When I buy a game I expect it to be playable.

SH111 is not. I have downloaded the one available patch which has not helped prevent the frequent crashes my son and I are having. His PC equipment is similar to mine.

I am using a fairly well known branded computer, Sony P4, 2.8, 512, 64 ram, 512 KB, ATI Radeone 9200.

I strongly believe it is a fraud and disgraceful that Ubisoft has come out with such a product.

This is just an alert to any of you who are considering buying this game. Better think about this carefully.

C.A. Pedrido

I know your frustration when game does not work on your computer, as it should. I myself had a big problem with Brothers in Arms due to its copy protection.

However, SHIII is not a disaster and it works fine on a lot of peoples PC's as you can deduct from alot of the posts here.

It might be better to simply state that you have a problem and yes, people should be aware that there's no 100% gurantee that it will work fine for everyone. However, to claim that SHIII is a "disaster" is over the top.

I always stay the hell away from "BRAND NAME" made pc's. In my experience, they seem to have more trouble than those that built their own such as me. I've put my computers together since PC's were born. All the best Motherboards, memory, sound cards, video cards etc.... I do a lot of research and read reviews of any component I'm interested in. What's my point you ask? Well, I'll tell ya. Never have I had many problems with games. While others yell and scream that the games don't work, there I am fragging away with no ounce of trouble. In part, due to the fact that I put my rigs together myself and keep the drivers as up to date as the manufacturers allow. However there are few games I've run into trouble getting them to run but that's due to the copy protection conflicting with the burning software I have installed. Namely Safedisk and Starforce are the two culprits in that issue.

Perhaps when you buy a computer you should expect that to be playable as well?

SHIII is not perfect, but it's far from unplayable. I have yet to have a single crash or lockup with it in many many hours of game play. Like Dud before me said, I build my own machine and keep it running in tip top shape, making sure I am on top of new or improved drivers for my hardware.

In today's competitive climate patches are inevitable. You should be happy that a patches are not only being released, but so quickly. Many developers could learn a thing or two from these guys.

Just curious, are your computers networked together?

NO, both computers are of different makes and each located in different states, (Washington and Hawaii).

Any program that is running in the background while playing any game may cause CTD. Be sure to turn off any anti-virus programs and such.

capedrido,
Whilst I understand you fustration, I would have to say you are wrong. SHIII is not without issues, but it is very stable.

I can run SHIII whilst having these applications open and in use: outlook, netscape, IE, Terminal Server, AntiVirus, Word and Adobe Photoshop.

I actually run the game in windows mode so that I can write the review or just do other stuff and it runs in the background.

Having said all that I am sure that I speak for everyone in that we would be happy to assist you in troubleshooting your problems.

If you want please feel free to ask.

Yes I too should make mention that I am more than happy to help where I can... didn't mean to come across all holier-than-thou before .

As for stability, I can attest to that too. I frequently alt-tab out of the sim to check things such as kts/km graphs, sometimes to look up historical facts on the net (do I sink this?), and I have often had photoshop running in the background to open .tga files in game to try and find certain texture files.

It would be of more help to us if you could list the specs of your machine in more detail (see my sig for example) and just confirm you are running XP with Service Pack 2? What video card drivers are you using?

Yes one big bunch of helpful people here!

I just built this on Monday and it rocks SH3. But I still have the CTD when clicking on crew managment. Low price to pay for this type of game!

I'd rather have a computer than a light show...

Don't you find that distracting?

Wolfar built it all by himself. He is really proud of that fact. He was just like my kid when he made his first pinewood derby racer

As for Capedrido, you may want to post here what your problems are with a game before you give up totally on it. In 1994 I installed a game called Aces over Europe on my brand new Acer 486Dx100 (whoo hoo) only to find that it wouldn't work. I had no idea what conventional memory was or how I could get 600 k of it. It took a buddy of mine, a lot of work and some fiddling to get an alterate boot setup for me so I could free up the conventional memory to run it.

