1st/3rd quarter CTD after commercial (3 possible solutions)

I'm guessing the latest posts in this thread will answer your question: viewtopic.php?f=141&t=84702

I have searched high and low for a solution for this (even went to datablitz to return the game but they said i couldn't refund it because of the rarity of the issues) and due to my persistence, i may have found something... I can't say a fix yet because i have only tested in season mode... But here are my logs:

- Tested with no commentary and worked with no CTD either 1st or 3rd. Reason behind the test with no commentary was because of the March 2 bug. It basically started with no commentary in my season mode and just for the heck of it i continued playing, and low and behold no CTD. Continued to play for about 3 more games and still no CTD.

- Found out that there was a bug (The March 2 one) so removed the files and used the correct one with the allstar court update downloadable here in NLSC and the CTD came back. Tried to manually remove commentary to test it again and still CTD. Banged my head a bit, cried a little then continued deducing the situation.

- I noticed that (idk why i did), when i was playing, I had the following things open/present:

*internet connection
*firefox
*excel
*task manager

- I saw that half of my memory was with firefox while i was playing so meaning to say, my game and the rest of the programs opened almost was sharing around 400,000 k of memory usage total. When i turned of the commentary manually, I only had the game open atm...

- So i tested again with those programs mentioned above opened, and to my surprise, no CTD... Ofcourse since i noticed that the common thing was the memory usage, i tested some more. This time I used only the program 3ds max... And again, no CTD...

So in short, having a program with almost the same amount of memory usage with 2k12 solved my CTD's... So far, i have played 15 games since and still no CTD... I actually tried some other programs which does not reach the same amount of memory usage and it did not work... So basically for my PC, this was the solution...

Still in the end, I can't say it is a fix (ofcourse its not), more of a patch I think so we can continue playing... It is absurd actually to do this thinking that you have to open another heavy memory using program just to play 2k12 but if it works, it works... Anybody who has been experiencing this, can you test it out and see if it works...

That's ...a really weird fix. And my programming experience urges me to say "you've just been lucky".

But I don't know anymore, I'm willing to try anything. Well, probably not Firefox since it also uses CPU which causes framerate spikes in the game.

So I'll find some memory heavy program (or just make a tool that just allocates half a GB of memory) and see if that works.

I know, its really wierd and bordering crazy... I can't even explain how it would help the game in some sort of ways... But the random CTD's ur experiencing, I experience consistently in game modes(association, season, etc)...

Anyway, just wanted to share this because i know im not the only one experiencing this (looking at you sales lady from datablitz )

If what you say actually works, the following code should keep the game alive.

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
   int num = 500 * 1024 * 1024;
   if (argc == 2)
   {
      sscanf(argv[1], "%d", &num);
      num = num * 1024 * 1024;
   }
   char* arr = (char*) malloc(sizeof (char) * num);
   for (long int i = 0; i<num; i++)
   {
      //printf("%d\n",i);
      arr[i] = 'a';
   }
   printf("Allocated about %dMB\n", sizeof(char) * num / 1024 / 1024);
   printf("Press any key to free memory and exit...\n");
   getchar();
   free (arr);
   return 0;
}

Link to exe: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?kkeh8c72mfb9mgu

You can either just double-click it and it allocates 500MB while it's running (it frees it when you press any key), or run it with any numeric argument and it allocates that amount of MB.

The upside to this is that it doesn't use any CPU while running unlike other applications which could do things in the background while open. And that it got me to remember my C.

Well, I only had time to test your theory using the tool I posted above for 2 games, allocating 570MB (NBA 2K12 uses ~540), and I got through 2 games without a crash. I know that's a tiny sample, but for anyone who's been crashing, you have nothing to lose by trying the tool and telling us if you crashed even with it running.

Interesting stuff. Great to see people working on some unofficial solutions here.

i had this problem since the first time i install the game, in my player and association... whenever the 2nd quarter and 3rd quarter starts the game crash to desktop... and very frustrating and annoying... even i reinstall the game still crash.. to keep me continue the game i quit the game and save the game before the 1st quarter and 3rd quarter ends ( last seconds of the 1st and 3rd quarter)... I am so frustrated about it... I love the game so I wont uninstall it.

If the tools of Leftos can fix this issue, can someone tell me how to do it how can use the tool? please

Run the tool leftos made then run NBA 2K12... From my experience, u can try using the save u made either from 1st or 3rd qrtr and it should continue/work... Ive tested that too and sure enough, no CTD...

Give it try to see how many peeps out there make this unofficial solution work...

As TGZ said, you need only to extract and keep the tool running while playing the game, just by double-clicking on it.

Or, after extracting, make a shortcut of it and add 570 to the end of the Target, so it looks something like this: "C:\blahblah\memalloc.exe 570" (without the quotes). The 570 tells the tool to allocate 570MB of RAM instead of the default 500. If the tool works with 570 but not 500 I might make 570 the default.

Interesting stuff. Great to see people working on some unofficial solutions here.

I believe 2k addressed this with the new online data update which was causing the problem. I haven't had the CTD after the quarters the past few days.

I pretty much doubt that was it, jmoney. We were having the problem even before the PS3 Online Data debacle, and when we were restored to the PC Online Data the only file that was updated was nbatoday.iff. Unless that by chance they actually fixed a buggy part in it that was causing the game to crash during Associations and Seasons and Quick Games, etc, I think it's only coincidental that you haven't had a crash.

I second that too... 2K for sure i believe will have announcements if they have fixed this bug...

And besides, I do get those updates too and tested without leftos tool, and no doubt i still get CTD's...

Anyway, i have a question about the tool leftos... I minimized the memalloc and went back and memory allocation got lost in a way so i have to close and turn it back on to make it work... Should it lose the memory allocation when u minimize it? Or basically when u run the tool, you don't have to do anything with it (including minimizing) aside from closing it when ur done, is that right?

It's not that the memory is not allocated anymore. I'm guessing that when you minimize it, it gets paged out, so instead of occupying actual RAM, it is now occupying Virtual Memory. It's minimized, so it's a background application, and since it doesn't do any memory access when minimized (in order to avoid any CPU usage and thus framerate drops in the game), its allocated memory gets paged out so it can be replaced with more recently accessed memory pages.

It could work even when that happens, I mean, we're not sure if this even fixes the crashes, how much memory you need to allocate, and whether it needs to be allocated in actual RAM or if Virtual Memory can suffice.

But if you want to keep its actual RAM usage in the original levels, keep it unminimized, and just Alt-Tab into the game.

Alryt, got it... I got a slow azz internet, u have any good news about the patch that came out? or still testing?

Nope, haven't had the time to test it. I'll keep using MemAlloc anyway. Even if the patch actually fixed the crashes, there's nothing wrong with using MemAlloc either way. I'd hate to realize the patch didn't fix the crashes by having the game crash on me in the 3rd quarter.

If this weird crazy fix works, I'll keep using it. I've only played 2 games so far, but your reports seem encouraging. I'll keep using MemAlloc in the next few days (if I can get myself to stop playing Mass Effect 3 in my free time) and report on whether I've had a crash or not.

Damn, haven't got my hands on my mass effect 3 yet... Forget 2K for the meantime, got to save the world from the reapers... Movies, games and other stuff, i'm gonna lose a lot of money very soon...

Nope, haven't had the time to test it. I'll keep using MemAlloc anyway. Even if the patch actually fixed the crashes, there's nothing wrong with using MemAlloc either way. I'd hate to realize the patch didn't fix the crashes by having the game crash on me in the 3rd quarter.

If this weird crazy fix works, I'll keep using it. I've only played 2 games so far, but your reports seem encouraging. I'll keep using MemAlloc in the next few days (if I can get myself to stop playing Mass Effect 3 in my free time) and report on whether I've had a crash or not.

Was playing with my Bobcats vs Hornets after installation of the Patch. It crashed at the end of the 3rd quarter! I will not buy 2k13.

