Help me get Arma2 Running again....

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

Folks, I'm at my wits end here. My Arma2 keeps crashing about every 10min. Sometimes it crashes when I'm flying over a forrest/town. Sometimes it crashes when I turn my head too fast. I updated my nvidia drivers to the latest version, and now I'm getting these triangular "spaces" that flicker on my screen. I can't run/fly/drive for very far before the game stutters out for seconds at a time, and I'm lucky if it doesn't crash. I rolled back the drivers through Windows, and the problem still persists. I've upgraded to Windows7 and now my ping doesn't show up when I'm in the multiplayer screen, but I can still get into the server ok. Here are my specs, as well as my settings. Hopefully somebody can help me fix this problem.

 

Specs.

Windows7 (64bit)

Intel Core2Quad Q9550 @2.83GHz

Memory: 4gb

Nvidia GTX 275 w/2gb memory

 

Nvidia Settings:

Physx turned OFF

 

 

 

Game Settings

 

 

[MH6~SPARTA~]

Trying lowering Video Memory (in-game) to Normal or below and see if it helps.

 

Doing so fixed a lot of crashes I had due to the game trying to use more memory than my video card had.

Edited December 3, 2009 by MH6~SPARTA~

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

Nope, made it less than 5min this time. Had night vision on, did a quick turn in the airdom server, and poof. Something is terribly wrong.

[MH6~SPARTA~]

Nope, made it less than 5min this time. Had night vision on, did a quick turn in the airdom server, and poof. Something is terribly wrong.

 

When exactly did it start doing this? When you upgraded to Win7? When you installed the new Nvidia drivers? When? All your settings are pretty much identical to mine and I rarely crash (though I have a 280 not a 275), so it is probably something external, most likely a driver conflict. You can try running Driver Sweeper and then install an older version of the Nvidia drivers and see if that helps. I'm currently using 8.16.11.9107 (191.07)

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

I can't pinpoint when exactly it started crashing, because it's always crashed quite a bit. I'll just try to reload the drivers and see what happens.

[Floater]

Hi Durka,

How many moniters are u using at the same time?

And Also in your game settings 3 D resolution will proberly need to be turned down as well.

Brightness and Gamma looks a we bit to high, try brightness to 0.6 & Gamma 0.7.

Try also Visibility to 2000.

Another major factor is to see if yr fans have been cleaned & Video Cards to be cleaned, check fan temp.

Good Luck

Regards

Floater.

[T_1]

Sometimes it's an issue with the game, and not your PC, try running a vanilla mission, or fly about in the Editor.

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

haha I went in and downloaded Nvidia monitor, reinstalled the drivers, and I went into the Air Dom server. I literally didn't even touch it for the first 2min and it crashed to desktop.

 

Something's happened, and my Arma2 is completely unplayable.

[MH6~SPARTA~]

That sucks man. A recent change had to have caused it though, 'cause it was working fine a week or so ago wasn't it?

 

Remember, if all else fails you can always reformat.

[Bsilenced]

interface res shows windowed on yours, i had alot of crashes until i made interface and 3d the same.....

 

also find out what you native res is on your card and play with that..

Edited December 4, 2009 by Bsilenced

[Cylawyer~SPARTA~]

uninstall and reinstall Arma2.

[Bsilenced]

ive heard there been alot of problems with the 64 bit try running in compatibility mode xp...

[MH6~SPARTA~]

Oh damn are you running in windowed?

[KalXen~SPARTA~]

I'm on Windows 7 64bit, no issues recently. Maybe 1 crash every 2 weeks now. I am not using the latest Nvidia drivers that just came out. My shortcut parameters are: -nosplash -winxp -maxmem 4096 -window

 

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

I've been running it in full-screen mode this week, and have had the same amount, if not more, problems with crashing. When I'm in full-screen, the interface and 3d are the same.

 

Here's what I have in my target path...

-nosplash -winxp -maxmem=2047 -cpucount=4 -mod=@littlebirds -mod=@at_gui

 

I'm not sure how to run in compatibility mode, but will look it up.

 

The major change that I've made is putting Windows7 on, but it got progressively worse, then this new patch came out and it's terrible. I'm not sure if either are the source though.

[T_1]

The -winxp parameter is the compatibility mode.

 

I would take out the -cpucount=2 switch as well.

 

Get the Alpinestars ArmA2 launches, as you can change all the switches easily.

[Athlon64~SPARTA~]

If your getting triangler looking things flickering, its your vid card over heating, check your vid card temp, check to make sure the heatsinks are fully snaped down on it. Make sure you have a fan blowing right on it. I had that problem once and it was over heating due to heat sink wasen't fully snapped down in a sli set up.

Edited December 4, 2009 by Athlon64~SPARTA~

[IDAN]

i'm running win7, at first i also had crashing problems.

tried all kind of things.

i finally found out it was a grafic cards problem,it overheated

i'm using ati 4870 x2 ,when playing arma the gpu activity reaches 98%,other games like shift or flashpoint

the activity reaches max 40 %

the gpu's temps were over 85c.

i turned up the fun's rpm to 50 % and the problem solved .

now it crashes maybe once a week.

the shapes you're seen on screen could be card's overheating.

