gta san andreas problem

[jordane182]

hello

Im having a problem with my San andreas. Once in a while the game lags alot for about 20 seconds.It mostely happens when im driving. I tried putting all the video setings as low as they go but it doesnt work.I was also wondering if there is a way too lower sound settings. I update video and sound drivers and harddrives are defraged etc. I also turn off virus scan. Does anybody no how to stop the game from lagging. thanx

[Crypton]

Here is some steps you can try.

Run scandisk on your drives.
Defrag your hard drives.

goto startmenu > Run

Type in dxdiag then press enter

Click on the Sound tab, down below where it says DirectX Features

Move the slider to the left until it says Basic Acceleration

Then click Exit.

Try the game and see if it helps at all.

[jordane182]

What does moving the slider down do. Do you get less sound quality

[Crypton]

a bit yes, but not enough to notice, it reduces the ammount of CPU that is used to process and accellarate sound.

you should not notice any major difference in sound.

[jordane182]

If you cant notice and it makes the game run smoother, wouldnt you want to have those settings even if you arnt having any problems?

[Crypton]

No, because some people use high end cards that wont use their own audio processor to process sounds.

Such as the newest Audigy Cards, Audigy based cards do not depend on the CPU as they use their own built in processsor, but switching the sound down in DXDiag would cause a high end card to use your systems CPU.

Soundblaster Live 5.1 cards on the other hand can process sound on their own processor when its just Direct Sound or Hardware Sound is selected, but when you enable EAX, it cannot fully process EAX on it's own so it then will use your systems CPU. When you turn it down and disable eAX ingame, your telling the card to just process sound, but using it's own processor and not using accelerated EAX.

The same goes for system with lower end CPU's and trying to process sounds in games that use alot of higher end technology such as EAX 2 and up. When the sound is trying to be processed by a lower end sound card, the effect of "stuttering* *skipping* *distorted* ect.. sounds are the result of the system not being fast enough to push everything that is going on in the system at the same time, reducing sound releives the system of stress by not trying to accelerate the sound and instead, just processing sound nornmally without advanced features.

But some systems the result of stuttering, skipping ect.. can be the result of drivers that have an issue or have a bug. Unfortunately, I do not think you will see any more drivers for such cards as the 5.1 SB Live, Creative is way ahead on cards so 5.1 is pretty much a done deal, the latest driver they have atm has been the latest driver for around a year or so..

Users who are using pretty high end systems with Audigy ect.. did not spend that money to have to turn down sounds acceleration, thats like buying a Ferarri and driving 20 MPH. They want to hear their full sounds in EAX, 5.1-7.1 sound, just like they also want to play their games at maxed graphic settings at the same time, so they get the latest and greatest hardware to do so.

Anyways, can we get back on topic? Did any of the above work for you? Game still running with probs? If you have not even tried the suggestion, then we are done here, as I can only give you advice and tip & tricks for getting smoother gameplay, not much else I can do, and I could write a novel sized book about the workings of a PC, but really is not needed. If you want to learn about these things, search google.

[jordane182]

Ok sorry I tried putting the sound down but there is still problems but only when im driving car for more then 5 minutes or so. Should i put setting back then?

[Crypton]

I would leave it down as it would help on performance for the most part,

Can you post some of your system specs for me, such as ammount of Ram, Video Card Type, Sound Card Type, Processor Type/Speed.

And please also tell me what version drivers you are using, and do you have chipset drivers installed?

[jordane182]

i have
P4800 intel 2.8 ghz
Ram:768mb ddr
video card : Radeon 9600 xt 256mb driver 8.172.0.0
sound :sound blaster live 8400? how do you check it says that in audio HQ
never installed any chip set drivers

[jordane182]

mother board was asus P4S800

[Crypton]

k, you may want to install the drivers, looks like SiS, found your model and drivers, here are the SiS Chipset drivers for your board.

http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/ide/siside204a.ZIP

[jordane182]

What drivers are these for?And what do I do with them after i downloaded them?

[Crypton]

Those are chipset drivers for your motherboard, such as AGP, IDE drivers,

After you download, unzip using winrar or winzip, then double click SETUP, it will do the rest pretty much.

[jordane182]

Are you sure these are the right drivers for my motherboard?

