Prey freezes+Soundcrash

[The Rock]

Hi!

When i play Prey for about 5-10 min it freezes and the sound crashes.
When i load the game i can play 5-10min further but then it freezes again.

My System:
Athlon Xp 2600+
Asus A7N8X
Radeon 9500 Pro
Audigy 2ZS
1 GB Ram
newest drivers

It all ran smooth on high details with good framerate.

So plz help me because what i saw of this game made me want more :D

[MindFire]

Same here, except it only works for about a minute before freezing, with the sound going into a loop, requiring a reboot.

Athlon XP 2100+
Gigabyte GA-7VAX
Geforce 6600GT
Audigy 2 Value
1 GB RAM
Newest drivers

Everything runs smooth as well. I've tried various sound and video settings in the same, as well as closing all other applications running in the background.

[Neo]

Dont use Openal it only gives trouble. Or try lower hardware acceleration for soundcard

[MindFire]

I've tried with and without OpenAl, with music off, etc. Nothing works. I'll give lower soundcard acceleration a try, but I have my doubts.

Edit: Nope, lower acceleration doesn't do anything. It still crashes frequently.

[The Rock]

Nobody knows help?

[Neo]

IS this the only game that freezes for you ? It looks like a driver issue you sure the drivers for soundcard are not Beta or anything like that ?

[MindFire]

The drivers aren't beta, they are version 02.08.0004 for the Audigy 2 Value. Released on Jan 24th, so if I could find some beta drivers I would try those.

Doom 3 and Quake 4 both run fine, as does every other game I'm playing right now.

[The Rock]

Yep same here.

Doom 3 And Quake 4 rn smooth.

[MindFire]

So I did a bit of experimenting with my hardware. I swapped out my 6600GT for a Radeon 9500 Pro (clean uninstall/reinstall of drivers), and it still crashes. Next I removed my Audigy 2 Value and enabled my onboard AC'97 audio. Still crashes. Turned off the onboard audio so I had no sound at all, still crashes. Put back in the Audigy and 6600GT and turned down or off every single advanced graphics and sound option. Still crashes. Ran memtest86+, which found no errors.

Installed game on roommates computer. Works like a charm. He has a Radeon 9550 and an Athlon 64 with onboard sound.

So, I'm going to resort to waiting for a patch.

[naddie]

what about a fresh install of windows? i hate to say it, but when it all comes down to it, windows (like a sponge) will sop up alot of crap you wont notice until something goes wrong (like this).

Try imaging your HD then reinstalling. if it still crashes, u can restore to your old HD image and everything is back the way it was.

[The Rock]

Doesnt work....did it....

[Ronstar]

Did you overclock your system?

[hlywkar]

Hey Guys. I am having same issues here. Play the game for about 5 mins, looks smooth. Then the screen freezes and the sound loops.
here's my System:

AMD Athlon 3500+
K8 Triton nForce 4SLI series - GA-K8N-SLI
X800GT 256 MB Radeon
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value
1 G ram DDR400

I also have the newest Catalyst, SBAudiy, ATI drivers.

[Neo]

Okay the only thing that i can think of to try is to download a program called PCI Latency Tool and change tha latency for the soundcard, maybe it can help you

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=951

[hlywkar]

what would you recommend the latency be set at?

[MindFire]

what about a fresh install of windows?

I've been avoiding that approach. I just reinstalled windows about a month ago, and it's a pain in the ass.

As for sound card PCI latency, I tried playing with no sound card installed, and with using onboard instead of Audigy, and both still locked up, which makes me think it may not be sound card related.

Dropkick, in the other related thread, suggested updating Via chipset drivers; tried that as well, still no dice (they were only one version old to begin with, but still).

[hlywkar]

I tried disabling my soundcard... no sound also crashes. which logically means it's not the soundcard

[Neo]

i have mine at 64 (Audigy4) and all games work fine.

[Neo]

I tried disabling my soundcard... no sound also crashes. which logically means it's not the soundcard

Eh lol it means quite the opposite, if its not crashing when soundcard is disabled it is because of the soundcard when it is enabled.

It cant crash when the sound is off only when its on.

[hlywkar]

Eh lol it means quite the opposite, if its not crashing when soundcard is disabled it is because of the soundcard when it is enabled.

It cant crash when the sound is off only when its on.

Umm... you read my post wrong
"no sound also crashes. which logically means it's not the soundcard"

it does crash when the sound card is disabled. "no sound" ie no sound card. "also crashes" ie. it crashes.

It IS crashing when sound card is disabled

[Brian Karis]

Yes, this isn't sound related. What exactly do you mean by freezes? What do you see on the screen? Do you then reboot or are you able to kill the process?

[hlywkar]

The video stops. nothing is moving on screen. sound goes in a loop, it doesn't even sound like the sounds I was hearing before. only half clips of sound back ground or something else, and it seems to loop. kyeboard is also frozen, no numlock or alt tab etc. I must reboot

[MichaelLong]

Did you install Prey from a retail CD/DVD or from Triton?

[hlywkar]

retail

[hlywkar]

I just tried uninstalling the full version and using the demo from prey.com. I get the same issue. I don't get it. I'm over the spec requirements

[MindFire]

The video stops. nothing is moving on screen. sound goes in a loop, it doesn't even sound like the sounds I was hearing before. only half clips of sound back ground or something else, and it seems to loop. kyeboard is also frozen, no numlock or alt tab etc. I must reboot

Exact same problem here. After a while the sound loops (which usually sound like bursts of static) die, so the soundcard is probably able to clear the buffer eventually, but it isn't given any more info after that.

