Random crash on Windows XP

[shotif]

Random crash on Windows XP

So... I see everyone around here has problems with The Witcher crashing in Windows Vista, but my Witcher crashes on Windows XP SP2... The crashes are really random, sometimes I can play 15 minutes, sometimes a little over an hour, but never longer than that. If I'm running Xfire I get an Xfire exception, if I'm running the game without Xfire it just crashes to desktop, setting my resolution to 640x480@8bpp, which is very unhealthy for my 22'' LCD screen, so I just run Xfire along with the game as it seems to prevent the resolution bug...I have all the latest updates and drivers for my system, and the specs are as follows:Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo E6550 @ 3.33GHz (2 CPUs)Motherboard:Abit IP35, Intel P35 chipsetMemory: 2 * 1024 MB Kingmax DDR2-800 @ 950 MHz @ 5-5-5-18(default)Hard Drives: System: 200 GB & Storage: 160 GB + 250 GB + 500 GBVideo Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 2900 GT, 256 MBMonitor: Samsung SM-2232BW 22''Sound Card: Realtek HD Audio output integratedKeyboard: Logitech EX110 Series KeyboardMouse: Logitech MX620Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2As you can see my system is overclocked, but the overclocking is not causing the crashes as the same things happen when I set everything to default clocks, timings and voltages. The witcher is installed on my 200GB system disk with 172.5 GB of free space.I'm running the game in 1680x1050 resolution, with everything set to maximum except AA and AF which are at 2x and 10x, respectively. The game (while it runs like it should) doesn't lag a bit and I just love it, so it's really hard when it crashes in the middle of a quest and I forgot to quicksave again. I looked through the mass of topics around here but I didn't notice anything that could help me fix my problem.So I beg you, if you have any suggestions, please help me and let me enjoy this great game at it's best!Thanks.

 

[mobidoy]

How big is your page file ? On which drive/Partition is the game installed ?

 

[shotif]

My page file is min 2046 - max 4092 MB. As I wrote in my original post, the game is installed on my system hard drive, primary partition (C (every drive has only one partition on my computer).

 

[mobidoy]

K leave the game as it is but, move your pagefile to another drive (to gain speed) and set it to a static pagefile of 4095 as min and maximum

 

[shotif]

OK I moved my pagefile to a different hard drive (all drives are SATA II so HDD performance shouldn't be an issue) and set it to the fixed size you suggested. Now the game didn't crash to desktop but instead simply froze after 62 minutes of playing and I had to kill it via task manager... So I guess this didn't solve my issue, I'll play again tomorrow just to see if it will crash like before or just freeze again...

 

[shotif]

I tried to play again, it crashed just like before after 27 minutes of playing... So it's not the pagefile's fault after all... Any other suggestions are very welcome!

 

[lavelle568]

I'm having a very similar issue - I keep getting random crashes from a variety of situations. The game usually crashes on a loading screen, but I've also had it crash on mixing a potion or during combat.

 

[mobidoy]

Could you please give more details about your system ?

 

[dragon6261]

Try rurning off your Anti-Virus program during play. I have XP and experinced the same thing until i shut off my anti-virus while playing the game

 

[jton219]

sorry for noob question.. what is a "page file" and how do i find/set/alter it to optimal settings for xp pro sp2..i lowered the resolution of the game and its been more stable but if it crashes again, this will be the next fix i try.

 

[mobidoy]

page file is the virtual memory. It is a space on your hard drive that windows use to temporarily store the information it has in the ram so it can process something else. The game needs a lot of it, if you dont have enought of it, the game will crash due to lack of memory.To change it, see this post. http://www.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?topic=5333.0 start at step 4, dont do step 5 and 6, you can come back later to do them if your problem is fixed Anyway, i have to make another post on how to efficiently use JkDefrag

 

[drakehash]

Just for test, try to play the game with medium details option.And low down the Anisotropic options.Like i say, just for test.By the way, i have found that 90% of errors are because faulty memory, the thing is, when you got lot of memory and the damage part of the memory is on the end of the second module (lets say you have 2 modules of memor, each one with 1 GB and the second memory is the faulty one) during normal use you will never get a error, only when you access the faulty part of the memory, the problems begins, usually only games use all the ram memory soo most ppl get errors when play.For this i usually use a CD-RW or a DVD-RW and burn this program:http://www.memtest.org/#downisoIs free, is Gnu Public License (GPL)Is a memory test, is also nice to see the stabilty of the memory when is OC mode, soo if you know how to burn a .iso image, i suggest download this program, boot your computer with it and see if report any error.Sorry my english.

 

[mobidoy]

Just for test, try to play the game with medium details option.And low down the Anisotropic options.Like i say, just for test.By the way, i have found that 90% of errors are because faulty memory, the thing is, when you got lot of memory and the damage part of the memory is on the end of the second module (lets say you have 2 modules of memor, each one with 1 GB and the second memory is the faulty one) during normal use you will never get a error, only when you access the faulty part of the memory, the problems begins, usually only games use all the ram memory soo most ppl get errors when play.For this i usually use a CD-RW or a DVD-RW and burn this program:http://www.memtest.org/#downisoIs free, is Gnu Public License (GPL)Is a memory test, is also nice to see the stabilty of the memory when is OC mode, soo if you know how to burn a .iso image, i suggest download this program, boot your computer with it and see if report any error.Sorry my english.

You are right about this, but, with this game, what i have found out, is that it will crash at the same spot every single time... why ? Because during installation, the files have been put in memory before being written on the hard drive. So the file that is now install is corrupted so, the game always crash at that spot. But, it is always good to test your memory modules when you have problems in game A lot of players here had found out they had bad memory modules in the first months after release

 

[coastie65]

Try rurning off your Anti-Virus program during play. I have XP and experinced the same thing until i shut off my anti-virus while playing the game

Good call. That latest patch may be a problem as well. I was running quite well after the 1.2 patch. When I installed the 1.2A patch, I started experiencing issues with The Witcher encountering a problem and having to shut down. Guess I'll roll it back to the 1.2 patch. coastie65