Battlefield 2 Crash to Desktop Pos Solution

[Jonny]

I am running a 9800 Pro and it sometimes crashes to desktop for me. However it has never shown me a blank screen with sound, or even faulty graphics in any way. I am running Beta x64 drivers by Omega. My card does not seem too hot, it was previously having graphical faults in games, but a quick fix in the form of a case fan blu-taked so it took all the hot away seemed to fix this.
Not even hot to touch after a BF2 crash, it gets hotter in 3DMark.

[Bluecube]

Well folks, wasn't I pissed when BF2 started crashing to the desktop a few hours after I started this thread. To cut a long story short I flashed my mobos BIOS to the latest version. This reset everything in the BIOS and as a result my overclocked CPU (an Athlon 2500+ at 3200+) was set to standard speed. I left it at that to see what happened and BF2 ran fine. Have been really enjoying getting my arse kicked by people I never even see, crashing helicopters within 2 secs of take off, etc. I don't know if the BIOS update solved my problem or if the reset to the standard CPU speed sorted it. I'll oc the CPU tomorrow and let you know how I get on.

BTW my mobo is an Abit NF7S v2 and I flashed it using the excellent downloadable mobo flash util on Abits website.

[Dougal]

BE interesting to see what your CPU temps are when you run BF2 overclocked.

Try it at 3000+ speed too.

[Bluecube]

Got the CPU overclocked to 3200+ speeds with a voltage of 1.775V and BF2 runs fine and dandy (touch wood). The CPU temp after running BF2 is a mere 51C which isn't that hot at all although it has be said it is a bit hotter than if it was a stock 3200+.
I can only assume that my issues were due to an old BIOS but I'll be damned if I can understand how the BIOS was affected the game considering HL2 and Far Cry ran fine. Maybe BF2 exposed a stability issue...

[Dougal]

I had the problem with HL2 not likeing my BIOS.

So I had to run it windowed (BIOS wouldn't update).

Could be an IRQ allocation type thing.

[xanderd]

The problem seems to be solved!!!

The solution was lowering the AGP slot in the BIOS from 8x to 4x!! This was the ONLY thing that helped.

I have only tested it for 10 minutes so far, but No crashes! Quality is on medium and it looks good - it used to crash after about 2 minutes on low!

It seems a bit unbeleivable that reducing to 4x would have no effect on graphics quality, but thats what others have said! It seems a shame to buy an expensive 8x motherboard and 8x graphics card and be forced to run at just 4x: (

thanks for the help and i hope this solves your problems!

[xanderd]

Update: I discovered the solution wasnt quite that simple.

To prevent it crashing I also had to underclock my RAM in the BIOS from 200Mhz to 166Mhz, AS WELL AS reduce AGP from 8x to 4x.

If I had AGP on 4x but RAM on 200Mhz it will crash.

If I have AGP on 8x and RAM on 166Mhz it will crash

It is only stable with AGP at 4x AND RAM running at 166Mhz. I ran it for 20 minutes at medium quality with no crashes or glitches at all.

Just a shame that i have to underclock my system to do that! (my Ram is PC3200 and can run at 400Mhz, but in my BIOS I only have the option of 166 or 200, and it only runs well on 166! - if anyone can explain this I'd like to know!)

I may try a BIOS flash as you suggest and see if that allows me to crank the AGP and RAM back up.

cheers

alex

[Wookiestick]

I had this problem with BF1942 as well as 2, and I have fixed the problem by adjusting the in-game refresh rate.
Not sure if this is the same problem though.

[Dougal]

Make sure you exit all background programs.

MSN is a PROGRAM

IRC is a PROGRAM.

Don't leave progs in your system tray unless you are using them

ESPECIALLY IM and ISO MOUNTING tools

[SharpiWarrior]

Hey Guys,

I experienced the Crash to Desktop Problem by my own... till now. I tried to change every damn driver (video card, sound card, mainboard, etc.) but nothing of that helped. After a long time of disapointing i found the reason for the problem. And trust me it is!!! ITS A MEMORY PROBLEM. BF2 is very sensitively with the memory. SO JUST TRY TO SET THE MEMORY TO CL3 IN YOUR BIOS. I hope i could help every almost despaired BF2 gamer.
Only one more thing: if this solution helped you please post it in this forum so i can see if its the most spreaded reason for the problem. THX

Greetz, SharpiWarrior

[xrgong]

I had the BF2 crash to desk top problem too- I had just built a new box; I went from an HP xp2600+ (which ran the game fine at LOW settings) to a Venice, good psu, etc, and I couldn't play for more than five minutes, and usually only about 10 secs. I scoured the forums, tried everything, then overclocked the CPU. Beautifully stable, but still crashed in BF2, UNTIL I made sure the HTT bus was under a 1000. I just played for two hours with not one problem. I hope it's fixed forever, and maybe it'll help some people. Here's some more (and if anybody sees something that shows I'm an idiot, please tell me cause this is the first time I OC'ed a system)

Venice 3000+, rev E3 @ 267 x 9, HTT x 3, runs 29 deg c/ 35 deg c
Patriot XBL, 2 x 512 sticks, 2 x 267, 2.5-3-3-7 2T (at 1T I can't do anything: not so stable?)
seasonic S12 500 psu
AGP 8x, fast write disabled, 128 width (card is ATI 9600XT 256, ha)
Good luck, guys...

[jonneymendoza]

lol check dis out, urs may crash to desktop but mine shuts down my whole pc LOL!! only happened once though since i had the game prio 2 release

[Nick]

i had the game prio 2 release

How did you managed that?

[Dooms]

Works at a game store? I used to get everything soon as it came into the store sometimes weeks before release.

[cheechy]

Thanks up the heads-up on the possible memory timing issue. I've OC'd my CPU but underclocked my memory. I just bought the Hiper PSU from Scan as I noticed that my PSU was kicking out warm air when playing BF2.

In all honesty the net result here is that your machine has to be rock solid under load for BF2 and anything else just CTDs...