Solution to Radeon 9600 Pro Lockups (ATTN: RichDoggP, SilentFox, and crocostimpy)

[Sun Dog]

[Disclaimer: The information in this post is offered as is. If this kills your video card, blows up your computer or makes you impotent, you can't sue me. ]

Along with a few other people (RichDoggP, SilentFox, and crocstimpy), I've had several problems with lockups when trying to play DXIW. While searching the web for possible solutions, I found a post by Matthias Noack in the HardwareAnalysis.com forums that solves the problem. (The thread is here, if you'd like to read it.) I tried the procedure suggested in his post, and it worked! If you have a Radeon 9600 Pro and are experiencing lockups when playing DXIW, try the following:

1. From the desktop, right-click on the desktop and select "Properties".

2. Select the "Settings" tab.

3. Hit the "Advanced" button.

4. Select the "SMARTGART(tm)" tab.

5. Set "Fast Write" to "Off".

6. Click "Ok".

7. You will be asked if you wish to restart your computer. Click "Yes".

8. When your computer is done rebooting, open "My Computer" and browse to the directory where you installed the ATI Control Panel. On my computer, this is "C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI Control Panel", so try there if you're not sure where it is.

(Alternative step 8. If you can't find the ATI Control Panel folder, open your "Start" menu, go to the "Find" option, and select "Files or Folders". Then do a search on "ATI Control Panel", without the quotes. If you still can't find it, try searching on the word "Smartgart", again without the quotes. That's not a typo, by the way-- it's "Smartgart", not "Smartgard" or "Smartguard".)

9. In the folder is a shortcut called "Smartgart". Double-click on this to open it.

10. Set PCI Write to "On".

11. Set PCI Read to "On".

12. Set AGP Write to "OFF".

13. Set AGP Read to "On".

14. Click "Ok".

15. You will be asked if you wish to restart your computer. Click "Yes".

16. When your computer is done rebooting, Smartgart will run a few tests, so you may need to wait a minute or so. Once it's done, you will be asked if you want to keep the Smartgart settings. Click "Ok".

17. Start up DXIW.

18. ***** about the unified ammo and the lack of locational damage.

By the way, it turns out that the demo itself is apparently not to blame for this one-- contrary to my earlier statements, other games are indeed affected by this problem. Impossible Creatures and Age Of Mythology both started locking up after I installed the 9600 Pro on my machine; I simply hadn't noticed before because I hadn't played them in awhile. (I've also heard that Command & Conquer: Generals has this problem, but I don't own that game so I can't vouch for that.) Anyhow, this fix cleared up the problem with all of these games.

I can't guarantee that this will work for you, but it worked for me. Try it out and post your results to this thread. Good luck!

Sun Dog

I'm using a R9600Pro as well, and I've had massive lockup/bluescreen problems too. I'll try it and report back.
... once I get the damn thing to launch again, that is.

[thegrommit]

You may also need to disable fastwrites in your motherboard BIOS. This problem also affected Call of Duty.

Disabling it isn't a big deal as disabling fastwrites doesn't seem to affect performance on modern AGP cards.

Thanks a lot man, you're my personal hero
Fast Writes I had already disabled as my mainboard doesn't support them anyway, but disabling AGP Writes in the Smartgart thingy worked like a charm. Just played three hours straight - no crashes, no bluescreens, no freezes.

Would you like to bear my children?

I don't have any fast writes-related problems with my 9700 Pro, but I do have to lower the AGP transfer rate from 8x to 4x to keep it from locking up due to the fact that I'm using an MSI mobo with a VIA chipset. It took a lot of effort, but I finally narrowed it down to that setting and now my system is very stable.

Wow, it realy works. thx mate. Fastwrites was already disabled, but this AGP-writes truely solved it. Still weird, why i have to disable those features on a full DirectX 9.0 combatible Agp graphics card.

[DXman]

i have it disabled in smartgart. how do i get in my bios to disable it? im using windows xp professional.

[thegrommit]

Originally posted by DXman
i have it disabled in smartgart. how do i get in my bios to disable it? im using windows xp professional.