Retail as well. The demo did the same thing; I was hoping that problem would be fixed in the retail version.

Edit: Just tried running with the Motherboard Monitor overlay for temperatures throughout my system. They only go up about 2 degrees when playing, nothing dramatic, and are always very reasonable.

[bsouth4228]

I get the same problem but i have an audigy 4, i dont think that matters cause i dont think it is sound related
i have 3700+, 1 gig kingston dual channel kit, 7900gt
here is a screen shot of what happens to me
http://img451.imageshack.us/img451/7673/preyproblem1ib.jpg
ps, it doesn't just happen to me in this spot, it will happen anyway after 5-10 min of playing.
pss, it happened to me in the prey demo too.

[MindFire]

...
here is a screen shot of what happens to me...


At least you get an error message, mine just locks up, hard.

I just spent the last couple hours repartitioning my drives to make a separate 'sandbox' drive, on which I installed a clean copy of XP Pro. After updating all of my drivers (sound, video, chipset), and installing SP 1, I installed Prey. I chose SP 1 since that is what my roommate is running, and Prey works fine for him. Guess what Prey does, again after 5 minutes or so? That's right, it locks up hard.

The only two pieces of hardware I haven't replaced or thoroughly tested are my motherboard and CPU. Anyone know of any conclusive tests I could run that would determine if either of those are malfunctioning? Or, preferably, Prey could get a patch that makes not it freeze, like all other Doom3-based titles.

Also, what is a 'normal' CPU temperature for an Athlon XP under load? Mine runs around 52 degrees.

[The Rock]

I Installed Prey also from Retail exactly with the same problem.

[Scary674]

hi pepole... i am from germany bought the game yesterday... i have the same problem after 10 minutes playing the system hangs up. buit its only in single player mode at me... in multiplayer i havent any problems yet...

[retro]

The video stops. nothing is moving on screen. sound goes in a loop, it doesn't even sound like the sounds I was hearing before. only half clips of sound back ground or something else, and it seems to loop. kyeboard is also frozen, no numlock or alt tab etc. I must reboot

I have exactly the same problem, all other games run fine on my machine..:confused:
MSI nforce4 motherboard, AMD Athlon 64 3200+, Ati Radeon X800gt

[Sparda]

The video stops. nothing is moving on screen. sound goes in a loop, it doesn't even sound like the sounds I was hearing before. only half clips of sound back ground or something else, and it seems to loop. kyeboard is also frozen, no numlock or alt tab etc. I must reboot


I have the exact same problem...sometimes it will continue just fine, but most of the times I have to reboot the computer. I happens on the demo and on the retail version as well...

[bsouth4228]

Wow alot of people are having a crash problem which seems to be cosesly related to each other. This sucks:mad: :mad: ... I really hope they bring out a quick patch forwhatever the problem is, im thinking itis a cpu compatablity issue.
i have a 3700+ and i have this problem, what are others cpu's if they have this problem.

edit, i just looked at the first 2 posts and they have athlon xp and #13 has a 3500+, could this have to do with AMD?

[Crayola]

Sounds to me like bad RAM. Half Life 2 use to crash like this with me, but i switched the ram from my other computer, and it fixed it.

[SpiderMan]

Same problems here. Athlon XP and gf6600 GT. I reinstalled Directx and it does not freeze so often anymore, but this problem is not competely solved. I'm very frustrated. It's very annoying to reset the computer all the time.

[bsouth4228]

The only two pieces of hardware I haven't replaced or thoroughly tested are my motherboard and CPU.

i dont think it is RAM cause mindfire just said he replaced everything but the cpu and motherboard, but then again thats only one person...

[Sybok]

Yes...me too on the crashes...AMD 3700+

[Scary674]

so i thought to set the game exe to win2k compatible mode but it will not help. now we must wait for a patch i think wich will be released very soon. 50 Euro for this game and cant playing it will not be so good..

[MindFire]

i dont think it is RAM cause mindfire just said he replaced everything but the cpu and motherboard, but then again thats only one person...

I didn't replace my RAM, but I did run memtest86+ on it, and it didn't find any errors, so I'm going to assume that my existing RAM is ok.

[stemot]

I got this too, every 10-15 mins, then one night it ran for like a full 5 hours without a crash, that`s how I managed to finish it, but that`s the only time it`s ran that long, just once.

[retro]

"then one night it ran for like a full 5 hours without a crash"
wow, max 10minute periods for me before the comp completly locks up..

Waiting for the patch, this is not acceptable..

[Scary674]

anyone knows when a patch will be released?

[hlywkar]

has anyone managed to get past this problem yet?

[Sparda]

Sounds to me like bad RAM. Half Life 2 use to crash like this with me, but i switched the ram from my other computer, and it fixed it.

it doesn't happen on any other game, only on Prey...

[Scary674]

so .. i tested now the game under windows vista cause i thought it could be a problem in xp.. so u can play under vista but the crasch will be there too. so we must wait for a patch to play the game...

[hlywkar]

:( boo. I hate waiting.

[hlywkar]

I hope it comes out soon, or they at least figured out what the issue is. some games never get fixed right

[Scary674]

has any one a new info for a patch?

