Battlefield 2 - a suggestion which driver to use

[Night Fire]

New patch, 1.2 has been released today, check the EA site. No mention of lowering graphic requirements, but a few bug fixes, or balancing issues fixed. Update is out due to new Euro Forces Booster pack coming out very soon.

[Guest Tajin]

Try 81.94... I'm running it now on a Tosh go6600 (tho at 1400x1050) with no problems

No result.

Tried 81.94 aswell as some other versions.

Still BF2 shows the logo, a black screen and then goes straight back to windows.

In this case it's not even a Toshiba but a Cebop Hel 700.:

Pentium 1866 mhz

1gb ram

Windows 2000 SP4

DirectX 9.0c

well and the Geforce 6600go

One thing for sure, it's all EAs fault. But they give a ###### about that.

Have you guys found any reliable solutions to the blackscreen-problem yet ?

[Night Fire]

I'm getting the odd funny texture and sometimes a shimmering effect on parts of buildings (its not fun shooting at buildings thinking its a solider..). Thats with the 83.60s.

I'm downloading the 83.90s now, and will look into it again.

[Guest Guest]

I am using Go6600 128MB with 78.92 Toshiba driver.

BF2 running on Mid setting as a default video setting.

[Guest Guest]

I am using Go6600 128MB with 78.92 Toshiba driver.

BF2 running on Mid setting as a default video setting.

Tried the 78.92 - no result. Still the same problem.

Anyone out there who managed to get BF2 running on a Cebop HEL ? (GF6600go 256mb)

heeeeeeeelp ._. *sob* :)

[Guest xion]

Hi dudes i'm verry glad to be here :)

im a really noob, but my bf works @ this time :)

my question is, i have a geforce fx go5700 an i use the driver 83.90 with the INF 31.48. is that driver good or somebody knows a better driver?

laptop is a acer aspire 1710smi with 2gigs ram.

what is the best way to benchmark and tweak my baby ??

im play now bf2 and sp addon, in a few weeks *hopeso* i will play EuroForces.

sorry for my bad english and thaks 4 your support

greets from cold switzerland

Xion

[Bill]

If that driver runs fine for you and BF2 works I would stick with it. (BF2 is very picky about drivers)

As for benchmarking, this thread, while not kept up to date, has good info. (the more discusion we have about benchmark performance the better at keeping it up to date, and the more I'll edit my first post)

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/index.php?showtopic=6522

Down here in Alabama it pratically almost feels like summer some days this month.

Glad to have you here. :)

P.S. My English isn't perfect either. :)

[Night Fire]

I would look at the new 83.90s if I were you, they seem to be good across the board and I haven't had any problems using them on Battlefield 2..

[Spectre323]

I would look at the new 83.90s if I were you, they seem to be good across the board and I haven't had any problems using them on Battlefield 2..

Will the 78.51 from dell work?

Edited March 23, 2006 by Spectre323

[Guest klingonDeath]

Just wanted to let everyone know of a solution I finally came up with...

Setup

Alienware Aurora 7700m

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+

NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX (78.70)

2GB RAM

I kept experiencing the 'crash to desktop' bug that seems to be pretty apparent amongst many laptops (thanks a lot EA Games & Alienware).

After installing many different *new* drivers and modded inf files, the program still crashed every time I tried to run the game. Scouring these forums (and many others), and without any help from either EA (our software is perfect) or Alienware (uninstall your video drivers, then reinstall) I found out that BF2 stores default video settings in ~\My Documents\Battlefield 2\Profiles\Default\Video.con. Here's what mine looked like:

VideoSettings.setTerrainQuality 2

VideoSettings.setGeometryQuality 2

VideoSettings.setLightingQuality 2

VideoSettings.setDynamicLightingQuality 2

VideoSettings.setDynamicShadowsQuality 2

VideoSettings.setEffectsQuality 2

VideoSettings.setTextureQuality 3

VideoSettings.setTextureFilteringQuality 2

VideoSettings.setResolution 800x600@60Hz

VideoSettings.setAntialiasing Off

VideoSettings.setViewDistanceScale 0.9

VideoSettings.setVideoOptionScheme 1

Inspecting my (Display Properties -> Settings -> Advanced -> Monitor) tab yielded:

Obviously, there is a disconnect between what BF2 expects my refresh rate to be (60Hz) and what it actually refreshes at (61Hz). I thought to myself, could it be as simple as changing the line in Video.con from

VideoSettings.setResolution 800x600@60Hz to

VideoSettings.setResolution 800x600@61Hz ??

