The World of Avlis

I installed a new 9800 GT graphics card a week ago. The card runs fine and runs other games with no problem. But it does not seem to like NWN if i try playing NWN it runs for about 10 -15 minutes then locks up completely. Nothing seems to work and the only option is to press the reset button on my PC

I am running Windows XP service pack 3

Anybody has any idea of the solution to this

Have you downloaded the latest driver? That is always the first thing to check.

Scott

i had a similar problem and it was heat related,i put a new fan in and it solved it

If you think it might be overheating, you want to grab some of the Nvidia monitoring software, open up the case and have an external fan blowing on it to help cool it, or touch it and if it tries to melt your skin it might be too hot.

That will at least let you know (the 3rd one being the least accurate test) if it's a heating problem so real solutions can be made, such as Ashan's post.

There are free programs that can check you GPU temperature, so you don't have to actually touch it.
However, if everything runs fine, I don't think it isn't the temperature.

i dont know as much as I would like about computers, but from personal experience, windows xp isnt that great a software to run on.

You should either go to Vista or 7. Vista is what i am on, and runs NwN just fine. i have heard that vista isnt that great either, but, from my experience, its a hell of a lot better than XP

XP > Vista
7 > XP

ive not had a lot of good things with XP, but im not going to argue with someone that knows more than me!

Zar'roc wrote:ive not had a lot of good things with XP, but im not going to argue with someone that knows more than me!

Speaking only from provable standpoints and not personal preference, Vista is a resource hog in comparison. Theoretically one could just buy a better system to get the equivalent, but that's not always practical or efficient.

XP being older than Vista requires less resources, so naturally the operating system itself isn't going to bog down the computer as bad. But it's old, so that alone has its drawbacks.

7 is newer and uses much less resources than Vista does.


After some research, let's see if anything I just said is true:

http://windows7forums.com/windows-7-dis ... -more.html
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/review ... s_7_review


I'm reading the article now.

I don't think its a heat problem as it handles more demanding games than NWN with no problems.

But what is a good programme to test the heats of my GPU.

"more demanding" programs might actually be "more sensible" programs, i.e. they do more work with fewer computations. Graphics isn't like weightlifting, where you're only allowed to use more muscles to lift more weight. Sometimes the developers add 3x the weight and give you a pulley system to lift with - one that hadn't been invented when NWN was coded.

My suggestion is to turn off Shiny Water and see what you get.

Darkfire wrote:http://www.nvidia.com/object/system_monitor.html

took me to a nice advert but.. the Dl link under the advert took me to a driver DL page
the link to the left of the advert took me too the instructions maual. where's the program?

your card will be overheating or coming close if you don't use another program to adjust your fan speeds.
Nvidia's auto fan speed adjust doesn't work , I use Riva tuner got it from guru for free

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=163

It doesn't montor heat but trust me when I say my 2, 8800 gt alpha dogs, my 8800gts oc'd and
my 9800 gtx superclocked all had the fan speed issue.. currently only have the 8800 gts and 9800 gtx
in machines , they both work fine with riva tuner speeding up the fan manually.

Win xp is or was a nightmare for the 9800 gtx superclocked, it never locked up but it had some serious anomolies caused
by lack of driver attention by nvidia, it's tip top with vista probably would be even better with win 7,
from what I've experienced Win 7 is Xp's smarter smoother brother. Vista is the PITA bitchy sister thats screaming and ratting you out..
so you may still have issues with xp even after you adjust the fan speed ensuring your card is cool so don't expect to much it's xp and the industry is putting the final nails in its coffin .. ..

IIRC, you have to install drivers and in the install manager you have to select the options for the Monitor as well as the Control Panel for it. I use both of em, they are teh shitz.

Albion wrote:I don't think its a heat problem as it handles more demanding games than NWN with no problems.

But what is a good programme to test the heats of my GPU.

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php used to be good. The nvidia system monitor for a few things, but is a serious resource hog.

