Solutions To Crashes and Other Issues With Call of Duty 4

[-=FD=-]

I thought we should collect all possible problems and solutions for errors with Call of Duty 4 or the 1.2 patch into one place.

So here it is:

Always remember to make a backup of your players folder if you are going to uninstall and reinstall the game (and just to be safe too)

Backup scripts and programs can be found:

• Backup program by nophonex (requires .Net 2.0)
• Backup DOS script by -=FD=-
• Backup DOS script by Jquest

General COD4 Issues

COD4 crashes when i try to change graphics / sound settings

XFire has been known to be one of the causes for this. Solution is to close XFire when making these changes.

Everytime i try to connect to a server i watch the counter go to 10 and then get 'Connection Timed Out' error

This is probably because the master server cannot deal with the amount of players in COD4, theres a way around it tho.
Type this into the console:
/cl_connectionattempts 60
You should have more luck joining servers now, if you get bored of waiting on the timer screen you can type:
/disconnect
To cancel joining the server and go back to the main menu.

I have a Nvidia 7xxx GFX Card and get black objects in the game world

You should go and download the Nvidia Forceware Beta 169.09 driver as this is known to fix this issue.

EDIT: 169.04 drivers for Nvidia cards are now known to fix both black objects and light flickering.

When i look into the 'ironsights' the screen goes black,white and all blurry

Turning OFF 'Depth of Field' in the graphics options is known to fix this.

I get really bad lag when airstrikes happen. I cant move

Make sure your antivirus is not running while you are playing. This can cause lag with airstrikes because you get sent a lot of data to tell your client where the bombs are dropping, where the planes fly to / from and all the other stuff that your client is usually getting sent too.

I cant play COD4 SP because it asks me to insert the correct DVD. But i have it in my drive

• Hold down the left shift key when inserting the game disc if this problem is occurring on launch.
• Make sure you have 32 bit drivers for your CD-ROM drive.
• Set the CD-ROM cache size to zero.
• Change the DMA setting on the CD-ROM drive.
• Make sure the drive letters for the CD-ROM is set correctly.
• Make sure that the location for CD music to play is set correctly.
• Make sure your system can successfully play Audio CD's.
• Turn off Auto Insert Notification.
• If you have the CD burning software Alcohol 120% installed you need to turn off all of the emulation options.
  • 1) Go to File > Options.
  • 2) Click on Emulation in the menu to the left.
  • 3) Uncheck all options in the window to the right.
• If you have CloneCD you need to turn off the Hide CDR media setting. This setting is accessible from the task tray icon for clone CD. Right-click on the icon and uncheck Hide CDR media.
• If you have an nForce based motherboard go to http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp and get the latest nForce drivers for your motherboard chipset.

I get flickering lighting effects when they should be solid

You should make sure you are using the newest drivers available for your GFX card, and also goto the Microsoft Site and download / install the latest DirectX End-User Runtime.

I cannot run iw3mp.exe / iw3sp.exe it errors with 'iw3xx.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close'

There are a number of possible reasons for this happening:

• Realtek onboard soundcards - Make sure you are using the newest drivers available. Some have reported that having a mic plugged in can fix this problem.
• Realtek onboard soundcards - Sometimes disabling / enabling these can make it work (even if you don't use them for sound)
• Realtek onboard soundcards and vista - Sometimes uninstalling the Realtek driver and letting vista find its own works.
• AthlonXP and Sempron (not 64bit) - Go into the CoD4/miles folder and rename 'mssmp3.asi' to 'mssmp3.bak'. The miles sound system included is known to have issues with 32bit processors. NOTE: This will disable ambient music in the game.
• Dual X2900xt in crossfire mode - Downloading the WDM driver from the ATI/AMD Site is known to fix this.

I get random freezes and crashes while playing COD4

The community has managed to put this down to having Rivatuner, ATiTool, LCD monitor tools and possibly any other hardware monitoring program installed and running when trying to play COD4. Either close these applications or uninstall them and the problem should go away.

I get random lag spikes in MP and have a wireless connection to my router

This can be caused by the 'Wireless zero configuration' service in windows. To fix it you should install the application which came with your wireless card or dongle to control it instead of using the windows config.

I get a crash with 'DirectX has encountered an error'

• Update your DirectX to the latest version from the Microsoft Site
• Make sure your drivers are up to date (For nVidia cards try the 169.09 beta drivers)
• You may need to reinstall the game to fix this.

I have Vista 64 and the screen is freezing and the game crashes with 'Direct3d9::Present' Error

• This can be because your DirectX installation is out of date. Goto the Microsoft Site and download / install the latest DirectX End-User Runtime.
• Try these nVidia drivers. They fixed the problem for some people.
  • XP/2000:
  • http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_162.50.html
  • Vista 32-bit:
  • http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x86_162.50.html
  • Vista 64-bit:
  • http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1699

I get a crash with 'Fastfile for zone 'some_filename_here' is corrupt or unreadable.'

You will probably need to reinstall the game to fix this.

