Random Freeze Ups

[cyid]

Ok, I am having problems with BF2. BF2 will randomly freeze up for 10-30 seconds at a time. Sometimes back to back and sometimes it will not do it for 20 minutes.

Here are some things I have tried.
Deleted cache
Updated all drivers
Tried a few older NVidia drivers (66.93, 77.73 and 77.77 are the ones I tried)
Turned down all graphics settings to medium and then low
Turned Sound settings to hardware, low and EAX off


I get no graphics lag while playing. Even in big battles. The freeze ups seem to happen randomly. I thought it may have had something to do with the artillery strikes, but it seems to happen even when there are none going on. I thought it may have been a sound issue. But it once froze while I was reloading, the reloading sounds finished while I was froze and they did not repeat or get "stuck".

This WinXP install is only 3 weeks old and I have the bare minimal on it. I mostly just use it for games so that is all that is really installed. Below are the spec's of my computer. Thanks for the help.


-------- Computer specs --------

Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional 5.1.2600 (WinXP Retail)
OS Service Pack Service Pack 2
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)

Motherboard:
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4 640, 3200 MHz (16 x 200)
Motherboard Name ECS PF21 Extreme (3 PCI, 2 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Dual LAN, IEEE-1394)
Motherboard Chipset Intel Alderwood i925XE
System Memory 1024 MB (DDR2-533 DDR2 SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award (12/16/04)

Display:
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT (128 MB)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT PCI-E
Monitor Dell M991 [19" CRT] (5C54417BH2L7)

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter Intel 82801FB ICH6 - High Definition Audio Controller [B-2]

Storage:
IDE Controller Intel(R) 82801FB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 2652
IDE Controller Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 266F
SCSI/RAID Controller D347PRT SCSI Controller
SCSI/RAID Controller SiS 180/181 RAID Controller
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive WDC AC35100L (4 GB, IDE)
Disk Drive WDC WD74 0GD-00FLA1 SCSI Disk Device (74 GB, 10000 RPM, SATA)
Optical Drive Generic DVD-ROM SCSI CdRom Device
Optical Drive SONY CD-RW CRX230ED SCSI CdRom Device (52x/32x/52x CD-RW)
SMART Hard Disks Status OK

------------------

My sound card is actually a C-Media 9880 (CMI 9880)
3D Audio Engine: Xear3D CRL3d DS3D EAX2.0 A3D1.0

[kewl e-man]

have u tried uninstalling and reinstalling?

[DrunkenPirate]

My senses tingle with either PSU troubles or perhaps temperature issues.
What PSU are you using.

[bisley]

If you know someone with a sound card ask for a loan to test in ya rig , this might be something to do with your on-board sound chip .

[Sniper_13]

wow alot of people are having these problems. i dont know why i reformated my whole PC and still it did that. might be server related issues just wait for the patch.

[P3teR]

Don't think has nothing to do with the pc but more with how badly this game was coded cos the game also runs fine and perfect for me but every now and again get a freeze for few secs.

[cyid]

Rosewill RP550 ATX 550W Power Supply is what I am using for power.

I am not havig any overheating trouble that I know of, I have my PC setup to warn me if my CPU or GPU goes over a certain temp. Of course, I have no clue about my memory or PSU (If PSU's can over heat?)

I will ask for a sound card today and I will try a reinstall. Should I delete the BF 2 folder in My Docs after I uninstall as well? I think I will do it anyways. I do not see why a reinstall would fix it.. but right now I am willing to try anything.

[cyid]

Re: Random Freeze Ups

I tried disabling my onboard soundcard in my bios and then tried playing.. It still freezes. Also, it seems everytime an artillery strike is called I freeze up. Not sure if it is everytime or if this is the only time it freezes. For it has froze when my team has not called a strike. But maybe the other team was calling one.

[DakotaDoc64]

Re: Random Freeze Ups

Don't think has nothing to do with the pc but more with how badly this game was coded cos the game also runs fine and perfect for me but every now and again get a freeze for few secs.

Just my 2 cents. I don't believe it is necessarily the code of the game. However it is far from perfect. I believe it is PunkBuster. I have had severe problems with PB and (Evenbalance is little help) with my RAID controller. Even though I am using the the newest drivers that are WHQL certified.

My fix was to move the game off my RAID controller/drives (Built into the motherboard) and re-install in a normal EIDE drive. Then disable my RAID controller in bios. Now I no longer have crashing and most stuttering problems are gone. However I have longer load and verify times to get into the game. My RAID controller had no problems with BF2 or PB till 20th of July. I changed no hardware or software then all of a sudden when Evenbalance pushed out an update that evening I have had blue screen crashes. The crashes mostly happened shortly after spawn. If I was lucky enough not to have a crash I would have unplayable lag for 1 minute then everything would be O.K.

I have ordered a new RAID controller card in hopes it will have better drivers that will work well with PB so I may get me my speed back. It is due in today from NewEgg. :)

[cyid]

Re: Random Freeze Ups

Bleh.. I really do not want to move BF2 off of my SATA drive.. kind of a waste to buy a fast HD then not use it.

I also reinstalled BF2 and it was working fine for a whole map, then I started to get the freeze ups again.

*Edit
I will look into the PB thing tho

[cyid]

Re: Random Freeze Ups

Well, I loaded up BF2 and connected to a server that was not running PB. After 5 maps I had not frozen up once.

I then connected to a PB server and I got a bunch of freeze ups. So I believe PB is the problem. They also have a section in there BF2 FAQ about these freeze ups. None of the stuff there worked.. so I logged a ticket.. Anyone have any other ideas?