The following paragraphs contain just details and etc. If you want to go straight to the laughs (aka the tl;dr), go to the quotes and read the bold.
Here's a summary of my tech problem: Battlefield Bad Company 2 outright locks up my entire computer after 10-15 minutes of gameplay, forcing me to restart. This is painful and completely confusing. It worked 100% perfectly normal before I reinstalled Windows, and now it just doesn't work for some reason. I'm not going to bore you with additional details because I don't think any of you could help me.
Typically with tech support you have to do this really stuffty "email" thing which takes (literally) 24 full hours to get a reply back from. I had contacted Nvidia once when an old Geforce 6800XT burned out, they used a similar system. EA Support actually helped me when my Command and Conquer First Decade DVD was scratched and they helped resolve a problem that I had with the DVD having read errors. They also managed to resolve a key issue between my brother and I. Generally, my previous tech support attempts were okay.
Now they do this "live chat" thing, which sounded a lot better than sitting around twiddling my richard waiting for an email from Abdul Abbal Jamari Muhammad in Allah-Hallah Tech Support Co. I was kinda wrong.
Bolded parts for interest.
EARepAustin, he
actually spoke proper English and gave me useful information but didn't work. Too bad he must've been the only English speaker on there. Not posting the log because really there wasn't much.
"Allyn", what the forget.
Allyn: Hi, my name is Allyn. How may I help you?
Nick Pivala: Hi Allyn,
Nick Pivala: Battlefield Bad Company 2 crashes my stem.
Nick Pivala: system*.
Nick Pivala: And I have to restart my computer, this has only begun happening after reinstalling Windows 7 64-bit.
Nick Pivala: I'm already running the game as administrator, User Account control is disabled, and I've tried a clean reinstall of the game.
File attachment upload has started.
The file DxDiag.txt (39.04KB) was received.
Allyn: Thank you for providing me the information. Please stay online while I look into your issue.
Allyn: In the meantime, I would suggest that you follow the below given troubleshooting steps: -
1. Please end all background tasks to prevent conflicts with other programs. Click the below given link for instruction on ending background tasks:
http://support.ea.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/39/
2. Empty your Temp folder to prevent file conflicts. Click the below given link for instruction on emptying your Temp folder: -
http://support.ea.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/44/
Allyn: To run your game in Compatibility Mode:
1. Right-click the game's shortcut available on your Desktop and choose Properties.
2. In the Properties Panel, click the Compatibility tab.
3. Place a check in the Compatibility Mode checkbox.
4. Select Windows XP (Service Pack 2/3) in the drop down list.
5. Click Apply and then Ok to save your changes.
Allyn: Please try this step and let me know if that worked for you or not.
Nick Pivala: The game is built for Windows 7 and Vista, using XP Compatibility wouldn't work.
Nick Pivala: Any other things that might help?
Allyn: Sorry, but the game is not compatible for Window 7 64 bits.
Allyn: So please try running the game in compatibility mode.
Nick Pivala: I had Windows 7 64-bit before I had to reinstall Windows entirely, and the game ran flawlessly.
Allyn: Could you please try the steps provide above and let me know if that worked for you or not.
Nick Pivala: I can't really do that because then I'd have to play the game for some amount of time, and wait for a crash.
Nick Pivala: If my game crashes I have to reboot my computer.
Nick Pivala: This isn't a "crash to desktop", this is a "freeze up my whole computer so I have to reboot"
Allyn: Okay, please allow me a minute.
Allyn: In order to assist you further, I will need to escalate your issue to our Tier 2 chat support team. This may take a few moments as the agent reviews the incident history to better assist you.
Allyn has disconnected.
"... [Battlefield Bad Company 2] is not compatible for Windows 7 64-bits."
Two things: bits lol. And the game is designed to take advantage of DirectX 10 and 11, both of which are exclusive to Vista/7. The forget?
Allyn has disconnected.
Monty B.: Hi, my name is Monty B.. How may I help you?
Monty B.: Please give me a moment while I review the Chat Log so that I can understand exactly what the issue you are having is today and the troubleshooting steps that have already been done. Your time is very valuable to me and I do not want to waste it by doing troubleshooting steps we have already followed through with.
Please take note of the following Chat ID: 1038275. This will be very important if you happen to get disconnected anytime during this chat or need to refer back to this same issue. You can always get back in contact with Live Chat and give the next Agent your ID so you do not need to re-explain anything.
Nick Pivala: Hi Monty
Monty B.: I do notice that you have a [CPU]. This is a very powerful processor and this could be what is causing the issue. Too many processors can cause the [GAME] to work incorrectly. What we are going to do is tell the game to only use 2 of your CPUs to see if this might get the game working correctly. To do so, I would like you to follow the troubleshooting steps below:
1. Start the game, then immediately load the Task Manager by pressing CTRL+ALT+DELETE.
2. Right click on the application for the game and select "Go To Process"
3. This will bring you to the processes tab with the correct process highlighted, right click on that.
4. You will find a set affinity option, select it and this will bring up a box with multiple check boxes.
5. Uncheck four of the CPUs listed for the game (Preferably keep the first two CPUs [CPU 0 and CPU 1] checked and the others unchecked) and press OK.
