GutterGeek on 5/5/2005 at 03:56
I finally got around to installing the _Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition_ CD which I got as a gift quite some time ago. It's a fantastic game, and reminds me a lot of the best parts of the System Shock series. When it runs, anyway.
I've found that, even after checking everything mentioned in the troubleshooting section of the documentation, I still can't get the thing to run for even a whole hour without exiting to the desktop with some weird error message. (Usually a "general protection fault" or some "unhashed item" or something similar, both with a call stack from the game's executable listed.) Sometimes the controls stop responding but the game it still running: I can see characters walking around and such, but it's like my keyboard and mouse were suddenly unplugged. Some other times it just freezes up entirely.
I've updated video drivers, reinstalled DirectX, scanned the drive, uninstalled and reinstalled the game, copied the game CD to and installed from the hard drive, switched to the default 640 * 480 resolution, turned off Detail Textures, whispered lovingly to it, you name it. I've about run out of ideas.
P4 2.0 GHz, 512 Megabytes RAM (swap file locked at 2048 Megabytes minimum/maximum), 80 Gig HD (not even half full), NVidia Geforce 3 (just updated to driver version 71.84), SB Live! Value, DirectX 8.1 (passes DXDIAG tests again now that I've updated NVidia drivers), Windows Millenium Edition.
Please help a devoted Looking Glass fan fulfill his destiny. Thanks in advance.
Spitter on 5/5/2005 at 10:22
Have you tried the OpenGL renderer versus Direct3D? If neither of them work, you can try if the game plays at all in the software mode (although I have no idea if there was one in Deus Ex).
I notice you have SBLive! Value. I've had some problems with that card with Arx Fatalis (now with Deus Ex, though) - have you updated your LiveWare drivers? I think the v3 is the latest one that does any good to your card. Also, see if enabling/disablig EAX has any effect (since, talking of effects, I notice no difference in Deus Ex with it on or off).
voodoo47 on 6/5/2005 at 20:40
ok,first,try running in software mode.run deus ex safemode (usually start->programs->deus ex->safe mode),select show all devices,and choose software mode.see if the game runs normally.if yes,its just a matter of drivers/tweaks,if not,there is something very wrong with your system and you will be forced to reformat or even worse.
crwydryny on 14/5/2005 at 14:19
I had a simalar problem a while back and one way i found to fix it was to splice the deus ex application file from the demo's system folder into the full game which seamed to fix it. worth a shot if you have the demo available (just save a copy the original file from the full game just incase)
GutterGeek on 19/5/2005 at 06:44
OK, I installed the SBLive drivers which I may have neglected to do before. I ran it again, and for what it was worth it didn't crash during a brief test run. (Not long enough to prove this had solved the intermittent problem, though.)
I soon ended up uninstalling Deus Ex anyway because I wanted to go replay System Shock 2 again first. Now System Shock 2 is crashing too! (The farthest I got was halfway through the training sim room before character creation...) Now this is bad because I've played it all the way through years ago on this system and it worked fine then. (I've already checked the CD for scratches and test-copied it to the hard drive; no damaged files or anything.)
I noticed somebody complained about problems with Thief using the newest NVidia drivers. Since System Shock 2 used to work, and I also had problems with my Serious Sam games when I went to go play them again recently which I never had before, I'm becoming convinced my system hates the new drivers for some reason. It might be the only common factor. I'm not sure what I can do about it though; I really don't want to have the uninstall my drivers and roll them back to older versions until I find one that works. Yuck.
I'm going to back up my system soon, as all these bad restarts (I've had to scan the disk due to bad shutdowns about a hundred times since this started) have me nervous. Before I reformat and reinstall, I'm going break out the games and troubleshoot some more. I'll post to the troubleshooting section of the forum and tell everyone how it turns out. Thanks for listening.
