Problem with Star Trek: Birth of the Federation

[Iscaran]

Hi there,

As stated above I have a problem running the Game "Star Trek: Birth of the Federation". The problem is that the game crashes or I'd better say "freezes up" after a while (10-20 min).
I just don't know what causes this problem, maybe it's a driver related problem but I didn't get it working though. I tried everything I could imagine, but no result...so I hope that maybe anyone here had the same problem and has a solution or a suggestion.

First my System:

AMD 2100+
MSI KT3 Ultra 2
Hercules Prophet Radeon 8500 LE
512 MB RAM (266, Infineon CL-2)

I'm operating under two Operating Systems, Win 98 SE and Win XP with SP1. Both using latest ATI Catalyst drivers (Win 98 SE: 4.13.9062 and Win XP: 6.13.6166) and latest DirectX 8.1b.
Under Win XP the Game doesn't crash or freeze but just ends up in Windows. Under Win XP I run the Game using the Win2K compatibility mode (the other compatibility modes do not run, don't know why).
I also tried on a friend's Computer (which is the same except the CPU is only an 1800+ AMD), he is using Win 98 SE with DirectX 8.1a and the predecossor drivers from ATI (the 4.13.9050). No difference, same crashes.

Anyone any Ideas what I should try ???

Please help me.

Iscaran

[tempnexus]

have you disabled visual themes and special text markup in the compatibility mode?
I will write a more deatiled way you can access more customiziable compatible mode but frankly I am going home right now... I will write it tomorrow.
Cheers

[Iscaran]

Thanks for the Hint,
but I don't think it's an operating system problem, because it appears on my Win 98 SE too, not only under Win XP. And the game worked fine on my old Computer (AMD 500, Voodoo 3 3500, 128 MB RAM, MSI Mainboard [don't know the exact number any more]} so I think it may be a Problem with my Radeon 8500 LE or the Mainboard or something like that....but I have no ideas where to start or continue my search.
But I' ll have a try and disable what you have said....may be it works .

Iscaran

[Nagorak]

Try lowering your memory timings in the BIOS. Dropping to the windows desktop usually indicates a memory or processor problem. Hard locks are most often graphics card related (usually overclocked too far).

If that doesn't work then try the following:

If your CPU is overclocked, turn it down a little. If it's not, check to make sure the heatsink fan is securely attached (don't need to seriously wiggle it around or anything, since that could result in damage, just make sure it's not loose or something). Also check that the fan is plugged in. Finally try running with teh case open.

[Gehenna_CA]

They did release a patch for that game. You should be able to find it on some site where old games go to die. BOTF had some major memory leaks. That could explain the crashing to desktop.

[Crisler]

BOTF has worked on every Radeon I have tested it with. Zero issues from the graphics card. I have however seen issues with some soundcards and the patch requires a few special tricks to make it work in XP.

Edward

[Iscaran]

I have the 1.02 Patch installed, forgot to mention that before.
Anyway neither my CPU nor my Radeon are overclocked, they run on their standard settings....but I'll try to change the memory settings like suggested.

Iscaran