Weird error on zoom?

[PhoenixHawk]

I have an ATI 9600, and a 1.7ghz P4 with 768 mb ram, I was wondering why everytime I try to zoom, and this is only when I zoom (happens most of the time, it doesnt happen all the time when I zoom), my comp freezes and locks down, I cant even do anything and am forced to restart, otherwise I have no problems with this game. Does anyone know why this happens?

[Mawerick]

I also have the ATI Radeon 9600, and more often than not, the game crashes completely when I try to use the zoom of Garrett's mechanical eye... :(

[Parias]

I'd like to third this - my game also locks up when I zoom in (not every time, but I've already had three lockups that all occurred when I was using Garett's special eye after playing for a significant amount of time), and I too am using a Radon 9600 Pro.

[PhoenixHawk]

Glad to know Im not the only one.... Anyone know how to solve this?

[HornedSalmon]

Yeah I used to get this too... on my 9600 xt, I turned overdrive off and havn't had a problem scence.

[PhoenixHawk]

Whats overdrive?

[HornedSalmon]

Its a feature on the 9600xt and 9800 xt.. its like atis built in overdrive that regualtes temperature and all that crap. But the point is check to make sure its not over heating(that was prolly the overdrive issue) and make sure that if the comp didn't come with the card that your power supply has enough juice to support the computer with all your stuff in it. Power shortage can cause a world of problems(such as crashes and lock ups). Also (this wasn't my problem but when looking for help with this I read about it) if you have a beefy sound card that could be messing it up but thats just what I read. But yeah... id try blowing an extra fan into the comp or the ol' open up the side panel to try to cool it down. Especialy if you all are running a 9600. The 9600 basic model(possibly the others too) are known for really bad air flow. Let me know if this helped.

[MrWynd]

try using the previous driver, i dont remember the number, but it was the last ATI release before their current ones. this fixed it for a friend of mine. i haven't upgraded my drivers yet because I'm worried I'll get the same problem.

[Mawerick]

Originally posted by HornedSalmon
id try blowing an extra fan into the comp or the ol' open up the side panel to try to cool it down. Especialy if you all are running a 9600. The 9600 basic model(possibly the others too) are known for really bad air flow. Let me know if this helped.

That's certainly not the problem in my case, though I have the basic 9600. I have two extra chassis fans, one sucking air in from front and the other blowing it out from the back. HDD temp for example was around 19 degrees Celsius and CPU (barton 2600+@2150MHz) was running at around 36 degrees. I definitely don't think the Radeon was running too hot...

[HornedSalmon]

Yeah it sounds like you have pretty good air flow in there... just keep in mind that if you have sound cards, eithernet cards, or anything else down there with your pci and agp slots hot air CAN get trapped or air flow that is otherwise great isn't so hot... well actualy it is. If you have air not getting though to there with other fans(simply becuase you noted a HD and cpu... cpus can be much cooler then other components becuaes generaly they have their own fan and hds are typicaly at the other end.. so it is possible) then the bad airflow on the 9600 fan may not be helping. But... yeah I dobut thats the problem. So i'd try rolling back the driver like mr.wynd sugested. If that down't work just try opening up the panel... its prolly not the problem but thats how trobuleshooting has to work sometimes.

[Mawerick]

Originally posted by HornedSalmon
Yeah it sounds like you have pretty good air flow in there... just keep in mind that if you have sound cards, eithernet cards, or anything else down there with your pci and agp slots hot air CAN get trapped...

Actually the Radeon is the only card I have, my mobo (Epox 8RDA3+) has integrated 5.1 sound and dual lan cards :)

Anyway, thanks for the advices, I'm sure they will be useful to a lot of people.

[drow21]

Originally posted by MrWynd
try using the previous driver, i dont remember the number, but it was the last ATI release before their current ones. this fixed it for a friend of mine. i haven't upgraded my drivers yet because I'm worried I'll get the same problem.

I believe this fellow is correct. What driver are you using? I started with catalyst 4.4 and had NO lighting issues and NO freezes. Then I went to the omega driver that some were swearing up and down about for a smoother ride. Well, I got the boost but this driver caused the very issue many of you are suffering from now - freezing occassionally from using zoom. I had to remove the omega driver and went with catalyst 4.5. No more zooming problems but lighting issues remain. Your best option is sadly 4.4

[Parias]

I'm actually still running 4.3 here, so perhaps an upgrade would be worthwhile. Thanks for the tip.