Hi everyone I bought PA on Steam recently and have found it to be unplayable. It worked fine for the first game or 2 but now crashes constantly at points including the main menu, generating planets (2) for an AI skirmish or mid game, the longest of which lasted a mere 4 minutes. All my drivers are up to date with my manufacturers (Dell) recommended latest compatible. Anything newer and my laptop refuses to function. I have (tried, whether or not it worked i don't know) increased my page file. I have configured my switchable graphics to high performance when running PA.exe Attached is my dxdiag Any help would be much appreciated.
Well your graphics driver looks pretty current so I don't think that's it... There are a few bits of software that really mess with the game, @SXX has the list of things to look for. As a start, try disabling the steam overlay as that can cause problems.
Drivers provided by laptop manufacturers are extremely old and those not going to work for this game. So you'll need to update them anyway even if this will be tricky. Right way to do that is this one: Remove both Intel and AMD drivers using Windows Control Panel. Remove for both "Display Adapters " via "Uninstall" in "Device Manager". Install latest Intel drivers from Intel website. To update drivers download and install "win64_153332.exe" from Intel website: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=24593&lang=eng&ProdId=3711 If you get "not validated for this computer" error download ZIP version of driver ("win64_153332.zip") from same page and then install it using this instruction: http://steamcommunity.com/app/233250/discussions/2/558749190911446231/ ... Then install latest AMD drivers. You need download and install latest drivers from AMD website: http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/mobile?os=Windows 7 - 64 AMD mobility drivers installers known for being buggy so if you met any problem within updating process you might want to check this topic: http://steamcommunity.com/app/233250/discussions/2/558749190925676183/ There I explained multiple ways to update drivers if one not working. This way new drivers will work.
I tried disabling the steam overlay and it didn't work. I can't update the drivers beyond what Dell recommends because otherwise my laptop refuses to function properly. I have no idea what to do.
What happened when you tried to follow SXX's instructions? Where did it fail? Did you get a black screen or a very low resolution? Unfortunately, PA does need the latest drivers. Your Intel card isn't so bad according to the DxDiag.txt you posted, but you AMD drivers are almost two years old. A *lot* of bugs have been fixed since then. Some of which are likely causing the crashes you are experiencing.
So this is what I did and what happened; uninstall AMD drivers and software uninstall Intel drivers and software restart run "win64_153332.exe" ERROR- "This computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing the software" run "Intel Driver Update Utility 2.0" (I already had it installed from previous) download and install the latest driver Intel detects: "Itel Iris and HD Graphics for Windows 7/8/8.1 64bit (version 15.36.7.64.3960)" restart ::while turning on a cmd window was on the screen for a brief time saying something about analysing my graphics run "amd-catalyst-omega-14.12-with-dotnet45-win7-64bit.exe" installation finished run DxDiag (DxDiag pre restart.txt) restart (which takes an abnormal amount of time) run DxDiag again (DxDiag post restart.txt) shut down my laptop turn it back on (as normal, doesn't take as long as the restart) check device manager see display adapters listed "Intel HD Graphics Family (driver version 10.18.10.3960)" and "Microsoft Basic Display Adapter (Device Status: "This device is not working Properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Code 31). The driver trying to start is not the same as the POSTed display adapter")" I feel as if I have taken steps backwards. I should add, the reason I shut down my laptop and turned it back on again was to see if the issue I have with up-to-date AMD drivers persisted. Whenever I try and force AMD's most recent drivers over what Dell recommends then my laptop cannot shut down. It sits on a black screen forever and the only way to turn it off is to hold the power button. It will, however, restart. Because this didn't happen on this occasion I had high hopes, but that would appear to have been premature. In my mind I followed the instructions, but if I am in error then I will certainly try it again. I have also attached a txt with a link to a dropbox folder with some screen grabs if they're relevant. The forum would not let me paste the link in directly.
