A bug? Or a harware problem? Help... Anyone...

[Malicen]

So the problem is like this. When I turn on Anti-aliasing to at least 2x the game goes nuts after a few minutes of play. The screen freezes and become blurred and mixed up. Then I get the message that VPU driver can not communicate with the VPU! All other settings are turned to max but only when I turn AA on the game goes nuts. Though just a moment ago the problem occurred even without AA, this was the first time and I've been playing the game for a week now. It happens in HoF, I did not try this on H5 ver. 1.4. In all other games everything is all right.

I have AMD 64 3000+ on Gigabyte M55S-S3 with 1GB RAM and Gigabyte ATI Radeon X 1650Pro. Drivers are updated to the latest version.

If anyone had a similar problem or encountered this one I would be grateful for an advice.

Thanks.

[DeejMaster]

I would set everything up for application need and not force things like AA and such, mainly because I am not sure what all that stuff stands for. I know that alot of FPS players like to have these various functions for detail because other players/artifacts can get lost in the background scenery, but I rarely play FPS games.

Make sure the refresh rate is 70-85 mhz (or what ever your monitor can support). Mine is set at 85 mhz and my desktop is 1024x768. You don't have to push the settings, try 70 mhz first. Your screen is going to do something funny, but not to worry. You just adjust your monitor. Try out the game and see if that helps. If it works for a while then goofs up again, try 75 mhz, then 80 mhz, etc.

I would also try playing the game at default resolution.

You might also back date your Catalyst Drivers. If you have the most recent ones from ATI/Gigabyte and the problem occured after you updated, then it could be simply a bug in the current drivers. Remember, you must remove the previous drivers before installing the new drivers.

Is the Gigabyte motherboard a nVidia Chipset? You may need to go straight to the nVidia Website and get drivers from there instead of using the ones from Gigabyte. If it is a VIA Chipset, AMD Chipset or ALI Chipset, I would also resort to the Chipset manufacturers website and see if there are any compatibility/fixes that are available.

You are running Win XP Home or Pro? You mention that you are running an AMD 64 3000? I thought AMD 64's were dual-core 3800 and above. Could it be a Sempron or XP? If it is a 64, you may need to get dual-core processor support from Microsoft, they have a fix for it and so does the AMD website.

However, I would check my Video Graphics settings and verify that they are set to application need and that my refresh rates are set properly. I'm lazy.

[Malicen]

Wow! Loads of information. I have lots of things to try now.

As for your questions... It is AMD Athlon 64 AM2 processor (not X2) 3000+. Motherboard has nForce 550 chipset. And it is WinXP SP2. It happened with both back dated drivers and latest drivers.

Thanks for the info. I'll try this out.

[NeXaR]

See also in your graphic drivers config (not in the game) the settings for Antialising, anisotropic and such. Set them to "let applications configure it" if it's not selected, this may be a conflict between the game and the driver both trying to set AA to different values.

[Malicen]

Yes, this thought crossed my mind when the problem occurred for the first time, but AA wasn't manually set in catalyst center. This is not causing the crashes that's for sure.