Hey, I posted this on Whirlpool but you guys are pretty switched on so I'd like to see if any one knows what's going on:

 

About a week ago I'm playing BF2 and suddenly I start getting terrible stability with the system BSODing every 20 mins or restarting without warning. Finally one of the restarts totally bricks my PC and I have to reinstall Windows. Ever since then when I play BF2 the graphics are really flashly, as if my brightness is being switched between high and normal every 1 second.

 

I just tried to play ARMA II and it plays fine, however if I walk around and go through a shadow and come out the other side into sunlight, the screen goes completely white as if I were staring directly at the sun.The opposite occurs as well, if I'm in the shadows it goes really dark then as I turn around to a light you can see it layering the light back into the frame.

 

One last thing is I can play OpenGL games fine, so it's a DirectX thing. In dxdiag when I run the Direct3D Acceleration tests the DX logo is a mess of static and lines.

 

Also, temperatures aren't an issue, they never go above 80 degrees under full load.

This may sound stupid, but have you tried updating your directx?

 

http://downloads.guru3d.com/DirectX-End-User-Runtimes-%28March-2009%29-download-1943.html

Skandia the lighting issue you are having with ArmA2 is actually part of the game, I am pretty sure everyone gets that. To stop it just turn off post processing and you won't get the stupid lighting effects and the gayzor blurring.

I did download a DX update but it did nothing, the one you linked to did the trick though. Every thing looks much better in ARMA II particularly.

there is the possibility that bf2 is having issues with your 2 GPU cores because it can one use one, this could cause a BSOD or other issues.

Aww it started again, and I tried to patch the game and just like the original ARMA it threw a bunch of errors.

 

I'm never buying bleeding edge again!

I feel bad for you there dude.

 

Maybe it's broken?

i had this on my old ATI cards 2 x 3870's in crosfire. Found by dropping some settings, especially AA that it decreased but didnt go away. Also installed the latest drivers (9.7) and found that that helped a little.

 

Try dropping your settings right down. Go into the editor and make a spawn point somewhere where you can test the sun / shadow thing easily.

Test it and then slowly increase the graphics settings one by one till you have something stable.

Aww it started again, and I tried to patch the game and just like the original ARMA it threw a bunch of errors.

 

I'm never buying bleeding edge again!

 

No one else here has mentioned a problem with updating the game.

 

Your doing something wrong OR you just need to try it again.

i had this on my old ATI cards 2 x 3870's in crosfire. Found by dropping some settings, especially AA that it decreased but didnt go away. Also installed the latest drivers (9.7) and found that that helped a little.

 

Did you have the same problems with your ATI cards as well? As well as the lighting and shadow problems I'm getting the exact same problem as ARMA where the game stutters on regular intervals and chomps up 100% of my GPU.

 

Personally I regret buying the 4870X2 because as well as ARMA, there are other games that it's had problems rendering consistently.

yes i got them but only in ARMA 2. All other games play well.

 

I have since upgraded my graphics card and had no issues since

BAH! Uninstalled, reinstalled with patch 1.03 and I get errors:

 

Update 1.01-1.02\ADDONS\CHERNARUS.PBO.UPD cannot be applied, error xdelta3 returned error code: 1
Update 1.01-1.02\ADDONS\CHERNARUS.PBO.UPD cannot be applied, error xdelta3 returned error code: 1
Update 1.01-1.02\ADDONS\SIGNS2.PBO.UPD cannot be applied, error xdelta3 returned error code: 1

 

Downloaded from different sources.

With Catalyst AI turned off it seems I can completely remove the problem, as well as the graphics stutter.

Skandia,

 

My single ATi HD4870 had this problem with Catalyst A.I as well, however this was on BF2. I would get jagged black lines on the ground, mostly in PR, but some in vanilla.

 

I realize your talking about ArmA II, when I get my copy I'll contact you somehow and tell you how I went with Catalyst A.I on if you wish.

 

Pol.

S'all good dude, I have the exact same problem in BF2 with the black spots all over the ground. It only just started again after turning Catalyst A.I. off for ARMAII.