It couldn't be that simple, right? EA Games surely would surely have been responsible in creating their configuration files at install. But sure enough, that was the only problem. BF2 is now working perfectly, even with the less-than-updated Alienware drivers. :)

[Guest PazemanShec]

I'm trying to run this game for at least 4 months now. Thanks to all of you I didn't run out of ways to get the game functional.

I got a MAXDATA Notebook with an NVIDIA GeForce Go 6600 and a 1400x1050 Display which has a fixed frequency of !!! 63 Hz !!!

All i had to do is to change the Config-File in the My Files section to 63 instead of 60 to get the game running.

Hopefully someone can use this Info as well,

keep on trying ;-)

Shec

[Telfair]

I got an GeForce FX Go5700.

And I run ok, I'm still looking for a new graphics card.. :)

[jclyd6108]

I have the go 7800 GTX and the stock 79.31...thanx 4 the posts here or

I would have gone insane trying to get bf2 running without the crash to desktop on my zillion dollar widowmaker....lol.

61 Hertz...I wanna put 61 hurts on someone all right....

You guys are lifesavers! :)

Edited April 30, 2006 by jclyd6108

[Fabrice Roux]

It couldn't be that simple, right? EA Games surely would surely have been responsible in creating their configuration files at install. But sure enough, that was the only problem. BF2 is now working perfectly, even with the less-than-updated Alienware drivers. :)

As I stated on the general purpose support forum... Battlefield 1 suffered from the same sickness. BIG ISSUES when you forced the refresh rate on a CRT.

I believe that the calls to get the supported screen modes require very few lines of code. I want to believe that there is an example in the MSDN that gives EVERTHING that DICE should have used in Battlefield.

When I add a custom resolution it appears under Oblivion screen modes. AS EXPECTED. :)

[idahoduk]

Thanks for posting that. I've been trying to figure that out for a week now. EA tech support told me that my 7800GTX was too fast for it. Idiot. Going by my 3DMark06 scores it's almost too slow to run it. 3790? Thats anouther thread. Thanks.

[Fabrice Roux]

Thanks for posting that. I've been trying to figure that out for a week now. EA tech support told me that my 7800GTX was too fast for it. Idiot.

If a graphic card is TOO FAST you still can downclock it to tone it down. PURE BS...

Do a mistake once... it can be accepted when you correct the issue. But do it twice it's a proof of your stupidity.

[bmcpherran]

I also have an Inspiron 5150 and for others like me with low power who want to play the game, I've found some things I could do to make things better.

I would like to thank Larry Sudlow for putting up with my barrage of questions and giving fast excellent advice.

I had a 32MB nvidia go5200 to start with and tried to get a new 64MB. I ordered one from eBay and it didn't want to work no matter what driver I used. I called several repair places and they all wanted to hold my laptop for a day or two and that just wasn't an option. When I asked Larry, he let me know that there should have been no need for new drivers since the cards are recognized by Windows the same way.