[monster]

Just thought I'd chime in and say that I have the same issue. The crazy thing is, the demo worked flawlessly, but the retail game won't even get through the opening bar scene without crashing. After spending 63.89$ on the DVD version of this game and not being able to play it at all, I can say I won't buy anything from 3D Realms again. Please release a patch as soon as possible so that those of us who wish to play the game are able to.

[MindFire]

So, after trying pretty much everything else, I finally found a solution to this problem. Buy a new motherboard and CPU. I ditched my old Gigabyte GA-7VAX and picked up an ASUS A8V, and replaced my XP 2100+ with an XP64 3500. Prey now runs like a charm.

Of course, this solution is obviously not the best one. If I hadn't been needing an upgrade, I would not have done it just to play a buggy game. So, good luck waiting for a patch to come out. Hopefully one is out soon.

[9Nails]

So, after trying pretty much everything else, I finally found a solution to this problem. Buy a new motherboard and CPU. I ditched my old Gigabyte GA-7VAX and picked up an ASUS A8V, and replaced my XP 2100+ with an XP64 3500. Prey now runs like a charm.

Of course, this solution is obviously not the best one. If I hadn't been needing an upgrade, I would not have done it just to play a buggy game. So, good luck waiting for a patch to come out. Hopefully one is out soon.

Indeed that is not the recomended solution. But it proves that the game disc, and your other hardware wasn't the problem. You even had reloaded XP to rule out bad vxd files. I wonder what was on the mobo or CPU that could have caused the problem? Perhaps a wonky BIOS setting or chipset driver?

[thejoker51]

I can't say that I have the same problem. I have a AMD XP2200+ and I've had problems, but after changing my video drivers to Nvidia 81.98 I haven't had problems as frequently. That isn't to say it has been a complete solution. I randomly will crash with the sound looping. It doesn't happen till after a certain amout of time though, which leads me to believe its Heat causing the crash

Initially it the sound loop crash was happening quicker with older drivers. The game was also very sluggish compared to the demo. I somehow noticed a huge increase in performance though when switching drivers. I currently have a Geforce 6600GT.

[hlywkar]

I HAVE FOUND A SOLUTION

Not sure if this will work for everyone. After some indepth searchs online, I found out that some freeze issues are related to bad ram slots. so, I tried it out. turns out they were right. I moved my ram from slot 1 to slot 4. there was mention of moving from orange to yellow slots... but on my board it's actually a move from blue to orange. :D
The only down side to this is that potentially I do not have the capability of using my full ram capabilities if I ever get to a point where I want all four ram slots in use.
I now took it off the shitty settings it was on earlier, which was the absolute minimal, and switched it to the highest of the high. no crashes... and the game actually looks great. I have not tested this a whole lot, but it has yet to crash on me. I will keep you posted if it starts to crash again.
Cheers, and good luck

[hokiecsgrad]

I'm having the same problem, but it didn't start until I got to the "Follow the guiding fires" or whatever that mission was. Up to that point, the game worked perfectly. Now, I can't play the game for more than maybe 30 seconds before it locks up. I do get the Windows XP box asking if I want to report the error. I do and then the system drops me back to the desktop.

[MindFire]

I HAVE FOUND A SOLUTION
...
I moved my ram from slot 1 to slot 4...

Wow, I wish you'd posted that before I went out and bought a new mobo and CPU. Oh well, I got an upgrade out of it.

[Staberinde]

I'm having the same problem, but it didn't start until I got to the "Follow the guiding fires" or whatever that mission was. Up to that point, the game worked perfectly. Now, I can't play the game for more than maybe 30 seconds before it locks up. I do get the Windows XP box asking if I want to report the error. I do and then the system drops me back to the desktop.

This is very similar to my experience. I played the game for some time with no problems. I can't say exactly at which point the problems started, but it was about the same time, i.e. the 'Guiding Fires' level. At first, I had just an occasional hard lockup with short looped sound (which eventually stops) and my only choice was to physically power off. Now, I'm on 'Center of Gravity' and I can't play for more than 60-90 seconds before it happens.

I have tried killing all processes except essentials, re-applying XP SP2, uninstall/re-installing the nvidia drivers and changing soundcards - even no soundcard at all. I've applied AMD dual-core drivers and optimizers, turning off hardware acceleration on the soundcards, windowed/fullscreen and none of it has made any difference at all.

My Machine specs:
AMD Athlon X2 4600+
Nvidia 7800 GTX
MSI MS7185 MB
Creative ZS2 (now removed, using onboard AC97 sound)
2048mb RAM, dual channel
2x120Gb SATA drives, no raid

I have HL2, Farcry, Brother In Arms, F.E.A.R, BF2, Oblivion, Battle For Middle Earth II, The Movies, Call Of Duty 2 and CIV 4 installed and they all run fine.

Come on tech guys from 3DR and HH, we need some help! This game will have to go back to the retailer on friday if there isn't any progress by then (7 day return policy), which will be a great shame as it's so f***ing good! The fresh approach to the the gameplay puzzles and the fantastic enviroment and level design really make this game stand out - I'd love to finish it.