If I hadn't gone throught the trouble to get the game to run I would never have gotten into this hobby. I'm not saying you have to go throught he trouble I did but you should try getting help here and at Ubi.com before you explode and call the game a disaster.

First thing to do is go to run "dxdiag" and drop your sound accelleration down. This has fixed crashes for many people.

Until recently, I was running SHIII on a P4 2.0ghz, 512mb RAM and a 64mb Geforce 3 card. It didn't run well, but I never had a lock-up or crash to desktop. Maybe I was just lucky considering that I had several red X's on SHIII's system compatability test.

Nice job wolfar. Looks mad cool. Blue is my favorite color. If you come home one day and find it missing, remember I swear it wasn't me.

I think I have a computer now. AMD 64 3200, 1 gig DDR/400, Gigabite Mombo W/1600 Mhz front side buss, 250 gigs of storage, 8 USB ports, oh did I mention 5 reostat adjustable glow in the dark fans? Nice front panel read out that monitors my CPU and Case temp. Just need a decent video card, should have that next week.

The light show was a side bennie of ordering a nice case with 5 fans. I really did not know they lit up till it arrived on my doorstep. Then I figured what the heck I can out do my Son here! No it is not distracting it is under my desk. (Refer to pic)

Darn TOOTING!

What a crock this is, the same old, same old! It don't work, I can't win, so it just has to be the sim/game. Never look @ what they're doing wrong, just so damn quick to blame moon, stars, wind, etc. We're on our 23 mission & @ least a dozen practice runs & not one anomaly. Listen to the above posts about back ground stuff as every puter I've looked @, & there have been tons, it's ALWAYS back ground poop that causes, by far, most problems your talking about. Sometimes hardware, but mostly background garbage.
FWIW,
Good Hunting!

UUUHHHHHHHHH THE LIIIIIIIIGGGGGGHHHHHHHHTTTTTTTT..........must go to the light......

WTF is 1600mhz FSB?! I think I'm out of touch with technology

ehhh, what?

All I can say is that Silent Hunter III is the best game and sim that can out, lets say in the last 4 to 5 years (my oppinion).
I find SHIII to be quite stable and I only had a very few and rare CTD (something like 2 CTD and I player for so long hours that I forget how many they were).

OK, guys, can't help but feel that I have run into a net of wasps. I am really completely out of my element here. I have no intentions of building a computer from scratch to run a game. Neither am I interested in "tooling" up my computer to run it. I will go as far as downloading a patch and that would be the limit of additional involvement. My equipment is well in excess of the minimum requirements listed. Always review that prior to buying a game. As an 80 year old I just don't have the patience or the understanding, or the desire for that matter to accept a product that requires considerable fine tuning. I thank all of you who have offered help. My solution to this problem will be to go back to my Laptop W98 which is able to play the original Silent Hunter. That game in my opinion loads and plays instantly has decent graphics and has never ever failed to play properly. When they made that one they broke the die. I have been burned with SH 11 which was a terrible game with puerile graphics and unfortunately problems with this latest version. Once I cool down I may approach those of you who have been so kind to offer help. My apologies if I offended anyone with my diatribe.

Charles A. Pedrido

No worries mate - may I suggest you try posting your problem at the Ubi Tech forums, it might help.

Yes it's unfortunately easy to blame software for problems *because* you forked out a lot of money for a PC. But alas spending a lot of money doesn't guarantee stability nor the right components for gameplay.

It's like the continual moaning about Starforce or ANY copy protection system 'buggering up my PC' quotes that forever infest the forums these days. Well it's incredible that i have over half-a-dozen of said copy protected games on my OWN built PC and i've never had one iota of a problem from it.....Oh and i've been building PCs for 13years AND installed and own nearly 300 PC titles. There's got to be some clue in what i've said eh?

