To all ATI 9800 series card owners....

[gbs]

Sorry about posting here, but I thought I would get more viewers here. If you have the ATI card I'm sure you are aware of the compatibility problems the game has with them causing various types of crashes. The most common for me is the Blue screen shut down error warning. It has something to do with the DirectX libraries which I know nothing about. Anyway, knowing that ATI is a fairly common card, I was wondering if anyone has found any workarounds for these problems or any new drivers that may help with this issue. I commend Pocus for very upfront and straight with me about this. It appears that this issue may or may not be addressed inside the game itself and if it is it won't be anytime soon. He has recommended the posibility of trying an Omega driver with this card. I am not very computer savy as I sure a lot of you can tell so I am not ready to try this yet unless somebody else has and has had a good experience with the game. Bottom line, I'm just looking for advice.

Also, let me point out that this is not a criticism of AACW. I love this game and I can actually play it. I just never know when the crash is coming. When it does I just have to restart everything and go from there. I am now in the late January '62 phase of the Arril '61 campaign. To get this far i have experienced at least ten or more of the crash/restarts outline above.
I am just looking to see if anybody with an ATI card like mine has found away around these problems. Thanks in advance.

Greg

[Pocus]

Hi,

I don't mind that you post here, because it is the true that some ATI 9xxx users have this problem (not all, thanks god). After getting some answers, we will move and stick this thread to the tech forum though, where it belongs.

First thing: if you crash, you don't have to restart the whole game, as the issue is a random, illegal operation, done by the video driver. So basically, you 'just' have to reload your turn, not restart the whole game. Very annoying I know,this is why we will refund any player still having the problem, after trying to find an issue, that is.

Second, you should really try to install the omega driver as I advised. The Omega team is really a professional bunch of people, doing this service since several years, and are expert enough to provide drivers for both Nvidia and ATI. I'm using one on my laptop, because laptops often have trouble getting a new driver, and had no problems. No users who installed an Omega Driver reported any problem by the way (and I recommend installing it since BOA, february 2006). At worst, they are as good as the officials ones

Here is a jpeg on how to deinstall first your video driver:

[Spruce]

hello, I might help you cause I'm the "proud" owner of a 9600 card and I got myself into a horrible struggle to play this game.

I experience somewhat other problems - my mouse jumps and seems to zoom in and out - and click totally unintended.

First of all - I also adivse to try the omega drivers - cause it helped in my case - but I didn't un-install my ATI drivers. The result was that 75% of problems got solved - but not all. So omega drivers is an improvement.

So follow Pocus leads.

Now, eventually I solved the problem by screwing up my drivers totally - I did something wrong and XP asked me to insert VGA drivers software. I took the original software CD from ATI - and installed the VGA drivers from the CD. And everything works perfectly now. But I must confess I considered buying myself an NVDIA card as an upgrade.

so - check if you have your old CD at bay - it has to do with some update of the ATI drivers.

[gbs]

Hi,

I don't mind that you post here, because it is the true that some ATI 9xxx users have this problem (not all, thanks god). After getting some answers, we will move and stick this thread to the tech forum though, where it belongs.

First thing: if you crash, you don't have to restart the whole game, as the issue is a random, illegal operation, done by the video driver. So basically, you 'just' have to reload your turn, not restart the whole game. Very annoying I know,this is why we will refund any player still having the problem, after trying to find an issue, that is.

Second, you should really try to install the omega driver as I advised. The Omega team is really a professional bunch of people, doing this service since several years, and are expert enough to provide drivers for both Nvidia and ATI. I'm using one on my laptop, because laptops often have trouble getting a new driver, and had no problems. No users who installed an Omega Driver reported any problem by the way (and I recommend installing it since BOA, february 2006). At worst, they are as good as the officials ones

Here is a jpeg on how to deinstall first your video driver:

Pocus, on your first item above, when I am sitting at the blue screen, I have to restart the whole computer. I don't think I follow you here.

[gbs]

hello, I might help you cause I'm the "proud" owner of a 9600 card and I got myself into a horrible struggle to play this game.

I experience somewhat other problems - my mouse jumps and seems to zoom in and out - and click totally unintended.

First of all - I also adivse to try the omega drivers - cause it helped in my case - but I didn't un-install my ATI drivers. The result was that 75% of problems got solved - but not all. So omega drivers is an improvement.

So follow Pocus leads.

Now, eventually I solved the problem by screwing up my drivers totally - I did something wrong and XP asked me to insert VGA drivers software. I took the original software CD from ATI - and installed the VGA drivers from the CD. And everything works perfectly now. But I must confess I considered buying myself an NVDIA card as an upgrade.

so - check if you have your old CD at bay - it has to do with some update of the ATI drivers.

Thanks Spruce. I bought my computer from DELL and it came with this card. I will look through my documentation and see if they sent along the original disk.
Do you have a web site for the Omega download?
Are we sure that the NVIDIA cards work OK?

[Chamberlain]

GBS,

I am using an NVIDA card, with the NVIDA drivers that came with the card. I am using this on the Windows Vista Operating System.