My full time desktop system stats are done by http://www.samurize.com/, but that uses speedfan for some stats. I also use the now dead motherboard monitor to kick in forced shutdowns with ShutDown NOW!, but I like to overclock stuff far too much. The big thing to remember is that nwn runs one of your cpu cores at 100% constantly, and the toolset as well. It is just stupid that way, and those cards don't use full fan speed most times unless you tell them to with nwn, so you may well be overheating on it.

You did remember to set Client CPU Affinity=1 in nwnplayer.ini under [Game Options], right? It chugs with anything else.

Well i updated the drivers and downloaded GPU-Z. The card temperature is 47C when under no stress. It will go up when i play a game but i don't think 47C is very high.

Update still locking up after 10 minutes or so. I am out of ideas and the stupid Bioware forum tells me i need to be a game owner to post on their forum. Yet when i go into my account there it lists the serial numbers of the NWN discs i own.

Go figure

I suppose its down to playing an 8 year old game. No doubt a 9800GT GPU was not even a twinkle in Nvidea's eye when NWN came out

Albion wrote:I installed a new 9800 GT graphics card a week ago. The card runs fine and runs other games with no problem. But it does not seem to like NWN if i try playing NWN it runs for about 10 -15 minutes then locks up completely. Nothing seems to work and the only option is to press the reset button on my PC

I am running Windows XP service pack 3

Anybody has any idea of the solution to this

Albion wrote:Well i updated the drivers and downloaded GPU-Z. The card temperature is 47C when under no stress. It will go up when i play a game but i don't think 47C is very high.

Update still locking up after 10 minutes or so. I am out of ideas and the stupid Bioware forum tells me i need to be a game owner to post on their forum. Yet when i go into my account there it lists the serial numbers of the NWN discs i own.

Go figure

I suppose its down to playing an 8 year old game. No doubt a 9800GT GPU was not even a twinkle in Nvidea's eye when NWN came out

Albion, I have had the EXACT same issue and what's more, I still do. My vidcard is a GeForce GTS 250 but man, do I ever have the "play all games and run all apps just fine but lock up in Avlis" issue! I get the black screen, then the audio starts stuttering and looping, and then I have to reset. I am currently running XP but when I first set up my system I installed 7 and it did the same thing so I went back to XP because I like it better (sue me!) I also initially upgraded to the latest vid drivers for my card but discovered that NWN worked MUCH better when I rolled back to a stable and tested version, which in my case is about a year old.

After all that, it would still lock up. Only fix for me is opening my case and blowing a fan on the damned thing. I forget to do that, I lock up. I'm buying a Coolermaster HAF case soon which will hopefully give me the permanent fixer, but for now it works. Heat issues. Just try it and see what happens.

BTW, I have everything but shiny water enabled.

Strickpt i have been told the it is a backwards comparability problem with the 9800GT.

It seems that disabling some of the settings in the NVIDIA control panel may help. I will let you know if i have any success disabling the settings.

If it's not a driver compatibility issue; watch your CPU and GPU usage, and listen to your fan while NWN is running.

Like Spool said earlier, some of these old programs aren't very efficient with their usage. Get another case fan or two if you want it to look nice, otherwise bust everything open and buy a pretty box fan

I had the exact same problems with my big fancy computer at my parents' house. NWN consistently got my gpu and whatever cpu core it was using hotter than Witcher did with graphics maxed out.

Got my nice new Coolermaster HAF 922 in last week and put my system in it. This thing is sweet! Super quiet, leaps and bounds over my old "box fan" quick fix. It's quieter than my old system was even without the fan.

And yes. It runs my NWN without crashing. Happy, happy camperville.

Albion wrote:Strickpt i have been told the it is a backwards comparability problem with the 9800GT.

It seems that disabling some of the settings in the NVIDIA control panel may help. I will let you know if i have any success disabling the settings.

My 9800GT runs much cooler than my 7950 did, but also came with a pretty nice Zalman heatsink/fan combo on it. Replacing the stock one can be a pain in the ass on some cards, I actually killed the 7950 because the screws had been overtightened at the factory But, if you want to give it a go, you can get a decent cooler and ram heatsinks, and go with it. Just make sure you have an extra slot below your PCI-E slot, to have room for the heatsink, and airflow.