Error report...

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, one thing I do know is you're not the first person to post on this board about problems with that card.  Mine's only a GEForce 5200, and I've been lucky, after I had to upgrade because I crashed and the Windows error reporting thingy directed me to NVidia to the driver I needed, it's been fine, the only thing missing is the fish!  I can't unfortunately remember who it was who had the problem, or whether they found a solution, but maybe someone else will have a better memory than me.  

Are the drivers you are currently using the ones that came with the card, or did you upgrade to them later?  If so, maybe uninstalling the whole thing, and then reinstalling from the CD would solve things?

Also, it might just be worth checking that you have the latest version of DirectX, and also running DXdiag from the Run option in the Start menu (always providing your PC will let you!)

[Tgdrysix]

Out of curiousity, do you have the "useshaders" cheat in a startup file? I have a Geforce 5200 graphics card and when I used that cheat, it caused my computer to reboot; once I took it out, it was fine.

Unless it was something that is added "automatically" to the startup file .... I've never added it myself....don't even know how....sad I know.....but there it is.....how would I check that?  I 've seen treads about missing fish that refer to useshaders....but I've never intentionally messed with that.....Tgdrysix

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, for starters, do you actually have a startup cheat file? 

[BlueSoup]

Here's a thread that explains it, just so ZZ doesn't have to type it all out or something lol.

[Tgdrysix]

Well, one thing I do know is you're not the first person to post on this board about problems with that card.  Mine's only a GEForce 5200, and I've been lucky, after I had to upgrade because I crashed and the Windows error reporting thingy directed me to NVidia to the driver I needed, it's been fine, the only thing missing is the fish!  I can't unfortunately remember who it was who had the problem, or whether they found a solution, but maybe someone else will have a better memory than me. 

Are the drivers you are currently using the ones that came with the card, or did you upgrade to them later?  If so, maybe uninstalling the whole thing, and then reinstalling from the CD would solve things?

Also, it might just be worth checking that you have the latest version of DirectX, and also running DXdiag from the Run option in the Start menu (always providing your PC will let you!)

It was probably me.... .....and yes I think  it's the driver that came with the video card cause it's relatively new.....and it doesn't show any other driver versions that I can roll back to....I think....but I maybe going out on a limb here.....that if you have had older driver versions they will showup somewhere when you click the rollback driver option?.....then again I am by far the least likely person to know if this is accurate or not.....I know that went I tried that it gave me some message to that effect.....(there wasn't any older drivers to rollback too)....And yes I have the last Direct X version..... running DXdiag from the Run option in the Start menu.....what will this accomplish? I'm willing to pretty much give anything a try at this point.....Tgdrysix

[Tgdrysix]

Well, for starters, do you actually have a startup cheat file? 

Uhhhhh....is this a trick question?   I would have to say no?  At least I never "set one up" that I know of.....Tgdrysix

[Tgdrysix]

Here's a thread that explains it, just so ZZ doesn't have to type it all out or something lol.

Thanks I'll head over there and see what damage I can get into some more....lol....Tgdrysix

[ZephyrZodiac]

running DXdiag from the Run option in the Start menu.....what will this accomplish? I'm willing to pretty much give anything a try at this point.....Tgdrysix

Well, it checks the performance of your video card, and just might be useful in at least so far as if your card fails any of the tests, it would pinpoint where exactly the failure is happening.

[Tgdrysix]

running DXdiag from the Run option in the Start menu.....what will this accomplish? I'm willing to pretty much give anything a try at this point.....Tgdrysix

Well, it checks the performance of your video card, and just might be useful in at least so far as if your card fails any of the tests, it would pinpoint where exactly the failure is happening.

Okay will give this a shot....see what happens....and after viewing the startup cheat file thread I know for a fact I did not set one up, it seems bit too complicated for me to attempt.... ....is that the only way "useshaders" can be enabled? Thanks for not getting annoyed with me and my issues, you've been very helpful and patient.....Tgdrysix

Update:  Ran the DXdiag....couldn't find a problem with anything....sooooo.....that leaves me back to square one..... ....Tgdrysix

[ZephyrZodiac]

Everybody has problems with this game at some point!  The only reason I know some of the answers is because I had to ask questions and someone else told me what to do!

[Tgdrysix]

Everybody has problems with this game at some point!  The only reason I know some of the answers is because I had to ask questions and someone else told me what to do!

Well you've been most helpful....I'd press the "thanks" button but I know it's just for show....lol....Tgdrysix

[ZephyrZodiac]

Like the News Box!

[Hegelian]

Well sad to say none of it helped....I was ALLOWED to play about  20 minutes this round before I got kicked out....I guess I'm going to have to give the driver rollback another wack cause I just refuse to play without the full benifits of my graphics card (Manually decrease Hardware Acceleration)....that is just ridiculous to have a high end card and not be able to use it's features....man I'm so aggravated with this crap.... .....Tgdrysix

While useful in their place, stuff like running spyware killers isn't relevant to your problem. 

