ATI & GTA:SA

soulll · Jun 17, 2005, 01:02 PM

hey all

As the title suggest i am having problems with gta. The problem consists of random "types" of crash, these are as follows:

image freeze, music/sound is still playing - requires reboot
screen goes black - monitor light is blinking - requires reboot
screen goes black yet i can go back to menu and resume game but with black screen

ive tried the following to try and fix this problem:

reduce sound to basic accel from dxdiag
tried omega 5.4 from catalyst 5.6
tried to run in win98 comp. mode
tried to turn on fastwrites (causes system crash as soon as boot)
turning down all settings/used defaults
+ ive used a whole bunch of cracks

updated video drivers - motherboard drivers
i havent flashed/updated bios
last sound card drivers i could find were from 2002

ive looked on quite a few forums but alas i must return to ye ol driverheaven for trusty advice!!

Computer
Operating System Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
OS Service Pack Service Pack 4

Motherboard
CPU Type AMD Athlon XP, 1666 MHz (6.25 x 267) 2000+
Motherboard Name ECS L7VTA (5 PCI, 1 AGP, 1 CNR, 3 DIMM, Audio)
Motherboard Chipset VIA VT8377 Apollo KT400
System Memory 512 MB (DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award (10/07/03)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM2)
Communication Port ECP Printer Port (LPT1)

Display
Video Adapter RADEON 9600 Series Secondary (Omega 2.6.25a) (128 MB)
Video Adapter RADEON 9600 Series Secondary (Omega 2.6.25a) (128 MB)
3D Accelerator ATI Radeon 9600 XT (RV360)
Monitor Orion OC-17DB06 (10391)

Multimedia
Audio Adapter Creative SB Live! Player 1024 Sound Card

Storage
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive Maxtor 32049H2 (20 GB, 5400 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100)
Disk Drive Maxtor 6Y120P0 (120 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/133)
Optical Drive ATAPI 52X CDROM (52x CD-ROM)
Optical Drive Generic DVD-ROM SCSI CdRom Device
Optical Drive Generic DVD-ROM SCSI CdRom Device
Optical Drive Memorex CDRW/DVD 6424-4

Partitions
C: (NTFS) 117239 MB (65585 MB free)
D: (FAT) 7 MB (7 MB free)
G: (NTFS) 19461 MB (1659 MB free)

Input
Keyboard Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
Mouse PS/2 Compatible Mouse

Network
Primary IP Address ********************
Primary MAC Address 74-30-FD-04-88-0F
Network Adapter WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface

Peripherals
Printer EPSON Stylus C84 Series

Problems & Suggestions
Problem Disk free space is only 9% on drive G:.

on a side note the game runs well (graphic wise) on 1024x768 + AA on

H3X4D3C1M4L · Jun 17, 2005, 10:57 PM

Did you try reinstalling the game or using stock Catalyst 5.4's?

mario620 · Jun 17, 2005, 11:18 PM

uninstall the game, unistall ati drivers, reboot into safe mode run driver cleaner. reboot install latest mobo driver reboot, install reg ati drivers reboot, install game.

H3X4D3C1M4L · Jun 18, 2005, 08:08 PM

Yeah but make sure they're 5.4's, Ive found them to have the least problems.

soulll · Jun 20, 2005, 10:18 AM

hey all, thx for help but it didnt work >_< but i went to a crash log on my system and this is what i got:

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: ati2mtag
Event Category: DVD_OV
Event ID: 62470
Date: 20/06/2005
Time: 16:02:25
User: N/A
Computer: *********
Description:
Invalid pixel format
Data:
0000: 00 00 00 00 01 00 5a 00 ......Z.
0008: 3d 00 00 00 06 f4 00 80 =....ô.€
0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........

its definately ati related - hopefully you pros can figure it out

***Zardon*** · Jun 20, 2005, 10:28 AM

ive seen this invalid pixel format error in a few threads on DH lately. did you turn off error reporting in the panels?

Incidentally what drivers did you try? I see you are running omegas atm.

soulll · Jun 20, 2005, 11:26 AM

ah well for that i was using ASUS based 5.6 + enhanced driver, i've also tried 4.12cats, 5.4 cats, 5.6 cats

FearTheTerp · Jun 20, 2005, 11:47 AM

Is your game legit? Don't be afraid to tell.

BWX · Jun 20, 2005, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by soulll

ive tried the following to try and fix this problem:

reduce sound to basic accel from dxdiag
tried omega 5.4 from catalyst 5.6
tried to run in win98 comp. mode
tried to turn on fastwrites (causes system crash as soon as boot)
turning down all settings/used defaults
+ ive used a whole bunch of cracks

updated video drivers - motherboard drivers
i havent flashed/updated bios
last sound card drivers i could find were from 2002

Use CAT 5.6 with regular CP- (I am also using ATT with this)

turn on VPU recover- but leave VPU error reporting off.

When the game freezes- wait 5 seconds- it will turn back on- continue as normal.

Before reinstalling new drivers- try the VPU recover w/ error reporting off with your current drivers and see if it works- if not, go with the 5.6 with CP -

soulll · Jun 20, 2005, 12:53 PM

already tried that

+ what is ATT ???

soulll · Jun 20, 2005, 12:54 PM

what happens is that the game freezes vpu recovery kicks in and the screen goes blank then just back to the game then all i can see is a frozen screen.

