All games freeze in Single Player, plz help

[Halcyon]

Hello all,

So I have a rather unique issue where Crysis, HL2:ep2 and COD:4 crash in single player mode, but never in multiplayer games. There is a pattern, however, which is that the games lock up during loading or saving points. I think it might have something to do with my permissions, but I've tried a number of different options and I'm not sure what I should do next. All of my games are installed to a separate folder called /users/public/games.

Thanks again

 

[holo88]

system specs? and which anti-Virus/Spyware/etc do you use.

why wouldn't you just install them in Program Files? just curious.. but that could have something to do with it as well.

 

[The Sly Assassin]

That is unique alright, i have crysis and COD4, never encountered this problem before. Maybe because the games are in the public directory, permissions are different ? Id advice changing the install directory.

 

[zigzag3143]

game freeze

Hello all,

So I have a rather unique issue where Crysis, HL2:ep2 and COD:4 crash in single player mode, but never in multiplayer games. There is a pattern, however, which is that the games lock up during loading or saving points. I think it might have something to do with my permissions, but I've tried a number of different options and I'm not sure what I should do next. All of my games are installed to a separate folder called /users/public/games.

Thanks again

Hi and welcome again

We could use a lot more info abt your computer to help you better

Ken

 

[Halcyon]

System Specs:
Core i7 920 processor
Asus Rampage 2 extreme mobo
Asus SupremeFX X-Fi audio
MSI GTX295 video
12GB Corsair DDR3 1600 ram
WD Velociraptor 300gb HD

The reason I've tried installing to a different directory is because the first installs I made were to the default directories, and that locked things up. A format and reinstall of everything to a dedicated games folder seemed to clear up the issue, until now

It's strange because the video will freeze, but often times the audio doesn't loop... it just keeps playing. I'll be playing along, and everything is working perfectly. The games look gorgeous and framerates are off the charts. Then out of nowhere, the game will just suddenly lock up. This ONLY happens in single player. For example, on Call of Duty 4, I can play MP all day long without issue. But when I try to play single player, I get about 7-10 minutes in and then BOOM, video freezes up and I have to hard reboot my computer.

This issue never happens with Multiplayer COD, CounterStrike Source, World of Warcraft, etc... It's like the games work fine until they need to save some sort of information to my computer, and then the whole thing just locks up.

 

[Halcyon]

Hi and welcome again

We could use a lot more info abt your computer to help you better

Ken

Thanks Ken, system specs added to post above.

One thing I guess I would mention is that I was using the default video drivers that came with windows 7. Everything seemed to work fine then, but then I upgraded to the new win7 x64 drivers and I started getting the lockups again. I went into device manager, reverted back to the default Microsoft drivers, and restarted my computer. Unfortunately, I'm still getting the lockups.

***edit*** antivirus is AVG. I had this problem before I ever installed AVG though...

 

[The Sly Assassin]

tried running it compatibility mode for other OS's Vista RTM or XP sp3?

 

[Halcyon]

tried running it compatibility mode for other OS's Vista RTM or XP sp3?

Yup. Specifically, for Crysis I tried running the game in Vista compatibility mode but no dice. Game locked in about 8-10 minutes tops.

 

[zigzag3143]

game freeze

Thanks Ken, system specs added to post above.

One thing I guess I would mention is that I was using the default video drivers that came with windows 7. Everything seemed to work fine then, but then I upgraded to the new win7 x64 drivers and I started getting the lockups again. I went into device manager, reverted back to the default Microsoft drivers, and restarted my computer. Unfortunately, I'm still getting the lockups.

***edit*** antivirus is AVG. I had this problem before I ever installed AVG though...

didn't even think of it but have seen anti virus casue this. try un-installing the anti virus and driver. then if no freeze add one at a time back

Ken

 

[Halcyon]

didn't even think of it but have seen anti virus casue this. try un-installing the anti virus and driver. then if no freeze add one at a time back

Ken

Excellent, I'll give this a try now and report back. Please stick with me on this thread because I really want to see this through.

 

[Halcyon]

didn't even think of it but have seen anti virus casue this. try un-installing the anti virus and driver. then if no freeze add one at a time back

Ken

I reverted the driver back to the windows 7 default driver, and I completely disabled AVG and restarted my computer. CoD4 single player froze after about 6 minutes of play.

 

[zigzag3143]

game freeze

I reverted the driver back to the windows 7 default driver, and I completely disabled AVG and restarted my computer. CoD4 single player froze after about 6 minutes of play.

I dont think thats it but disabling AVG is not the same as removing it. CAnt hurt to try it.

