Bioshock on T61P

I'm trying to play Bioshock on my T61p.

Until now, the machine has worked well. I have the Nvidia Quadro FX 570M card , with the latest drivers from laptopvideo2go.com. I'm running Vista 64 bit.

I have tried every driver out there and the game still crashes on any cutscenes. If I can get into the actual game by skipping cutscenes, I can sometimes play for a while but it will always eventually crash.

For example, if I start a new game, the video on the airplane gets to the point where it crashes and you see blue water, then it freezes and the screen goes black.

IF the computer doesn't hard-lock up, I get thrown back to Vista with a message that nvlddmkm.dll stopped responding and restarted successfully. This usually happens if I use WHQL drivers, whereas the newer bleeding-edge drivers just hard lock up.

I have run PC Doctor's video card tests, as well as CPU and memory tests. I have also run memtest86. I can't seem to find any indication of a problem.

I have other games both old and new, such as:
Command & Conquer 3
Quake 3 Arena
Unreal Tournament 2004

Those other games work fine.

I have also tried running Bioshock in Directx 9 mode, it still does the same thing. In fact if anything, it runs worse.

SO... If you can take a moment, and you have this game, please answer the poll so I can get an idea of what systems seem to be working correctly with this game. If you have any helpful ideas I'm all ears. I have been all over the Internet looking for solutions and have not found anything that works yet.

The only thing I have figured out is that different versions of Nvidia drivers crash worse than others. Some drivers will work for a while in the game and the game looks awesome...then it crashes later. Some drivers, the game won't even start at all.

Pretty annoying!

 

Tried the bioshock drivers? 163.44 I think? Maybe it has to do with your windows x64?

 

Yeah I did try that version, among others.

I'm thinking of installing Vista 32 bit on my other partition to see if that solves it. Ugh.

Do yo have the game braddd? if so can you vote please? the poll questions are up now.

 

It should play it fine have you tried those^^ drivers & in WINXP32bit?
I wouldnt use Vista I would play it in XP 32 bit only.

 

I have heard that before but it really is only speculation, if we are talking about what it "should" do, well it SHOULD work in Vista 64 also, the game supposedly is compatible with it. What I really want to know is if anyone actually HAS this game and has a T61P, and if it is working for them.

Do you have a T61P and this game? If so please answer the poll.

 

I don't have it sorry. Just brain storming out loud for ya. Not much of a gamer, but I just installed Doom 3 the other day to see how it would run on the 140M, I was impressed.

 

Try it in XP 32bit is all I can say.

 

Dang. See this is why it's frustrating, I have heard a lot of ideas and guesses but I haven't really found more than a couple people who actually have this game, and this laptop. Especially not with Vista 64 bit. Argh...

Plus it seems like a shame to play the game on XP, considering that directx 10 isn't available for XP, only for Vista, so you would have to play the game in directx 9 and lose some of the graphics quality.

 

Don't you think it's kinda retarded though for a game to only work in XP (directx 9) when the game is supposed to be for directx 10? (only available for Vista)

 

actually it would be nearly equal since Vista takes 10% performance from XP.
So, At the time being it should be an idea to consider dual-booting.
If you've never dual-booted read this.

 

Try 32bit vista before you try it in XP.

 

Yee well Vista64 drivers suck is the only way to describe them.
read my above post.

Why?
If he can gain 10% performance for less $ with XP why go Vista32?

 

I actually tried dual booting with XP 32 bit... I followed the steps on that website you linked to in fact.

I made a partition on my hard drive for XP, then I had to set my SATA to compatability mode to be able to install XP, otherwise it wouldn't detect a hard drive.

I installed XP, got it working, I THINK I installed the Matrix Storage drivers, then I rebooted, set the sata mode back to AHCI, booted off the Vista CD, did "repair startup", used EasyBCD to make a boot menu...

But after that, Xp won't boot, it just goes to a black screen, doesn't even gie the XP logo or anything.

so that was a big hassle, I could try some more things to get xp working but I'd kind of rather try Vista 32 bit next, instead...

 

Go for it then but since you have XP still why not save some $ & try again

 

Also mentioned on other forum threads here :

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=49141&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=bioshock&start=0

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=48803&highlight=bioshock

 

Yea I guess you are right Thomas. I misread post 3. I though he said he had vista 32bit already installed on his other partition.

 

Hey guys, just an update:

My dual boot menu works to get into XP if I turn the SATA back to compatability mode.

