Doom3 + new vid card = crash?
 

Here's the problem:

Yesterday I bought Doom 3 because I've played the first two to death when I was a kid. I figured since my computer is only about a year old, it would run fine. I have a p4 2.8 ghz processor, 512 mb ram, a geforce 4 64mb. I install it and play it on the lowest quality setting with the smallest screen size, and get about 8 fps. Boo to that.

So, I decide since half life 2 is coming out soon, might as well get a new vid card. I bought an Ati 9800 pro, the one that needs to be hooked up to the power supply to work. I install it, and run doom 3. The performance is much better; however, it will load the level and after about 30 seconds of play time doom 3 shuts down for no reason. Poof, it's gone. I have no idea what is going on, because this has never happened to me before. I guess I'm stuck with Counterstrike until i figure out what is going on. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Someone else on TFP was having the same problem. I'd do a search for Doom 3 and see what you can find. I think the fix had something to do with editing a config file in the folder.

-Lasereth

I looked at that, it's just a performance tweak for Ati vid cards. Mine just crashes. I have no idea what's going on.

Ok, don't worry about it. I'm moving to school in a day, and plan on reformatting my computer since I've had it over a year and haven't done it yet. It's running a little slow, and I'm sure I have lots of crap I don't use. Reinstalling everything should do the trick, otherwise, I'll be back for some more suggestions.

That's just editing the cache so that it works more efficiently.

From reading other similar posts it sounds like you're either overheating, or your PSU can't handle the graphics card.

No, I'm not talking about the performance tweaks. Of course those are editing the config files as well, but I'm certain one user was experiencing crashes during certain parts of the game and used a config file edit to fix it. I may have read it at another forum, but I'm positive on what I read. This is different than the performance tweaks.

-Lasereth

What you're going to want to do is completely clean out all of the NVidia drivers from your system first - you may need to find a program called (I think) DriverCleaner to help.

Then install the ATi card. You may also need to let Doom3 recreate your DoomConfig.cfg file so it knows about the graphics card.

You can also go to the ati website and D/L the drivers that have been tweaked for doom 3. I was having the same problem with crashing until I updated the drivers.

I had no such problems with my 9800 pro. It might be remnants of the Nvidia drives (ooh boy, do I have stories about that...). It might also be a PSU, or overheating.

I'd look at the drivers first, though. A re-format will do the trick.

hey
I had that exact problem, ten minutes with doom3, it would lock for a second, then doom3 would crash...and i have a 2.8 HT with 512MB of ram.
solution

ati's 4.8 or 4.9 catalyst drivers...Lemme see if i can find a link..

found it
http://www.atitech.ca/products/catalyst/index.html

After this, doom3 worked like a charm and i just beat it last night....god is wonderful

thx for the input guys. I think since I'm moving into my new place tomorrow, i'll be in the mood for new things. A reformat to clean out the registry, and reinstall of my drivers for the 9800, install doom 3 and cross my fingers. I'll give those new beta drivers a try if all else fails. Thanks a bunch for all the input guys. You've been a great help.

the 4.8 catalyst drivers aren't beta...i think :0

i did get them from ati, though, and i have not had a single problem since

oh, i gave teh wrong link. for some reason, i could not get winxp's catalyst 4.8 from ati through that link. I went to gamers hell to get it from a mirror.

I had to do a system restore this morning and i had to go througha nd redo all that fun stuff again...stupid stupid sp2..

I know this sounds stupid, but did you follow the instructions? I upgraded from an nVidia card to the same exact ATI card and had no-such-problem. One thing I did do was completely remove the nVidia drivers before swapping the cards out. I wouldn't typcially think to do this... but fortuanately, for whatever reason, I read the manual this time.

just the driver
not sure exactly which 'older' catalyst it is but it did have some issues w/ doom
as noted above, gettin latest ones should remedy the prob

Make sure you have the latest DirectX (9a I think) and update your video card drivers. The driver disc may not have the latest drivers.

9.0b i think is latest for directx. it's on the doom3 cd

Yeah, 9.0b is required for Doom 3, but it's not the latest, Direct X 9.0c is actually being used in the WoW beta. I think that means it might be available for download on MS.

Yeah, DirectX 9c is out but I couldn't find it on MS's site with my quick 45-second extensive search. DirectX 9b is required for many games today...it'll do fine until C is mainstream.

-Lasereth

I just figured that if Blizzard is putting their stamp on it, then it must be at least close to decently ready, I mean, DX can fuck up someone's computer if it's not made for it, although DX 9 has been extremely good about being backwards compatible with older hardware.