Solved DiRT 3 stuttering and crashes

[MrNeeds]

Hey chaps, got a problem that is more frustrating than an actual issue, but I've run out of ideas.

Here's the problem [youtube]RilLlfp95xU[/youtube]

I've tried re-installing vista and also done a clean install of 7 to see if that fixes it but nothing, I'm at my wits end!

The crashing is what happened on vista, but are not on 7(fingers crossed), I'd get an app crash with event ID 1000, ntdll.dll could not be read, error code 0x0000003

Dave

 

[zigzag3143]

Stuttering is sometimes caused by a driver. Download this free latency checker to test yours DPC Latency Checker

 

[MrNeeds]

thanks for that zigzag, here's the results


i dont think its anything to do with the latency, ive also done a defragmentation and organisation of files and folders for quick opening, altough it does seem to have made a difference with file opening times and loading times of DiRT 3, its not really done anything with the inconsistent drop in FPS, thanks for that though.

 

[richc46]

Dave,
I dont have a specific answer, but I do have this excellent guide on game problems. Although for Seven it is equally applicable to Vista
Tips on Troubleshooting Game Issues - Windows 7 Forums

 

[MrNeeds]

Dave,
I dont have a specific answer, but I do have this excellent guide on game problems. Although for Seven it is equally applicable to Vista
Tips on Troubleshooting Game Issues - Windows 7 Forums

Thanks for that rich, I'm having the stuttering on 7 but the app crashes on vista, it's only with codemasters games, I have the app crashes on F1 2010 and DiRT2 as well, I think it might just be codies, but nothing wrong with DiRT2 and F1 on 7 at all.

 

[MrNeeds]

Problem solved, I decided to time the intervals between the stuttering, it came to exactly 2 minutes between stutters, and found out that windows live ID sign in assistant reconnects after 2 minutes, so I uninstalled it and reinstalled it, problem solved!

 

[jaffer1979]

This issue is killing me. You said you have done fresh reinstalls of vista and 7 right? I assume games for windows live would have reinstalled when you did that... I have reinstalled gfwl and I am still getting this problem if any one has any suggestions please let me know. post here or email me at helpmeplease at nickneary dot com

 

[MrNeeds]

This issue is killing me. You said you have done fresh reinstalls of vista and 7 right? I assume games for windows live would have reinstalled when you did that... I have reinstalled gfwl and I am still getting this problem if any one has any suggestions please let me know. post here or email me at helpmeplease at nickneary dot com

You'd think codies would have released a patch to fix these issues, but apparently not :-/ mine runs ok now since I reinstalled GFWL but if the issue isn't identical then it won't fix it, the issue I had was unique to fresh install of 7, before then on vista, I had crash to desktops and other problems, so I bit the bullet and installed 7, that's when the stuttering happened, it was every 1minute 59seconds, to the second that the stuttering occurred.

MrNeeds

 

[jaffer1979]

I too am very surprised that code masters hasn't patched this. My symptoms were identical to the ones in your video exactly same type of stuttering (win 7 x64). This is even after reinstalling windows on a raid0 setup with cossfired 5770s with crossfire turned on or off 6gb of ram and an i7 even.... I reinstalled gfwl several times and this continued. I ended up putting an intel x25-m 160gb solid state drive in my machine to cure this problem. This brought my computer score to 7.4 if you ask me that is completely ridiculous. I am pretty sure most people aren't going to be willing to pay an arm and a leg for a ssd to be able to play this game nor should they have to. I own a Subaru wrx sti (unfortunately not the hatchback model :-( )and am a rally nut. Which makes me willing to (grudgingly) do this. I think that makes me a minority in this. Code Masters needs to get their selves together. Don't even get me started on the fact that I paid $59 on a game they apparently aren't supporting with patches etc but then you tell me I am going to pay extra to be able to race the cars I want to be able to race?? Maybe they should spend some of the time they are spending grubbing money on live extras on patches. My dad who loves rally as well (though he has an evo vii ewww and lives thousands of miles from me) bought dirt 2 to play with me. I had to recommend he not buy dirt 3 because of the headache he would have to go through trying to get it running correctly, and because he would never be ok with paying extra for the extra cars/tracks. Sroory for the rant just wanted to share my solution and disgust for the problem.