[Ebden~SPARTA~]

i finally found out it was a grafic cards problem,it overheated

 

 

I had similar issues. I use Vtune on my Palit 9800 and keep the fan at 100%. In addition to the settings you've changed, disable Anisotropic filtering in-game and turn Shadows from High to Normal. Set both your Interface and 3D resolutions to the same setting (100%, and skip the windowed mode)

 

Do you keep up with your defrags? I found that Arma is brutal toward HD fragmentation. You can get a free demo of Diskeeper to see if it helps.

 

I also have W7 x64 Home Premium. One 'trick' that helped with some of the programs, though I don't know why, is to run them as administrator. Right-click the launcher and 'Run as Administrator' should be near the top.

 

Lastly, perhaps a way to re-approach your graphic settings. Revert the settings to default and only ONE monitor. Turn off PhysX, Force Vsync OFF, and turn pre-rendered frames to 8. This will mimic the Nvidia settings I have for an identical OS, RAM, and a Core2Duo.

 

Also-what about other background programs, wierd firewalls? I had horrid troubles with AVG 9.0 Firewall. I reverted to freeAVG/no firewall, and instant stability boost.

[Donziboy2]

For some reason this game is unstable on my system if i let my GPU get warm (80+ c) if i turn up the fans and keep it under 80c i can play for over an hour before i get a crash, if it gets over 80 it will crash. This is the only game that does it, i can run cod4 at 90c all day long. I believe it might be an issue with the vram getting to hot on the graphics cards, this game swaps alot of information on the cards.

 

 

Also have you tried changing your 3d res, 1676x 1010 seems like an odd res to me. With your vcard you should be able to run at 1900x1200, im running 2 gtx 8800(g92) at 19x12 and i see no difference in FPS, the game seems to have a bottleneck somewhere other then the GPU's themselves on that matter.

Edited December 4, 2009 by Donziboy2

[Floater]

Here is great tool to use and I have no issues with this one from Major Geeks, it is free and recommended to all our Gamers out there.

Here is some info:-

Designed to help optimize your PC for smoother, more responsive game play in the latest PC games with the touch of a button, Game Booster helps achieve the performance edge previously only available to highly technical enthusiasts. It works by temporarily shutting down background processes, cleaning RAM, and intensifying processor performance. That means you can keep all the features of Microsoft® Windows Vista® and XP® ready for when you need them, but turn them off when you are ready to get down to serious business ? gaming. Game Booster makes it simpler to enjoy the latest games and take your experience to a new level. All systems go!

 

The best part. It's 100% free and safe!

 

What's new:

+ Added Win7 support

+ Improved interface

 

here is link :- http://www.majorgeeks.com/Game_Booster_d6148.html

It would be great to get some feed back on this one.......

 

Regards

Floater

[Batwing~SPARTA~]

Hi Durka,

 

Unfortunately pinpointing a problem on a PC is not that simple. Due to to a majority of hardware differences each PC assume a sort of unique personality and behaviour. Today being a PC tech is almost like being a doctor and solutions are coming by a path of tests.

 

First of all Win 7 is a quite different OS, so do not assume what was working on Vista will work on 7. Also 7 has a very stroong internal troubleshooot system and is better trying to have 7 troubleshooting the problem itself before changing commands on the starting line, just assuming they will work.

Once again what is working foor me, doesn necessarely workks for you but u can follow this logical path:

 

BEFORE REINSTALLING THE GAME:

 

1) set your graphic card on a complete default settings - if you modified any setting on the NNvidia control panel, rever to full default

 

2) completely clean youre start path on the shortcut to a totally default one. No -wiinxp, cpucount and other crap, just let iit start plain and simple, no MODs at thhe beginning, full vanilla version

 

3) In game set FULL SCREEN, your 100% resolution, start with a "High" settings on graphic and "default" on video memory - Video memory is quite a controversial parameter, I had bad artifact on my game (black crap on screen), I turned video memoryy on "Very high" and graphic is now excellent

 

4) NOW RUN THE GAME and see what happens.

 

IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS and probably you will..

 

1) Right click on the shoortcut and click on Troubleshooting - The game is working with issues, so chooose the option that will say something like "this program do not install or RUN", then follow the compatibility option Wiin 7 will offer, you can choose between XP sp2 or 3, your choice. During this settings you will berequired to start the game before closing the troubleshooting window usiing a botton on it, go haead and do it, Win 7 need to test the ne config.

Play for a while and see what happens, if you are still haviing major issues,, shut the game and exit the troubleshoooting wiindow, because it cannot help more than that..