Usually you have to hit the "DEL" key while the PC is booting up - and before Windows starts to load. That will then take you into the BIOS screen where you can use the keyboard to navigate through the various menus.

F10 is usually the key to save your changes and reboot the machine. Make sure you read the onscreen instructions though - it might be different on your rig.

[DXman]

thanks, it was the del key. but where's the option to disable fast write in bios? i cant find it anywhere. is it suppose to be in advanced options? i checked there but i only see set aperture size and few other video card selections, but no fast write. btw, i have catalyst 3.7 installed, need this driver to play madden 2004 correctly, 3.8 and 3.9 screw up the graphics. i have a radeon 9600 pro 128mb, is it better to set the aperture size to 128 or leave it on 64. by default it's on 64.

[thegrommit]

Originally posted by DXman
thanks, it was the del key. but where's the option to disable fast write in bios? i cant find it anywhere. is it suppose to be in advanced options?

On mine, it's on the "Advanced Chipset features" screen.

i have a radeon 9600 pro 128mb, is it better to set the aperture size to 128 or leave it on 64. by default it's on 64.

IIRC, it's best to leave it at 64 for a 128MB card.

[DXman]

i found this article about aperture sizes

http://www.tweak3d.net/articles/aperture-size/

It seems that if you have a lot of memory, you should set your aperture size higher. im gonna set mines at 256mb, because i have 1gig of ddr system memory. it seems that the higher you set your aperture size, it will increase game performance and stability. btw, i dont think my motherboard supports fastwrite
ECS Elite Group P4VXASD2+

Thanks for that. I have the 9600 XT and i've been experiencing lokcups too, and this solved it

Just a caution...be careful with disabling fast writes in BIOS, at least on a Gigabyte7VRXP [my mobo]. This move caused the machine to completely lock each time I tried to play a DVD via the PowerDVD application. The lock-up was exactly like the ones we are trying to solve within DXIW. So far, the moves within the ATI software have seemed OK (I have a Radeon 9600 pro with 256 mb).

[DXman]

i have fastwrite disabled, my motherboard doesnt support fastwrite so no need for me to disable it there. still getting lock ups. i think this problem only affects radeon 9600 pro. im going to try lower down my hardware acceleration, usually this works. i tried in games like c&c generals and age of mythology which both lock up at the main menu, lower the hardware acceleration down a notch fixed the problem. i hope it'll fix DX2.

[Sun Dog]

Looks like this worked for some other people too. I'm glad I was able to help. Hopefully, ATI will offer a more permanent solution down the road, but until then, at least there's a workaround.

And outrider, I'm afraid I won't be having your kids-- not only am I not anatomically equipped for that sort of thing, but I've already got three boys of my own, and that's all I can handle at the moment.

Sun Dog

Personally, I would recommend trying *everything* else you can think of, including lowering the AGP transfer rate, before lowering hardware acceleration (make sure to reboot after making changes as well). The reason is that lowering hardware acceleration will cost you a lot of performance by forcing your CPU to handle features that the video card is supposed to take care of.

[sdsusnowboards]

just want to add I got a 9700 something (the specs are between pro and normal...). It reads as a pro, but anyways, deisabling fastwrite fixed my problems. They consisted of crashing to desktop when executing the game. Thanks fellas.

[DXman]

Originally posted by HunterZ
Personally, I would recommend trying *everything* else you can think of, including lowering the AGP transfer rate, before lowering hardware acceleration (make sure to reboot after making changes as well). The reason is that lowering hardware acceleration will cost you a lot of performance by forcing your CPU to handle features that the video card is supposed to take care of.

I never had any problems when lower the hardware acceleration down without restarting. But thanks for the advice, I'll do that from now on. Either ATI addresses game lock ups in their next patch or Ion Storm including a fix for this lock up problem in their next patch!!!

My Saphire9600xt was losing signal (monitor going to standby) or locking up on most games I updated motherboard drivers Intel 865 chipset and using latest official Cats I'm having no problems running with fastwrites on and AGP8x. Mostly fluid @1024x768 all details high.

[irishbloke]

can i ask does a ATI Radeon 9600 xt run the game well?
as i have a geforce 5600 xt and dunno wheter to upgrade?