So right now it looks like maybe I don't have the driver installed to make SATA work in AHCI mode.

I'll work on that realy quick and see if I can get xp working in AHCI mode... probably the quickest thing since I already have XP installed...

 

You have to slipstream it use the search bar on the top right corner.

 

Oh, make sure you read the links iMojo posted. I remember reading them before.

This problem could very well be caused by the 2 2gig sticks of ram you have. Try taking out 1 stick and I think that will fix the problem.

 

No, it wont help there is no way that could be the cause Vista recognises all of it & works fine with it. There is no problem there

 

Did you read the first link posted by iMojo?

 

Err... that's what you think. Those 2 threads on thinkpads.com say otherwise. On that forum there's someone having this same problem and installing XP didn't help him, but taking out one of his memory sticks did. They seem to have figured out that there is an issue with the T61p when it has 2 sticks of 2gb.

Do you even have a T61p or is everything you have said a pure guess?

 

Try then post a screenshot & prove me wrong
If you prove it YAY
If not you know thats not the problem

 

It's a lot of trouble to try your idea based on just a guess. Anyone can guess "hey maybe it will work in XP". You think I never thought of that?

I'm gonna try the idea from that thread on thinkpads.com first because it actually worked for someone else with my same hardware and same problem.

 

Well damn it...

I tried removing one of my 2gb sticks (which have tested good in every memory test I have tried).

Now BioShock got through the airplane screne without glitching or crashing. That is better than the game has ever worked before.

I'm going down in the bathysphere now, the next place it always crashes is when the airplane tail crashes into the tunnel and water comes in.

If the game gets past that place... then i pretty much know the problem is fixed... We'll see! I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

If this turns out to be the solution, well...that pretty much sucks, I dont' want to have to remove half my memory in order to make games work...grr

I also just finished slipstreaming an xp 32 bit install disc so I can get my vista / xp dual boot working. Not just to try for this game though... I have some older software I need for school that won't run in Vista 64.

I don't know if the game will let me install it on xp unless I uninstall it on vista first...grr stupid licensing.

 

Wow bioshock is working great... I dunno if I am happy or sad about this.

There must be something wrong with how T61p's handle 4 gigs of ram with the video card

One thing I noticed was that on a program.. I think it was pc wizard? Anyways on some program showign specs for my PC I remember it said my video card had 2 gigs of RAM, and I was thinking, where the heck is it getting that number from? I have 4 gigs of ram and supposedly 256 megs of VRAM...

I wonder if maybe the video card is automatically set to share up to 1/2 of the total system memory, but if you have 4 gigs, that means up to 2 gigs, which maybe is too much for the video card drivers to be able to address properly? I wouldn't be surprised.

Next thing I would like to try is restricting how much system memory the video card can access, but I don't konw if there is a way to do that.

 

Just another update, been playing an hour and 10 minutes now, game is perfectly stable. I could never play for more than 5 minutes before. Problem definitely solved. Well not really solved, but a workaround at least... taking out half my RAM isn't exactly a solution.

 

More info: I tried making a boot menu option that limits the amount of memory Vista sees to 2 gigs.

This, however, did not work. So, actually having 2 gigs in the laptop works, but making Vista think there are 2 gigs when there are really 4, does not work.

Another strange thing, when you physically have only 2 gigs of RAM, it shows up as 2048 megs. That is what you would expect. However, 4 gigs, which should show up as 4096 megs, only shows up as 4030 megs. Where is the rest going?

Similarly, if you use the boot options to limit Vista to 2 gigs of RAM, it does not show there being 2048 megs of ram, it STILL takes some of the RAM away and shows something like 1982 megs of ram (not sure if that was the exact number).

Pretty strange stuff. Next thing I want to try is putting 1 gig in with 2 gigs and see if everything works on 3 gigs of RAM. I bet it will.

 

Wow...your system is nice. Anyhow, the bioshock demo works fine on my t61p with 2 gigs of ram running vista 32 with stock nvidia drivers.

 

It WOULD be nice if it worked correctly lol...

Could you tell me, how is your RAM configured? Is it 1 stick of 2 gigs, or is it 2 sticks of 1 gig each?

Also is this the RAM that came with the notebook?

I wonder if only certain types of RAM work correctly in the T61P.

I did some more testing. I tried using just 1 of my 2gig sticks, in the bottom slot (closer to the circuit board). That works perfectly everywhere and bioshock plays great.

