Edwin1996 wrote:

Hi guys ive got a really annoying problem with unreal, about every 5 minutes the game freezes and the computer becomes unrespons […]
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Hi guys ive got a really annoying problem with unreal, about every 5 minutes the game freezes and the computer becomes unresponsive to anything but a reset. I've tried both my original copy of the game as well as unreal gold but this happens in both. If it helps my pc specs are

Voodoo 5500
Asus cusl2-c
piii 1.4ghz
512mb ram
sound blaster audigy (sb0090)
Windows 98se

Any help would be appreciated!

You might be able to run memtest86, as some of the RAM may have decided to give up. 512MB may be a tad too much for 98SE, but that's probably more personal opinion than anything else. Do other games work?

I haven't tried memtest86 but ill give it a shot. Other games have been working fine. Ive put around 100 hours into half life, Dark Forces 2 and diablo 1 and 2 with no issues.

just completed memtest86 and it passed with no issues

I remember some Boards that draw to less power over agp but that was a BX (be2000?) with a voodoo3.
In that case I got random freezes and lockps while watching the unreal timedemo-sequence.

What happens when you play other glide/ogl games? Say quake2 and half life? Do they run fine?

I haven't tried Quake 2, but Half Life was fine. Completed the game with no issues

*running in opengl

Check the fans on the V5 5500, do they spin normally? I think that V5 might overheat, Unreal in glide mode will stress the card much more than other games.

Since the problem seems to be consistent it could be a heat issue.

Try to run some stress software for the CPU like Prime95, Everest stability test etc.
The Tualatin doesn't generate much heat but it could be that the heatsink has poor contact.

You can also try to underclock the Voodoo 5 to maybe 130Mhz or less and see if you can play longer.

Both fans are working on the 5500, but it could be having a heat issue i guess. I have the computer in my beige box from the late 90s/early 2000s and the air flow is not great, but there are 2 case fans. Ill try the stress software as well as underclocking

Ive run prime95 and it was fine. I also run the Unreal benchmark for around 30 mins and it didnt crash but then when i entered the game it crashed after around 5 mins again 🙁 I turned the PC off and the voodoo and cpu were warm to the touch but not hot. This is really frustrating

Is this most likely a hardware issue rather then a software one then?

You can try oldunreal patch 227d

https://oldunreal.com/oldunrealpatches.html

After that I would try running the game in opengl mode.

At this point i would try pulling out the sound card and run unreal without sound.

Doesnt unreal have a 'safe mode' or something equivalent? You could try running in that and see if it crashes? I tend to think this is a software issue though, curious if patching the game clears it up. Could be some compatibility with one of your drivers for your sound, video or something like that.

hasnopants wrote:

Doesnt unreal have a 'safe mode' or something equivalent? You could try running in that and see if it crashes? I tend to think this is a software issue though, curious if patching the game clears it up. Could be some compatibility with one of your drivers for your sound, video or something like that.

unreal.exe -firstrun
But it's often more efficient to delete System/Unreal.ini.
Early versions of Unreal often crash in Glide. Patches must be applied, but not all !
If I remember, 224 is correct.
227 works usually great, but sometimes I had problem to have Win98 run it.

Edwin1996 wrote on 2019-08-05, 03:27:

Hi guys ive got a really annoying problem with unreal, about every 5 minutes the game freezes and the computer becomes unrespons […]
Show full quote

Hi guys ive got a really annoying problem with unreal, about every 5 minutes the game freezes and the computer becomes unresponsive to anything but a reset. I've tried both my original copy of the game as well as unreal gold but this happens in both. If it helps my pc specs are

Voodoo 5500
Asus cusl2-c
piii 1.4ghz
512mb ram
sound blaster audigy (sb0090)
Windows 98se

Any help would be appreciated!

I had the same problem. Tried everything. Eventually what helps was disabling the pagefile in windows completely and using only 512 mb ram stick since.