Help?

[Krowe]

Ok.. So my comp is fully able to run the games D2 and D2X. I have them both fully installed on my comp. They install fine, load fine, and seem to run fine. The problems I am running into are that after I get a game started (doesn't matter.. single, multi, open net, realm, TCP/IP) the game will run for a short time (generally 2-5 minutes) and then crash.

This happens EVERY TIME I play the game. There are 2 differant errors that I get that stop the gaming experience. The one that most often happens (91-96% of the time) is :

UNHANDLED EXCEPTION:
ILLEGAL_INSTRUCTION (c000001d)

which is promptly followed by another error that says :

UNHANDLED EXCEPTION:
ACCESS_VIOLATION (c0000005)

That is the one that gets me most of the time. The other error that I occasionally get is a complete mind boggler to me. My comp will actually go to a blue screen and tell me that it's having a physical memory dump. It counts through to 100% (I assume that's the dump process) and then reboots the machine. Period. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Ok... So here is all the info I can give people without knowing if there is anything you need me to look for specifically.

OS :
Windows 2000 (Not Pro. or Server, just straight up 2K)

Comp Specifics :
AMD K6 processor (500 MHZ)
Soundblaster 128 PCI
ATI 3D Rage Pro AGP 2X
162-164 megs of RAM (don't ask unless necessary.. I'm not sure myself)
2 HD's : Primary - 4 Gig Samsung (D2X installed here)
Secondary - 3 Gig Samsung

Or if you just want the really detailed stuff here is the System Info as per msinfo32 :

[System Summary]

Item Value
OS Name Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Version 5.0.2195 Build 2195
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name MINISTRY
System Manufacturer VIA Technologies, Inc.
System Model VT82C597
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 5 Model 8 Stepping 12 AuthenticAMD ~500 Mhz
BIOS Version Award Modular BIOS v4.51PG
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\System32
Boot Device \Device\Harddisk0\Partition1
Locale United States
Total Physical Memory 163,312 KB
Available Physical Memory 99,136 KB
Total Virtual Memory 555,316 KB
Available Virtual Memory 411,848 KB

Lastly, but also of utmost importance when regarding this issue is this. I CANNOT run any other OS but Win2K. I can run other versions of Win2K (Professional, Server, beta builds, etc) but it MUST BE Win2K. All other OS's that I have tried to run or install either cannot be installed due to some problem or another, or once they are installed end up giving me more problems and headaches than needed. Complete unstability and reliability problems under any other OS. Can't even run XP correctly. Can't even upgrade to XP or anything else. Can't downgrade to 95, 98, or ME. It blows. Hard.

I do know and realize that 2K is an NT build, so I expect it will be difficult to run games under it. But I only need D1 and D2X to work. I'm willing to go through just about any amount of tinkering to do this (short of buying a new comp) so any help is appreciated. Thanks much!

[kandrathe]

What .dll or software is referenced in your BSOD? I had a similiar problem with one of my machines and it turned out to be DirectX muffing out on sound hardware acceleration. It still happens to me sometimes when I get obvious sound buffer overflow states. You can go into DXDIAG and turn off sound and/or video acceleration and see if that makes your environment more stable. Also, W2K and Diablo II are very sensitive to virtual memory shortages. Make sure you have extra ample disk space on the D2X installed drive. So, also make sure you have the latest version of your video and sound card's bios upgrades (if any), drivers, and DirectX.

[kandrathe]

oops. duped.

[Ace 777]

Lastly, but also of utmost importance when regarding this issue is this. I CANNOT run any other OS but Win2K. I can run other versions of Win2K (Professional, Server, beta builds, etc) but it MUST BE Win2K. All other OS's that I have tried to run or install either cannot be installed due to some problem or another, or once they are installed end up giving me more problems and headaches than needed. Complete unstability and reliability problems under any other OS. Can't even run XP correctly. Can't even upgrade to XP or anything else. Can't downgrade to 95, 98, or ME. It blows. Hard.

Your statement here caught my interest, as I had similar problems with an AMD K6 Processor. Could this possibly be attributed to your video card or processor? Perhaps it's physically overheating, thus generating the errors in your game as well as your errors in other OS's. AMD is notorious for high temps. If you can't compensate for AMD and high temps, buy Intel.

I'm assuming that all your drivers are up to date, yadda, yadda, yadda...

When I experienced this, I literally had to open the case and blow a floor fan onto the motherboard to get the system to stay semi-stable. Perhaps adding an additional cooling fan onto the video card's processor will clear things up.

You can also try running the Video Test utility that comes with D2, and FORCE D2 to use the 2D Option. If the problem goes away using 2D, the problem may be your video card or drivers.

It also couldn't hurt to bump up the RAM to 256 or 512 MB.

[ithil]

When I experienced this, I literally had to open the case and blow a floor fan onto the motherboard to get the system to stay semi-stable.

Same, although the open case shares the wallfan with me. ;) (Athlon XP 1.4 GHz, Abit KG7-R mobo, GF3 Ti200. I have my suspicions about the motherboard.)

edit: Has anyone else noticed the bizarre parsing bug for [QUOTE=blah] (not plain [QUOTE]) that triggers if the first comma occurs before the first newline in the quoted block?

[Kevin]

That much system weirdness is generally due to a hardware problem be it a bad part or heat. If it isn't heat stuff like that is generally a either a motherboard or memory problem in most cases. Memory is easy to check though. Go to the memtest86 homepage get the precompiled version for windows and DOS. Create the boot disk that it has you make, then boot up off it and let it run overnight. If you get even one error, then you have a memory problem. This doesn't mean the memory is bad, it could mean that you have the timings set too fast for what the memory can handle as well, so if you get errors, go into the BIOS, slow down your memory timings and run the test again, if you're clean, you're good. It could also be something that can be fixed by a BIOS update. This isn't that uncommon with some of the older VIA chipsets, they had memory controller issues on some of them.

You may also want to hit the VIA website and make sure that you have the latest 4-in-1 or whatever they are calling them now, drivers. Looks like you have a VT82C597 chipset. That can make a difference.

Another thing that I have seen cause stuff like this, again mostly on VIA chipsets, is have DMA enabled. Go into your hardware config for you hard drives and CD-ROM turn off DMA mode and see if it helps. Sure you might take a performance hit, but you might also be able to use your comp.

Other people covered the heat and DirectX issues already.

As an FYI, I played D2 under 2K for over a year without a problem.

[CowInvader]

Edit: Isolde seems to have cleared up my rumor posting.

[Isolde]

There were bad ad banners up on the b.net servers which would cause the client to barf. This was fixed earlier in the day. At some point we'll upgrade some of the older software to not crash when this happens.

[kandrathe]

Mostly I feel that animated Banners are evil anyway, but then I would be happy if the www had a Unix look and feel interface. :)