Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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.

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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.

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

Nobody knows help?

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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 ?

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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.

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

Yep same here.

Doom 3 And Quake 4 rn smooth.

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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.

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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.

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

Did you overclock your system?

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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.

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

what would you recommend the latency be set at?

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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).

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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.

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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?

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

retail

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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.

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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/img451/7...problem1ib.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.

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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.

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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...

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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...

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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?

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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.

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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.

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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...

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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..

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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.

Re: Prey freezes+Soundcrash
 

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.