ATI Radeon Problem
Dear Telltale,
I have started noticing lower performance since episode 3 if I'm not mistaken. Performance was low, even though my PC is powerful enough to run many action/adventure games. Adventure games are normally easier to run. The bigger problem is my computer started restarting every few minutes, the problem became general Windows issues until I updated to the latest driver. The problem now remains with Sam & Max ep 4, computer restarts after only few minutes into the game. I still did not finish it and ep 5 is coming! I have tried other adventure game like Syberia and did not have any problems. I noticed the same performance and windows restart problems with Ankh however. Looking at how the game is made I can assume Telltale engine was used in it, and it's giving similar behavior. Am I right in my assumption?
My graphics card is ATI Radeon X600 Pro. I understand all the hard effort you put into fixing problems, but the engine seems to be facing serious issues with many graphics cards, and like this I can't think about buying any game I am still stuck with ep 4.
I have started noticing lower performance since episode 3 if I'm not mistaken. Performance was low, even though my PC is powerful enough to run many action/adventure games. Adventure games are normally easier to run. The bigger problem is my computer started restarting every few minutes, the problem became general Windows issues until I updated to the latest driver. The problem now remains with Sam & Max ep 4, computer restarts after only few minutes into the game. I still did not finish it and ep 5 is coming! I have tried other adventure game like Syberia and did not have any problems. I noticed the same performance and windows restart problems with Ankh however. Looking at how the game is made I can assume Telltale engine was used in it, and it's giving similar behavior. Am I right in my assumption?
My graphics card is ATI Radeon X600 Pro. I understand all the hard effort you put into fixing problems, but the engine seems to be facing serious issues with many graphics cards, and like this I can't think about buying any game I am still stuck with ep 4.
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Comments
DirectX: 9.0c
Catalyst® Version 07.2
Provider ATI Technologies Inc.
2D Driver Version 6.14.10.6666
Direct3D Version 6.14.10.0471
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.6347
Catalyst® Control Center Version 2007.0202.1923.34565
AIW/VIVO WDM Driver Version 6.14.10.6238
AIW/VIVO WDM SP Driver Version 6.14.10.6238
This is what came out after installing their latest Catalyst Control Center. If anything is outdated here, please point it out.
I decided to reply in this thread to keep it streamlined.
I have a Radeon 9800 pro video card and here's what happens... During Abe Lincoln Must Die! I had situations where the game would randomly freeze, the screen would go black, and the music would get stuck and stutter. There's no particular point it occurs, just randomly.
I did manage to finish the game, so I decided to play Culture Shock for the first time on this computer. I have the same thing occuring, but I also have situations where my system restarts at random times as well. It can be during an autosave, during a conversation, even walking around. I can't predict a pattern.
My system is capable of running everything o.k.
Windows XP SP2
AMD Athlon 64 3000+
1.5 GB RAM
Radeon 9800 Pro (I noticed new drivers for it yesterday, yet still have the same problems)
Any other information I can give on my system, let me know and I'll provide it.
I won't play Situation Comedy or Mole, Mob, Meatball until I beat Culture Shock again, so unfortunately I can't tell you if there's problems with that.
Even though it seems a lot of people are having problems, thanks for bringing back Sam and Max, and thanks for all your prompt attention to all the threads. I have complete faith in you guys to make the world a safe, hospitable, excessively violent, and entirely devoid of tediousness environment for Canine Shamuses and Hyper Kineticky Rabbity Thingies the world over.
The pattern for this problem is, there is no pattern. I tried to leave the game and go, same problem happened.
That looks right for what card you have...
If you say your computer reboots very often, I have a suggestion:
Go to My Computer > Properties > Advanced > Startup and Recovery > Settings. Uncheck the box labeled "Automatically restart" under "System failure".
Then try to reproduce the crash. It should bring up the blue screen of death, which could help in pinpointing the cause of the error.
Next best thing is to check the system log.
Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management.
Then, in the treeview, go to System Tools > Event Viewer > System.
The OS should dump log information there as long as you have "Write an event to the system log" selected in the startup and recovery options.
