Recap:
Bioshock for PC kept crashing when I reached the medical center. When I say crash, I mean that while I still had sound, I was now looking at a black screen and neither my controls on my Xbox 360 controller nor the keys on my keyboard, to include Ctrl+Alt-Delete buttons, were functioning. This required a hot boot, which I never enjoy doing (pressing and holding the power button until the laptop or PC shuts down).
Possible Fixes?
While searching online I found many 'possible' fixes to the issue, three of which I tried. The first (not noted in my previous post) was to turn Windows Mode on in Bioshock. The only thing this accomplished was a smaller viewing area, the game still crashed at the Medical center. In light of that I would freely state that this did not work, at least for me.
The second option was to to turn off startup programs as outlined by Dave - Gerbil in Training who wrote into http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=52899 with directions on how to modify your start up. I never reached the medic center because I was too frustrated at the fact that I lost sound. Having some knowledge of hardware and software configuration, I even attempted to modify it manually (manually selecting what to start and not start) but to no avail.
The third option was to turn off the 'High Detail Shader' option within Bioshock. In addition, I also closed all non-essential startups once I was brought to the Windows Vista desktop. Though I noticed the difference in colorization immediately, I was more pleased with the fact that now I was able to get past the bottle neck. I have read online that after you have started your task you could go back and turn on the 'High Detail Shader' but opted not to take the chance.
One would think that would be the last issue I encountered, but alas it was not. Things were going smoothly until I went to purchase items from the Vending machine. This caused my game to freeze and my internal fan starting running in hyper speed. Yet again I had to do a hot boot to shutdown my laptop as neither the controller or keyboard were responsive. I just encountered the issue last night and have had little time to research the issue, but did locate one suggestion, which was to turn off SLI (posted at http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5535 ). I have not tried this so please be careful. I will continue to research until I find and validated a workaround. I will be sure to post the 'fix' here. I should note that I was able to hack the vending machine without issue. It wasn't until I clicked the 'A' button and the list of items in the vending machine displayed that the screen froze.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Bioshock for PC (Laptop)
I am new to video gaming, especially when it comes to playing games on a computer vs. a game console. One of the first games I purchased was Bioshock, after ensuring I meet all of the system requirements of course. As soon as I got home I installed the game on my laptop. The install went smoothly until the end when a pop-up message came up stating that I needed to update my video driver as there were known issues with my current one. I have an Nvidia 8400M GT, the updates provided on Nvidia's website are for PCs only, so while I was hopefully, I knew the driver would not install. In all fairness, Nvidia does indicate that laptop users need to go directly the the laptop manufacturer's website for updates. Course Sony did not have one available on day one nor do they now. Which meant relying on the world wide web. After a great deal of research on the Internet I found a few things that might be helpful to other laptop owners trying to play Bioschock.
1) If you have a widescreen, you may have noticed some issues. Primarily the lack of widescreen support. You don't gain any additional views, but it makes for better game play. The fix will allow you to "modify the FOV settings in Bioshock to better support widescreen monitors and multi screen displays". The file is called 'BioShock Widescreen Fix v1.1 Mod'. There are several website's that carry it, but I prefer http://videogames.yahoo.com/pc/bioshock/file-527796 because you do not need to login to download the file.
2) After installing the game without the updated driver, I attempted to launch the game. I was able to access the main menu and then watch the intro, but as soon as the plane crash scene ended, my screen went black until I clicked on the 'Enter' button. Then the game closed and I was brought back to my Windows Vista desktop. But there was a fix...if you are running a laptop, go to
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=14564 and
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11997. The modified INF file and driver are available there as well as a step-by-step guide. You cannot install the driver as one normally would. If you try, you will get error messages. However, if you follow the steps provided on laptopvidido2go, the game should run, maybe not smoothly, but will run.
3) So once I was able to get the game running, I starting getting really excited and to my surprise, really into the game (again I am new to gaming and am a little anxious when clicking the shoot/attack buttons on my Xbox 360 controller). You could use the keyboard, but I prefer the controller...to change go to control options. Anyhow, things were going pretty smoothly at first and the graphics were amazing. But after about 30 to 45 minutes (when I opened the door to the medic room) my screen went black again. I still had sound but no image. I found two options online. I have not tried either of them, so please be careful. I listed them in the order I plan on trying them. If the first one fails I will resort to the second, otherwise I will ignore the second all together.
*Dave - Gerbil In Training wrote into http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=52899 with directions on how to modify you start up (don't forget to change the setting back when you are done playing). Tried this one - lost sound
*The second fix is to turn off the advanced shader support under the options menu for Bioshock. I cannot remember off hand if it is under the graphics options or not, but look around for the keyword Shader and should be able to find it. Will try this next
You could also decrease you graphics to medium or low with 800X600 resolution, but wasn't something I was willing to do. Felt I was sacrificing too much. I have emailed 2K Bioshock and am hoping they will come out with a supported driver, but until then good luck and hope this blog helped!
1) If you have a widescreen, you may have noticed some issues. Primarily the lack of widescreen support. You don't gain any additional views, but it makes for better game play. The fix will allow you to "modify the FOV settings in Bioshock to better support widescreen monitors and multi screen displays". The file is called 'BioShock Widescreen Fix v1.1 Mod'. There are several website's that carry it, but I prefer http://videogames.yahoo.com/pc/bioshock/file-527796 because you do not need to login to download the file.
2) After installing the game without the updated driver, I attempted to launch the game. I was able to access the main menu and then watch the intro, but as soon as the plane crash scene ended, my screen went black until I clicked on the 'Enter' button. Then the game closed and I was brought back to my Windows Vista desktop. But there was a fix...if you are running a laptop, go to
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=14564 and
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11997. The modified INF file and driver are available there as well as a step-by-step guide. You cannot install the driver as one normally would. If you try, you will get error messages. However, if you follow the steps provided on laptopvidido2go, the game should run, maybe not smoothly, but will run.
3) So once I was able to get the game running, I starting getting really excited and to my surprise, really into the game (again I am new to gaming and am a little anxious when clicking the shoot/attack buttons on my Xbox 360 controller). You could use the keyboard, but I prefer the controller...to change go to control options. Anyhow, things were going pretty smoothly at first and the graphics were amazing. But after about 30 to 45 minutes (when I opened the door to the medic room) my screen went black again. I still had sound but no image. I found two options online. I have not tried either of them, so please be careful. I listed them in the order I plan on trying them. If the first one fails I will resort to the second, otherwise I will ignore the second all together.
*Dave - Gerbil In Training wrote into http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=52899 with directions on how to modify you start up (don't forget to change the setting back when you are done playing). Tried this one - lost sound
*The second fix is to turn off the advanced shader support under the options menu for Bioshock. I cannot remember off hand if it is under the graphics options or not, but look around for the keyword Shader and should be able to find it. Will try this next
You could also decrease you graphics to medium or low with 800X600 resolution, but wasn't something I was willing to do. Felt I was sacrificing too much. I have emailed 2K Bioshock and am hoping they will come out with a supported driver, but until then good luck and hope this blog helped!
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