Battlefield 2 Tweak Guide

[Page 3] Troubleshooting Tips



This section contains specific troubleshooting tips which address many of the common problems experienced by Battlefield 2 players. I can't stress enough the importance of taking the time to go through the checklist of advice below if you're having a problem with the game.


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Official Support: The first place to look for official support details is in the Readme.txt file in your \Program Files\EA Games\Battlefield 2\Support directory. Importantly you should check out the minimum system requirements in that file, as well as the supported hardware list, since if any of your hardware is not supported then you will experience problems with the game, or quite simply won't be able to run it. Next, open the Electronic_Arts_Technical_Support.htm file in the \EA Help directory under the support directory. This file contains an interactive browser-based offline help manual. For the latest online help check the EA BF2 FAQ and the EA Games BF2 Tech Support Site for more official help. If none of these help, read the rest of this guide carefully, and then visit one of the many BF2 Forums such as PlanetBattlefield BF2 Forums or the TotalBF2 Forums for example.


Patch Problems: First make sure you check page 4 of this guide for details of the latest patch. To minimize problems from this patch, I strongly recommend that you use the full Version of the latest patch to start with. If you still have problems, I then recommend running through the tips on this and the previous page of the guide to genuinely optimize and stabilize your system, as most problems are actually due to things like overclocking, background programs, mods, scripts etc. If you still have problems and genuinely believe your system is rock-solid, then I recommend completely uninstalling BF2, rebooting, then reinstalling it and only installing the latest full Patch (as that has all the previous patch changes in it). There may still be some minor glitches due to the patch - such as incorrect pings showing in the server browser - however crashes and other problems are primarily due to a bad patch installation and/or a suboptimal system environment.


Using Old Hardware: It is difficult if not impossible to get BF2 to run without problems/glitches on older hardware if it does not meet the game's minimum requirements. The minimum requirements are listed in the Readme.txt file (see above), and they are very steep - this reflects the fact that the game is designed for the current and next generation hardware. In particular graphics cards which don't have hardware support for at least Pixel & Vertex Shaders Version 1.4 as well as 128MB of Video RAM or more will not be able to play this game correctly. There is a way in which you can force the game to use lower level shaders: For GeForce4 owners, here is a link to the BF2 Shader Mod which allows you to play BF2 in Singleplayer (with lots of graphical glitches). Note however that using such mods will likely be detected as cheats by PunkBuster (See PunkBuster below) and you will be kicked and/or your account will be banned permanently. This is because using lower level shaders results in a range of graphical glitches such as invisible objects, seeing through walls, etc. which may be used as an unfair advantage.


Windows Vista Users: If you're having problems running this game under Windows Vista, first make sure that you're using the latest Vista graphics and audio drivers for your hardware, and the latest version of this game (see page 4 for patch details). Next, make sure you don't change your UAC settings after the game has been installed, as due to Virtualization this can change the location of the game files and settings. If you can't launch the game successfully when UAC is enabled, you will need to run the game with full Admin privileges. To do this either right-click on the launch icon and select 'Run as Administrator', or right-click on the launch icon, select Properties and under the Compatibility tab tick 'Run this program as an administrator' then click OK. I strongly recommend that you refer to the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion for Windows Vista for more information - in particular check the 'Gaming in Vista' section of the Graphics & Interface chapter; the UAC section of the PC Security chapter; and the 'Personal Folders' and 'Directory Junctions & Symbolic Links' sections of the Windows Explorer chapter. These will tell you how you can fix game-related issues and also explain the relevant differences of Vista.


Launching/Loading Issues: The most common problem with BF2 is that the game crashes to desktop or goes to a black screen when you first launch it. The reason for this is either incompatible hardware (make sure you meet all the minimum specs), or more usually the fact that you're not running at the default Windows XP refresh rate (60Hz). By default the game tries to launch at 800x600@60Hz initially, so your system must be able to run that same resolution and refresh rate, otherwise the game will abort. If you are using any refresh rate override program/method, disable it (e.g. if you're using Refresh Force, click the 'Restore Original Settings' button and apply). Alternatively, see the Advanced Tweaking section of the guide for details on how to set a different startup resolution, in case your graphics card/monitor simply cannot do 800x600@60Hz resolution. Once you've got the game running, you can then change the resolution to suit your taste in the in-game settings, and importantly you can select a higher refresh rate. Then you can reapply any refresh rate override and the game will launch without any problems. To set a non-standard resolution see the Advanced Tweaking section.


Account Issues: See the In-Game settings section of this guide for more details of online and offline accounts. However note that you can't alter your account details once created. You'll have to contact EA Games support if you still have account-related problems as only they can rectify genuine account errors.


Punkbuster: Battlefield 2 uses the Punkbuster anti-cheat software commonly used in most other online games. This software helps identify and prevent cheating in the game, and cheaters can expect to have their account banned. Make sure you have Punkbuster enabled in the game, as most multiplayer servers require it to allow you to join. Importantly, do not modify your Battlefield 2 files in any way - such as using programs to alter the shader versions - as these may be seen as cheats by PB. Editing the .con files and other tweaks as described in this guide are fine, but be careful as to what you alter if it's not covered here. If you are having problems automatically updating your Punkbuster version when online, you can manually update it by following the instructions here. I recommend using PBSetup, as it is a fairly foolproof method of updating PunkBuster. This may help resolve problems with continually being kicked from servers with PB errors. For other problems with Punkbuster, either check the Punkbuster site and/or contact PB for more support, or be patient as the PB Team iron out any problems with their BF2 compatibility.


