The online racing simulator
Problem with graphics freezing
(141 posts, started )
that's why i'd like to hear some intel+ Vista users if they have similar problems...
Hello all,

I noticed that there were some common hardwares with which the trouble occurs.

-AMD Athlon
-Hitachi Ide HD
-NVidia GForce2 (but it seems that the same problem occurs with other graphic cards)

I moved LFS from my first Maxtor HD to the Hitachi one. Nevertheless, I don't think that this would affect LFS. I'm using both HD now.

I'm still wondering why LFS ran perfectly before. The graphic freezing only happened while Avast antivirus updates the virusdata at this time. I disable the Avast automatic updating option accordingly while I use LFS and I got no problem until our common trouble happened.

The problem we are encoutering occured recently. I don't know what happened meanwhile.

On the other hands, I updated my W version into X10 one and I made several tests for more than hour. There was no problem until LFS hung completely my PC. I restarted it and unfortunately the same bug which affects us occured once again.

I hope we will solve out this problem. Maybe Scawen and his team should be kept informed.

I will stay tuned
OK, I've just been back through all the threads I could find regarding this problem and all of the users that have specified their processor type have AMDs. Shinrar had the problem with an Intel but he managed to solve it so that may have had a different cause.

So I think I will raise this as a bug and see if the devs can look into it, maybe they will already have some idea of what the problem might be. If they can't fix it I guess I'll be buying a new mobo and an Intel CPU.
I've tried on two seperate HDs, different brands, and disconnected the other one while I tested it, so I'm pretty sure it's not the HD.

I've also tried two NVidia GFX cards, one an FX(5) series, the other a 6 series. The problem has been reported with ATI cards too though so so I don't think it's caused by the GFX card either.

The AMD has to be the prime suspect.
#55 - Jakg
What memory do you all have then? What speed? What make?
Well kx_mole and I have different amounts, makes and speeds for a start.

But I do take your point, it could be anything, and without the full spec of every machine it has happened on it will be hard to be confident of the cause. But from the info we do have, it's the prime suspect.
#57 - Jakg
i was just wondering what is common to AMD's, seems they are all Skt. A, too.

This hardware geek is stumped, sorry
"I really appreciate if anyone here can suggest me a suitable driver"

42.23 is a known good driver for a GF 4200 card. Google for it and give it a try.

Regards...

________
BMW F650
#59 - Dmt
I got this problem for ages , you have to agree with it
Quote from Dmt :I got this problem for ages , you have to agree with it

What is your spec? Do you have an AMD too, and if so what type is it?
Quote from R.Kolz : "I really appreciate if anyone here can suggest me a suitable driver"

42.23 is a known good driver for a GF 4200 card. Google for it and give it a try.

Regards...

Thanks. I have installed on saturday a 56.72 driver, and it seems that my problems gone, but I dont want to drink before , so I am still testing it... :X I will post here if it is still ok after a few days... fingers crossed I tested it about 3-4 hours, and no stuttering yet.......

if anyone would like to try, here is the link: http://http.download.nvidia.co ... _winxp2k_english_whql.exe
#62 - Dmt
Quote from Nick A :What is your spec? Do you have an AMD too, and if so what type is it?

Amd +3000 , 2ghz , 1gb ram
AMD eh, now there's a surprise
..aand what video card?
But I'm also wondering what proportion of the LFS community use AMD processors? It may just be that we have a high number of AMD users anyway? Anyone know?

Another thing I've been meaning to mention for a while...

I went through my replays of the crashes and I noticed that when online the car dissappears and then reappears after the freeze (appears as a lag). When offline, the car appears to continue in a straight line. It doesn't respond to any wheel input during the freeze. I suspect that the offline replay is filling in for the period where no input was recorded.

So it made me think that during the freeze no data is sent to the master server, no controller feedback is detected and no sound or GFX output happens. Sounds like a complete I/O lockup, so it also points towards something caused by or resulting in a problem at the core in the computer, like the CPU.
#66 - Dmt
Radeon 9550
Quote from Dmt :Radeon 9550

Bad news for me, that could mean that Nick is right and not the gfx drivers are behind of this. ( yes I know that Micha told that He has ATI too )
Maybe ATI and nVidia too made the new drivers not fully compatible with "older" video cards.. Who knows... I am still hoping that the old driver solves the problem...
Quote from Nick A :

I went through my replays of the crashes and I noticed that when online the car dissappears and then reappears after the freeze (appears as a lag). When offline, the car appears to continue in a straight line. It doesn't respond to any wheel input during the freeze. I suspect that the offline replay is filling in for the period where no input was recorded.

I checked it too in the past, I am always holding hard the wheel, because after the lockup, it often kicks, due to a collision . Online I am always dropped from the server during this time. One time I checked the replay (it was a OLFSL race), and yes, my car was a big LAG , and disconnected.
[earlier when I was not knowing that the game will start again, I just pressed reset, because I thought it is real freeze.]
problem in LFS
That filename had me worried for a moment. I suggest you post the problem in a seperate thread, I can't see that it has any relevance to the problem discussed here.
good evening and fast help to the flooded ones amongst us,

well i remember that scawen said once that this sim is other than the regular directX app.
In terms of generating the output AFTER the processing of the sim data took place.
So when lfs freezes, it doesn't actually freeze in the graphics section but in the processing of the output.
Unlike nfs for example, it freezes too -once- but resumes next frame, so if u'd be to capture all output frames and eliminate the duplicate frames, you'd never notice there was a glitch.

After reading my writings, i realized, that lfs continues while frozen... :/
Nfs -> freeze and resume where you got frozen
Lfs -> freeze and find yourself somewhere else (on/offline the same result)
I for one find myself to drop speed (braking) and steering to "where i should be by now" to avoid collisions while "frozen".
Assuming this is true and i'm not starting on false assumptions, i'd really (3rd time asking) like to hear something from our non AMD users about this problem...

this is really getting odd since the systems today are getting too complex to pinpoint a problems reason.

regards
#72 - Jakg
Quote from Nick A :But I'm also wondering what proportion of the LFS community use AMD processors? It may just be that we have a high number of AMD users anyway? Anyone know?

Used to be that (pre-C2D days) if you built your own PC you went AMD because Pentiums sucked, and LFS tends to attract the more computer literate players to it

EDIT - AMD 3700 - No Problems, but then it doesn't seem to be AMD users but specifically AMD Socket A users.
Quote from Jakg :
EDIT - AMD 3700 - No Problems, but then it doesn't seem to be AMD users but specifically AMD Socket A users.

True, but I don't know the socket type of most of the people who have reported it. It seems to be 2400/2800/3000's etc, mainly Athlons (but mine is a Sempron - would they all be Socket A? I haven't seen a >3000 reporting the problem.
Today another 3 hours (off and online too) without freeze... I can suggest to the Geforce 5- users to test the driver I linked... Maybe I am lucky that there are no freezes, but maybe not... Give it a try. (I used driver cleaner before it.)
#75 - Jakg
Quote from Nick A :True, but I don't know the socket type of most of the people who have reported it. It seems to be 2400/2800/3000's etc, mainly Athlons (but mine is a Sempron - would they all be Socket A? I haven't seen a >3000 reporting the problem.

some 754 and (iirc) 939 Semprons too.

Problem with graphics freezing
(141 posts, started )
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG