeze or crash, but I did have small 1 sec. freezes that were annoying if I was in a conflict.

So far the only solution is to shut down all anti-virus processes. This is kind of a pain because there are usually 4-6 processes and they don't want to shut down right away. Does anybody know if there is a way to make PB ignore certain programs? Or should I make an exception in Avast to ignore PB?

Here is some info I found on the PB site:

My computer locks up or "chugs" sometimes while I'm playing with PunkBuster Enabled, what can cause this?

PunkBuster "pushes" hardware and the Windows Operating System more than most software and uses functions in the Windows API (low level functions) that aren't used by most other programs. As such, there are a few cases where using PB can actually expose flaky hardware or other situations that don't cause problems for other software. Here are a few things that have helped other users make these problems get better or go away completely:

• Make sure you are using the latest version of PunkBuster (the latest version is always on our Download page) - also this link may help manually update your PB to the latest version when necessary
• From the game's main screen, press the tilde key (the ~ key) to bring down the console and enter the following line (without the quotes): "/pb_system 1".
• Never close other programs from your Windows Task Manager before playing the game, either leave them running or close them through the proper interface - killing a process doesn't always work completely even if it stops showing in the Task Manager and renegade threads seem to conflict with PB more than other programs that may be running in memory. There is a free utility that some players use called EndItAll to close all extra programs before they play to avoid software conflicts, crashes and lockups. (No longer free)
• Check the add/remove programs list in your Control Panel and uninstall any programs that you don't use or that you don't know what they are.
• One program that seems to conflict with PB more than others is Norton Anti-Virus. If you have it installed, try uninstalling it to see if the lockups go away. Some players have reported that when this is the culprit, they can reinstall Norton Anti-Virus and the lockups don't come back.
• Other background programs that seem to conflict with PB for some users are Sound Blaster Live software and helper programs that come with video cards (especially ATI keyboard shortcut programs).
• Some players discovered that they had a computer virus and that the lockups vanished after it was fully removed.
• Experiment with the pb_sleep setting ... try setting it to 20, 250, or 500 to see if that affects your game performance. A few players have reported that all the problems go away when they "tweak" this setting.
• In extreme cases, a few users have reported that replacing their RAM (memory) or video/sound cards fixed the problem.

They say don't close programs through Task Manager, I have found if I close them through the program there can be several processes still running. Then I have to go to Task Manager and shut them down and make sure they are not in the list or they will cause chugs and freezes.

[snipers]

I have this repeating sound while freeze in both my XP and vista installs. Change my complete setup. RAMs, mono, graphic card (and ob sound), but still problem occationally occurs. Don't know what else to try.Sometimes it happens in every single round i try, sometimes it doesn't bother me for days.

HELP! Should i try a PCI sound card?

[snipers]

MERCY GOD!

I change all the hardware with bran new.....Fresh install of XP sp2 pro, latest drivers for all components. Fresh install of bf2 with 1.42 patch.

Played happily until FREEZE stroke AGAIN!!!

What in the hell is causing this thing? I changed the whole PC damn it!