[burnt123]

hello i installed fs2 and play for a while and then my comp started to freeze. it doesnt just freeze in-game, but freezes/black screen everywhere. for example when im browsing the internet it suddenly black screens and i have to restart. sometimes it freezes when windows is loading.

i though it was just a bug with my OS so i reformated my hd and reinstalled everything

it worked fine for 2days (when i didnt play fs2 yet). yesterday i played for a while and all was well. today, the freezing came backs, took me 20minutes to get windows to boot up. i think theres someth incompatibility here, so if anyone can point me in the right direction ill appreciate it

i have windows xp sp3. maybe fs2 only runs on 95/98 properly?

[General Battuta]

Are you using FreeSpace 2 Open?

If not, please install it (see the FreeSpace Open Installer in the top bar.) Download the MediaVPs to get updated graphics.

[Herra Tohtori]

It's true that retail FS2 can have issues with newer operating systems and GPU drivers, but they shouldn't cause system instability like this. Like Battuta said, are you using retail or FS2_Open?

Also, what sort of computer are you using? How much RAM, what processor, what graphics card etcetera?

Massive instability like that is seldom linked to installation of a single game. FS2 and FS2_Open certainly do not make changes on a system that would result in stability issues like you described. Even if the problems started when you installed FS2, I would put my money on a simple coincidence.

To be honest this sounds more like a hardware issue to me than software. You should probably check temperatures first; overheating GPU or CPU can cause shutdowns and lock-ups like you described.

If you can, visually inspect the motherboard to find if any of the capacitors have leaked their electrolytic fluids out - this may first show up as stability issues, before the whole board stops working and potentially destroys other components with a surge or short circuit current.


I hope you can solve the problem, but with given information it is impossible to give any further help.

[burnt123]

thanks for your replies. i'm using the retail version. i downloaded fs2 open before but couldnt get it to work so i didnt bother too much with it.

actually i found out about fs2 in 2006 and as everyone knows there were no more retail copies at that time so i downloaded off a site called freespacezone (i think). this version was cracked (no cd key), so i think there might be some bugs with the files

my comp is self assembled (bought components back in 2005). RAM is 512mb, cpu is 3.00hz, pentium 4, nvidia geforce fx 5200. i play new games on my 360 and ps3 so i dont bother with upgrading my comp too much

i dont know if it's caused by fs2 or some serious OS bug. if you need anymore information please ask. thanks

[General Battuta]

I'd suggest installing FreeSpace Open with the Installer immediately. We can help you get it working, it's pretty straightforward.

[Jeff Vader]

Yeah but no but yeah. FS2 really does NOT break your system and cause instability like that. It just doesn't make any large or dangerous changes anywhere. Unless, of course, if you got your FS2 from a shady online source or something.

Several methods for installing FSO are available here.

Edit: Now that I've actually woken up, it would seem that you indeed downloaded your FS2 from some shady place. Not good. I strongly recommend that you uninstall/delete it, and then run at least an antivirus scan and possibly a malware scan on your computer. Registry cleanup couldn't hurt either. Then, please buy FS2 from Good Old Games. GOG is a legitimate company. They sell a lot of, well, good old games at low prices ($5.99 / $9.99). The games are digital downloads. They are completely DRM-free. They work. We support them. Go there. NOW.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

It's also possible that if you downloaded a cracked version from somewhere it could have a virus.  Fork out the 6 bucks and get a working install from GOG.com and then update to FS2_Open. 

[jr2]

hello i installed fs2 and play for a while and then my comp started to freeze. it doesnt just freeze in-game, but freezes/black screen everywhere. for example when im browsing the internet it suddenly black screens and i have to restart. sometimes it freezes when windows is loading.

i though it was just a bug with my OS so i reformated my hd and reinstalled everything

it worked fine for 2days (when i didnt play fs2 yet). yesterday i played for a while and all was well. today, the freezing came backs, took me 20minutes to get windows to boot up. i think theres someth incompatibility here, so if anyone can point me in the right direction ill appreciate it

i have windows xp sp3. maybe fs2 only runs on 95/98 properly?

It's not overheating issues, is it?  Do you play other games without problems?  Maybe try running a stress test on your system and see if it crashes.  If it does, there's your problem.  If you have a Virus, let these loose:

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
Spybot Search and Destroy
SUPER Anti-Spyware
AVG Free Edition  (yeah there's better ones but it's free and it does work quite well)


If there is a really nasty rootkit in there that's hiding (your searches get re-directed and all of the above programs state your system is clean) then try GMER.

[burnt123]

thanks for your help. sry for late reply ive been very busy with exams recently. i suspected if the download has virus so i ran a few virus scans before and found no problems. i dont think its virus, the site wasnt that shady (its gone now it was freespacezone.net). i really wanna play fs2 and dont want my comp screwing up so i think ill just buy it at gog.com. but thats alotta hassel having to re dl and burn it to a disc, so before i do it, let me add some more information about the problem.

i noticed that of times, if i pull/plug my ethernet cable or headphone cable in their sockets, my comp freezes and blackscreens for a brief moment. now i havent been too clear about the freezing part; its not just black screen, many times my screen goes checkerboard (like a 360 just before rrod), or it has crazy colors on it before crashing. and the problem got worse over time until i had to reformat my hd. i suspected graphics card was overheating but no, i turned my graphics accelerator and the problem still persist. neither is the cpu overheating

[Herra Tohtori]

You should run a memory test.

[castor]

Edit: Now that I've actually woken up, it would seem that you indeed downloaded your FS2 from some shady place. Not good. I strongly recommend that you uninstall/delete it, and then run at least an antivirus scan and possibly a malware scan on your computer.

I believe freespacezone is DW-hunter's site. HLP used to have FS2 DL links from there before gog started to sell it (not that it couldn't be infected with viruses anyway).

[jr2]

i noticed that of times, if i pull/plug my ethernet cable or headphone cable in their sockets, my comp freezes and blackscreens for a brief moment. now i havent been too clear about the freezing part; its not just black screen, many times my screen goes checkerboard

Did you build this system yourself?

[S-99]

System instability like this is not software related since he said he formatted, reinstalled, and had the same issues again before even messing with fs2 again.

Does the power supply have enough power to feed the demands of the computer hardware?
And or is the system in need of an internal cleaning (dust bunnies load up, and you're average folk don't think to clean it out once in a while).
If none of these issues, i'd suspect faulty hardware. A memory test like someone recommended earlier would be a good place to start for that.

[jr2]

hello i installed fs2 and play for a while and then my comp started to freeze. it doesnt just freeze in-game, but freezes/black screen everywhere. for example when im browsing the internet it suddenly black screens and i have to restart. sometimes it freezes when windows is loading.

i though it was just a bug with my OS so i reformated my hd and reinstalled everything

it worked fine for 2days (when i didnt play fs2 yet). yesterday i played for a while and all was well. today, the freezing came backs, took me 20minutes to get windows to boot up. i think theres someth incompatibility here, so if anyone can point me in the right direction ill appreciate it

i have windows xp sp3. maybe fs2 only runs on 95/98 properly?

EDIT: Although, you are right, I suspect it just might be hardware like you said.  But you can't rule software out... and it's interesting that it worked great for two days, and then crashed after he played FS2.

[The E]

Well......My question would be whether or not the same thing happens with FSO. Since the basic approach to FS2 retail error fixing involves using FSO as the first step, we could start there.

Please refer to the FAQ stickied in this board on how to generate an fs2_open.log using fs2_open, and post it here.

But yeah, my first guess would be that something is going wrong in the hardware as well.