Serious Crash Problem

[Cheesemaster]

Hey,

This is a tech question, and I figured I'd ask FFR before I go and file a formal complaint with the makers of my hard drive in case it comes to it. It may even turn out to be a compatibility issue with something else, but this is the place to start. This is what happened:

4 weeks ago I was playing FFR from a T1+ Internet connection (a University LAN) on a system configuration (custom made) as such:

Firefox 2.x
Windows XP 64bit
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5200+ @ 2.6 GHz
OCZ 2GB DDR2 PC2-6400 (Dual Channel Setup)
Asus CrossHair nForce 590 SLI motherboard
GeForce 8800GTS 640MB GDDR3 PCI Express Video Card
Seagate Barracuda 400 GB SATA 7200 RPM Hard Drive w/16MB Buffer
Ultra X-Finity 500W ATX Power Supply

I was playing like normal, everything running smooth as silk (as, with a system config like that, it takes a LOT to slow down my computer). Out of nowhere, in the middle of a song, the arrows "skipped," in other words stopped for no more than .5 seconds...but that's very noticeable when they're moving that fast. A couple of songs later it did it again. And then again. Until it stopped freezing just the game, and started freezing my computer for a second or so. Then after it froze my entire computer for a few seconds, it froze completely.

I let it sit (assumedly to let it think about what it's done?) for about 2 minutes, then realize I would have to reboot. I hit reset.

BIOS screen rolls by.
Then boot screen....and then a good friend called "A Disk Read Error Occured: Press CTRL + ALT + DEL to Restart."

And I did...and it came up again. I powered down, and reinstalled my ENTIRE computer (hardware, except for the motherboard and processor for some obvious reasons), to make sure all connections were good, even tried a new SATA cable, windows repair, checked the hard drive for errors, viruses, and NOTHING came up.

I sent the hard drive back to the manufacturer (still under warranty) and pronounced it dead for unknown reasons (yet). I got a replacement, and am using it now. The only difference in setup is that I'm using Windows Vista 32bit instead of XP 64bit.

The problem is that it's starting to "skip" or "glitch" again, and honestly, I don't want to have to get ANOTHER hard drive. I tried re-downloading the newest version of Flash (had to anyways with a new OS), and I'm at a dead end. I tried playing on a friend's computer, on the same network connection (just as fast) who uses Intel Core Duo on Windows XP and he's getting the same "skipping"...

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Cheesemaster

[FrenzyMidget]

Re: Serious Crash Problem

I've had that skipping for a while(not the crash,however). The only way I got rid of the lag is by playing the game on Low Resolution, and setting my screen to 800 X 600 to have it a decent size to play on.

Also, try running other flash games on the internet and see if the problem persists. Check if your firewall or any other popup blocker / spyware blocker / Anti-Virus have some inteference with the FFR website.

As a last idea, and unfortunately, try it with IE :P

I'm not really good with the whole tech support stuff, but it's just ideas from stuff you didn't state trying.

Try downgrading to Flash Player 8. I was recently doing a research on it for work and it seems more people have been experiencing some problems with the latest version.

Hope any of this helps.

EDIT: You might want to check your video card drivers as well. It can be possible that some versions of video card drivers cause issues.


One more thing, you should've kept XP

[Cheesemaster]

Re: Serious Crash Problem

Just to verify, the skipping does occur in Internet Explorer as well, it is not exclusive to Firefox.

And, changing the quality makes no difference. The skipping doesn't change. I'll try resolution switch...but I have a feeling that's not the problem.

Thanks for the reply....but still looking for the cause

[FrenzyMidget]

Re: Serious Crash Problem

you should post your problem in an actual tech support forum. If the problem occurs from outside the game they might be able to help you.

[Cheesemaster]

Re: Serious Crash Problem

I have, and all of them tried to create fixes for the crash after the fact, but they all came out with no answers. No one's been able to say it's a hardware malfunction, since I bought the hard drive in December of 2006.

Do you know if there is some sort of admin that could declare this a game issue or non-game issue? I'm really just looking for who I need to deal with so it doesn't happen again (hardware or software).

[angelofthedead]

Re: Serious Crash Problem

This happens incredibly frequently on my computer, but mostly because it has too little RAM.
1. Every once in a while, clear your cache (Internet Options--->Delete History--->Delete All)
2. Set your computer settings to work for best performance (Control Panel--->Performance and Maintenance-->System--->Advanced--->Performance Settings--- Set your computer to work for best performance)
3. Free up space on your hard disk (Control Panel--->Performance and Maintenance-->Free up space in your hard disk.
4. Defragment every once in a while. (Start--->Programs--->Accesories--->System Tools--->Disk Defragmenter)

[Cheesemaster]

Re: Serious Crash Problem

Yeah, none of those are problems for me...I do them all regularly (once or twice a week).

I have 2 gigs of dual channel gaming RAM, and if my computer isn't fast enough to support a flash game with a video card that has 640 MB of RAM, I think I have a bigger problem haha. I think hard drive speed/usage can also be ruled out, I had used 50 gigs of a 400 gig hard drive...

It's things like this that make me wish there was a simple answer

So still no solution, but thanks for the suggestions!