Constant Crashing

[Pumpkin_Jack]

PJ, The 285 version has significant performance increase from the 280 and below versions.

I have actually tested this and the 285 drivers increased fps a good 20%.

i get solid 75+ fps but i run with low settings usually

[paceman]

I played 3 more rounds today and did not crash.

[ryanbatc]

On the other hand I've been getting crashes, at least once a game.

Either hardcore (yeah hardcoooore!) CTD's or a mouse cursor with nothing behind it, or a black screen and ALT+F4 doesnt do anything...

[majinsnake]

It surprises me that no one has mentioned this. This tip is meant for those who can't play the game at all.


Uninstall origin and the game itself. Backup whatever saved games.





Load up your registry. (start, run, type regedit)


Search up "EA games" or "Electronic arts" or "Battlefield" and delete all.


Reboot.


Then reinstall Origin and battlefield 3.


I have done this before for other games and has worked.



Last thought is to check EA forums and see what they post. You would get better help.

[Apache Warrior]

Once in regedit press Alt F. Type in the search field what you want to search for and click next. Modify or delete the entry. When you press Alt F again the search field reappears with the text. Press next again and it will continue to the next instance. Continue until you have moved through the entire list. Note, if you have other EA games, be careful or you might make them unplayable.
Apache

[paceman]

3 more games last night, no crashes! Now maybe I can experiment with changing one video setting at a time from Medium to High to figure out what causes the BSOD.

[ryanbatc]

There's a fan unlocker/firmware update for nvidia 500 series users.. it didn't work for me but others have had success, thread here:

GTX 500 Series Firmware Update + Fanspeed Unlockers

[JohnyRico]

FINALLY got mine to work for longer than 1 round. I actually managed to play mine for ~4 rounds, then it DID freeze again. But this was the first time I actually played back to back rounds start to end, so I believe it made a large difference:

1) Prepare the operating system to be able to use beyone 2GB address space with a userva of 2.5GB (only 32 bit OS's need to do this): I am purposely using only 2500 for userva for specific reasons and any more will likely not be needed, as a result the kernel will have plenty of space to play in.

All 64 bit OS's
Nothing to do on the OS. Proceed to step 2 on setting the executable. 64 bit OS's running 32 bit binaries are also limited to 2GB application space.

XP 32
* Find your Boot.ini located usually on the C:.
If you cannot see it, you probably have system files hidden, then follow these instructions at microsoft (also uncheck "hide protected operating system files")
* Right click on the boot.ini and choose properties. Uncheck "read only"
* Open the boot.ini by double clicking it.
* Under the section called find the line that says "multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=" Wind ows XP Professional...". Yours may look a bit different. We are going to make a duplicate, so that if you make a mistake you will not harm yourself from booting into your computer. Drag you're mouse across the entire line, right click and choose copy. Then right below the line you just copied right click your mouse and choose paste. You should now have two lines one after another that are exact duplicates.
* Change the bottom line that you just copied with the following addition on the end. Add a space at the end of the line and then this without the quotes "/3GB /USERVA=2500"
* In that lower boot entry you just made, find the name of the operating system in quotes and change it to something like "Windows XP 3GB", so you can differentiate at boot up.
* Close and save the boot.ini.
* Right click on the boot.ini, hit properties, check read only.

Windows 7/Windows Vista
* In Windows 7/Vista go to Start menu. Go to Accessories. Locate the command prompt shortcut and hover mouse over it. Right Click on the shortcut then select Run as Administrator.
* In the command prompt type this exactly: bcdedit /set increaseuserva 2500. Then hit enter.
* Make sure you get a message back confirming the change was made. To verify the entry is there you can type just bcdedit, hit enter, and you should see the entry now listed.
* Then close the command prompt. You just told Vista to increase user virtual address (userva) space to 2500MB.
* Changes take effect on reboot but don't reboot yet.

SUMMARY
We extended the user virtual address space in XP, Vista and 7 to 2500MB, so now applications can utilize up to that much if they are set to be Large Address Aware. While some 32 bit games/applications are set, Empire is not.

2) Now reboot the PC because Windows needs to set the userva at 2500 which only happens after startup.

If you skip any step it will not work. When you have rebooted you should be good to go. Run the game as normal with the original game shortcut.

TO UNDO THE CHANGES
For the XP 32 bit just delete the line from your boot.ini.
For Vista 32 Open command prompt as administrator and type: bcdedit /deletevalue increaseuserva. That deletes the entry.
Reboot and you are back to normal.


Going to fool around with this some more tonight, but I feel like for 32-bit systems this will make a difference!

I did the bit for vista 32 bit and rolled back my drivers to the beta set. After having never finished 2 rounds back to back I was able to play 4 hours and 12 rounds with no freezes or crashes. You rock, Dutch!!