[Crypton]

If your board is a P4S800 then yes. I looked it up on http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

Click download, enter in Motherboard for product, then select Socket 478 for Series., then select your model, then press search, it will take you to some downloads/bios updates. Select the drivers tab.

Can't go wrong if that is your board, then those are the drivers.

[jordane182]

K thanx ill install when i get home

[jordane182]

Ok i installed the (http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mis...siside204a.ZIP)driver and played the game. The game froze again but this time an error poped up in windows. The error didnt close the game but when i exited the game the error was there. The error said "VPU Recover has reset your graphics accelerator as it was no longer responding to graphics driver commands" do you know what this means now?

[Crypton]

Ok, you need to turn off VPU,

Do you have ATI Control Panel installed or Catalyst Control Panel?

You will need to install ATI Control Panel and disable Fast Writes, see if that clears up the error. But the problem is definately video related.

Are you using the latest Catalyst Drivers? It may be you just need to update your video drivers.

[jordane182]

Should i uninstall all my other ati drivers before i install the new ones

[jordane182]

I downloaded and installed the new drivers and catalyst control center but when i try to run it or when it my computer starts there is an error. It says "CLI.exe-Application error" "The application failed to intialize properly(0xc0000125). Click OK to terminate the application" I think its because i need .net or something right? But i have dial up and it will that another 2 hours to get that. Is there a way to fix this without .NET or do i need to download it.

[Crypton]

You need .NET framework, you can get that through windows update.

Or Manually download it here.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=262d25e3-f589-4842-8157-034d1e7cf3a3&displaylang=en

[jordane182]

Is it worth it to windows update and get the .net or should i just download .net manually

[Crypton]

both work the same, downloading the full installer just allows you to keep it in case you ever need to install it again you wont have to redownload it.

[jordane182]

I got catalyst what setting do i need to change?

[Crypton]

Right click Desktop, go into Properties > Settings > Advanced

Look at your Video cards tab, then find SmartGart and VPU Recover, First try disabling VPU Recovery.

If that does not work, try disabling Fast Writes in SmartGart.

[jordane182]

I disabled the VPU and fast writes was already disabled and the check thing is faded so i cant enable it. But the game still freezes? Can you think of anything else?

thanx

[Crypton]

Are you getting any errors now? Or is it just freezing?

[jordane182]

There are no errors. It just lags alot.

[jordane182]

Do you have any other ideas why it is freezing?

[Crypton]

not really, have you tried defragging your hard drive(s) and doing a scandisk with fix all errors enabled or chkdks /F ?

[jordane182]

ya i ran defragmenter and scan disk. but what is chkdks /F ?

[Crypton]

Goto: Start Menu > Run

Type: cmd
press enter

a command line (dos shell) box will pop up.

Type: cd \
press enter

Type: chkdsk c: /F
press enter

It may ask if you if you want to schedule on next restart due to resources being in use

Type: Y
press enter

then reboot and let it do its thing

It will check the hard drive for several issues, cross linked files, ect.., it will attempt to repair them if any are found.

It may or may not be the problem, but its worth a try.

[jordane182]

Is that the same as going to my computer and right clicking on the harddrive and go properties then tools and scan disk? I it is ive done that already. I think the problem is sound because i had same problem with battle field and when i put sound settings down it worked but on gta you cant put sound settings lower. I am also having similar problems with theft 3 and i cant change sound settings in that either. Maybe i need a new sound card? My sound card is over 5 years old.

[Crypton]

scandisk and chkdisk are 2 seperate programs, chkdsk offers a bit more extended disk checking.

And, old hardware often has problems with newer games, it may very well be the soundcard, don't really know what all you are running, but if you want to test it, turn off the PC and yank it out.

If you have onboard sound, it will most likely be the problem, disable it in the BIOS. Or you can try to disable it in Hardware Settings, in the control panel > system

[jordane182]

well if chkdisk doesnt work i guess ill just give up. How much would a new sound card be that is good enough to run these games?

[Crypton]

You can get a new Audigy 2 for around $40+
http://www.pricewatch.com/prc.aspx?i=202&a=584120

Or a Sound Blaster Live! Value or better Live! Series for around $15+
http://www.pricewatch.com/prc.aspx?i=202&m=180

[jordane182]

Ok thanx for your help these days crypton

jordan