 

[MrNeeds]

I too am very surprised that code masters hasn't patched this. My symptoms were identical to the ones in your video exactly same type of stuttering (win 7 x64). This is even after reinstalling windows on a raid0 setup with cossfired 5770s with crossfire turned on or off 6gb of ram and an i7 even.... I reinstalled gfwl several times and this continued. I ended up putting an intel x25-m 160gb solid state drive in my machine to cure this problem. This brought my computer score to 7.4 if you ask me that is completely ridiculous. I am pretty sure most people aren't going to be willing to pay an arm and a leg for a ssd to be able to play this game nor should they have to. I own a Subaru wrx sti (unfortunately not the hatchback model :-( )and am a rally nut. Which makes me willing to (grudgingly) do this. I think that makes me a minority in this. Code Masters needs to get their selves together. Don't even get me started on the fact that I paid $59 on a game they apparently aren't supporting with patches etc but then you tell me I am going to pay extra to be able to race the cars I want to be able to race?? Maybe they should spend some of the time they are spending grubbing money on live extras on patches. My dad who loves rally as well (though he has an evo vii ewww and lives thousands of miles from me) bought dirt 2 to play with me. I had to recommend he not buy dirt 3 because of the headache he would have to go through trying to get it running correctly, and because he would never be ok with paying extra for the extra cars/tracks. Sroory for the rant just wanted to share my solution and disgust for the problem.

I completely agree, microsoft are trying to turn PC into an xbox (content is no longer free), for example, call of duty 4 had updates that you had to install and they came with free maps, but with xbox, you had to pay for the maps, now, PC users now have to pay to get content for a game they've already payed for.

as for the patches, it's absolutely shocking that a game that has been out this long and the only patch they've released to date is one to stick marshalls running across the track on rally levels

 

[tomriddle1234]

I too am very surprised that code masters hasn't patched this. My symptoms were identical to the ones in your video exactly same type of stuttering (win 7 x64). This is even after reinstalling windows on a raid0 setup with cossfired 5770s with crossfire turned on or off 6gb of ram and an i7 even.... I reinstalled gfwl several times and this continued. I ended up putting an intel x25-m 160gb solid state drive in my machine to cure this problem. This brought my computer score to 7.4 if you ask me that is completely ridiculous. I am pretty sure most people aren't going to be willing to pay an arm and a leg for a ssd to be able to play this game nor should they have to. I own a Subaru wrx sti (unfortunately not the hatchback model :-( )and am a rally nut. Which makes me willing to (grudgingly) do this. I think that makes me a minority in this. Code Masters needs to get their selves together. Don't even get me started on the fact that I paid $59 on a game they apparently aren't supporting with patches etc but then you tell me I am going to pay extra to be able to race the cars I want to be able to race?? Maybe they should spend some of the time they are spending grubbing money on live extras on patches. My dad who loves rally as well (though he has an evo vii ewww and lives thousands of miles from me) bought dirt 2 to play with me. I had to recommend he not buy dirt 3 because of the headache he would have to go through trying to get it running correctly, and because he would never be ok with paying extra for the extra cars/tracks. Sroory for the rant just wanted to share my solution and disgust for the problem.

I completely agree, microsoft are trying to turn PC into an xbox (content is no longer free), for example, call of duty 4 had updates that you had to install and they came with free maps, but with xbox, you had to pay for the maps, now, PC users now have to pay to get content for a game they've already payed for.

as for the patches, it's absolutely shocking that a game that has been out this long and the only patch they've released to date is one to stick marshalls running across the track on rally levels

Fortunately I experienced the same problem and didn't make it according to ur solution but finally solved this by install "windows live ID sign in assistant 7.0 ” rather than 6.5 on my Win 7 x64 box.

Here is the 7.0 download link Windows 7 online ID providers - Microsoft Windows and it is actually included in Windows Live Package 2011.

What I did :

1. Remove everything related to GFWL ( remember to back up savs etc. but GFWL dose have some cloud storage function )
2. Reinstall GFWL, downloaded directly from microsoft, 70MB package, Download: Games for Windows Software Setup 3.5 - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details
3. Uninstall windows live ID sign in assistant
4. Restart computer (log out is OK)
5. Install windows live ID sign in assistant 7.0 (actually it is Windows Live Software Package 2011), and restart again
6. Run Dirt 3, test, everything flawless.