Also - episodes 2 and 3 have performance problems because the version of the activation software we used on it had a memory leak. Episode 4 does not have the same memory leak. If you only started noticing problems with episode 3 (not 2), and the problems are continuing with episode 4, it's possible that this is a problem with something on the computer, not with the game. Are episodes 1 and 2 (which I presume played okay for you originally) still okay?
Just because the computer runs other adventure games well does not necessarily mean it will run Sam & Max well. The true test is whether it runs other 3D games well. That said, your Radeon 600 card should run the game.
Thanks again for your followup.
Probably not more recent, but if it is the drivers causing this problem, the Omega drivers might not have the same problem.
Please let us know how it goes.
I think you might mean www.omegadrivers.net Emily.
I do the same with slashdot.net all the time!
[I do the same with slashdot.net all the time! ]
If I dont bookmark it, i would never find it again. Not a smart name to be honest.
I tried all the suggestions, found new driver AGAIN from ATI, downloaded it using MSFT Update, same problem. I tried OmegaDrive as well, I felt happy for few minutes before I saw the PC has restarted again. So we're still where we started
Low res + 800x600 + Omega drivers helped me a lot.
Also is it windowed or full screen?
I seemed that if clicked outside to so something else while in windowed mode is started to hurt performance...
You might also want to shut down your other programs and see if that helps...
Good luck :P
It seems the game is resource intensive causing over-heat problems, as I did not have those issues with other games.
I was able to play
My game path was linear with solving all the puzzles, so I didn't look around at things too much. When I start replaying Situation Comedy, I'll notify you guys if I have any more problems.
I can get you a refund for the games that aren't working, if you want.
EDIT: theundergroundhero, glad that fixed it for you! Let us know how it goes with ep2.
Really thanks to you and all who tried to help. I hope you just take it as a point, if the card overheats and restarts the PC, probably your game is a bit resource intensive. An issue better addressed now before it's too late.
Thanks again. Hope I read 5 star reviews for episode 5 as well
That's the thing, the game isn't all that resource intensive (as I understand it), which is why it's probably due to a driver issue or a driver + something else issue.
Anyway, if we get any new information about this issue, I'll be sure to update this thread. Thanks for your patience.
I hope as much as you do it's not in the game, but in the hardware
I just wanted to post to document my issue and any way in which I might fix it.
A while ago I had a problem with graphics (not ATI), and I had freezes, reboots and sometimes drawing problems (artifacts) while playing 3D games.
The problem was not really on the graphics card or its drivers. My motherboard had an issue with one of the transfer modes used on AGP 8X. The solution was to reduce AGP acceleration from 8X to 4X.
Anyways, my laptop uses PCI for the graphics card
The loading in episode one when leaving the office for the first time is still a little choppy, but it no longer froze on me
Regardless of PCI/AGP/ATI/Whatever; problems related with graphics are mostly graphic cards and graphic card drivers issues. But mostly is not all.
Heck, the problem may be related to using a certain API, which in combination with a specific hardware and software can cause problems. No wonder why developers like consoles...
A good thing to try is:
a) Check for known issues on your hardware with the software provider. If you can't find any, go to "b".
b) Check for known issues on your hardware on hardware related boards. Start with your computer manufacturer, then the hardware manufacturers and finally the community at large (sometimes the only choice)
If you can't find any or don't know enough tech stuff, go to "c".
c) Ask for support
[edit]
I'm not pointing this at anyone in particular, take this post only as a general guide
You can't rule out a power supply problem either. Are you by any chance using a Dell desktop computer? Dell uses only the very lowest priced and quality parts for most of the system. I've had to repair many computers for people who had Dells because their powersupply died for no reason.
The Dell powersupplies I have seen died because they were way, way underpowered. I've seen 180watt generic no-brand Chinese powersupplies in Dells with a couple CD/DVD writers and fairly large Intel's. Oy...
Normally you should clean your system every 6-12 month. 3-6 month for notebooks (without onboard grafik). Depens on usage and cooling system.