 

2) Stilll having artifacts or short crashes, here no one asked you if you are having crashes on any other intensive graphic application. Are you playing any other game? A game that push graphic very hard is GRAW 2, if you have it you could test it. OBJECTIVE would be to see how hot your GPU gets when stressed for 5 minutes at 100%. However, in my experience, when you have a problem on 1 GAME ONLY, that is not temperature but Video Driver issues. DO NOT ASSUME "LATEST DIVERS" MEANS BETTER DRIVERS.

Actually on my Win 7 config (64 bit) I have to run a 3 generation older driver from ATI to have PERFECT performances ( that means a 3 months old driver).

 

3) Solve all of your problems on the Vanilla version first. Do not use any other MOD. Now you can start modifying your shortcut line if you feel it may help. ONLY 1 MODIFICATION AT ONCE, take a note what u did modify and test, if it does not help either remove thhat addition (it didn t help, right?) or continue withh another one, but always one at once and check.

I also found this thhread on the Bohemia support forum, can be interesting for you to read:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=88632

 

IF ANYTHING ELSE WORKS

 

Completely unistall the game, clean registry entries (use CCleaner), then reinstall and restart from step 1 above

 

GOOD LUCK

 

Just for your knowledge, my PC is running Win 7 64, I7 920 @ 3.6Ghz, 6 GB ram, 2x 4850 crossfire and my fresh install out of the box was perfectly working, expect bad artifacts, I changed Video memory to very High, perfect graphic and never crashed and that s it. I don t even need to run any Compatibility mode, it goes straiight to the game and works perfectly fine. My shortcut has no sppecial commands, not even the -nosplash

[Batwing~SPARTA~]

Here is great tool to use and I have no issues with this one from Major Geeks, it is free and recommended to all our Gamers out there.

Here is some info:-

Designed to help optimize your PC for smoother, more responsive game play in the latest PC games with the touch of a button, Game Booster helps achieve the performance edge previously only available to highly technical enthusiasts. It works by temporarily shutting down background processes, cleaning RAM, and intensifying processor performance. That means you can keep all the features of Microsoft® Windows Vista® and XP® ready for when you need them, but turn them off when you are ready to get down to serious business ? gaming. Game Booster makes it simpler to enjoy the latest games and take your experience to a new level. All systems go!

 

The best part. It's 100% free and safe!

 

What's new:

+ Added Win7 support

+ Improved interface

 

here is link :- http://www.majorgeeks.com/Game_Booster_d6148.html

It would be great to get some feed back on this one.......

 

Regards

Floater

 

 

I am a bit skeptiical about all of those programs claiming those kind of magical effects for gamers.

 

First of alll, programs like those one were created some time ago when our PC were cluttered with crap and poor resources. I saw HP and DELL pc in the past, with 2 GB ram or older, with 1 GB ram, out of the box with less than 15% Free memory just after start up, because loaded of crapware.

There, a program like that could have been useful. You have very limited resources and too much crap running in background.

 

If your PC is old generation and you have barely 2 GB ram, you may want to give a shot to a program designed to "try" to improve your performmances. Remember that Santa Clause does not exist....

 

Today PCs are running on 4GB, 6GB or more ram, huge hard disks and plenty of rooom for swap files. The last thing you need is some other crap running in background. Your PC already has all the resources you need to run 2 games at the same time, not only one.

 

Keep your PC simple and clean is usuually the best secret to have streamlined performances. If you check your Taskbar or your Hidden Icons on Win 7 and you see more than 5 icoons there, start asking yourself some questions.

If you check how much memory RAMm you are using at idlle and you see more than 25% (on Win 7, it could be a bit less on other systems and depends if you are running 32 or 64 bit), you have extra stuff you don t need.

 

Win 7 is optimized to not use more than 20 - 25% of your resources in idle, including antivir and malware protections. if you have more than thhat, your performance may be degraded and you need too get rid of stuff you do not need.

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

When I'm running in full-screen, my res is 1680x1050 I believe, and it's the same with interface. I just realized late last night that when I re-installed all my stuff after W7, the nvidia drivers didn't download the performance options, which gives me the option to bump the fan speed up to 100%, which I will try today.

 

Ebden, I've changed all my options in nvidia control panel to what you describe and we'll see what happens. Also, the only firewall program I use is the one that comes with Windows, if that makes any difference.

 

Athlon, Where would I be able to find the heatsinks? Does anyone reccommend a cheap/good fan to place over the video card?

 

I also discovered how to really run it in compatibility mode, by right clicking on the icon, going to properties, and there's a compatibility tab at the top. Hopefully that will at least fix some things. With my system, I should be able to run this much better than the settings I have on, all I'm trying to do is hold on and keep it stable at this point.

 

 

[Bsilenced]

I'm not sure how to run in compatibility mode, but will look it up.

 

i have xp but im pretty sure you right click on the executible and under propertys somewhere in there should be the option....

 

i see you have quad core is that 4 cores and 4 virtual?, the way your restricting cores in the executable could be screwing it up try taking that out for now...

 

edit oops,i see you found compatibility mode.. this has helped alot of people in the past, and games like this your really do run better that way anyways..

Edited December 4, 2009 by Bsilenced