Your frustration is warranted -but not at the software- rather who made the *PC*! Regardless, when you buy the PC the drivers are out-of-date,DirectX is probably old as well,Your new graphics card is superceded etc all this as soon as you get it home? Yeah it's frustrating That's why i build my own, no more CRAZY labour and over inflated shop prices. Instead all your hard earned money into what YOU want in your machine. Why do you think people go to consoles instead of PCs?? Yep 'love them' or 'leave them' is the only moto. They ARE hardwork to get to know, but it's worth it -provided you stay the course

Good luck!

capedrido,
Yes I build my own computers. My father-in-law is about 3 years older than you. He calls me allot with his computer problems. So here are some suggestions.

Click on start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Scan Disk. After that is complete go to the same area and click on Disk Defragmenter. Next go to, http://v5.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/v5consumer/default.aspx?ln=en-us
Then follow all the prompts. Keep going there until it says it has no more downloads to do. Make sure you have DirectX 9.0 installed. This is a start, it seems that you have bought an off the shelf computer. You probably still have the computer manual. Please post model # and then we can give you directions on how to update your drivers. Hope all this helps!


From: Wikipediafront
Front Side Bus (FSB) is the term used to describe the CPU data bus. This bus carries all information that passes from the CPU to other devices within the system such as RAM, PCI expansion cards, hard disks, etc.

On older computers where the L2 cache was not integrated into the CPU, the back side bus connects to the L2 cache, and using this was faster than accessing the RAM via the front side bus. With modern CPUs having L2 cache on the processor die itself, this bus no longer exists, as the CPU's cache is simply checked for the appropriate data before a read request is issued to main memory.


Current usage
Most modern buses (both GTL+ and EV6) serve as a backbone between the CPU and a chipset. This chipset (usually a combination of northbridge and southbridge) is the connection point for all other buses in the system. The PCI, AGP, and Memory buses all connect to the chipset to allow for data to flow between the connected devices.

These secondary system buses usually run at speeds derived from the front side bus' speed. In general, a faster front side bus means higher processing speeds and a faster computer for a number of reasons which are outlined below.

You definately need 512MB more Ram and a later generation video card to play any new game w/o most problems.

Salute!
Silent Hunter 3 is a greatest sub sim ever. I haven`t had a crash to desk top or lockup yet. Reading these post made me paronoid with the problems some folks are having. I got it running great on my older computer.
AMD XP2400
1 GIG DDR 2700 Corsair Memory.
EPOX Mother board. 8KHA+
GF3 TI 200 128 MEG VIDEO CARD.
Sony DVD CDROM PLAYER.
Sound Blaster Live sound card.
Windows 2000
I never mess around with new drivers for my hardware that i install in my puter. i just load it in and play. Haven`t even got it overclocked any. If you want a great gaming rig you must build your own and read up on reviews for each part you buy. And buy your parts at newegg.com.
I`am sorry you are having troubles running this game. If you give UBISOFT time they will iron out these problems.
These computers people buy from there local stores arn`t gaming computers.
Trust me there is a huge difference!
Take Care!
Rooster

Ubisoft has responded with several suggestions. In the meantime I have disabled viruscan and my pop up stopper. This has seemed to help as I have played 4 times without any lockups. Previously I would get lockups 50% of the time.

Thank you again for your offers of assistance and I still regret my lashing out against this game prematurely.

GREAT!!! Thanks for the comeback! Here's a little progy that works real well with removing junk & we've found it very safe.
http://www.ccleaner.com
FWIW,
Good Hunting!
PS. I'm sorry I was a little harsh there but we've heard it a thousand times over the years & it gets a little old real fast.

Well, we'll try this again. This one goes a bit deeper but is still safe. It's called Easy Cleaner.
http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm
FWIW,
Good Hunting

Happy days! I remember having a stack of floppies (boot discs for all the different games). The holy grail was to get the most amount of conventional free memory. I think at one stage I had a disc that gave me 612 k free!

