ATI graphics problem with T2 FMs

Marbrien on 6/11/2009 at 20:01

My graphics card is an Asus 256MB Radeon HD 3450 AGP low profile.

I was experiencing very bad frame rates in T2 FMs with the last set of drivers (ATI Catalyst display driver v 9.3), and occasional BSODs outside Thief. I read somewhere this was because these drivers were actually designed for PCI graphics cards. I therefore recently uninstalled the previous drivers and installed the ATI AGP hotfix drivers instead (ATI Catalyst display driver v9.10).

I was half way through playing Rose Cottage at the time. Oddly, I was unable to load any Rose Cottage saved games, I would get a black screen crash as the game started - unless I first started and then quit from a new game, in which case a load from a saved game would then work.

Now I am trying to start Bonds Of Mine, but I get a black screen crash immediately after the initial objectives menu, i.e. just as the game itself is starting. Several other T2 FMs which worked previously have the same outcome. I haven't tried T1 or T3 missions yet.

Throughout all this, the "safe_texture_manager" line in user.cfg has had its semicolon removed, and hyperthreading has been disabled.

Returning to the previous set of drivers is not really an option. Can anybody suggest what is going on and how I can fix it please?

bikerdude on 6/11/2009 at 21:25

what other catalyst driver versions have tried...? may i suggest 9.5, but before installing a new driver always run a driver cleaner, like 'nasty file remover'

KoHaN69 on 7/11/2009 at 08:55

Your video card is a worthless piece of crap, I spent a month on it trying to see what the hell was going on (http://www.xtremesystems.org/Forums/showthread.php?t=218494) (see here)

The drivers are not ATI drivers, but older agp hotfix that are "ASUS official".
This video card was never released or willer be supported by ATI, it's ASUS' Frankenstein.
Do yourself a favour and get rid of that video card asap.

Marbrien on 11/11/2009 at 22:02

Thanks for the advice so far. But I cannot get earlier versions of the driver to recognise my card, so that did not work.

I have discovered that the recent T2 FMs which were crashing at the
start (e.g. Bonds Of Mine, The Acid Trip) will run if my sound card is
turned off, but won't run if it is turned on. The sound card is an
Edirol FA-101, which connects to the PC via a Firewire PCI card.

I have never had any problems with the sound card, and the problem only
seems to manifest itself in T2 FMs (so far - I haven't tried T1 or T3
FMs yet). It does not manifest itself (for example) when watching DVDs,
playing back audio CDs, or using Cubase.

There would appear to be a conflict between the sound capabilities of
the graphics card, as implemented by the ATI hotfix driver, and the
sound card.

There are no IRQ resource conflicts showing in Device Manager. I have
searched high and low and there appears to be no way in Device Manager
or in the Catalyst Control Centre (CCC) of disabling the graphics card's
sound capabilities - those capabilities do not appear anywhere as a configurable item.

The hotfix drivers are primarily designed to correct a situation whereby
ATI Radeon HD 2000, 3000 and 4000 series of AGP video cards are not
recognised by the display driver. I have heard that CCC sometimes
causes problems, so I tried installing the AGP hotfix display driver v9.10
without CCC, but my card is then not recognised - exactly the condition
the hotfix is supposed to cure.

I may indeed be forced to get a new graphics card, unless someone has any bright ideas.

Incidentally, I am running Windows XP Home Edition SP2 on an MSI 865PE Neo2-PFISR (Socket 478) motherboard. The graphics card is an Asus 256MB Radeon HD 3450 AGP low profile card.

bikerdude on 11/11/2009 at 22:45

Quote Posted by Marbrien

Edirol FA-101, which connects to the PC via a Firewire PCI card.

Do yourself a favour and get a cheap Audigy card £20. Or if your in the UK I have a Turtle beach(vortex) pci card you can have for £10 inc postage.

Marbrien on 12/11/2009 at 14:29

No thanks, I need a decent sound card for music making. And besides, I don't think the sound card is the problem, I think it's the ATI driver.

Marbrien on 12/11/2009 at 21:07

I had DDfix v1.3.11b installed. I have just removed it using its own GUI utility, and the two FMs I mentioned above now work even with the sound card turned on. Sometimes the screen darkens a bit when I return to the in-game menu, but otherwise things seem OK. :confused:

bikerdude on 12/11/2009 at 22:00

Quote Posted by Marbrien

LOL

Im not surprised by this, Thief2 is a fickle beast. I have found many, many, many occasions where just uninstalling and reinstalling a patch, fixes what ever issue you had.... I had a perfectly working thief2 fiolder and then for no reason it kills itself..

Rule of thumb with thief, get your thief1/2 working and then make a zip backup of the entire folder.