Next I tried using the same stick, alone, but in the TOP slot (farther from the circuit board). Bioshock seemed to run fine but I only tested for a few minutes. HOWEVER, I started having other problems. The computer would randomly shut down, and I got a beep code. The beep code was 1 beep, then 3 fast beeps, then 1 beep again. I looked this beep code up and the code says it means there is a problem with the memory (duh).

Next I am going to try a 1 gig stick in the top slot and see if I get those beep code errors again.

Based on my own experience and problems other people are also having, I am starting to think that maybe the top memory slot on the T61P can't handle a 2 gig stick for some reason...maybe...

 

I just called Lenovo tech support. The guy was nice about it but he wasn't able to really offer me any ideas. Basically he told me, he could send me a box and I could ship it to the depot to have the cooling system replaced and / or the motherboard replaced. That may or may not solve the problem. Also, they might refuse to replace the motherboard because they might just run the PC Doctor memory test and see that it passes, and say there's nothing wrong.

The other problem is, they will only support memory purchased from Lenovo. If I want them to really troubleshoot this issue thoroughly I would have to buy 4gb of Lenovo ram which is really expensive. Otherwise, they aren't going to mess with my 3rd party RAM, even though it should work in this motherboard supposedly.

 

I got Bioshock to run on Windows XP SP2 32-bit with 4GB of Hynix RAM (factory installed).
However, on my other partition with Vista Ultimate 64-bit with 4GB of Hynix RAM it freezes and locks up. I tried removing the the 2GB stick from the top slot and only having 2GB of Hynix RAM and I could run Bioshock smoothly.
So I think Vista 64 bit has a problem with having 4GB of RAM installed and playing Bioshock because I could run it fine with 4GB installed in Windows XP. And looking at my video memory for the Quadro FX 570M:
XP 32 bit: 512MB (256MB + turbocahing 256MB)
Vista 64 bit: 2015MB (Total available graphics memory)
I have no idea of how to lower the total graphics memory in Vista 64 bit which I think is the problem when you use 4GB of RAM and play Bioshock

 

Update: Both Windows Vista and XP crash when playing Bioshock with 4GB RAM installed.
So it seems that having 4GB RAM while playing Bioshock is the problem
I will continue testing with just 2GB RAM and see if any crashes occur
The crashes that occur with 4GB RAM occur randomly

 

That's interesting, in my case, with 4gb of RAM, Bioshock would crash during the first cutscene, every time, about the same place.

You know how he's in the airplane, then it crashes, and you see water, then you see someone's purse sinking in the water? It would crash at the purse part, or sometimes a second before or after. It was quite predictable. Funny huh...

Removing one stick of RAM, I could then play Bioshock literally all night (which I did) and not get any crashes or errors.

My machine is at the depot right now, I think they will probably repair it tomorrow and send it back, then we will find out if the issue was solved.

I also purchased 4 gb of Lenovo RAM before sending it in, it didn't solve the problem so the problem wasn't caused by incompatible RAM.

 

Yeah Bioshock with 4GB Ram running on windows xp lasted longer than running it on vista 64 bit. It seemed to work fine until it hard locked on me and I had to manually reset it. Hellbore, when you sent in your laptop to the depot did you send it in without the hard drive, RAM, optical drive, battery, etc.?

 

hmm You said the problem appears only when running Bioshock and not in other games? It would appear to be a problem with nvidia drivers and/or Bioshock itself. So not sure its a good idea sending it to the depot cuz I doubt they can do anything. At worst even mess up a perfectly fine machine. If you look around at the 2k forums there's tons of people reporting crashes. I've even read crashing from ppl with 4gb ram on desktops crashing on cutscenes.

 

No, I said in my first post that it was only a problem with Bioshock but later I noticed problems with a lot of other things. My first post in this thread is incorrect. All my other games also crash. I just hadn't done enough testing when I posted this poll. A lot of things have happened since then and this poll is now out of date. Since then I have done a lot more testing and learned a lot more about this problem and it is a hardware issue.

Many T61P owners have this same problem, 4 gigs of RAM totally screws up any 3D graphics intensive program. Several people having this exact problem have sent it in to the depot and got it back fixed.

It seems it might be that early revisions of the motherboard had this problem, or maybe just some users got unlucky, who knows. I will let you guys know when I get the machine back if it it fixed like the other people who sent theirs in.

 

I just went by your initial first post where it was said the problem was in bioshock and not other games oh well. and my system is in my sig and no no probs at all in bioshock demo. dont have the full game tho.