[Scary674]

i find it **** now the game is in store, many people have problems, they postet in official board and "pray maker" dont bring out a patch... so there was it for tomb raider legend better at eidos.. first pazch after 2 days since release

[Brian Karis]

Try as was mentioned, moving your ram to another slot. If you have 2 sticks try removing one. This looks to be a hardware issue. Try putting memory timings to less aggressive numbers in the bios. If you haven't tried removing a sound card give that a try. Please don't just wait for a patch to fix this problem. There most likely will not be a fix to this problem in a patch. Errors from bugs in the code almost always manifest as a crash to desktop with a popup saying which instruction in memory is the problem. Freezing or bluescreening is very likely to be a hardware problem. Bad or old drivers, hardware problems or conflicts, etc.

We will continue to try and help you guys out with these problems. It's a bit hard with this one to give you suggestions because the only info on the problem we have is that it freezes randomly. You can see why that would be hard to pin point. Be patiant and hopefully we will be able to get a solution for you.

[hokiecsgrad]

Try as was mentioned, moving your ram to another slot. If you have 2 sticks try removing one. This looks to be a hardware issue. Try putting memory timings to less aggressive numbers in the bios. If you haven't tried removing a sound card give that a try. Please don't just wait for a patch to fix this problem. There most likely will not be a fix to this problem in a patch. Errors from bugs in the code almost always manifest as a crash to desktop with a popup saying which instruction in memory is the problem. Freezing or bluescreening is very likely to be a hardware problem. Bad or old drivers, hardware problems or conflicts, etc.

We will continue to try and help you guys out with these problems. It's a bit hard with this one to give you suggestions because the only info on the problem we have is that it freezes randomly. You can see why that would be hard to pin point. Be patiant and hopefully we will be able to get a solution for you.

You understand, of course, that we're just so darned anxious to play this HIGHLY rated game that we're a bit disappointed when it crashes. That said, many of the people on this thread do seem to be getting the crash notice from Windows XP, myself included. I've even seen someone post screen shots of the crash message.

If there's anything we can do to help debug this issue other than complain on this forum and hit the little button that reports the crash to Microsoft, please let us know. I would be very willing to help if it means getting to continue playing the rest of the game. Right now I get kicked out of the game within 30 seconds of loading my last saved game.

Thanks.

[Staberinde]

Try as was mentioned, moving your ram to another slot. If you have 2 sticks try removing one. This looks to be a hardware issue. Try putting memory timings to less aggressive numbers in the bios. If you haven't tried removing a sound card give that a try.

Brian, thanks for the reply, it is nice to know you are reading these threads.
I don't agree that this is a hardware issue in the trad sense - i.e. a hardware compatability problem. The reason I say this is because the first third of the game played flawlessly - this problem starts during (or there abouts) the guiding flame level. Is there anything the level designers do that's different from that point? I have noticed I get more frequent crashes in the levels where you have to fly the shuttle.

I have already checked my BIOS settings at it's all at the least aggressive level. I even did a BIOS upgrade.

Please don't just wait for a patch to fix this problem. There most likely will not be a fix to this problem in a patch. Errors from bugs in the code almost always manifest as a crash to desktop with a popup saying which instruction in memory is the problem. Freezing or bluescreening is very likely to be a hardware problem. Bad or old drivers, hardware problems or conflicts, etc.

We will continue to try and help you guys out with these problems. It's a bit hard with this one to give you suggestions because the only info on the problem we have is that it freezes randomly. You can see why that would be hard to pin point. Be patiant and hopefully we will be able to get a solution for you.

Well, it isn't really random - I can guarantee that if I have to reboot and go back to a save due to a crash, it will crash again after playing on for a couple of minutes from that spot - the only way I can make progress is to QS every 20-30 seconds. Eventually I will get to a point where it seems a bit more stable.

Regarding keeping away from old drivers etc, my PC was brand new just before Christmas. I am in IT support myself, and so I am diligent about ensuring my system is fully up to date.
As I said in my first post (just a couple up) I have stripped my system back to the most basic config I can (tho I haven't tried the RAM slots trick yet, I wont have time until the weekend).
I have error reporting enabled, but never get a crash dialog box - just a hard lockup with looping sound. I had a similar problem with F.E.A.R, but that was caused by a duff Geforce 6800 GT, which I replaced with my current 7800 GTX. That fixed the problem with F.E.A.R, and I have had no problems with this setup until now.

If the RAM switch doesn't fix it, that be it for me.:(

[SpiderMan]

I moved my RAM to another slot. No help. I updated the BIOS, no help. I disabled the integrated audio and uninstalled drivers, no help. Only thing that made a difference was reinstallation of DirectX. Now I can play few hours without freezing, but eventually this game freezees and I have to reset the computer. If this is a hardware issue, why does my other games work perfectly without these annoying freezees? For exemple I can keep Doom3 of Oblivion almost all day running without any problems at all.

[pmacarthur]

For those that are actually crashing (as opposed to freezing) with a windows dialog, please submit the info from the details area of the dialog? (Crash address and module that it crashed in)

[biohazard2974]

I've been crashing like a fiend and have been sending the windows dialog to microshaft every time. Earlier this morning i could play for about 5 min before it froze, now it goes for about 30 seconds after a load. Specs as follows:

AMD Clawhammer 4000+
Gigabyte K8N ULTRA SLI
eVGA 7800GT CO 256mb
2gb Kingston Hyper-X PC3500 (4x512mb)
Dell 2001FP 20" LCD
Audigy X-Fi Fatality
Half a Dozen WD Hard Drives
Logitech G15 Keyboard
Razer Copperhead
XP Pro SP2 Fully Updated

I noticed something about the G15. When the game loads up the LCD says PREY, but it doesn't give ammo or health count. Could it be that the game has problems w/ my keyboard....unfortunatly i don't have an xtra to try.