Graphical Glitches: If you are experiencing strange graphics, obviously first make sure your graphics card is supported by the game (See Official Support above). Secondly, make sure you check out my ATI or Nvidia Tweak Guides (See the Essential Optimization section) - especially the instructions on page 4 of those guides for doing a 'clean install' of the latest drivers. If you run an ATI graphics card, use the latest Catalysts (6.11 or newer), and if you run an Nvidia graphics card, use the latest official Forceware drivers (93.71 or newer).


In-Game Lag/Freezes: Most people experience a lot of in-game lags, pauses and several-second freezes. Aside from optimizing your system as per my guides in the Essential Optimization section, check the Clearing Shader Optimizations tip below, and make sure to carefully read the Video option descriptions in the In-Game Settings section further below as well, and of course make absolutely sure you have defragmented your hard drive after installing this demo. However it is quite clear that BF2 requires a lot of memory to operate. Basically many of the pauses/freezes are related to loading information from the hard drive, and for those of you with only 512MB of RAM this will happen very often, particularly at the start of a match and whenever new areas/items are encountered. Even with 1GB, there is a lot of loading, so clearly BF2 would benefit from 2GB of RAM. More importantly, graphics cards with 128MB of Video RAM or less will also experience more pauses as textures are loading into/out of Video Memory.


Clearing Shader Optimizations: When you change the graphical settings or install a new patch, BF2 attempts to optimize the shaders used in the game for the best performance on your particular hardware. These optimized files are stored in your \Documents and Settings\[username]\My Documents\Battlefield 2\mods\bf2\cache\ directory. If you've changed your settings several times, I recommend you finalize your changes, close BF2, go to the above directory and delete everything under the \cache\ directory. The next time you start the game and play single or multiplayer, your shaders will be optimized again. Close BF2 one more time, defragment your hard drive, and now things should be much smoother and load much faster the next time you go to play BF2.


Gamma, Brightness, Contrast: Battlefield 2 does not seem to have any in-game options to alter the brightness, contrast or gamma of the game. You will have to use a third-party program like PowerStrip which works with all graphics cards, or the gamma options in your graphics card's control panel to alter the game's brightness/gamma/contrast.


Antialiasing: To make sure Antialiasing works in the game, first go to your graphics card's control panel, and for Nvidia cards under the Performance & Quality Settings in the Global Driver Settings section select 'Application Controlled' for Antialiasing and Anisotropic Filtering. For ATI cards go to the 3D section of the Control Panel/Control Center and select 'Application Preference' for Antialiasing and Anisotropic Filtering. Now you can go into BF2 and set the level of Antialiasing you wish to use, however obviously it will reduce your game's performance. If you are unfamiliar with what Antialiasing or Anisotropic Filtering do, see my Gamer's Graphics & Display Settings Guide. Note that using a forced resolution may cause problems with Antialiasing, since it is an unsupported resolution


Virus Scan: Do a full scan of all your files using the following excellent (and free) tools: AVG Virus Cleaner for viruses, A-Squared for trojans, and Ad-Aware SE for spyware/adware. Viruses, trojans and spyware can cause unexplained behavior, general file corruption and system slowdown, and can also steal your CD Key. It's best to make sure your system isn't infected before moving on to any other other optimization measures. However make sure to disable any background scanning programs once you're done (See below).


Background Programs: Disable all background applications - especially virus, trojan and spyware scanners and messaging utilities. These applications can and do use up valuable CPU resources, take up precious RAM, cause memory conflicts and crashes to desktop, but most importantly they interfere with read/writes to your hard drive effectively slowing it down and causing even more in-game freezes and longer loading times. Full instructions on how to identify your startup programs and services and how to correctly disable unnecessary ones are in my TweakGuides Tweaking Companion. This is an important step you should not miss.


Overclocking: Battlefield 2 is sensitive to overclocking. If you've overclocked any components on your system and are having problems such as crashes, reboots and graphical anomalies, the first thing to do is set everything back to default speeds and try running the game. If you don't experience the same problems at default speed, or they're reduced in severity, then your overclock is the primary culprit. Either permanently reduce your overclock and/or increase cooling to regain stability. Don't assume that because other games run with stability at a particular speed that BF2 will do the same.


There are obviously many more problems people are experiencing with the game, but most of these are due to a lack of system optimization. The game is not as buggy as most people would think. BF2 is quite simply very stressful on your system, and if you do not optimize it, cool it properly, reduce/remove your overclocks, and reduce your settings you will experience more crashes, freezes etc. Read the guides I link to under Essential Optimization above for more details, as well as the game's Readme.txt file - there is no single quick fix to problems like these.



That's just a basic rundown of troubleshooting tips. Read the remainder of this guide for more specific settings and tweaks which can help improve your performance and resolve any problems.