Graphics Crash - Windows 7
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I was a huge fan of Freelancer back in the day, and I stumbled across everspace and tried it out and it reminded me so much I wanted to go back and relive it! I downloaded it, installed the unofficial patch, added some mods and it was working great. Such nostalgia, I was really looking forward to exploring the universe all over again…
I had no issues until about mission 5, where the screen started clipping a bit. No big deal. A bit later, it just started jumping all over the place, tearing into tiny lines and shifting across the screen then flashing. OK, so I CAD out to see if there was some error… nope, it’s my whole PC, my entire graphics just crashed and I had to restart my computer. I repeated 3 times, it usually occurs after about 30 mins of play now but it’s consistent. I have no idea what could be causing my entire system to crash like this.
I have a Radon R9 200, running Windows 7. I don’t have much hope, but if there’s anyone that has any tips out there, I’d appreciate it.
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My first guess would be the graphics card is overheating or failing.
Open the case and see if there’s dust accumulation around the fan and heat sink of both the graphics card and the CPU.If there is, take the case outside and use some cans of compressed air to remove all dust in the case.
You could also try completely uninstalling your drivers and reinstall with the latest version.
The fact that the game works for 30 minutes and then fails seems to indicate that it’s not the program but rather the hardware.
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I totaly agree with robocop.
This sound very much like a hardware issue rather than a Freelancer related problem. I NEVER experienced a total lockdown or BSD-crash with Freelancer… only the Game itself crashed 2 or 3 times in the last 3 or more years due to (whats most common) a corrupted save-file or incorrect data-syntax while modding …
But… anyways… when you try to track down the error:
Firstly it would be very helpful for you to know how much load the game produces on your CPU and of course more interesting your GPU.
Since i am convinced your hardware is way more than capable to handle this oldtimer game easily, i would have an eye on temperatures of the Hardware while gaming… Maybe its in fact a lot of dust and accumulations on the cooling-units of your hardware. But these are just my 2 cents…Greetings
J.R. -
Yeah, some good old fashioned maintenance seems like a good start, it has been a while since I cleaned it out. Still seems odd as it can run modern games with no such issues.
I will do a clean and check temps while it’s running and see what happens.
Thanks!
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No luck, temp never went above 35C but it still happens.
I think this is as much patience as I have to figure this out, there’s some very obscure incompatibility I don’t have the time or will to figure out. Such a shame though, freelancer is the reason I love space fighter games and I have never found a game that is as much fun as Freelancer.
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Well, you could always try shutting down all other running programs including your anti-virus software and see if it runs OK then.
If that doesn’t work you could try reinstalling your VGA drivers and maybe even DirectX.
After that you might try a different video card if you have one available.
If none of that works it could be a memory issue or a Windows reinstall.
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Speaking of DirectX…
I can remember an odd way to “fix” some problems with Freelancer… but I can´t actually remember what kind of issue it was back then. Anyways I startet the DirectX install that comes with the original FL-CD (I guess it was Version 9) ALTHOUGH I had a more recent DX-Version already installed… The Install started and prompts that there is a newer one already running … after exiting the DX-Install the Freelancer-issue was gone. Sure… this is a SHOT IN THE DARK… but maybe you´ll try it anyways. 
Greetings
J.R.
