Online Game Issue

[jeffh]

Hi Shane,

A friend of mine is having a gaming issue. The game is TW08 golf and we play on the PGAX online tour. In order to play the online tournaments we have to go through a launcher but he's finding that, recently, his TW08 game is frequently crashing when he tries to play the tourneys through the launcher and apparently that's the only time the game crashes on him.

He's submitted a copy of the dxdiag file for his computer on the PGAX site and asked if anyone could analyze it to see if there's any problems in that area. If I were to send the dxdiag file to you, do you think you might be able to do the analysis and possibly spot any glitches (if indeed there are any) that might be causing the game to suddenly start crashing on him as of late??

I've looked it over but I can't personally see anything there that would cause this problem, everything looks good and up to date to me, but then again I'm just a minor geek with no real solid expertise in this particular area.

If you can see no apparent problem in the dxdiag file (providing you agree to take a look at it) perhaps you can suggest another and/or other possible reason/s as to why this problem might be sudenly manifesting itself. I await your reply and TIA

Cheers
Jeff

[Shane]

I am a huge gamer my self. So I know what he is going through

Games rely on a number of things, DirectX is just one of them.

Here is a few things to try.
First download and have DirectX update it self. It will replace any missing files.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyid=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&displaylang=en

Then 2 big things the games rely on as well.
Video and Sound drivers. Personally I rarely have trouble with sound drivers. But it does happen. And if anything got out of whack with the video or sound drivers then this would explain the crashes as well.

So check for updated video drivers and install them. Same goes for sound, download any updated version and install it.

After all these things are done make sure to reboot.

Shane

[Evan]

I just had a game that wouldn't work and downloading the newest DirectX files (which I thought I had) fixed the problem immediately.   

Give it a try and let us know if anything changes. If it doesn't then you might try re-installing the software as it could be an issue with some of the online specific files.

Evan

[jeffh]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the quick replies.....

I've passed along your suggestions to him, telling him to start with uninstalling and reinstalling the game in case there are corrupted dll files causing the problem, and if that doesn't work, to find, dowload and install new drivers for his video and sound card/s, in the event that's possibly where the corruption lies.

In any event I'm going to attach 2 items here for your scrutiny. One is a copy of his dxdiag file and one is a copy of his event viewer dump file.

I don't know if these will give you any clues as to his dilemma but perhaps you can spot something amiss there somewhere.....Cheers...Jeff


[attachments over 25 days old deleted by admin]

[Shane]

Don't forget to make him download the directx setup to make sure it is up to date.

I had one game crashing on my Windows 7 system. Turned out the old DirectX 9 files it wanted where missing for some reason. My dxdiag showed all was fine, because it was dx 11 it was testing. a quick reinstall of directx replaced the missing files and I was good to go

Shane

[Evan]

I ran into the same type of problem that Shane is describing earlier this week. So be sure to give that a try.

Evan

[jeffh]

Thanks again Fellas

He did find that his sound card driver was an older one, so he's updated it and he reported this morning that he played the first round of a tourney (through the launcher) without incident.....So far so good!! Just 7 more rounds of 2 tourneys to play, now only time will tell if that's what hopefully "was" causing his problem...??

If it turns out that his game is still crashing he'll do the DX11 reinstall.

Others on the PGAX site have suggested it could possibly be a windows update issue or something else he may have added and that he should do a system restore to a time prior to when this started happening. That may also be another option for him to pursue, I suppose....??

In any event, my fingers are crossed for him that it was just the outdated SC driver....

Cheers Guys!!

[Evan]

If it is a windows update then he needs to find out exactly which one. Most of the updates keep you safe and it's really up to the game developer to update their game to work with the Windows update. If he needs to do a system restore just be sure he knows which update to opt out of.

Let us know if he gets through the whole tournament without any trouble. When he does and we hear back we will lock the thread. 

Evan

[jeffh]

Ok Evan....Sounds good and will do....

[jeffh]

Hey Guys,

I was hoping that we had this solved and it appeared we had, until this morning when he informed me that he'd experienced another issue while playing his game.

Apparently his game screen froze and the only way he could get out of it was to do a hard shutdown. Now one person has suggested it may have something to do with the amount of shared memory being used on his machine (this can be viewed in the dxdiag file), while another suggested it could be a power supply problem while yet another has said it sounds as though it may be a hardware problem, as opposed to a software problem and that he should probably take his computer back to vendor he bought it from and have them look at it (I'm tending to lean in this direction also), but I'm fairly sure he would like to avoid this, if at all possible.

So here I am once again on his behalf to ask if you might have any thoughts on this new development with his TW08 computer gaming woes...??

Now he didn't mention whether or not he'd updated his DX11 but I don't believe he has, otherwise I'm quite sure he would have told me he had done so. Would playing the game with a corrupt or incomplete DX11 cause his computer to freeze while in gameplay??

Any suggestions as to his best possible option/s for a fix to this problem will (again!!) be most appreciated....

Cheers!!

[Evan]

He could certainly have power supply problems and memory could definitely be a problem.  Does your friend run into the same problems if they turn the video settings down in the game? If the problem goes away then a more powerful card might be needed.  Also, do you know how much memory the system has and what OS it is running?

Evan

[jeffh]

Hey Evan,

If you take a look at his dxdiag file which is to attached to post #4 all his computer info is there, but just in case you can no longer access the attachment, I'll reattach it here.


[attachments over 25 days old deleted by admin]

[Shane]

There could be a 100 different reasons for the game to freeze. But unless he is having trouble with other games or programs his hardware should be fine. Reason why is if it is hardware you will have problems elsewhere.

Having said that though the problems could only come out when the hardware is pushed to its max. That's why some say power supply and such. Best way to find out is to use a hardware stressing program to find out.

I am not home right now or I would give you a few links on ones to try.

Also his system wasn't hard locked when the game crashed. The game just wouldn't end so his desktop would come back. And yes corrupt directx files can do that. Games rely heavily on directx.

Shane

[jeffh]

Thanks Shane,

I'll pass your last post along to him. I have Everest Ultimate myself with which I can do stress testing but If you could at some point send me some links to other programs that'll do the same, possibly free ones (if any are available...??), it would be of great help.

Sorry to keep bothering you with this but I'm just trying to help this fellow out as he's a really nice guy with really no computer savvy other than that of little better than a typical user and I feel for his frustration.

If I had access to his computer, I'm sure (given some time) I could get to the bottom of the problem, but unfortunately he's in Great Britain while I reside on the west coast of Canada....Needless to say...."Say no more"...."Nod's as good as a wink to a blind horse"....   ....lol

Cheers.....Jeff

[Shane]

Thats why this forum is here, to help with anything computer or network related

Looks like http://download.cnet.com/Everest-Ultimate-Edition/3000-2086_4-10499291.html
is a 30 day trial, so perfect for him to try.

Shane