BTW: Got the CD version at Wal Mart yesterday so i have that version.

[Sybok]

AMD Athlon 64 3700+
eGeForce 7600GT
ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe
2GB Corsair
Creative Audigy 2
Two Raptor 80GB drives running in RAID striped
Windows XP Pro SP2

I was getting quite frequent freezes and then blue screen (with nv4_disp as the driver) and freezes and then un-freeze and keep playing.
Sometime after severval seconds of freezing, it would start playing again. Other times it would go to the BSOD.

I recently updated my mobo drivers and grabbed the latest nvidia graphics driver. I deinstalled the current nvidia graphics driver and reinstalled it.

Now it freezes a lot less frequently. It hasn't went to BSOD since updating the drivers. Usually by this time it would have. Now, when it freezes, after a few seconds...it un-freezes and keeps playing. I played for an hour with only two short freezes which both unfroze and I kept playing.

It has never just locked up and I'd have to reboot...either BSOD or freeze/unfreeze.

I'm pretty sure the freezing has to do with the graphics and/or the mobo drivers.

I've checked the temperature on the mobo, processor and the video card and all are fine when playing games. So, it doesn't appear to be a heat issue. It never crashes in Windows.

[bsouth4228]

here is another screenie of my error
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/9673/preyproblem2ji2.jpg

[The Rock]

Can we please focus on one problem in this thread?

There are enough threads about crashes with error messages....

[Mongorian]

I had this issue (hard lockup) until I lowered my overclock. Now it plays properly.

[Kopacha]

After observing and reading carefully everything in this topic, i think it's time to share my two cents.
I don't get error messages, it is just freezing with sound going in choppy loop cycle. The only things that helps is hardware reset.
In one of the cases, but just one - after the game crashed i've got the Doom 3 engine console with error messages filled. Just after a seconds the machine has restarted and i couldn't obtain any usefull information at all, one the could help resolve or get a workaround for this.
Since then, the engine system console (which exists in all id Games since Quake 3), i've never managed to get it and/or analyse it at all.
The crashes are constant, and practicaly i've gave up trying to play "Prey" for the moment.
Here are the things i've tried -
- updating to the latest sound drivers (Creative Audigy 2 Value)
- updating the 6600GT drivers from nVidia to the latest one, even tried with the latest beta - 91.33, but with no any luck at all. Then i got back to the latest 91.31 revision.
- updating the nForce chipset (3) drivers to the 5.11 (i was with an obsolete old version), but this also didn't resolve anything
- lowering couple a levels the sound hardware acceleration
- removing the Audigy 2 card from the slot and switching to the cursed AC'97 integrated audio
- borrowing and replacing my own two pieces of A-Data VITESTA DDR400 RAM modules (2x512 mb) with a Kingston from a friend
- switching the A-Datas and the Kingstons through different DIMM slots, even combining both of them. Extensive memory checks on the both pairs of memory modules, showed no failures or memory checksums at all. I'm saying that, with one idea - the problem is a hardware compatibility issue, but IT'S definitely not in any individual hardware component - i assume it's a mixed effect from couple of factors, which i guess triggers some memory leak or something which causes the freezing. Also - THIS is the only game currently installed on my computer which behave like this.
- updating to the latest Dx9.0 binaries.
- unloaded all other system proceses, trying to free as much resourses as i can, to do a "clean boot" with the game.
- currently i also have, Quake 4, Doom 3 - RoE installed, which never caused such problems

After crashing and cold rebooting the mchine, i've looked at the event logs on my machines, but there were no usefull info for the crash at all. The machine even doesn't reacts like it was restarted because of the hardware problem (as we all known it does with the message "The system has recovered from serious system crash" generated by Windows XP Professional).

I have and another ideas, and i'll try them ASAP, when i have the time - to run the game, trough Sysinternals FileMon and RegMon apps, but i think it will be useless. Nevertheless i'll try that too.

Still i think, that it is a glitch in the engine or scripting code. Don't know.
Also i do not dismiss fully the idea that it could be a sound hardware/drivers/game link issue, since the thing i've noted for the last couple of days reading around the topic is that most of us has a Creative SoundBlaster cards.. Don't know if that helps.

One last things to ask the guys from Humand head - is there anyway, to make the game generating some runtime log which i could examine or send to you after all, i think it will be helpfull to examine and squash the problem

:))

Best regards
C'est Moi :)

P.S: Nothing in the machine is overcloked - the RAM is in normal latency, neither the CPU has been tweaked, neither the GPU core and GPU's Memory clocks.

[Mongorian]

Don't you always wish it was something as simple as lowering your overclock? ;)

Well, if anyone is experiencing this problem and has their cpu overclocked or any other hardware, try lowering it. Maybe you'll get lucky.

[xm1n]

http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board/message?board.id=soundblaster&message.id=46767


I did this FAQ a while ago, see if it helps.

[xm1n]

Before you start PREY go here :


C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Dr Watson


Now open the text doc and highlight all the text then delete.

Dont delete the text doc, just the text within.

Now run the game and if/when the error crops up go back to DR Watson and read the report.

Perhaps Gamehead will have a clearer idea of what the issue is. Well i hope so.

Mostly though with that kind of stop error its another programme starting up or a service taking priority over the game, thus crashing the game.

