BF2 freezing up after 15 minutes of play

[Berrern]

I have recently started experiencing a problem with my BF2 installation - after playing for about 15-20 minutes, the game just locks up. What happens exactly is that the picture freezes, and the sounds before the lock-up keeps looping over and over.Sometimes the picture (and sound) advances one frame, just to lock up again.

There's no way of getting out of this - I have to hit the reset button on the computer...

It is ONLY BF2 hanging, because I can still talk in Teamspeak like normal.

This suddenly started about 1-2 weeks ago. I didn't install or update anything, it just suddenly started happening.

Does anyone have any clues as to what can be causing this?

PS - I formatted about 6 weeks ago, and my computer is clean of virus and spyware.

[AmericanDad]

Re: BF2 freezing up after 15 minutes of play

the first thing to do is to uninstall bf2, reinstall and repatch. Often you don't find the exact cause of the problem but that usually gets rid of it.

If that doesn't solve the problem we can start troubleshooting your hardware but try a clean reinstall first.

[Berrern]

Re: BF2 freezing up after 15 minutes of play

After a reinstall didn't fix the problem, I re-formatted my whole computer.

Installed and patched WinXP x64, installed the old drivers for my MB and GFX cards (the drivers I had back when everything was working), as well as the X-Fi drivers.

Installed and patched BF2, started up again, and after about 6 minutes - it froze

Played some more, and after about 20 minutes it froze again - but this time it "un-froze" itself after about 10 secs.

10 minutes later or so, it froze again

[AmericanDad]

Re: BF2 freezing up after 15 minutes of play

do you use the EA downloader to play?

[[Expletive Deleted]]

Re: BF2 freezing up after 15 minutes of play

I once had pretty much the same motherboard and sound card combo you have right now. I got this problem, and crackling and popping sounds, fairly often back then. I was using XP, but nothing really helped until I got a new motherboard.
Do you have one of the original Fatal1tys? Or a newer one? I got mine about a month after they came out. A newer revision was supposed to fix it. They updated the firmware and I think they put heat sinks on the XRAM, which only BF2 seems to even use which I guess is why it's just about the only game in which anyone has had this problem.

You could see if there is an updated BIOS for your motherboard, and some people reported some improvement after changing their PCI latency settings and/or moving their X-Fi to a different PCI slot.

[Berrern]

Re: BF2 freezing up after 15 minutes of play

do you use the EA downloader to play?

No. Installed the game off the original disc. EA Downloader isn't even installed.

Do you have one of the original Fatal1tys?

I have one of the original ones - bought it right when they were released. I too had initial problems with my X-Fi card, but never the popping/crackling issue that so many nF4 + X-Fi users experienced. Either way - I fixed my X-Fi problem years ago by updating BF2s OpenAL driver.

BF2 has worked flawlessly for years with my system, and suddenly one day it started showing this problem. From one day to the next - and I didn't install any new hardware or updated drivers.

Seeing as the problem persists after a full re-format (using the drivers I've used for years, they've always worked perfectly), I can only think of a few possible reasons:
1. Faulty hardware - perhaps something in my computer is starting to struggle due to age or whatnot?

2. Overheating - This is not an issue though, I have a cold case with temp gauges on everything, and the load temps are far from excessive...

3. Windows Update. Actually, this is the only thing I can think of - because between the period when BF was working and stopped working, the only change in my computer were the automatic Windows Updates.
Also, after formatting, I installed all the Windows Updates again.
However, I've never ever had any problems with Windows Updates before, so I find this very unlikely.

In short - I'm lost

[AmericanDad]

Re: BF2 freezing up after 15 minutes of play

it looks like you got a hardware problem, if a clean reinstall on a formatted drive doesn't solve the problem..... and you're sure bf2 is compatible with a 64-bit OS?

i guess now you have to borrow a friend's computer and start swapping parts one by one until you find the component that is faulty. I have dell diagnosticsc in the bios that tells me if the hardware is bad (and it actually works - it detected my HD was dead just in time for me to backup everything), maybe you have a similar thing you could run?

[Berrern]

Re: BF2 freezing up after 15 minutes of play

Well, yes, BF is compatible. When installing it, however, a message box pops up saying: "Warning: This game has only been tested on WinXP 32-bit".

It has worked flawlessly for years though.

Ouch, what you posted is certainly a lot of work (been there before)!
But if it was a hardware-problem, isn't it weird that it only happens in BF2? I mean, it's only BF2 itself that locks up - Teamspeak (push to talk) still works...

Well, if I can't figure it out, I guess the part-by-part test thingy is the best viable option... Don't think I know anyone who still has a Socket A mobo though - they've all gone duo core on me by now!

Cheers for your input!

[Berrern]

Re: BF2 freezing up after 15 minutes of play

Found a thread where some other users are having the same problem:
http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/222258.page

Doesn't really shed any light on the problem though, does it!

[AmericanDad]

Re: BF2 freezing up after 15 minutes of play

i guess you could first try running without the SLI setup, just use one card and see what happens. My instinct says your graphics cards have a fault.

[Natt]

Re: BF2 freezing up after 15 minutes of play

Install the latest version of the AMD dual core optimizer.
Install pbsvc and pbsetup to update punkbuster.
Run the game with VOIP disabled.

[Berrern]

Re: BF2 freezing up after 15 minutes of play

Install the latest version of the AMD dual core optimizer.
Install pbsvc and pbsetup to update punkbuster.
Run the game with VOIP disabled.

I have a Single Core CPU, so that dual core optimizer wouldn't do any good, or?

As for Punkbuster, I've fully updated it already.

I'll give it a crack playing without VOIP, and also try to disable SLi.

Cheers lads :)

[AmericanDad]

Re: BF2 freezing up after 15 minutes of play

so , any luck yet?

[Berrern]

Re: BF2 freezing up after 15 minutes of play

I did find the problem in the end...

The stock fan on one of my graphic cards has simply stopped working. The card has overheated so much that it has melted the plastic on the temperature gauge I use, causing it to stop working (hence, not giving me a warning).

The core temperature in idle is 81 degrees!!!

So I've found a makeshift solution, I've opened the side door to the computer and have pointed a big industrial fan (the ones you use to cool a large room) right into the computer. At least now I can play 15-20 rounds before it eventually overheats.

Have to buy a new GPU fan... The problem is that the space between the two cards (where the fan has to fit) is no more than 35 mm... It's really difficult to find a proper cooler that small