Blue Scren of Death!

[Monkeybits]

I purchased CoD4 and installed it a couple of weeks ago. Love the game, but I'm having a problem.

When it comes time to take out the disc after a single player session, the system sometimes blue screens on me shortly after opening the drive bay.

From what I'm reading, this is often a physical memory problem, but haven't seen any other evidence of RAM issues.

Any thoughts, hints or suggestions? I'm going to go check out memtest.org, but am not looking forward to testing one stick at a time...

 

[MaGooGoo]

not really sure if it maybe the same thing. but i installed tf2 only a few months ago, and at first, it blue screened alot. aparently the ram was put in the wrong order? and one of the slots was messed up. i doubt it's the same, but just saying.

 

[Badger]

sadly testing one stick at a time is probably your best bet man. If it was problems during game i could see it possibly being a video card/driver issue but after you take the disc out of the drive??? yeah that's pretty buggered honestly.

 

[Frank Booth]

Another possibility is that some file is corrupt or missing. When it goes to load it BSOD. Do a defragment first.

 

[Monkeybits]

Defragging at home while I am at work. I'm doing the whole drive since I have all day to do it while I'm gone.

I know about GFSscape for defragging my Valve game files which I always do after a drive defrag. Is there a similar utility for CoD4 files?

How does one determine the order of one's RAM? Several months ago Bubbles and I both added 2 gigs of RAM to our existing 1 gig each simply using the open slots. The original 2 500 MB sticks in each machine were simply left in place.

The new sticks have displayed no problems since installation, but I know an application can access hitherto untouched areas of RAM.

Still, having it happen when the drive opens is truly odd. The program's shut down and no other disc being removed from that drive has ever triggered the problem.

It's magical! =)

 

[Toasteddude]

The game doesn't need the CD in the whole time. As soon as the beginning credits turn on, you can remove the disk (I do this all the time). See if you still get the same error if you remove the disk early. It may be a problem with the actual shutdown of the application.

 

[Monkeybits]

You bring me joy. I will try that instead of testing all my RAM tonight.

 

[Badger]

monkey. are you guys running vista or xp? i thought most xp machines won't recognize more than 2 gigs...

 

[Monkeybits]

XP and it recognizes 3 gigs. I think the limit for 32 bit operating systems is 3 gigs rather than 2 and 64 go up to 8 or something like that.

Gurus unite and answer this!

I think I'm going to start by running memtest without pulling any RAM out. If no problems are detected, there's no reason to go one by one to isolate a single chip. The more I think about it, the more I think it's tied to the game. I may try to register it with Steam so I won't have to use the disc at all.

The system doesn't crash at random times and shows no other symptoms of bad memory, so this may well be linked to the program rather than the hardware.

 

[Toasteddude]

I don't think you can register COD4 with Steam. The CD key isn't in proper format (I've tried, I hate disks).

Edit: And I don't know why, but the game only asks me for a CD when playing Single Player, not Multiplayer

 

[Monkeybits]

Toasteddude you are correct. You can't register it with Steam. I decided to run the test from memtest.org without pulling my sticks. I figured if it turns up a problem, I can then crack the case and do them one by one to determine which it is. No errors after a couple of passes (version 2.01 is the current free version and it does something like 20 tests per pass).

It would appear this is definitely a software issue.

So, I'm going to try the pull the disc after opening credits. If that doesn't work, I'll try a reinstall. If that doesn't work, well, it's a sweet, sweet game but Multiplayer doesn't require the disc, so I'll just play that until I get a new comp in a year or two and then I'll have a little old game party.

Thank you kindly, everyone who's contributed to this thread. It's a fine demonstration of the excellent quality of people we have in the clan that so many of you stepped up to give helpful suggestions. You all rock!

 

[Nachoes]

XP and it recognizes 3 gigs. I think the limit for 32 bit operating systems is 3 gigs rather than 2 and 64 go up to 8 or something like that.

32-Bit Operating Systems can recognize up to 3.5 GB's, and 64-bit Can recognize 16 + GB's of RAM

 

[Frank Booth]

Exactly what memory do you have and how much?

32bit has a maximum of 4 gigs of ram. 64 bit has a limit that is 10 million times greater than 32 bit i think, or 16.7 TB; wiki should say. Windows shows only 3 because it is lame.

The order of the ram is important. If you have two 1 gig sticks, for example, you need to match the slots. Since you have 4 slots you do not put both stick next to each other, in A1 A2, but go in A1 and B1 which would be the third slot.

Also is the memory mixed? Mixing different speed memory can have issues, but for most part it limits your speed to the lowest speed rated stick.

 

[Nachoes]

I think its 16 Exabytes excactly..

 

[Monkeybits]

The sticks are matched, the original two 500 MB sticks in a matched pair, then the 2 1 gig sticks in a matched pair. I tried pulling the disc after start up. No problem today. I was happy the memory itself tested as clean (no errors with memtest). If I can avoid it simply by pulling the disc after starting the game, I'm very happy with that solution.

Hm, so I could slip two more 1 gig sticks in there. Now you have me thinking... =)

Edit: Oh, and the 500 MB is 400 MHz, 1 gig is at 533 MHz, so I know the 1 gig is limited to 400, but it seems okay so far.

 

[bakerthree]

with out knowing what ram sticks you have, I would still move your ram so you use the one gig sticks in the first slot and the 500mb sticks in the last slots. This could improve your performance but as I said with out more info on the ram can't be sure.

this suggestion could make the computer run better and keep you from doing a memory test but won't fix a game shut down problem