[Staberinde]

Well, with all stuff suggested, I had pretty much an identical experience to Kopacha, and had tried almost the exact same things (bar trying new memory). On top of that list I also did a virgin install of XP Pro, XP2'd, patched and nothing else at all. This install doesn't connect to the net, so no AV, Anti-Spyware, no extra software of any description. Didn't help.

HOWEVER I have now completed the game :D after making one change.

Someone suggested that changing the CAS latency in the BIOS helped - I changed mine from 2.5 to 3 (the lowest performance setting, lower even than the BIOS default 'safe' setting), and after that I could play for up to half an hour without a crash. So I got into the habit of playing for about 15mins, quitting to the desktop, restarting the game etc etc and I have now been able to finish. The last level didn't crash at all, and I was so engrossed I forgot to quit out.

Hope this helps some of you. Perhaps if the HumanHead peeps are reading this, this might help you pinpoint where the problems lies.

[Baserape]

I had exactly the same problem as you guys...the game would run for 5 to 30minutes and then the video would lock up along with the sound. I could not control alt del to exit the game, I had to reboot each time.

Now here's the strange bit

I had a similair problem with TRD with a ti4200 256 X8 which was overheating and causing the game to lock up. I enabled AA and AF to X2 and the lockups stopped. I used the same "trick" with prey on a completely different rig and guess what? No more lock suey!

Strange....but true.

:D

[ack]

I get a random crash within about 5 minutes of playing the game. Sometimes I can play for 15, other times for only about 30 seconds. The oddest thing? Multiplayer is rock solid.

I have a BFG 6800GT and an Athlon64 3000 running on an MSI Nforce 3 mobo. I'm going to try some of the suggestions found here and post more details on my system later, just wanted to keep this thread bumped.

Oh yes, and more details on the crash: The screen goes rainbow technicolor and I am forced to reboot, ctrl-alt-del does not work. I seem to remember the sound looping, Ill confirm on that later.

Lets get this one fixed people, its probably some obscure setting, my experience with WoW (another picky game) has shown me that tech support for these types of issues falls to the community :-(. There are simply to many combinations of hardware for the developers to reallistically test.

[Rich Whitehouse]

bsouth4228 (and possibly others),
If you get a crash dialog such as the one seen here:
http://img451.imageshack.us/img451/7673/preyproblem1ib.jpg
Please click that "click here" link at the bottom of the box, and take a screenshot of the screen that pops up there instead. It contains a module name and address offset, which is important in helping us track down the source of the crash.

Thanks,
Rich

[Hatchet-Ryda]

Hi guys,

well first off you gotta kno this EVERY OTHER GAME runs PERFECT in the highest settings like: All Source Engine Games, F.E.A.R., Tomb Raider Legend, Ghost Recon.

I ain t got no problems at all with my computer and all games!

Now I bought prey and started playin it and everythang seemed to be ok.
BUT always when I play for about 15-30 mins approximately the game screen freezes and I get sound loops. NOW THE WEIRD THING IS: after approximately 30 seconds everythang works fine again but then after another 30 seconds it freezes again for 30 seconds BUT without sound loops and after that I can play another 15 mins without problems. weird huh? Another problem is when I close the game a memory error pops up. NO NO MEMORY PROBLEM JUST FINE!!! I did not really do any experimenting with the settings in the game cuz more ppl got this problem and everythang else is just workin fine. ALL drivers are up to date like when they thinkin bout programming new ones I got em already installed lol whut.

Hope this gets fixed soon. Great game.

My System:
Geforce 7800 GTX (Asus EN7800 GTX TOP)
Asus A8N-E Nforce 4 Ultra
2GB Corsair DDR RAM 6332
AMD Athlon64X2 4200+ 2.2 Ghz
2x SATA Maxtor HDD
Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Platinum

[willy1234x1]

I must be having it pretty badly because I can't get past escape velocity I'll still be on the train and it will crash. when I opened the error box it has this written at the top

AppName: prey.exe AppVer: 1.0.0.1 ModName: atioglxx.dll
ModVer: 6.14.10.5885 Offset: 0022ff5a

[Rich Whitehouse]

willy1234x1,
What type of ATi graphics hardware are you using? Is it part of the Radeon XPress line?

Thanks,
Rich

[willy1234x1]

its an ati express 200 intergrated card

[Rich Whitehouse]

Your issue is unrelated, then, and the one described here:
http://forums.3drealms.com/vb/showthread.php?t=20667
Unfortunately, that card is not among our officially supported cards, so it can't be expected to run the game properly. You may have some luck, though, upgrading to the latest Catalyst drivers that support the card. I think they cut off somewhere around https://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=19549 but I'm really not sure.

Thanks,
Rich

[willy1234x1]

well thats fantastic I'm going to have to spend another 300-500$ to buy a card or wait till dx10 enabled cards come out.

