I just bought a new laptop which was advertised as top of the line by the salesman (of course) and I am having issues with the game locking up during ground combat.
The laptop is an Asus Notebook N71JQ-X1 and has an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730 graphics card in it. According to the hardware tools, all drivers are up to date, but I'm not sure how to validate that.
I had it set to the highest graphics possible at first, then dropped it to medium quality and it did the same thing. I saw in another thread that someone turned off AA (I don't know what that is) and Shadow detail (I also don't see this under graphic options) which helped them, so maybe I need to do that as well.
STO is the first game I have tried to play on my new machine and if this doesn't get solved in short order I'm taking the thing back. I haven't been able to find any reviews on the machine, good or bad, so I'm not sure what the deal is there.
My buddy recommended updating the bios, and all the guts of the computer, and said this was standard operating procedure with new machines but I've never heard of having to do that.
I'm set at the highest level resolution widescreen. Could that be the issue? I was under the impression my graphics card was well above the recommended graphics and I should be able to max the game graphics out and not break a sweat...
I used to work the computer sales department at one job when the computer sales guys would take their lunch. Your first mistake was believing anything the sales guy said.
Basically to try to fix the issue you are having is to open the options window and go to the video options tab. Scroll down a bit and look for a bar that says something like "Show Advanced Options". You will find the AA and other settings there, if I am not mistaken. I am on my laptop at work and haven't reinstalled STO from a crash recovery and complete Windows reinstall so I can't check to be sure.
EDIT: Also you will use fewer system resources at lower resolutions.
Ever since STO went into closed beta people have been reporting problems with ATI cards and Dynamic Lighting.
Turn Dynamic Lighting OFF in the graphics options and you should be able to crank almost everything else up to near max.
One other important thing. Go into the Troubleshooting part of the graphics options and set the max frame rate to 60. This prevents your graphics card from lighting itself on fire (I kid you not, check out some of the older posts in the tech forum) as it tries to run the game at an infinite frame rate.
Also you should have a way to monitor the internal temp of your machine, or at least your graphics card. There are a few sidebar gadgets that will allow you to do just that. It sounds likely to me that either Dynamic Lighting is the issue, or your machine is overheating. One of the two.
BTW, I play STO on a laptop myself. So while I'm no computer expert, I've been watching these issues very carefully in the tech forum.
Thank you all for the responses. Peregrine I will do that tonight when I get home. I did lower the graphics to medium quality (which is still hand and fist above where I was before I bought the new machine) and ran the game without issue. I will click off the dynamic lighting and crank everything esle up and see where that gets me. Thanks again for the info.
Comments
Basically to try to fix the issue you are having is to open the options window and go to the video options tab. Scroll down a bit and look for a bar that says something like "Show Advanced Options". You will find the AA and other settings there, if I am not mistaken. I am on my laptop at work and haven't reinstalled STO from a crash recovery and complete Windows reinstall so I can't check to be sure.
EDIT: Also you will use fewer system resources at lower resolutions.
Turn Dynamic Lighting OFF in the graphics options and you should be able to crank almost everything else up to near max.
One other important thing. Go into the Troubleshooting part of the graphics options and set the max frame rate to 60. This prevents your graphics card from lighting itself on fire (I kid you not, check out some of the older posts in the tech forum) as it tries to run the game at an infinite frame rate.
Also you should have a way to monitor the internal temp of your machine, or at least your graphics card. There are a few sidebar gadgets that will allow you to do just that. It sounds likely to me that either Dynamic Lighting is the issue, or your machine is overheating. One of the two.
BTW, I play STO on a laptop myself. So while I'm no computer expert, I've been watching these issues very carefully in the tech forum.
Download Page for newest AMD video drivers: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx
But first, compare the one you already have with the one listed, to see if you have the newest one.
Russ