No problems at all. I have been running this game for 1 week now.

The card id GeForce 7600 GS with 512 MB.

Hope this helps.

Chamberlain

[arsan]

Hi!

Don´t know if it could help...
I have an ati 9600 pro and haven't got any problems with AACW. It works great.
Buuuut... i had problems with mi ati drivers and BoA.
It was similar to what spruce is describing: jerky mouse (specially in the ledger) a bad map scrolling. You can see it on this thread

http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?p=17027#post17027

The STRANGE thing is that ...
It all began when i [color="Black"]upgradded my ati drivers [/color]to the last official ones (7.1).
Before, with my old 4.3 drivers from 2004 everything worked fine!!-
I uninstalled the new 7.1 ones and installed again the 4.3 ones and BoA worked great again.
And it seems ati 4.3 drives likes AACW too. Zero problems till now
Maybe what its needed is a driver "downgrade"

Cheers
Arsan

[PDF]

Hello
Until last autumn I had a radeon9600, I never had any problem with BoA (even with Win98, one year before), nor the very first AACW betas. But I've always used Omega drivers...

[gbs]

I have now installed the latest Omega drivers for Radeon cards. Only had time to run one phase and no problem so far. Keeping my fingers crossed.

[Pocus]

Hi!

Don´t know if it could help...
I have an ati 9600 pro and haven't got any problems with AACW. It works great.
Buuuut... i had problems with mi ati drivers and BoA.
It was similar to what spruce is describing: jerky mouse (specially in the ledger) a bad map scrolling. You can see it on this thread

http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?p=17027#post17027

The STRANGE thing is that ...
It all began when i upgradded my ati drivers to the last official ones (7.1).
Before, with my old 4.3 drivers from 2004 everything worked fine!!-
I uninstalled the new 7.1 ones and installed again the 4.3 ones and BoA worked great again.
And it seems ati 4.3 drives likes AACW too. Zero problems till now
Maybe what its needed is a driver "downgrade"

Cheers
Arsan

you are perhaps not far from reality there, the older drivers are more stable when the video card is not the latest (the reverse logic can be applied, the latest drivers are optimized for the latest generations of card, and have a reduced stability for the olders cards).
Do you have a link to this 4.3 driver, or can you send it to me, I can keep it in case of need for players.

Thanks.

[Pocus]

I have now installed the latest Omega drivers for Radeon cards. Only had time to run one phase and no problem so far. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Have you uninstalled your official driver before? It increases significantly stability to uninstall before installing, and not adding a layer above another (even if most of the files are replaced, true).

[arsan]

Hi Pocus

The Ati download page don´t have drivers so old (they just go back to 6.XX)

On google i have found some links but the download didn´t work. It points to the ati page and Ati doesn´t let you download it

Anyway, i have the drivers on my hard disk since 2004. I can email it to you but its nearly 24 MB zipped!
It´s OK or its too big?
Where do i send it??
Cheers
Arsan

[pasternakski]

I've got an ATI Rage 9800, and my drivers are the 6.xx ones. AACW is working splendidly for me.

I haven't gotten around to upgrading the drivers more out of laziness than anything else, but my attitude is, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

[gbs]

Have you uninstalled your official driver before? It increases significantly stability to uninstall before installing, and not adding a layer above another (even if most of the files are replaced, true).

Yes I unstalled first the most current ATI driver I had. I then installed the Omega and restarted.

[arsan]

I've got an ATI Rage 9800, and my drivers are the 6.xx ones. AACW is working splendidly for me.

I haven't gotten around to upgrading the drivers more out of laziness than anything else, but my attitude is, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

That´s a good attitude!
I decided to "upgrade" after 3 years o laziness only to broke what have been working great all this time
I learn the lesson! From now on i´ll be lazy forever!

[Pocus]

Hi Pocus

The Ati download page don´t have drivers so old (they just go back to 6.XX)

On google i have found some links but the download didn´t work. It points to the ati page and Ati doesn´t let you download it

Anyway, i have the drivers on my hard disk since 2004. I can email it to you but its nearly 24 MB zipped!
It´s OK or its too big?
Where do i send it??
Cheers
Arsan

ah yes, I would definitively want to have it. Send it thru rogepost, it will be less hassle.

go to: rogepost.com and then upload the file.

Thanks again.

[arsan]

Pocus

This evening, when i come home from work, i´ll investigate this rogepost.com
Never heard of it!
Hope its not to technical...
Cheers

[LAVA]

Hi!

Okay I have an ATI Radeon X600 Pro video card and was experiencing a lot of CTD's and errors.

I followed Pocus' advise last night, uninstalled the ATI Radeon drivers (I went to add/remove programs... found the drivers there) and then installed the Omega drivers.

I was a little afraid about how this would effect my system and my other games. So after putting in the Omega drivers I tried out a game or so of BF2142 and the video performance was fine... perhaps... even better.

So today I gave AACW a try and... well... nothing to report. No CTD's, no critical errors... it seemed to work quite well. The only noticeable difference was that the scroll rate seemed a bit slower.

Overall... the advice to change to Omega drivers seems to be a sound, not only for AACW... but in general.