 

Yeah it seems not everyone has the issue but the people I have talked to who did have this issue and sent it in, got back their machine working and the problem went away. Then the depot listed the work done and it said that they replaced the planar card (motherboard).

I think if the demo works then the full game would work too, you probably don't have the defect.

 

Not necessarily. I'm using 3gb ram not 4gb. Who knows the problem might well turn up if I use 4gb but right now 3gb runs everything fine for me. Good luck!

 

In my case it way any amount of RAM that uses both memory slots. I tried running on 3gb as part of my testing, one slot had 2gb and the other slot had 1gb, and it didn't solve the problem.

Does the demo show the intro scene where he is on a plane and it crashes? That scene always crashes for me, every time without fail.

 

I am using 163.71 drivers.

I've heard of that particular crash you are experiencing back when the demo was first released. The common solution posed for that problem was to disable High Detail Post Processing and High Detail Shaders in the graphics options for Bioshock. Again I'm just posting what is commonly out there which might not do anything in your case.

 

Thanks for the info, if I get the machine back and it still crashes in Bioshock I will try that.

It wouldn't be impossible for there to be 2 issues, a hardware problem AND a bioshock problem, that would be just my luck hehe.

In my case, even 3D benchmark programs or demos would cause my machine to crash with 4 gigs of RAM, pretty much anything 3D related. I tried anything from the old Lenovo video drivers, up to the 163.69 drivers from laptopvideo2go.com, and several drivers in between such as the Bioshock specific driver, which I think was 163.44 or something, etc..

I even tried installing XP 32 bit and it crashed with that too. Took longer to crash, but still crashed. I think it didn't crash as quickly on XP maybe due to the different way XP allocated video RAM. Note the 512 megs video memory vs. 2 gigs video memory on XP vs. Vista 64.

I should post the problem history page I sent along with my Thinkpad to the repair depot, it was a full 8.5x11" page of 10 cpi font with 1/2" margins, barely fit it all on the page hehe... You might be surprised how many things I tried while testing this issue. I probably tested more thoroughly than the Depot repair guys do. I guess that shouldn't be so surprising since I do this stuff for a living. Just last week I repaired 3 laptops.

 

As for it being a hardware problem, despite there being no conclusive evidence I'm seeing more reported crashes from ppl with systems using the Robson Turbo memory. I also know there's ppl with working systems using ITM , however I hear enough to opt out of it. Just the possibility of running into random crashes due to that issue isn't worth the gain imo.

 

opting out of what, Robson, or Bioshock, or the T61?

Anyways, just an update, this is pretty conclusive: The depot has confirmed that my motherboard is bad, and they tried replacing it with 2 boards they had in-house but both the replacement boards were also bad. They have ordered a newer motherboard from the manufacturer and now my case is on hold until the new part comes.

 

Robson, I heard probable issues with it before I ordered and even after I ordered. Just read a thread on thinkpads.com about crashes and the 3 ppl there who were crashing all had Robson - might not mean anything but there's a common thread.

Anyways its probably out of your hands now but for anyone experiencing random crashes and have Turbo memory, I'd disable it and see if the crashes continue. I've seen ppl turning it off and their crashes went away. At the very least it'll rule out the possibility that Turbo memory is the cause.

 

It might help some people but in my case, one of the first things I did was disable the turbo memory, I had read those threads about it causing problems for some people.

I would be really surprised if there was anything that could be disabled that I haven't already tried disabling before I sent this thing in for repair. I wasted a heck of a lot of time troubleshooting this issue in hopes that it would be something that simple, the last thing I wanted was to put it in someone else's hands.

 

I am having the same problem with the nvlddmkm.sys failure/BSOD. I tried many different drivers and some crashed more...you know the story. Only thing was this was while playing WoW.

I have:

vista 32
570M
3 GB RAM
no Turbo memory

I just removed the Lenovo 1 GB stick and put my Corsair 2 GB stick in the bottom slot. I haven't tested it yet but am crossing my fingers.

 

I will bet you the game will work fine with just 1 stick of RAM.

This issue is still a mystery for Lenovo apparently.

Just out of curiosity what resolution are you running in the game?

For some reason I get crashes faster if I use 1024x768.

 

It is just WoW so I max the settings and run at native resolution 1680x1050. I get stellar frame rates, but the BSOD too. Again, I'll tell you if the one stick worked.

ps My old laptop is a Dell Latitude D810 with an ATI x300 - ran the game like a champ with most settings maxed out and in native 1680x1050.