[willy1234x1]

oh and another thing is that multiprey runs fine but only single player crashes:mad:

[tedrouse]

Same here. I have a 2.6 GHz P4/HT, Radeon x1300, 1 GB PC3200, onboard sound. O.S. is XP Pro. Regardless of audio, video, performance settings (and I've been through 'em all), I get random lockups with stuttering sound. I have Catalyst 6.6 and all the latest MoBo drivers, etc. I can ctrl-alt-del and shut down the prey.exe process to get the system back but that's it, other than a HW reset. I have yet to exit the game by choice! There is something rotten here and it's not my system! Quake 4 runs fine, along with Doom 3.:mad:

[Rich Whitehouse]

tedrouse,
Whatever is causing your problem is different than the previously mentioned Radeon XPress 200 issue. If you run the game in a window, do you still get freezes? Also, go to Control Panel->System->Advanced->Error Reporting and make sure "Enable error reporting" is selected, with both "Windows operating system" and "Programs" checked, and make sure the list under "Choose Programs..." is empty. Once you've verified that, let us know if you get any usable crash report data from Prey while running windowed, or if you still get lockups. Running windowed is the important part, as it will verify that focus problems or exception windows are not the cause.

Thanks,
Rich

[tedrouse]

Rich:

Yesterday, I had enough response to send a report to Microsoft from Windows but only twice. Both error flags are turned on. It'll crash in both a Normal Window or Maximized. I've just had two lockps while setting game options in a Normal Window and a Maximized.

[Rich Whitehouse]

tedrouse,
If you can get that Microsoft error report window to come up again, click the "click here" link near the bottom of the window, and tell me what it says for the offset and module name in that next window that comes up. I can use those things to find the source of the crash.

Thanks,
Rich

[tedrouse]

Rich:

How's this....:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Error
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1000
Date: 7/26/2006
Time: 4:09:11 PM
User: N/A
Computer: HOME
Description:
Faulting application prey.exe, version 1.0.0.1, faulting module gamex86.dll, version 0.0.0.0, fault address 0x0027fb23.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 46 61 69 6c ion Fail
0010: 75 72 65 20 20 70 72 65 ure pre
0018: 79 2e 65 78 65 20 31 2e y.exe 1.
0020: 30 2e 30 2e 31 20 69 6e 0.0.1 in
0028: 20 67 61 6d 65 78 38 36 gamex86
0030: 2e 64 6c 6c 20 30 2e 30 .dll 0.0
0038: 2e 30 2e 30 20 61 74 20 .0.0 at
0040: 6f 66 66 73 65 74 20 30 offset 0
0048: 30 32 37 66 62 32 33 0d 027fb23.
0050: 0a :D .

[tedrouse]

And here is Dr. Watson's take:

Event Type: Information
Event Source: DrWatson
Event Category: None
Event ID: 4097
Date: 7/26/2006
Time: 4:14:24 PM
User: N/A
Computer: HOME
Description:
The application, C:\Program Files\Prey\prey.exe, generated an application error The error occurred on 07/26/2006 @ 16:14:24.234 The exception generated was c0000005 at address 1094FB23 (gamex86)

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.:dopefish:

on one of the last crashes.

[Rich Whitehouse]

tedrouse,
Thanks, that information helps (mainly the first one, I would need the base address of the gamex86 module in process space to look the address in the second one up). Are you using the retail or Triton version of Prey?

Thanks,
Rich

[tedrouse]

Retail CD

Here's the whole works in the file 97dc_appcompat.txt sent along with the error report of yet another crash in "Downward Spiral" just sent to Msoft.


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16"?>
<DATABASE>
<EXE NAME="prey.exe" FILTER="GRABMI_FILTER_PRIVACY">
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="prey.exe" SIZE="9248768" CHECKSUM="0x45BDD630" BIN_FILE_VERSION="1.0.0.1" BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="1.0.0.1" PRODUCT_VERSION="1, 0, 0, 1" FILE_DESCRIPTION="PREY" COMPANY_NAME="Human Head Studios" PRODUCT_NAME="PREY" FILE_VERSION="1, 0, 0, 1" ORIGINAL_FILENAME="Prey.EXE" INTERNAL_NAME="PREY" LEGAL_COPYRIGHT="Copyright (C) 2006 Human Head Studios, Inc." VERFILEDATEHI="0x0" VERFILEDATELO="0x0" VERFILEOS="0x4" VERFILETYPE="0x1" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0x5FCA89" LINKER_VERSION="0x0" UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION="1.0.0.1" UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="1.0.0.1" LINK_DATE="06/10/2006 05:44:26" UPTO_LINK_DATE="06/10/2006 05:44:26" VER_LANGUAGE="English (United States) [0x409]" />
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="base\gamex86.dll" SIZE="4046848" CHECKSUM="0x84818552" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0x3EA3F3" LINKER_VERSION="0x0" LINK_DATE="06/10/2006 05:42:13" UPTO_LINK_DATE="06/10/2006 05:42:13" />
</EXE>
<EXE NAME="gamex86.dll" FILTER="GRABMI_FILTER_THISFILEONLY">
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="gamex86.dll" SIZE="4046848" CHECKSUM="0x84818552" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0x3EA3F3" LINKER_VERSION="0x0" LINK_DATE="06/10/2006 05:42:13" UPTO_LINK_DATE="06/10/2006 05:42:13" />
</EXE>
<EXE NAME="kernel32.dll" FILTER="GRABMI_FILTER_THISFILEONLY">
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="kernel32.dll" SIZE="983552" CHECKSUM="0x4CE79457" BIN_FILE_VERSION="5.1.2600.2180" BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="5.1.2600.2180" PRODUCT_VERSION="5.1.2600.2180" FILE_DESCRIPTION="Windows NT BASE API Client DLL" COMPANY_NAME="Microsoft Corporation" PRODUCT_NAME="Microsoft® Windows® Operating System" FILE_VERSION="5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)" ORIGINAL_FILENAME="kernel32" INTERNAL_NAME="kernel32" LEGAL_COPYRIGHT="© Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved." VERFILEDATEHI="0x0" VERFILEDATELO="0x0" VERFILEOS="0x40004" VERFILETYPE="0x2" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0xFF848" LINKER_VERSION="0x50001" UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION="5.1.2600.2180" UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="5.1.2600.2180" LINK_DATE="08/04/2004 07:56:36" UPTO_LINK_DATE="08/04/2004 07:56:36" VER_LANGUAGE="English (United States) [0x409]" />
</EXE>
</DATABASE>