Glad to hear it! Any further assitance just let us know! We want people to see and enjoy what we are seeing!

At this point I must say that I am positively surprised that an 80 year old is playing PC games and in particular this game/sim. And the respect I have for a man of your generation to even involve himself with a difficult to master technology that computers are nowadays.

By my experience, (my father in-law, aged 76, being the exception) most people of your generation are afraid to even touch a PC...which is understandable. Hell, alot of the far younger generations don't even dare to.


I hope you can get this wonderful sim running properly and always feel free to drop by and ask for advice!

I told ya Yup I did!

Crop-Duster,
Don't you find I told ya so's distracting?


ROFLMAO! I could not resist!

You know Wolfar, you should do a step by step build tutorial for us


How do you like that case? I was looking at that one.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1113572&Sku=A107-3000

There is the link for it. ^^^^ Comes with a 500w power supply. I was kind of shocked because I expected a mid sized tower. I swear this thing is closer to a full sized tower. IMHO.....

Wolfar, I know what a FSB is, I just didn't know they've reached 1600 mhz yet!!!

I'm still running AMD XP's on 333FSB at home...

Well to be honest I did not either. I saw the AMD 64 3200 running @ 1600 Mhz and when I was shopping for Mombo combos ran accross this one.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1212877&CatId=0


Gigabyte GA-K8NS nVidia Socket 754 ATX Motherboard
This K8 Triton boasts twice as many features as most motherboards, at half the price. But it's not just great savings and a spectacular array of innovations that makes the K8 Triton GA-K8NS Socket 754 motherboard such a wonderful value. It's the engineering genius that Gigabyte Technology puts into its products that separate this motherboard from the rest.


- Chipset: nVIDIA nForce3 250
- Front Side Bus: 1600MHz
- Processor Interface: Socket 754

It really shocked me as I did not know they were upto 1600 MHz either!

Wolfar,
Just recently put together my rig, this is the processor I1m using at present. Puts

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/...P2-A64-3800%20C

Thats gotta be a typo...

wholy crud! AMD Athlon 64 3800+ / 512KB Cache / 2000MHz FSB / Socket 939 / Processor.........


Thats a CHUNK of change! $379 just for the chip!

Never even heard until now of a socket 939!

Wow cape, weren't you complaining on the ubisoft forums about this as well? The fact that other people are playing this game without any problems should tell you that the problem is not wholey in the seat of Ubisoft. There is something wrong on your end.

But instead of you either troubleshooting this problem thoroughly, or using some common sense, you are doing your own little part trying to be spiteful towards the company and turn off potential buyers.

The game, by the way, works flawlessly on my system.

Cut the guy some slack eh ?, we've already been through this. Everyone gets annoyed.

I've recently built two near identical PCs for the family and I have SH3 on both of them.

Both systems are Athlon64 3400s, Abit AV8 with Audigy2s.

System1 has a 9800PRO and 1GIG CorsairRAM.

System2 has a 9600PRO AND 512MB CorsairRAM.

All from same supply and run most things pretty much without bother.

SH3 runs like a dream on system1.

SH3 will not run for more than 2minutes on system2.

I'm assuming I need more RAM in system2 as I know many are using 9600pros without problems.

Interesting; I would find it hard to believe that system 2 would be a memory issue. Who uses system 2? What are the diferences in programs and virus protection. What is running in the back ground etc.

I'm running a 512 megs of ram computer here at work, much less powerfull than your pair, and the game works ok. No crashes and all.

Dan

Oh dear, this is not what I want to hear.

I was going to pop more Ram in and maybe upgrade the 9600,(my mum could have it in her system).

I am practically the only user of system2 as my son won't use it and hogs system1

So far I hav'nt got much installed on system2.

Maybe I should try reseating the memory?

I can easily afford the memory upgrade but I don't really want to spend on a 9800 if 9600s run SH3 ok.