Severe Zdoom error

[SirBardCat]

I'm not sure how to start this post so I'll just get right to the point. Zdoom (all versions, GL hasn't been tested) causes my computer to completely lock up. I'll be playing, and all of a sudden my computer freezes completly. I can't ctrl+al+del. All I can do is restart my system manually. It's alot like pulling a game catridge out of a gaming console while its still on. I've switch out my RAM, video cards, (tested with 3dfx voodoo3 and trio 3d2x) and everything else imaginable. The only thing I haven't done is switched hard drives. I have WinXP pro and Win2000 on this system, and I get the same result on both. I've run virus scans, spyware apps, harddisk repair tools and registry checkers... all came out fine. I'd really like to know if I'm the only one experiencing this problem or if other folks have come across it as well. And if it helps here are my system specs: AMD Athlon 1ghz(+0.5), 448mb of ram, 16mb video, 20gb harddrive.

[Graf Zahl]

What versions? Only the 2.0.x betas or 1.22 or what? 2.0.x and 1.22 are completely different so if both lock up the problem must be elsewhere. You should also try starting ZDoom with -nosound, -nosfx or -nomusic to rule out any sound driver related problems (which are one of the biggest potential problems.

You should also check ZDoomGL because it uses completely different graphics startup code. If that crashes, too, you can rule out a video related problem.

[SirBardCat]

When I said all versions, I was including 1.22+. (2.0 etc). It even occurs with Zdaemon. I ran zdoom with those parameters and I still got the same result.

[Graf Zahl]

Do other source ports work?

The fact that both 1.22 and 2.0.x lock up indicates that this is not a problem with ZDoom itself. These versions use completely different code to access the hardware so if both lock up completely there has to be a problem with some driver in your system.

Do you have similar problems with any other software (most importantly other Doom source ports?)

[SirBardCat]

Well of course intially I thought that it was something not related to zdoom at all causing this. And no, other Doom ports don't do this. Though the only other ports I use are PRBoom and Legacy. Here's something else that's rather strange... About 5 or so months back, my computer locked-up at the sign-in screen. I fixed this by going into safe mode and disabling the sign in screen. Then I ran spyware and virus apps and cleaned alot of junk out. Over time and updates it slowly got better but would still freeze at random. Now Zdoom is the only program affected. Maybe it's being affected by a left-over virus or something? This is all to weird and confusing for me 6_9

[Graf Zahl]

I'd still say that there's a defect in your system. I had to replace my last computer due to something similar. It randomly crashed when using a few particular problems. At first it seemed that said software was at fault but extensive examination of the problem showed that it couldn't handle the system running at 100% anymore. Trying to fix such problems is normally an utterly pointless exercise without any chance of success so I bought a new one.

[Fusion]

Reinstall windows.. some of your system files have been corrupted and/or the windows registry itself failing that, i would believe it is some sort of hardware conflict such as faulty ram.. which believe it or not, is very common, even if you did swap out the ram with new or even a different brand...
Download a little program called memtest just to rule out that it's not your ram...
Download here http://hcidesign.com/memtest/download.html

[Grazza]

Reinstalling Windows would be an extremely drastic solution (assuming it would solve the problem, that is) if everything else on the computer is working well.

[david_a]

I have the same problem. Can't really remember when it started, but it's been QUITE a while...

I didn't bother reporting it before since I was running a heavily hacked version of Win95/98 and a hacked version of 2000 (nothing illegal, just a bunch of tweaks left and right). ZDoom would randomly lockup, looping the last few milliseconds of sound. Only resort is to use the Reboot button.

In the last couple of days I installed a fresh copy of XP on here... and it does the same thing.

The RAM is fine. I used to have RAM which had around, oh, 200 errors in it according to memtest, but I bought some sticks cheap off someone who was upgrading their machine. It checked out fine when I got it, and still does.

It's not the sound card. I tried running with -nosound, and it still locked up.

I believe the culprit to be either my Radeon 7500 itself or the drivers for it (I used to have a Voodoo3 and I don't remember it locking up, although that was in the early days of 1.23). I've tried running with tweaked drivers and vanilla ATI ones: same thing. No other port other than ZDoom locks up like this. ZDoomGL runs fine on this machine (well, as "fine" as it ever runs).

I'm basically taking Graf's philosophy here: there's virtually no chance this will get fixed, so I'll just have to live with it until I get a new PC. Unfortunately my plans for a new machine have been postponed at least a couple of months (new car > new pc), so I don't see any solution for the near future.

So, I guess if there's any comfort in knowing that you're not alone with this issue, I can give you that...

PS: Sorry for the mini-bump, but I didn't read this until now.