Random Game Crashes NOT Actually Random? Interesting...

[Tzen]

My brother and I are playing through simultaneously on our respective computers:

Computer 1
Windows 2000 Pro SP4
Athlon 1.4GHz
512MB RAM
GeForce3 64MB
FF7 1.02 NVIDIA TNT w/ QFixApp 1.5 Win2000 Layer (NO HIGH-RES PATCH)

Computer 2 (laptop)
Windows XP Pro SP2
Centrino 1.86GHz
1GB RAM
GeForce6800Go 256MB
FF7 1.02 NVIDIA TNT w/ High-Res Patch

Both setups seemed relatively stable up to Mt. Nibel. Computer 1 was rock solid, while Computer 2 crashed only every so often ONLY right when entering battles. That is, until we got to Mt. Nibel. Right after the bridge breaks and dumps Cloud and crew to a screen down below. I swear to God, BOTH computers seemed to lock up at the exact same field spots when entering random battles. TWICE! I know it doesn't seem logical. They are supposed to be RANDOM battles, after all. But it happened. We resorted to simply trying to run through the mountain and cave to the reactor as quickly as possible without getting attacked. Needless to say, that was impossible. But we eventually got lucky and got into battles without crashing.

All seemed well until the Mythril Mine. I exited the mine, and then proceeded to the nearest patch of forest to look for Yuffie. Just managed to make it into the trees until... random battle crash. I decided to try the same thing on Computer 1. Exited the Mithril Mine, ran toward the same trees, boom. Crash.

After that, though, I could not get the crash to repeat on either computer. Maybe it's all just a bizzare coincidence. The Mt. Nibel situation was a lot more crash happy on both computers. Now, both computers seem to suffer the occassional random battle crash. The crashes are always right at the start of a random battle before the battle swirl.

Also, on Computer 2 the movies run somewhat choppy. I have tried the upside-down patch to no avail. They run very smoothly on Computer 1. Any ideas?

Edit: I've tried all different types of things with QFixApp (Different layers, different fixes ticked, etc.), but I can't seem to get rid of the random crashes.

[Megadarkness]

i have almost the same problem

i just got the buggy car from gold saucer i came back to lunon w/e name the port and i went in the forest to get yuffie i killed her and right after she died and the reward board appeared i crashed

[EmperorSteele]

That's.. really, really wierd.

Anyone know what to make of this?

[The SaiNt]

Just try and enable the compatibility mode in WinXP.
The program would always crash in battles for me in XP

[AlphaSt0rm]

Could you elaborate on how to turn on the "compatibility mode" in WinXP.  I have random battle crashes too.

[steven]

Could you elaborate on how to turn on the "compatibility mode" in WinXP.  I have random battle crashes too.

right click the shortcut icon and click properties, then click on the compatibility  tab and then you can chose what os the run it under.


ps: for some reason I have had random crashes before, but the next time I play it was like it never happend, but it is a good think that only happend 3 times at most

[Tzen]

Computer 1 will not run in any compatibility mode except Windows NT4 SP5, and I've tried various compatibility modes (Win95, Win98/ME, Win2000) on Computer 2 and the game still seems to crash randomly when entering battles.

Anyone have any ideas about the choppy FMV? Computer 2 is a pretty powerful rig and shouldn't be doing that. They play fine outside of the game.

[AlphaSt0rm]

Which OS is FFVII most compatible with?  Specs:

CPU : AMD Athlon 1800+ (OC'd to 2000+) ~1.7 GHz
GPU : NVidia GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGP8X
RAM : 512MB RAM
OS : Windows XP SP2
PATCHES : FF7Music, FFVII 1.4, Minigame Patch (dzuigo), High-Res

[Tzen]

I've read that Windows 98 is.

[AlphaSt0rm]

Well, now I'm running it under the "Windows 98 / Windows Me", now I just hope that it won't random battle crash >.<

[Tzen]

By the way, the level of support and dedication here is just astounding. You guys are awesome, and I hope I can contribute some help and assistance with these wonderful games.

[-gone away-]

I used to have a NVidia GeForce4 Ti 4400 i got the exact same crash about five times in a row in the Mt. Nibel area.

My problems were caused by running with anti-alaising under 98 compat mode. minimising the game & running in a window also causes crashing without fail. Also there is a texture setting i cannot rembemer the name of which causes crashes in one particular part of the game.

So my advice to you would to switch of anti-alaising. Ive never had a crash since.

The problem is caused by the fact that the xp/2000 drivers are seperate to the 98 drivers. so when a call for 98 is made its gets a different response due to the xp drivers and thus it crashes. Well thats my opionion anyway.

[James Pond]

For the records, the game runs perfectly on my PC.

AMD 64 3400+
Radeon X800XT
1gb Ram (512 Corsair, 512 Samsung)
Abit AV8-Third Eye mobo, socket 939.
Win XP SP2

[Otokoshi]

Off Topic:

That's a beefy system you got there James Pond.  How do you like the AMD 64's performance?  I'm planning on upgrading from my P4 478 2.6GHz to a AMD 939 in the near future.  I use the computer for gaming, but also for Photoshop, music editing, movie editing, and CAD design.

On Topic:

Final Fantasy VII was always a big headache for me when trying to run it on Windows 2000.  Windows 98 and XP always seemed to run it the best for me.  The problem is happening with both of your machines, even though they have completly different configurations.  Is there anything similar installed on both of the machines that may cause crashes?  Maybe a bad codec pack or software.  I am assuming you both share an internet connection.  If that is the case, maybe they were both infected with something from the internet.

This battle swirl crash used to happen to me all of the time back when I was on my college campus.  The network had shotty security at best.(students knew more than the network administrator   )  My machine always ran fine in an environment with a secure internet connection.  That's why I mentioned the whole "infected" thing, but I'm probably off on this one.  Hope if none of these resolve your problem you find the culprit soon.

[James Pond]

Personally, I wouldnt ever go back to a pentium willingly after using one.

Runs cooler, Runs more eficient, runs faster.

[Tzen]

Computer 1 has been going strong.

Computer 2 hit crash hell on the boat from Junon with Rufus on it. I tried without AA/AF on and even without the High Res patch. Still crashed often on the boat. I eventually went to Software Rendering and got through it. How annyoing... What's worse is that FMVs are SOOOO SLOOOOW in Software. WTF???

I wonder if it's the fact that Computer 1 has a modified .exe with QFixApp...

[-gone away-]

Personally, I wouldnt ever go back to a pentium willingly after using one.

Runs cooler, Runs more eficient, runs faster.

I wanted one, paid for one. but still somehow ended up with a p4.
Better luck next time i guess -_- .

[James Pond]

Got my new case today

Thermaltake Tsunami Dream in black.


It's teh sex.

[Phyltre]

Do we know what is actually causing the crashes after the battle swirl?

[EmperorSteele]

It seems to be the battle swirl itself.  There was a thread not too long ago where saint and aaron were talking about changing the code for the battle swirl, and they were crash-free.

As i found, theres definatly a link when it coms to hardware and drivers, my results of my testing were also in that thread.

[Tzen]

I remembered that I had vsync on to slow the battle swirl down to its proper speed. And I also had my brother do it on his computer sometime later. Now that I think about it, when we had/turned it on, the crashing seemed to begin.

I turned it off and so far, so good! God, I hope that was it!

Edit: No such luck. Just crashed.