tedrouse

[Incinerator]

ok so i am having the same probloms as all of you. except mine also messes up in quake 4. same exact thing that happens to prey. im going to try and move the ram around i hope that does the trick. ill keep you updated

[Incinerator]

ok switched around the ram still nothing. ill try taking one out tomorow. but this is really really annoying. how do you change your overclocking rates? because i havent tryed that

[Incinerator]

mmmmkay. so i FORMATTED MY ENTIRE HARDDRIVE to get this working i installed windows then my drivers then before anything the first program i installed was prey. Guess what? yep same problem. so i dont know what to think...it has got to be a hardware problem right? except my computer is only a month old and runs all other games except for Q4 amazingly. i havent posted my specs yet so here... I have tryed EVERYTHING that has helped other people. I really hope that the patch works.

AMD 64 3200+
Nvida gforce 7800 GTX
2 gigs of ram
300 gig hardrive


anyone please i just wanna play prey the game which all my friends have and are playing beautifly. I really hope that the patch comes out soon and works.

thanks a bunch
-Incinerator

[willy1234x1]

well thanks alot for not helping me out rich. no I'm just kidding I just wanted to know why its only single player that crashes and not multi

[Rich Whitehouse]

I wouldn't know for sure, since I don't have the hardware to test it out on. I'd have to guess that there is some shader in singleplayer that the drivers don't handle properly, and that shader isn't used in multiplayer. But that is pure speculation. As to which Catalyst versions support that hardware as well, ATi's web site seems terribly vague, since I can't find anything solid on it. You might consider calling their tech support and forcing them to walk you through making sure you have everything up to date (but still keep in mind that the hardware is not officially supported by Prey, so you may or may not meet with success).

Thanks,
Rich

[QuickWire]

I had the EXACT same problem. 5-15 minutes and it would freeze.
My system: ASUS P5P800, P4 3.4Ghz, ASUS 6600GT

I simply took out my video card and cleaned the crud out of the heatsink – nearly burned myself when I first touched it…

The amount of time it took to freeze was dependent on the ambient temp of the room and how hard the video card was working. My CPU heatsink wasn’t much better but P4s throttle down if they overheat.

Been working like a charm ever since!

Clean your video card heatsinks!

[tedrouse]

This is a general RAM question for anyone having crash or lockup problems during Prey gameplay in FPS (single player) mode. What is your RAM CONFIGURATION ie. 512GBx2 (two 512MB sticks), 1GBx1, 256MBx3, etc. DDR or SDR SDRAMs or something else. Or an odd set like a GIG stick in slot 1 and a 256MB stick in slot 2, etc.

[TotalSlaughter]

:mad:

yea same problem here. i tried reinstalling windows fresh on my drive, all latest drivers, bios etc. moved ram around, nothing helps. i play 5min and get frozen gamescreen and soundloop that cuts out eventually. sucks to buy a game and not be able to play it.

windows xp sp2
pentium 4 2.8ghz
asus p5p800
6600 GT graphics card
audigy 2 soundcard
(2) 512mb ramsticks ddr400 3200

i actually tried installing a "streamlined" "gameing" version of windows and the game ran great and sometimes would hesitate for a second or two like it was gonna freeze but then kept playing. but the windows version was all screwy and all sorts of things were jacked up so i had to reinstall real windows and the game crashes again just like before.

ps. im really surprised at the lack of support, very frustrating.

[CyberRacer]

Prey Crashes:

A cutomer of mine plays alot of FPS games and had not had any problems with his 2 1/2 year old sytem, until he bought the game Prey. He play all the way to Accent,
then started having problems with Freezing and lockups and sound looping. I updated all the normall drivers, video, sound, ect. No help same problem, So I went to Driver Agent for a free system scan. The inif files for the USB controller were out of date. Installed new ones. and the games is full on and smooth as glass. So I don't believe
the issue is video or sound as so many of your post in the forums talk about.

System I was working on

MB MSI 865PE neo2-P (MS 6728 Ver2)
Video BFG GeForce 6800 ultra
Sound Sound Blaster Live 24bit
Ram 1 GB Matched pair
OS Windows XP Pro SP2
Bios AMI V3.A
CPU P4 3.0 GHz

Good Luck
Lee

[willy1234x1]

well I have to ask if there is a patch in the works because I really want to play through this game:(

[retro]

Woho, my problem was definitely a heat problem, opened up my computer took a vacuum cleaner and got rid of all dust, WARNING!! this is NOT a recomended method though, you might ruin your computer. ;)
Oh well, works like a charm now..no more soundloops and crashes.

[NeM]

*edit* Problem fixed, looks like Corsair memory doesn't run at CL2 as it should, but only on 2.5 on my S939 systems

[naddie]

*edited*