There are several things to consider:

1)  Video drivers. This site is full of complaints about how the game won't run properly with 80.xx nVidia drivers. Several folks have reported success with the 77.xx drivers. If this is a home-built machine, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to uninstall the current drivers and install 77.xx drivers. Be aware, however, that the nVidia uninstall routine is reported to to leave a lot of stuff behind, so you will probably need to use a utility like Driver Cleaner (www.drivercleaner.net) to get it all out. After removing the current drivers, reboot and cancel the new hardware wizard so that you're running the generic VGA driver that comes with Windows, then install the 77.xx drivers by running the EXE. Note that you probably need to have administrator privileges on the PC in order to remove the current drivers. It may be that the person who built the PC created a separate user account for you, that doesn't have primary Administrator status.

2)  The person who built the machine botched the installation and you need to reinstall Windows from scratch.

3)  There may be a defective or damaged component in the PC, such as the graphics board or the motherboard itself. Or the power supply could be inadequate (even if it is nominally rated for 400 or 500W). These things can be difficult to diagnose without access to spare parts to swap in and out to see where the problem lies.

4)  With 1 GB of RAM, a 2-GB paging file is way too big. Try 100 MB initial and 800 MB max.    For more info, look here.

FWIW, I have been building my own machines for more than ten years, and I would never buy an nVidia-based graphics board.   

[jsalemi]

and it doesn't show any other driver versions that I can roll back to....I think....but I maybe going out on a limb here.....that if you have had older driver versions they will showup somewhere when you click the rollback driver option?

Only if the older drivers were installed and not uninstalled.  But in the context of this discussion, I think when folks say to 'rollback your drivers', they're not referring to the rollback thing in Windows.  What they're saying is to go to the card vendor's site and download the older drivers (usually found in an archive there somewhere), uninstall the current drivers, and install the older ones.

Some nvidea cards will only work properly with TS2 if you install the drivers from last September (the 78.01 version). I had this problem myself when I temporarily put a GeForce 6600 in my PC while my ATI card was out for repair, and I got the blue screens and reboots until I uninstalled all the nvidea drivers and installed that version.  After that, things were fine.

[Tgdrysix]

Yesterday I downloaded the new 9 series driver (9.3.1.1) released on the first of this month (still in Beta) and although I did have one blue screen yesterday(after several hours play), I haven't had one today.  This driver is twice the size of my previous 8-series one as it apparently has various extra bits & pieces, but I haven't found them yet.  Having tried it out for 24 hours, I must say that I can see noticeable improvements.  The first thing I noticed on entering the neighbourhood was how much bluer the water was and when I started playing, the speed was greatly increased.  Also, whereas before it would take ages to scroll through the various hairstyles and so on when changing appearance (esp. custom ones), now they appear instantly (and I mean instantly).  Well worth giving this one a try, especially if like me your pc will let you upgrade a driver but not downgrade it.

Found this on a Podium Thread " Best Nvidia Driver for OFB" .....thinking of giving this a shot.....can't play with the driver version I have now.....should I or shouldn't I that is the question....Tgdrysix

[ZephyrZodiac]

I'm so glad you seem to have found a solution to your problem.  Hope it keeps working well for you!

[jsalemi]

Yesterday I downloaded the new 9 series driver (9.3.1.1) released on the first of this month (still in Beta) and although I did have one blue screen yesterday(after several hours play), I haven't had one today.  This driver is twice the size of my previous 8-series one as it apparently has various extra bits & pieces, but I haven't found them yet.  Having tried it out for 24 hours, I must say that I can see noticeable improvements.  The first thing I noticed on entering the neighbourhood was how much bluer the water was and when I started playing, the speed was greatly increased.  Also, whereas before it would take ages to scroll through the various hairstyles and so on when changing appearance (esp. custom ones), now they appear instantly (and I mean instantly).  Well worth giving this one a try, especially if like me your pc will let you upgrade a driver but not downgrade it.

Found this on a Podium Thread " Best Nvidia Driver for OFB" .....thinking of giving this a shot.....can't play with the driver version I have now.....should I or shouldn't I that is the question....Tgdrysix

Well, while you're over on the nvidia site downloading these, grab a copy of the 78.01 version too.   That way, if these don't solve your problem, you'll have the others on hand to try.

[Tgdrysix]

Just a quick update.....nothing has worked so far.....still getting the rebooting....I've installed the patch unforntuately that didn't help either.....got a eagames tech support question going....first suggestion ....Anyone want to take a wild guess?!?.....To disable custom content......next suggestion.....stop unneccessary backgroung tasks from running.....anyone of you guys do this?  I've never have and on my old system it was never an issue and I was running a gefore 5700 .....so I'm still at the drawing board with no solutions in sight....except maybe downgrading my graphic card, isn't that a hoot!!!......Tgdry6

[ZephyrZodiac]

Pity you can't just have two graphics cards, and swap them around as necessary!

[Tgdrysix]

Pity you can't just have two graphics cards, and swap them around as necessary!

Well actually I can....I can run 2 cards on this machine.....it would have to be the same card though....so I don't think that would help my problem .... .....Tgdry6

[ZephyrZodiac]

Shame, I don't think it would, either!  If one won't work, I can't see how the other one would!  Maybe you need to look at a different manufacturer - you'd no doubt be able to get at least some of what the NVidia cost you back.