***Zardon*** · Jun 20, 2005, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BWX

turn on VPU recover- but leave VPU error reporting off.
When the game freezes- wait 5 seconds- it will turn back on- continue as normal.-

Really? can anyone else confirm this semi resolves this issue?

BWX · Jun 20, 2005, 01:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zardon

Really? can anyone else confirm this semi resolves this issue?

I mentioned it in another thread I think- but I didn't hear back from anyone who tried it-

It definitely works for me though.. Played about 12 hours straight one day last week. got about 3 or 4 (maybe more) of those little freezes- and also got the pixel format error in the event viewer. Before I turned on VPU w/o error reporting, it would require a reboot.

But since error reporting isn't waiting for input in background, VPU recover somehow makes the game continue w/o missing a beat.

It may work with other driver versions, but once I got it working with 5.6 and CP w/ ATT - I stayed with that setup.. It might work with CCC too, maybe someone getting that particular freeze should try it.

FearTheTerp · Jun 20, 2005, 01:34 PM

Are you not going to answer my question?

Also: I have had this problem with a VIA chipset too, have you tried switching to AGP 4x?

***Zardon*** · Jun 20, 2005, 02:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearTheTerp

Are you not going to answer my question?

I dont think he wants to answer the question, and regardless of whether its a legit copy he has or not, it has nothing to do with this specific issue.

soulll · Jun 20, 2005, 02:16 PM

;D well feartheterp it can be a legit copy if u want it to be ¬_¬ and yes i have tried x4 ;<

soulll · Jun 20, 2005, 02:31 PM

ooo i just tried that thing with vpu on and report =off basically the screen goes blank comes back but still frozen with sound running

BWX · Jun 20, 2005, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by soulll

ooo i just tried that thing with vpu on and report =off basically the screen goes blank comes back but still frozen with sound running

That sucks. Maybe try 5.6 with regular CP and the VPU recover thing? If you didn't try it with those drivers?

Also- I have AA and AF set to App. pref. AI normal. Vsync always off.

Maybe try those exact settings with 5.6 regular control panel no CCC?

Also try those settings with start/run/dxdiag/sound/ set to basic or standard..

Maybe I somehow got all the right settings together to get it to work. It sounds exactly the same problem as yours. Or course I have a 9700pro and you don't, maybe that is the difference.

Also I am running XP SP2- so maybe that's it.

soulll · Jun 21, 2005, 01:57 AM

well i tried it with 4.12 cats :]+ i am using regular cp not the ccc as i heard its not all that great!! -ill try it with 5.12 cats tonight

daedal · Jun 21, 2005, 05:26 AM

5.12 Cat? Those are out!? Sweet! *Runs off*
Seriously though, you mentioned your Audio drivers are 2 years old, what sound card are you using? Even if you are running into an ATI issue, I'm still curious.

Are you OCing/Overdriving the card? I'm assuming you have the latest DirectX installed (I think GTA demands it). If you're running a "less-than-legit" copy, it might also be a crack issue but you did mention trying several.. hmm.

BWX · Jun 21, 2005, 09:35 AM

He obviously doesn't want to get it working..

soulll · Jun 21, 2005, 11:04 AM

haha relax ppl

firstly i meant 5.5 cats >_<

yep my sound card is a soundblaster live! value + my card isnt over clocked

FearTheTerp · Jun 21, 2005, 11:13 AM

I think it's your sound, there are been other reports with GTA:SA crashing because of sound related problems. Have you tried the sound blaster website to find the drivers?

soulll · Jun 21, 2005, 11:32 AM

yup the last release was 8march 2003 - thing is there actually 24/07/2002

H3X4D3C1M4L · Jun 21, 2005, 08:41 PM

It shouldn't have a problem with such a well known card....thats bad news.

But lately Creative's driver updating has been the sucks

fleming · Jun 29, 2005, 03:32 AM

I sent Rockstar Canada Support the info and screen shots of the issues i was having, and one that is starting to really get on my nerver is the screen going blank, my monitor light going amber, then the game pops back in to place. This happens when i play over 2 hours at a time, and just tonight it happened 3 times.
The problem is when i quit the game, my desktop goes to 800x600 and my monitor goes to a refresh rate of 60mhz.

My usual settings are 1280x960 with a ref. rate of 75mhz.

I just emailed them a few hours ago, so i don't have a response yet.
I have a 9800 Pro 128mb and i am using the latest drivers from ATI without the CC.

No other game gives me trouble like this one has. I also have sound issues (Creative Live!) with the game, where i can randomly hear things, then nothing, then they come back again.

Everything i have is up to date, so hopefully enough ppl who had this issue has sent it to Rockstar to see what can be done.
So i thought i would check here to see if i am crazy, and i am not, cause someone else has my issue.

If i get a response from Rockstar, i will post it (if it's of any value of course).

Fleming

H3X4D3C1M4L · Jun 29, 2005, 04:42 PM

If this keeps up I'm going to buy a Play Station 2 and play it on that....

Just started having all these problems, and I didn't change anything!

Such is life...