BF2 & Dual core

TBirdUK · 10 Feb 2006 at 23:07

Got a problem with BF2 and opteron 165. The game plays great on rig 1 below except that it locks, sometimes after 10 mins, sometimes 2 hours!

I've tried running on 1 core only, on both etc but even on just 1 core it locks, sends both cores to 100% CPU usage and I have to reboot (sound goes on a loop too).

I've also tried hardware/software sound, EAX/no EAX etc. The machine is 16 hours prime stable on both cores so its not the chip. :confused:

Running win x64 with nvidia 81.98 drivers and even 82.65 (guru3d).

Help, this is really frustrating!!!

bingham67 · 10 Feb 2006 at 23:45

Their is a major dual core bug in 2 Ea games ive played so far well Need for Speed and Bf2 it rather annoying because i dont see other games with same problems. I thought you may have not set affinity but looks like you turned cpu 1 off really interesting and im baffled for the answer.

TBirdUK · 10 Feb 2006 at 23:56

Yeah, its got me too, thought it was the graphics, but changed cards, then the sound but tried all options etc. Driving me nuts cse the game plays superbly up until the point it locks!!

Hades · 11 Feb 2006 at 00:19

Try disabling one of the cores at Windows boot time. You do this by editing c:\boot.ini and adding the /onecpu switch. Then reboot. It's a bit of a pain but worth a try if nothing else works.

TBirdUK · 11 Feb 2006 at 00:31

cheers for that, will play tomorrow to see (need sleep to ease frustration!!)

Garp · 11 Feb 2006 at 10:24

There is a better solution.. Microsoft released a patch to improve how windows uses dual cores. Unfortunately even if you set affinity it can still end up switching from core to core or the like, forcing it to purge the cpu cache in between. This is seen causing stutters and the like in games.

Details about the patch here: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=896256
and the patch itself: http://www.evilkitty.org/misc/WindowsXP-KB896256-v3-x86-ENU.exe

TBirdUK · 11 Feb 2006 at 10:52

Is this patch for Windows X64? It says it is for Win XP service pack 2, nothing about X 64

SpudMaster · 11 Feb 2006 at 16:22

I seem to get a very slight stutter one games every so often since getting the opty 170, even if set to run on just one core.
Can anyone confirm that this patch helps?
If worst comes it worse it just wont help, i mean wont have any other side affects will it?

DEL 707 · 11 Feb 2006 at 16:47

Well i've been having similar crashing problems since i built this machine, it's an AMD X2 4400, machine will 99% of the time crash within 5 minutes of loading CoH/BF2 or some other games, wierd thing is that after it crashes and restarts it's quite stable and reliable, though it can still crash.

Just installed that patch, fired up CoH, had a bath, came back and it's still running, so fingers crossed.
Not tried it on my 64 install yet.

SpudMaster · 11 Feb 2006 at 17:10

oh sounds good, think i'll give it a try then

DEL 707 · 11 Feb 2006 at 22:07

Damn, just had a crash in BF2

TBirdUK · 11 Feb 2006 at 22:18

cant get the patch to install, comes up with invalid .inf ??????

Anyone got any other ideas? I sent a question to EA Games but no reply as yet - probably just get "we dont support opteron or dual core or X64 or our customers!!!"

Hades · 11 Feb 2006 at 23:25

Have you tried the /onecpu trick? Did that not make any difference?

Hudzy · 12 Feb 2006 at 00:45

The /onecpu trick should work if you haven't tried it yet. I was having problems with other games and nothing could get them working until i did that.

Seems a waste of an X2 now though.

Hades · 12 Feb 2006 at 01:25

Hudzy said:
The /onecpu trick should work if you haven't tried it yet. I was having problems with other games and nothing could get them working until i did that.

Seems a waste of an X2 now though.

True - for older games. But new games should be expected to not only cope with X2 but benefit from it (e.g. Quake4).

TBirdUK · 12 Feb 2006 at 01:34

tried the /onecpu switch and it works (kind of). Thanks Hades!! The only trouble I get now is the connection keeps dropping! But it does work. Added a line into the boot ini so I can boot either way!!

Cheers all, I'll post if I ever get a reply from EA Games, shame it cant handle the advantages of dual core but I'm sure the new games will.

DEL 707 · 12 Feb 2006 at 02:07

TBirdUK said:
tried the /onecpu switch and it works (kind of). Thanks Hades!! The only trouble I get now is the connection keeps dropping! But it does work. Added a line into the boot ini so I can boot either way!!

I seem to suffer from that problem, never did on my old machine, i've added the /onecpu, only played for an hour or so, but so far so good.

DEL 707 · 12 Feb 2006 at 10:58

O.k i've just had a crash in CoH, have i done this /onecpu thing right?

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional x64 Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
/onecpu

TBirdUK · 13 Feb 2006 at 01:31

I've just played for about 2 hours-no probs. Now and again I lost connection which never used to happen but all seems ok. Patch never worked so dont know about it? What are the specs on the rest of you machine?

Off to bed now, will be back on tomorrow. Your command lines look good for the x64 windows, have you tried the onecpu on the normal windows?

DEL 707 · 13 Feb 2006 at 11:39

where abouts do i put the /onecpu command to make it work for winxp?