Build Terrain Crashes PC

[llfalcon]

Larry, I was thinking the same thing about perhaps the other applications just have not accessed that particular memory address.

What is good alcohol? Makers Mark? Absolut? Tanqueray? or are we talking about denatured alcohol? something else all together?

Thanks to all for the support and suggestions. So far no luck. I ran the memtest thing last night, and everything passed. I updated the video driver, but that wasn't it. As soon as I find time, probably Saturday morning, I am going to pull my PC out from under this desk and do as y'all suggest, taking out one set of memory, then the other. Heck, the additonal 2G was less than $50, so if I need to match that up, fine, so be it. I love AHD8 so much I'll probably buy a new PC if I have to! Or I could just continue to run it on my spouse's older PC with the 1G (he might not like that!). It doesn't run well at all on my new laptop. I bought it earlier this year before I got into AHD, and didn't know about the integrated video card issue. It renders some really wierd stuff.

Once I find the cure, I'll post in case it happens to some other desperate soul. Please, PC Gods, don't make me call Dell suppport...

Thanks,

[Larry]

Isopropyl alcohol (not J.D) is good but you have to watch the dilution. Tape head cleaners or contact cleaner is about the same thing.

Dell support?. I heard you figure out the time zones and call when there is somebody you can understand. Apparently during the day you have real N.American. help people online.... "hola?" LOL

[Baylink]

What is good alcohol? Makers Mark? Absolut? Tanqueray? or are we talking about denatured alcohol? something else all together?

I'm a bourbon man myself, so I'm fond of Evan Walker.

For this, though, you're looking for technical-grade isopropyl alcohol: 98% or 99, the remainder is water, which is what you don't want. Most drugstore isopropyl is as low as 70%

If you're feeling froggy (and rich), you can also grab a bottle of Stabilant-22a, also known as Tweak, which is reportedly the coolest stuff in the known universe. [ looks ] Wow; it's not as pricey as it used to be.

Jerry Pournelle, who along with being a notable science fiction author, used to write a monthly column in the late, lamented Byte magazine all about small computers and how they made his life happily miserable, absolutely swore by this stuff.

[llfalcon]

Well, the bad news is the problem does not appear to be the memory. I went ahead and removed the add-on memory, leaving only the original, and the PC crashed. I took out the original, put in only the add-on, and the PC crashed. I put all of it back in, reversing the original order, and the PC crashed.

In a last-ditch effort to avoid calling Dell, I uninstalled, rebooted, reinstalled. Opened a New File, left the terrain perimeter in place, tried to do a 3D view of just the lot - KABOOM!

$%#@&*^!!! Where's that Makers Mark, Absolut and Tanqueray we were talking about earlier....?

[don3211]

Dell very quickly identified the problem. They had me disable Dual Core processing. And lo, I had dirt and grass.

That's odd. I believe a number of people in this forum use dual core or quad core processors. Please keep us updated.

[Larry]

When I bought my first dual core motherboard it came with a warning that it would slow some software down?????

I guess the MS O/S I/F calls are not well defined as many manufacturers have complained about not being compatible and not getting answers from MS how to become compatible.

[llfalcon]

Larry, because you mentioned the slow-down warning regarding dual-core processors, I saved my plan without Terrain to avoid crashing my PC again, then ran a test. I turned dual-core processing on, clicked on Full Overview and counted. Rebooted, turned dual-core off, clicked on Full Overview and counted. It took five seconds less to render with dual-core OFF, 44 with OFF vs. 49 with ON. It was a fair test. I followed the exact same steps in the exact same order, both the first thing after a reboot.

I'm leaving it off for good. Case closed.

[Larry]

That will be the next software option in 3rd party or Windows...turn off dual core processing for all but listed software.