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.


Click to enlarge

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 Games BF2 Tech Support Site for more official help. If this doesn't help, read the rest of this guide carefully, and then visit one of the many BF2 Forums such as EA BF2 Forums, the EA UK BF2 Forums, or the Total Battlefield BF2 Forums for example.


Patch Problems: First make sure you check page 4 of this guide for details of the latest patch, and install it. If you have problems, see this 1.50 Patch Troubleshooting FAQ, and remember that your BF2 must already be patched to version 1.41 before you can apply the 1.50 patch. 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 BF2 and then only installing the full 1.41 Patch, then the latest 1.50 Patch on top of that to bring BF2 up to date.


Windows Vista/7 Users: If you're having problems running BF2 under Windows Vista or 7, first make sure that you're using the latest graphics and audio drivers for your hardware, and the latest patch for the 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, or you're getting booted from multiplayer constantly, 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.


Update: The latest 1.50 patch improves BF2 support for Vista.


Launch 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 of the minimum specs for the game), or more usually the fact that you're not running at the default refresh rate of 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 other refresh rate, or a refresh rate override program/method, disable it (e.g. if you're using Refresh Force, click the 'Restore Original Settings' button and apply) or set it back to 60Hz for both 800x600 and your chosen gaming resolution. 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, see this BF2 PunkBuster FAQ.


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 the game. 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 low amounts of RAM this will happen very often, particularly at the start of a match and whenever new areas/items are encountered. Battlefield 2 has been proven to benefit from 2GB or more of system RAM. Equally as important, graphics cards with low levels of Video RAM (e.g. 128MB or 256MB) will also experience more pauses as textures are loading into/out of Video Memory.


Update: The latest 1.50 Patch now allows the BF2 executable to use more than 2GB of RAM, meaning systems with more than 2GB of system RAM should see a reduction in stuttering.


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 in XP or \[username]\Documents\Battlefield 2\mods\bf2\cache\ in Vista. 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.


Update: It is strongly recommended that you clear your cache after installing the latest patch.


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, you will need to make sure that any forced antialiasing is disabled in your graphics card's control panel - see the ATI Catalyst Tweak Guide or the Nvidia Forceware Tweak Guide as relevant for more details. 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 this page for more details. Note that using a forced custom resolution may cause problems with Antialiasing, since it is not an officially supported resolution.


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 extremely important step you should not miss, as it is the most common source of problems with any game.


Overclocking: Battlefield 2, like any other game, can be 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 or artificial benchmarks 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.