X600 with EverQuest 2

Wargoose · Jan 29, 2006, 10:05 AM

I have a Gateway MX7515 that I use when travelling and am having troubles with one game in particular - namely EverQuest 2.

Every other game runs fine (or well enough considering the limitations of the X600 processor), but EQ2 *always* crashes on me. It starts up fine and may run anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, but eventually I will get VPU recovery errors and it will lock up totally. Graphic settings within the game are performance oriented (no shadows, etc.), and it will eventually happen even if I leave my avatar staring at some static scenery (floor, for example) while chatting in game.

I have upgraded to the latest Mobility drivers (Catalyst 6.1), and it is still a huge problem. From what I have read, a lot of ATI users have issues with EQ2, but I run an X800XT PE on my desktop rig and have never had an issue with it.

Anyone with this laptop or video processor able to run the game well, and if so, is it a driver issue?

Thanks for any help.

Odeeee · Feb 3, 2006, 11:45 AM

Try turning off the VPU recovery options in the ATI control panel

Oplock · Mar 28, 2006, 01:06 PM

I've been having the same issues (I'll go into detail), but first off here is my system:
ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 Pro
Radeon Omega Drivers 3.8.221 ( Catalyst 6.2)

What happens is that in specific areas (namely the newbie island and Nektulos forest) there are multiple VPU recoveries that occur and eventually lock up the system completely (hard boot); this happens with the game running in windowed mode as well as full screen. I've looked all over and it sounds very very similar to what happened a while back with the Catalyst 5.3+ drivers that caused VPU crashes when running EQ2. This, of course, was fixed in 6.1+.

I've done several things to no effect: Turn off/on AGP Fast Write, Turn on/off Catalyst A.I., Turned on/off VPU Recovery, etc.
All of these have been stated as to fixing the problem, though they seem to only really affect the desktop cards running the old catalyst drivers. I was hoping that someone here has run into this issue before and has figured a work-around (aside from running my really old *really* crappy drivers).

Any help would be thuroughly appreciated.