Hope this helps

Ken

 

[AstaLaVista]

One thing I guess I would mention is that I was using the default video drivers that came with windows 7. Everything seemed to work fine then, but then I upgraded to the new win7 x64 drivers and I started getting the lockups again. I went into device manager, reverted back to the default Microsoft drivers, and restarted my computer. Unfortunately, I'm still getting the lockups.

Therein lies the problem... I think

OK, things I would try to never do again...

Never updates your Video, Sound or Monitor drivers from Windows Update... lotsa nasties can happen from it. I have no logical explanation for it though... just first hand knowledge

Now onto more positive things... I would try this

Get newer drivers for your sound, video and monitor from the Mfr and for the OS (32 or x64), save them inside a folder you can get to it.

Reboot into safe mode, uninstall your drivers and restart... once at the desktop, install your video driver first by going into the folder and right clicking into the file to "Run as Administrator"

Restart and do the same with the audio and then the monitor. If you have a G15 KB and Everest, you can make a nice script to run cpu & gpu temps on the display, this would help you monitor your temps while ingame to see if this has something to do with it as well.

 

[cakemos]

COMPUTER FREEZES SOLUTION

Hello, First of all the reason of these freezes is very simple. The games only freezes in Single Player games and modes so whenever the game or the software you are using needs to write something to hard drives (create/modify) the User Account Control prevents it to be written and the game freezes. However in Multiplayer modes nothing is changed in your computer and you can play the game for hours without freezing. The solution is pretty simple but it is only a bit risky for reckless users.

Go to Control Panel >> User Accounts >> Change User Account Control Setting >> Set it to Never notify.

after this change , Windows 7 will never ask " Yes or No" question when something is gonna be changed in the program files folder. So the games written data will not be prevented and there will no freeze during gameplay.

SOLUTION #1

-Run every game as ADMINISTRATOR

SOLUTION #2

-Disable (UAC) User Account Control. Set it to "Never Notify".
risky for low-experienced and reckless internet surfers

 

[UrgentStargaze]

Same Problem

Hey all,

Having the same problem in that Windows 7 freezes in single player games (and very occasionally with firefox), no response from keyboard or mouse, requires a restart every time.
There are no errors or events generated when the freeze happens (check time when freeze happens andimmediatly check events when logged back in)

as a side note, most of my games run in Steam (and those that don't i have activated as a "non steam game" on steam anyways).

System Spec:
Windows 7 32bit build 7600, clean install, single boot
Intel quad Q8400 2.66ghz
Gainward GTX 260 golden sample
xfx 750i sli motherboard
Hitachi 1tb hdd
Corsair 4GB ram
antivirus - AVG 9 internet security, full version

Considering I spent £1000 on a system and I can't use it for it's main purpose, kinda depressing...

I've tried:
Disable UAC access
running memtest86
bumping up fan speed in case of overheating
swapping sata cables in case one was faulty
disable nvidia stereoscopic 3d drivers
clean reinstall and install windows 7 drivers for gpu
clean reinstall and install nvidia drivers for gpu
clean reinstall and install gainward drivers for gpu
flashed bios
disable all services and startup
... the list goes on

any help here would be appreciated!

(games that freeze:
company of heroes
half life 2 (and sequals)
crysis
COD4
farcry
farcry 2
dark messiah
batman arkham asylum
prey
mass effect
mirrors edge
as can be seen, all are single player games, some games arnt graphically intense, others are very graphically intense, seems the demon in my computer doesn't have preferences)

 

[chev65]

You guys need to install those games to the default directory, you don't want to be messin with that part. Once installed, run the game from the start/games menu the first time you run them. Use the icon there to start the game. If you don't do it like that problems will surely follow. Windows 7 is picky about where it runs the game from, especially the first time you run the game.

Yes I have been testing this Op system with different games since Jan., they will not run correctly unless you do it like that. You must! run the game from the start/games menu the first time you start them.

After that you can go into the game files and find the Game Application file, 32 or 64 versions are usually available, move the Application icon to the taskbar and run the game from there. Don't forget to get any patches you need. Crysis needs the 1.2.1 and the 1.2 or it won't work right.

 

[UrgentStargaze]

seems to be working so far, ive left Company of Heroes running for the time being, if it doesn't freeze by 9 tonight then im guessing that your suggestion has worked!

if that is the case then i'm afraid i have another question for you, how am i going to go about using my steam games, they download and install to there own directory and run from the steam application. i put a link into the games explorer for COD4 and then tried to run it, it loads up steam and runs the game from there, not from the windows games directory you recommended, it ran for 10 minutes then froze.

for the time being, cheers for your help (hopefully it will have worked for the original poster of this thread too) at least i have ONE single player game i can actually run!

 

[UrgentStargaze]

it froze again... =(