I have played both games on a similar system and didn't experience any problems. I'm afraid your system is either misconfigured or defective.

What drivers are you using for the ATI Radeon 9550? Also, what version of Windows are you running?

And what updates have you installed for Windows?

Have you tested the RAM to make sure it isn't bad?

What brand/model power supply and how old is it?

AZCharlie02 wrote on 2021-04-12, 23:07:

Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness

Are you aware that this is widely regarded as the worst game in the series..? My first second suggestion would be to make sure you have all available patches (fan-created or otherwise). My first suggestion would be to play something else. 😉

If your Radeon 9550 is passively cooled, then it's possibly overheating, which would explain the problem. Try pointing an extra fan directly at the GPU to see if that fixes the crashes.

BF1942 has pretty much no performance sensitivity issues at all. I was running it without issue on my third-gen i5 and GTX 760 a few years ago. Your video driver might just not be playing nice for some reason.

From my experience, Battlefield 1942 is very prone to crashing due to system stability issues, whilst other games don't necessarily display a problem. Like others have said, check the Radeon drivers as the first likely culprit, as well as checking the card isn't overheating. Failing that, try a different graphics card also.

Jorpho wrote on 2021-04-13, 02:33:

AZCharlie02 wrote on 2021-04-12, 23:07:

Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness

Are you aware that this is widely regarded as the worst game in the series..? My first second suggestion would be to make sure you have all available patches (fan-created or otherwise). My first suggestion would be to play something else. 😉

Personally I'd take AOD anyday over practically everything that came after though. 😉

If we're talking just the Core Design era, then yeah AOD is the worst. But the post-Core Design games never quite managed to capture the feel of "Tomb Raider" and nowadays they're practically a totally different genre.

Thanks for all the replies. I'll nswer them more or less in sequence:

I suspect my system might be misconfigured for Battlefield, but I'm not sure what to change. Ut seems to be a video issue, but I'm a bot overwhelmed by all of the options available. Direct 3d or Open GL? Hardware acceleration or not? What's the best resolution? I did modifiy the video commands to allow for all resolutions and that helped a biti.

I'm running these games on Windows 98 SE with the Service Pack 3 added in. I use the Raddeon 9550 drivers from Phil's COmputer Lab, version 6.2, supposedly the last if the Windows 98 drivers. I've also trid the drivers that came with the graphics card, version 7.1 (2006) listed for Windows 2000/XP/XP MCE and didn't get any different results.

My RAM is used stuff from eBay. How can I test it? It works with all other games okay.
The PSU is brand new, 500 Watt ARES.
I'll look for some TRAOD patches. As I recall, there are a lot of them. I think I did try the latest one, 1.6.1 That game is a far as my system can go, DirectX 9.

The newer unofficial SP3 for Win98SE has caused all sorts of problems for me when I tried it. Anything from file system wackiness / slowness and file explorer screwing up and not responding to the system crashing.

There is absolutely 0 reason to use the unofficial SP3. Originally, it was just a pack that installed all the official Microsoft updates and then they started adding stuff from ME and XP and it all went downhill if you actually want a well working system.

The only thing I do with Win98SE anymore is:
1. Install the chipset and video drivers
2. Install the updates from the Microsoft 2004 update CD. It is available on vogonsdrivers.com
3. Install NUSB 3.6
4. Install the rest of the drivers.

Cyclone3d, Thanks. I got that 2004 update and already installed the USB.

Try running the graphics tests in DxDiag and see if they run correctly.

I wouldn't take anything regarding Angel of Darkness for granted. It was Cyberpunk 2077 level of broken when it released and probably never got fully patched. I always got sound issues and clipped through walls in it even years after it released.

BF1942 might have a driver issue. Back in the day I had a Radeon 9600 Pro and never had issues with that game.

Wow, failed Direct X 3D. I had run those tests before, but this time a different result. On Direct Draw the white object bounced frantically fast. On Direct 3D, the object spun at high speed then froze and locked up my computer. I'll try to find out hat all that means. Thanks for the suggestion, TheMLGladiator.

AZCharlie02 wrote on 2021-04-14, 16:41:

Wow, failed Direct X 3D. I had run those tests before, but this time a different result. On Direct Draw the white object bounced frantically fast. On Direct 3D, the object spun at high speed then froze and locked up my computer. I'll try to find out hat all that means. Thanks for the suggestion, TheMLGladiator.

The DirectDraw test is supposed to run very fast on fast hardware, so that is normal. The Direct3D test locking up the computer leads me to believe that there may be an issue with the graphics card. I would check the card closely to see if there is any physical damage. If there isn't, look for some older drivers on the internet like the ones linked: https://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fil … 7&menustate=6,1

Have you tried taking the cooler off the video card, cleaning the old paste off and then applying new paste?

Could be that they used the old white gook and it has dried out/turned to powder.

I did a clean install of Windows 98SE, putting in the graphics drivers early and before sound card drivers. All Direct X tests passed successfully. I guess something added later messed up the video. I am currently at only Direct X 8.1 which is adequate to run Battlefield 1842. Tomb Raider AOD will require a version of DX 9, which I have.

Some comments on Battlefield 1942 said .NET 1.1 was needed to run it, and ATI also recommends .NET 1.1 for the ATI Windows 98 drivers. For now, I'm focused on getting Direct 3D to run properly, and that seems to mean I need a different driver.

What method do people use to test RAM?

I usually boot Ultimate Boot CD and run Memtest86 or Memtest86+.