Problem with Open Arena

[Color]

Hello!
I played Open Arena long ago and recently decided to come back and play again..

But I'm having a lot of trouble with Open Arena. I'm playing it on 32bit Windows 7 and here's some issues that happen..

- Computer freezes, monitor shows green and pink pixels and textures glitch, sound glitches too and sounds like a dubstep song - it started happening at same time when I started playing OA (like 5 days ago) and it was happening really often every 5-10 minutes, it was happening only when I was playing OA. However now I see some green and pink pixels even though I'm not playing OA (but the PC isn't freezing), could it be that OA screwed something up for me ? 

I thought it could be a driver issue, so I updated my driver even though the drivers didn't need update.. But that didn't help
So I googled the problem and some people said it could be caused by over heating - and to fix it I need to clean the dust from my PC, I cleaned dust from my PC but the problem is still happening..
in event viewer it says critical error: Kernal Power


- Lag spikes and connection crashes.. On every server I keep getting connection interrupted which lasts few seconds every few minutes and after some time my connection crashes (I share the connection on 2 PCs)..
When I'm not playing OA connection doesn't crash..

For the first problem I was told it could be cfg files causing the problem, so I uninstalled OA (0.8.1 since 0.8.8 didn't want to run last time I dled it) then I downloaded 0.8.8 today, and I was playing it for a bit - no lag nor freezing, until some point where the PC instantly shut down together with the router.. I feel like it's caused by OA since this stuff doesn't happen to me when I'm not playing OA.. After that shut down I'm afraid to open Open Arena since I feel like it might shut down again.. forever 

Here's some pictures I took when the problems happened:

Green and pink pixels
http://i.imgur.com/G9GMjDZ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/6l5M2wU.jpg

After various attempts at fixing (changed driver, cleaned up PC)
i.imgur.com/s2eMcQa.jpg
i.imgur.com/hxa6V7X.jpg

Issue appearing on top of my screen after closing OA
http://i.imgur.com/mXMLVW0.jpg

[Gig]

Quite strange. It may be related to some overheating problem, or maybe your video card is starting to get broken.
- Do you have other 3D-intensive applications to try, too check if similar problems also happen after playing them for some time?

- To check the temperatures inside your PC, you may try using the Speedfan tool. You may compare your temperatures with normal use and after some time of OpenArena play.

- A thing you may try to see if that's related to overheat. Use your task manager to check how much CPU does your PC use while you play OpenArena. You may cause it to use less CPU by setting a lower com_maxpfs com_maxfps value, e.g. 30 (well, it's just a test!), and be sure you have com_busywait 0: using less CPU power should cause less heat, so may avoid overheating-related problems.
For more infos, please read (DO NOT LINK) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Manual/Graphic_options#Framerate

- Deleting installation folder does not clear your OA configuration. You may need to delete your "homepath" folder or at least q3config.cfg: see (DO NOT LINK) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/FAQ#Configuration_files_and_automatic_downloaded_files_path

- Are you sure your machine's power supply does not overheat? If your machine needs more power than power supply's nominal capacity, it will overheat. Touch it... it may be a little warm, but it have not to be hot.

[Color]

When I touch my PC it isn't hot nor warm..

and my PC just crashed again, I had it running since I posted the topic and nothing happened, and now I opened OA to look if the CPU and temperature rises when I have it running, and I had OA open for like 5 mins, and PC has already crashed..

edit: also I wrote the commands you told me to write in but com_maxpfs doesn't work, it says unknown command

when running OA this is what SpeedFan says:


and this is without OA


and this is with Warcraft 3 running

[GrosBedo]

Seems like your GPU is overheating when running OpenArena.

You can either try to lower down the graphical settings (setting a lower resolution, lower quality, etc.), or try to buy a fan.

Something you did not specify: do you use a laptop computer?

[Gig]

Does Warcraft 3 make the GPU (video card) heat less than just plain Windows?  

I did erroneously type com_maxpfs. I meant com_maxfps... however, the correct spelling is also mentioned in the link I gave you.  

If your pc is not a laptop, you may also do a test running the game with the case open.

[Color]

oh sorry it's a computer not a laptop,

and the GPU when running warcraft 3 or windows changes often, so at that point where I took the pic it I guess the GPU was lower while playing Wc3 than without anything running (but it never passes 50C) and they are about same, while when I run Open Arena it gets a lot higher, it gets up to 58C.


@GrosBedo my graphics were quite low when this issue started happening, but on the new version I didn't edit anything..

I'll check the temperature when having Sims 3 open
edit:
here's what it shows with sims 3 running; Sims 3 requires a lot better PC than Open Arena does, right ? And my PC can run Sims 3 without any green or pink pixels appearing, without freezing and crashing..
GPU dropped to 51..

[Gig]

Did you try OpenArena with a low com_maxfps value (e.g. around 30)?

[Color]

AssY has sent me some different Cfg files, really poor graphics and it will take time to get used to this, but at least it doesn't freeze my PC..

maxfps around 30 is really bad almost like watching screenshots, so I've put it at 70-ish


However I still have the issue with connection, how to fix that one ?

I have all the settings from Tweak Open Arena; /snaps 40 /rate 25000 /cl_maxpackets 125 etc..
I have 50 average ping but I get connection interrupted every little..

[Gig]

maxfps around 30 is really bad almost like watching screenshots, so I've put it at 70-ish

Well, that's just a test to try to use lower CPU power, to see if problems happen or not if the machine does not overheat. I'm not telling you to set it to 30 forever, but just for the test.

If it turns out that you have an overheat problem, you may fix it cleaning your fans or adding more... or just keeping the case open until the end of summer.  

[Color]

I cleaned the inside of PC with vacuum cleaner and used ear picks to break parts where the dust got clustered, I think the PC is as clean as new

But again, whats wrong with the connection ??
I don't have any lags when I'm on forums, youtube or anything else, but when I play open arena I always have lag spikes and it sometimes makes router restart..

[Gig]

Are there firmware updates available for your router and/or driver updates for your LAN network card?

[Color]

I have no clue what you just asked me hahaha

I opened the case, but the freezing is back, I think the fan isn't working properly, might have to change it..

here's what it shows now when I have nothing but this forum running lol;
got far worse than it was earlier today..

[Color]

I have another problem I think it's minor, but I can't really fix without your help !

It doesn't let me connect to some servers, keeps saying invalid ctf/gpl-q3a2oa-textures.acb7601a.pk3

Even though autodownloading is on, it keeps downloading that file over and over until some point where it trys to connect to the server and then gives the error..

Where can I get this file ? I googled it but that didn't help!
PS. I used to have this file and I could connect to the servers, I just don't know where it went lol

[Neon_Knight]

Perhaps deleting the file "gpl-q3a2oa-textures.pk3" in your ctf folder inside of your OA installation may work?

[Color]

It looks like a specific server (seems like SuperCtf) I dl the files from give me wrong file

[GrosBedo]

Indeed, it seems your issue is not related to your GPU nor your OS configuration, but only to OpenArena.

It seems either that something in your old config file was wrong (using the wrong driver or enabling a graphical setting that you graphic card can't handle? There are a few settings for old graphic cards support for example, maybe this conflicted with your system...) or either, as pointed by Neon_Knight, you downloaded a pk3 from a server which is conflicting with your system. Pk3 are extensions to the game that can sometimes be automatically downloaded from a server.

Either way, if it works now for you, then it's all good. If you want to modify your graphical settings, just backup your .cfg config files and then you can maybe try to raise the graphical settings and try to play for a while to see if everything is running smoothly. If not, then just copy back your previously working config.