Thanks Pocus!

Ray (aka LAVA)

[ERutins]

I've used Omega drivers on several ATI systems for years and generally found them to be better than the equivalent official ATI versions. I think moving to the Omegas is generally an upgrade for ATI users.

[arsan]

Hi !
I managed to upload the 4.3 ati drivers at rogepost
It was surprisingly easy!!
Pocus, or anybody who want them, here is the link

http://www.rogepost.com/n/4905061306

It's a 24 Mb download

Cheers!
Arsan

[gbs]

After about 3.5 hours of play with Omega drivers I finally had a crash form a critical error that went to the Blue Screen. Up to that point I was quite excited. The message said the problem was in the Win 32.sys file. The real problem is now when I try to continue the game from the main screen I immediately get the error message and can't continue. I was in March of 62 and hate to lose all that. You guys having no trouble don't how lucky you are. I may try these 4.3 drivers next. I refuse to quit.

[arsan]

Can't you go just one turn back through the Load Game menu??
It keeps crashing??

It will be a pity have to start again the whole campaign!

[LAVA]

I was in March of 62 and hate to lose all that.

Check out this thread and marecone's instructions for restoring saves:

http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?t=3411

Ray (aka LAVA)

[Pocus]

After about 3.5 hours of play with Omega drivers I finally had a crash form a critical error that went to the Blue Screen. Up to that point I was quite excited. The message said the problem was in the Win 32.sys file. The real problem is now when I try to continue the game from the main screen I immediately get the error message and can't continue. I was in March of 62 and hate to lose all that. You guys having no trouble don't how lucky you are. I may try these 4.3 drivers next. I refuse to quit.

And I applaude your will

You can delete manually the current turn and use the backup (manually) if case of trouble in-game. If you are in difficulty, I will do that for you.

And if some programers out there want to do an external utility for this kind of trouble, don't hesitate

[christof139]

Hi, Something wierd happened to me. I loaded AACW on my new computer then upgraded it with the 1.01a patch. Everything was working fine befor I did this, and AACW also works fine on my old compooter.

However, my new compooter started rebooting itself after I loaded AACW about 3 - 5 times or so, then it stopped and I played AACW a bit. Then I shut doen my machine through WinXP, It was of maybe 10 - 12 hours or so, and when I tried to boot it up I can't, no power or anything, and my power unit is new as is my motherboard and everything else.

I don't think I can even clear my CMOS now and reset my BIOS if I have to as I have no power it seems.

Do you think my power unit died???

I am very befuddled and sad, as I am going to have to take my new comppoter to a shop methinks. I built it myself and it had been working very, very well.

Could a virus do this?? Could a WinXP upgrade do this??

I hope my motherboard isn't dead.

I can't determine what the heck happened!??! leure:

Any ideas please??

Chris

[Korrigan]

What you describe can't be related to AACW or another software.
I'm afraid you're having a problem with your power unit or your motherboard.
I hope it's not too bad and that you'll get a refund...

Best regards,

Korrigan

[christof139]

What you describe can't be related to AACW or another software.
I'm afraid you're having a problem with your power unit or your motherboard.
I hope it's not too bad and that you'll get a refund...

Best regards,

Korrigan

That's what I unfortunately thought. leure: What a drag.

No refund, as i put the compooter together myself and it will be a great hassle to try and get replacement parts and/or refunds. Bought everything new though but that won't help.

Seems that the 650W Antec power unit must be bad, so I will have this checked and hope it is only the power unit and not the mother board.

Poop.

Thanx for the advice.

At least my 4 to 5-year old compooter works fine, and it has its original 300W power unit!!!

Chris

[Primasprit]

Hi christof139,

you you have a LED on your mainboard which should always glow, if you didn't turned the power unit manually off (with the switch on the backside). If it is not glowing this could mean that a) your power unit died or b) the mainboard.

If it glows you can try some things:

I don't think I can even clear my CMOS now and reset my BIOS if I have to as I have no power it seems.

You can do this without power: On your mainboard is a jumper which you can set to clear the CMOS/BIOS and set it to factory settings. The mainboard manual will tell you where to find that. It is worth a try.

In the next step you can remove all components the computer you don't need to wake up: Everything except CPU, memory, graphic card.
If the computer still doesn't wake up mainboard or CPU may be dead. Normally the mainboard will tell you with some acoustic signals if there is a problem with the graphic card or the RAM but as a last desperate measure you can try to pull it out and plug it in again, perhaps some loose connection.

Good luck!

[christof139]

Thanx for the advice, plus I talked to our compooter guy at work and he thought it was the PU. So, I went back to the mail order place on Ebay that I got the A-Power 680W PU from (their warehouse id only 2-3 miles away from me), and the great fellow there exchanged my defunct PU for a new one of the same type. We tested my old PU there and it was dead, but the new one now works fine in my new compooter!!!

Glad it wasn't my Mobo that went bad.

So, I now have 2-compooters again!!!

Chris

PS: And yes, the PU's are unfortunately made in China. apy:

[Korrigan]

Glad it turned out this way!