Constant video driver crashing in PREY

[faxon]

the topic pretty much describes whats happening. i will be playing PREY (which im borrowing from a friend for single player), and then the game will freeze while the sound continues to roll, and the game will act as though its about to BSOD due to a driver crash, but then vista recovers itself and i have to ctrl-alt-delete and use the keyboard to navigate to task manager to kill the game process. at first i thought it was a fluke, but its getting really annoying. im using the latest patch for the game (the first one didnt support 1650x1080 resolution to begin with).

this is on an HD2900PRO 1GB sapphire card with driver version 8.573.0.0, in 64bit vista. im not seeing this behavior in any other games (no issues in everquest2, halo 2, COD4) but im planning on reinstalling quake 4 and doom 3 to see if i can replicate the problem in other games on ID Tech4 engine, or if it's specific to this game. i would prefer to identify the problem before trying a graphics driver update, since im not having issues in any other games, plus PREY is a much older game, and the 2900PRO should surely have mature drivers by now

 

[speedfreak]

have you checked the graphics card temperatures? maybe it's due to overheating?

 

[faxon]

shouldnt be, the card isnt overclocked and i have never had issues with temps in the past, up to as early as 2 weeks ago. the fan's auto speed control is working properly, and it never goes above 30-40% at load, with temps in the 65-70C range, even in UT3. i havent reinstalled UT3 or bioshock since i got my new comp, but this is the same card i was using in my old comp, and it never had overheating issues in there, even though i didnt clean it nearly often enough for dust, and it would go up to 80c at times.

 

[faxon]

okay, i went to go download the catalyst 9.2 release and the webpage is giving me an access denied. apparently their security certificate expired and when i add an exception to go through anyway i get a 403 access denied...................

 

[alcoholbob]

Sounds like the world hates you.

 

[faxon]

hey at least the flu shot i got today isnt making my arm sore like it usually does

 

[Schmide]

and you're getting the diver here?

http://game.amd.com/us-en/driv...vista64/common-vista64

 

[faxon]

yea thats the place i had trouble with. i downloaded it from guru3d instead, but it didnt fix the problem. im thinking of just swapping my 2900 out for my 4670 and seeing if that has any effect on the problem. im at a loss for what could be wrong. my DX and OpenGL are up to date, changing drivers didnt fix the problem, but i havent seen anything that would show my card is bad.