So I sent it back and ordered one from Dell. They sent me a refurbished ATI by mistake and that thing burned up in about 10 minutes - the display degraded to blue lines much like the problem described by www.bay-wolf.com. So I finally ordered the card again and now it's in and it started up exactly like Larry said it should with no Windows "New Hardware Found" or anything like that :P

I have set up driver 66.93 from nvidia's web site, anything in the 70s or up gives me the "No compatible hardware" prompt when I run the setup program. I copied the nvidia/win2kxp/66.93 directory and then copied in Larry's modified INF from:

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/index.php?showtopic=7755

I then went to "update driver" and pointed it to the copied directory with Larry's INF. If you're confused with that style of driver installation that's not a problem and don't ever feel that you shouldn't be here like some might say :)

I have to run the game at low settings on everything and the view distance set at the lowest = 50%. But it runs pretty good now and it is an absolute blast. I also noticed that the color vibrance would shut off when I started the game but Larry also showed me how to set up a profile that used my custom color profile. In the GeForce utility (right-click on background -> Properties -> Settings Tab -> Advanced -> GeForce Tab) just go to color correction and turn on the vibrance, then "Save as" the custom profile. Then go to the Performance and Quality Settings and identify the name of the executable and under the options, list the custom color profile. One game site also recommended changing the name of the exe from BF2.exe to BF21.exe. Supposedly some nvidia cards feel that bf2.exe is one of their files.

Now the palm trees at Wake Island look so good I want crack open a Corona.

I also found some good general tweaking at IGN's site that involved the free program Tunexp:

http://gear.ign.com/articles/626/626714p5.html

I also upped my RAM to 1.5GB. Other than a new hard drive, I can't think of anything else I can do to get this old bird flying any higher. If anyone has any ideas please let me know :)

[Guest bvanstaa]

So... call me stupid, but how does one do something with the "video.con" file in the profile folder?

[Fabrice Roux]

You need a tricky app called.... NOTEPAD

[Night Fire]

Battlefield 2 1.3 patch is now doing the rounds. Lots of changes, I'm downloading it now, and will update shortly with links and impressions (plus 91.28 drivers, and see how they run).

[Guest Church]

OMG HELP!!!! Just bought this game and I want to play it BAD............ Ive tried using several diff version of drivers to get this game to run but it wont. It just loads a black screen then crashes to desktop. I have a custom laptop fom Xoticpc. (Its actualy an MSI-1035) 2G Pentium M, 1G 533 Ram, Geforce Go 6600, Again ive followed all the walkthrough in this forum and tries all the suggestions. Ive replaced the INF and used the new drivers and still cant get to work. Maybe im doing something wrong? Also I used the NERD program and zipped and attached so its there to be viewed. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated!! Oh by the way I have not patched the game yet would that be needed to be done first?

LaptopVideo2Go_LogFile.zip

[Guest Church]

Another thing i noticed is that my refresh rate only goes to 58hz and 59hz. Would BF2 have a minimum of 60hz? If so is there anyway to get a better refresh rate? Also I tried changing the video.con files to the refresh rate im using. (59hz), but still no luck. Also here is a more complete list of my comp specs.

Pentium M 2.0Ghz

1G 533Mhz Ram 1 Stick

Geforce Go 6600 256RAM PCI Express (Just tried using 83.90 drivers with modded Inf and it didnt work)

WinXp Pro 32-bit SP1

60G HDD 7200RPM

Not sure what else I would nee to list. Anyway if anyone has any more ideas or suggestions I would greatly appreciate it!

[Night Fire]

Have you got the latest patch? I would get at least 1.22, as there seems to be problems with 1.3 and it looks like it is going to be pulled..

[Guest Guest]

Hmmm ok ill try downloding and applying it tonight. I had downloaded the and tried using the 1.3 Patch but it still had the ame problem of crashing back to the desktop.

[Guest Church]

I assume most people know this already but this is the biggest POS game I have EVER seen. I still cannot get it to work on my laptop so I installed it on my desktop and it runs fine except tha you cant see anything because the game is to dark. My monitor is on FULL brightness to. Even the contrast is set to the brightest setting and the lvls are still way to dark to see. Is there even a brightness bar within the game???? I didnt seen one but maybe im just to pissed about the game and missed it. Im not a novice at comps either I have my A+ Cert and my A.A.S in Computer science. Am I missing something or (as we all make mistakes im no exception) is this just a REALLY poorly made game??? I wont ramble on anymore about the other poorly done programing in this game but my question now is has anyone been able to RETURN this game and get there money back? If so plz let me know how you went about it. Thx!