6. Go back to the applications tab and select the application again, then press the Switch To button. To see if this helped get the issue resolved.
Nick Pivala: The game is designed to take advantage of multicores and dual-threaded cores, which result in "virtual" cores. I know for a fact that BFBC2 absolutely is compatible with my processor.
Nick Pivala: As I said before, this game has worked perfectly before I reinstalled the same version of Windows 7 64-bit.
Monty B.: If you have too many proccessors on a game this will cause errors as well
Nick Pivala: Monty, I just said that the game USES multiple cores in order to play at a functioning rate.
Monty B.: too many can cause the game to error and crash, the game must be set to no more than 4 cpu's
Monty B.: you have 8
Nick Pivala: I have 8 because its an Intel Core i7-930, which is a quad core utilizing Intel's Hyper-Threading technology which forces two threads into each core, resulting in 4 "physical" and 4 "virtual" cores.
Nick Pivala: If there was a fault with the processor, it would affect the system to an incredibly large degree and I wouldn't even be here.
Monty B.: Please give me just a moment while I look into this further.
Monty B.: Windows likes to, "Force Close", programs on your computer without giving any error message. When your game crashes to the desktop without any message, this is exactly what is happening. To further assist in getting the issue resolved, I would like you to follow the instructions below to exude the game from Windows Force Close system.
Unfortunately, this will require us to restart our computer. Please keep advised I will be sending you an E-Mail with the troubleshooting steps and your Chat ID: [ID] as well. This will all be located inside the Chat Log.
1. Click on your "Start" menu and right click on your "Computer".
2. Select "Properties" from the drop down.
3. And on the left hand side of that new window you should see "Advanced system settings", double click to open.
4. In that new window I would like you to locate where it says "Performance" and select the "Settings" button under it.
5. In that new window I would like you to locate the "Data Execution Prevention" tab and click on it.
6. I would like you to make sure there is a bubble next to where it says "Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select:"
7. After there is a bubble in there, I would like you to click the "Add..." button.
8. Next to where it says "File Name:" I would like you to type in "C:\Program Files (x86)\[INSTALL PATH]" and click "Open". (Note: If it cannot locate the file then try typing in "C:\Program Files\[INSTALL PATH]" and click "Open")
9. Now you should see "[GAME]" show up in the list, and I would like you to make sure there is a check in the check box next to it.
10. Now hit "Apply" and "OK".
11. You can now close all the windows we had open.
Nick Pivala: Data Execution Prevention kicks in when the program accesses areas of memory that it shouldn't, like Windows' own memory addresses. The game also does not close without warning, it just FREEZES UP MY ENTIRE COMPUTER and I HAVE TO RESTART MY COMPUTER.
Monty B.: I have looked into this and this is a common issue with the I7 proccessor, you have to set the cpu to 2 cpu's on this game, by setting the affinity on the game icon
Nick Pivala: I've tried to google everything for any problems relating to Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Core i7s, I see no such problems.
Monty B.: I did not google search, this is Info that EA has gathered on there games
Nick Pivala: Then the info EA gathered is pretty old and useless information...
Monty B.: I have had this work
Nick Pivala: Ok, I'm going to explain everything from a birds-eye persepective.
Nick Pivala: 1 month ago I could run Battlefield Bad Company 2 flawlessly with no problems on the same exact system I have now.
Nick Pivala: Two weeks ago I reinstalled my copy of Windows 7 in order to clean up things I didn't need anymore.
Nick Pivala: These solutions would work if anything magically happened in between these installations of Windows, however everything other program and game EXCEPT Bad Company 2 works.
Monty B.: How about you uninstall that copy of your game, I add a digital download version of the game to your account you can download a fresh copy with a new cd key
Nick Pivala: Well the thing is I own the game on Steam, so if I have to use Origin to download it then its pretty redundant.
Monty B.: I dont not support steam, this game works better in the EA Origin
Nick Pivala: Ok, I'm done here. Thanks for nothing Mumbai's Finest.
You have disconnected.
LOTS OF THINGS WRONG.
How in hell can having an i7 be bad for a game? Either a program is coded to take advantage of multiple cores or its not. forget. There's no such thing, and if there is then its likely that the processor is just effing faulty and somehow passed quality inspection.
Then he went on to tell me that this would be better off on Origin. loving prick.
"I [do not] not support steam." Nice job, friend.
BTW, its called DATA EXECUTION PREVENTION.
God I hate EA.