COD4 wont start. It errors with 'Video card or driver doesn't support separate alpha blend, glow will be disabled.'

This means that your video card is not supported. Onboard video chips, Nvidia cards older than the 6xxx series and ATI older than the 98xx pro series are not supported by COD4. This could also be a driver problem so make sure your video drivers are up to date.

COD4 Issues with PunkBuster

I cant enable PunkBuster. How do I install it?

• Insert the COD4 DVD into the drive and browse it. Run pbsvc.exe to install PunkBuster.
• You may need to reinstall the game and choose to install PunkBuster this time when it asks you.

I got kicked for 'PunkBuster Init Failed'

This usually means your PunkBuster isn't up to date. Get PBSETUP run it and add Call Of Duty 4 to the list of games. Then hit check for updates. This should fix the problem.

RESTRICTION: Unknown Windows API Function[131133]

Apparently using the built in interface by steam in COD4 is cheating. At least it is according to PunkBuster. To get rid of this error message open up steam and go to [ Settings -> In-Game ] and uncheck the Enable Steam Community In-Game button

RESTRICTION: Service Communication Failure: PnkBstrB.exe handshaking failed.

If you get this message it because your Punkbuster files are corrupt, missing or simply forgotten by PB. To fix this you should reinstall the PunkBuster service module and re-update PB. To do this you can go to your steam/steam apps/common/call of duty 4/PB/ folder and run pbsvc.exe to reinstall it. After that you should re-update it by using the PBSETUP.exe.

I get 'PB Client in Distress' error messages

This is a problem with the PunkBuster authentication servers. Theres nothing you can do about it.

I get kicked with 'Ignore queries #9006' message from PunkBuster

You have to open UDP port 28962 for Punkbuster Update. You can manually update with 'PBSETUP.exe' from the Evenbalance website.

Patch 1.2 Issues

I installed 1.2 patch but when i check console it still says 1.1, And now the patch installer says i already have 1.2. You can get a patch which was put together by some of the forum members which will fix this issue:

DO NOT USE THESE PATCHES ON DIGITAL DOWNLOAD VERSIONS OR STEAM VERSIONS.

• 10-78.com (original source)
• Box.net (mirror)
• Filefront (mirror)

I installed the 1.2 patch from above but now get 'Please insert the correct DVD to start the game'

You will need to reinstall the game and wait until there is a patch for your downloaded version (get this from your distributor)

I installed the 1.2 patch from above and now get 'Could not find zone "Call of Duty/zone/english/..'

You will need to open 'localization.txt' in the CoD4 folder and change the top line where it says 'English' to your language. Check the 'zones' folder to see how they named it.

I installed the 1.2 patch and now get a DirectX error when trying to change settings

Make sure you are not running Xfire when trying to change graphics settings because this is known to cause this error. You can change settings manually by going into the CoD4/players/yourname folder and editing the config_mp.cfg file.

To change the screen resolution:

• search for "seta r_mode"
• change the mode in the quotes to one you know works well.
• e.g. seta r_mode "1024x768"
• you can also change other settings this way if you look through the config file a bit ;)

I installed the 1.2 patch but now cannot see any servers in the server browser

Check that your firewall is not blocking the new .exe, It has changed so this may be a cause.
If your PC is set to be in the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone) on your router. Try removing it.

Patch 1.3 Issues

How am i supposed to install this on my server? Its a .exe

You can get zipped versions from here:
Box.net
4mori.biz
Clanbase Live

If I've missed anything here, please post it below

Thanks to everyone who found these fixes originally.

[Tally]

Are you FD from IW.com? If not, then credit for the info in this post should ideally be given to him, as the original author.

But nonetheless, thanks for taking the time to post it here. Im sure it will prove helpful to our users.

[-=FD=-]

Yup thats me ;)

FD = FerociousDiablo

I wasnt allowed -=FD=- on this board :/

[Mike Nomad]

Originally Posted by Ferocious

Yup thats me ;)

FD = FerociousDiablo

I wasnt allowed -=FD=- on this board :/

I knew it was you and thank you for posting this great stuff.... I dolled the post up and cleaned it up too. Also made it a sticky.

Too short a name??

[-=FD=-]

I think it was either the - or the =
Its no problem ;)

Thanks for fixing up the post

[Mike Nomad]

Originally Posted by Ferocious

I think it was either the - or the =
Its no problem ;)

Thanks for fixing up the post

KK.... my pleasure.

[[3rdArmy]CW-4]

Good stuff, thanks. I'll cut and past this over at my clan's place, if you don't mind...

[-=FD=-]

Go for it

[-=FD=-]

169.04 drivers for Nvidia cards are now known to fix both black objects and light flickering.

I cant edit that into my post :s

[Tally]

Originally Posted by Ferocious

169.04 drivers for Nvidia cards are now known to fix both black objects and light flickering.

I cant edit that into my post :s

Added for you.

[-=FD=-]

Thanx Tally

[Mike Nomad]

Fixed.....