I have noticed that the CTD at the end of the 1st or 3rd quarter only happens when I am using my Bobcats and I am facing a West Coast team.

Yeah, it's been verified over at OS that the patch didn't fix the crashes. -sigh-

BobcatsThunderBulls, did you try MemAlloc yet?

No, First time I have heard of it!

Just read up on it.... I am going to try something different....back soon with info.....If what I am think about fails, I will try your program...hmmmmm.....

I had some hope about the patch coz it was big enough to make a chance for a fix... Anyway, memalloc is working fine for me, so i hope it does for the rest...

WOOT!!!!! WITH 99% CERTAINTY I BELIEVE I FIXED THE PROBLEM!!!!

Here is what I did.
Start the game.
Once you hit the main menu hit CTRL+ALT+DELETE to bring up Task Manager.
Click the button to show all processes. (YOU MUST BE THE ADMINISTRATOR!)
Right click on NBA2K.exe
Hover over Set Priority
In the box that pops up select Realtime or High. I will go into further detail later.
-Optional: Do the same thing to you graphics card.

After I did all of the above except for the graphics card when I played 3 quarters of 5 games of Bobcats VS Hornets with 1 minute quarters, 4 of which were in my Bobcats dyansty. That particular game had crashed on me twice today. All 5 of the those games went awesomely well, save for one thing. The audio sounded like it was from a record from the 50s.
I then went and changed the Priority Level to High and played 3 quarters of 1 game with 1 minute quarters with the Bobcats vs. Hornets. That went very well! And the audio was great!
I then set the minutes to 5 per quarter and kept the priority level to High and played 3 quarters of Bobcats vs. Hornets. Success again!

Before I go further I need to give you my settings and PC info.
PC info
4GB Ram, Intel p7350 @ 2.00ghz Core 2Duo. ATI Radeon HD 3650 512RAM

Game Settings
Resolution: 1920/1080
Window Mode: On
V-Sync: Off
AA: Off
Arena - High
Player - High
Crowd - Medium
Sideline Characters: On
Texture Quality: High
Depth of Field: On
Floor Reflections: On

With those settings I get about 25 fps. Yeah, I know. Really bad graphics card.

I did a performance benchmark with the following settings and the results follow
NBA2k.exe = Normal priority, CCC.exe (graphics card) = normal priority. Result 25/medium
NBA2k.exe = High Priority, CCC.exe =normal. Result 25/medium
NBA2k.exe = Realtime, CCC.exe = normal. Result 28/medium, sound choppy
NBA2k.exe = Realtime, CCC.exe to High. Result 28/medium, sound choppy
NBA2k.exe = Realtime, CCC.exe to Realtime. Result 30/medium, sound choppy
NBA2k.exe = High, CCC.exe to Realtime. Result 27/medium, SOUND PERFECT!

Not once did the game crash using the NBA2k.exe method. I did not have the time try adding the CCC.exe method to it as well yet. For me the best combination is the NBA2K.exe set to high and the CCC.exe set to Realtime. However you might find better results with NBA2K.exe set to Realtime if you have a better machine.

I would love if you guys would test this out and tell me if I am right or if I just got lucky!

Setting any process to "realtime" is not recommended. If that process is using any processor time your entire cpu will freeze until it is done using the processor.

Setting any process to "realtime" is not recommended. If that process is using any processor time your entire cpu will freeze until it is done using the processor.

Good to know. As a result of that info I just did a performance benchmark with both the NBA2K.exe and the CCC.exe set to high. Result 29/medium, Sound is still perfect! So it is best to go with those settings. Thanks Pdub!

BobcatsThunderBulls, if I get a crash even with MemAlloc, I'll try setting NBA 2K12's priority to High and see if that works.

They could be both (MemAlloc and High priority) two different solutions to the same problem, and there's nothing wrong in keeping on testing our theories. We definitely need a fix for this.

EDIT: I added both possible solutions to the first post.