Need for Speed (or other 3D games) issues may be hardware-related

[west3man]

I only say "may" because I was too pressed for time to find out precisely what the Sprint tech found after testing my hardware. In the end, though, the tech concluded that, as I suspected, hardware was the reason Need For Speed Undercover (and, I assume, other 3D games for the Pre) wouldn't function for more than a second.

A new phone and my problems were solved. Hopefully, I didn't just exchange one set of problems for another, but I suspect this is a hardware issue that many of us had and never knew about because these types of programs weren't available for the first seven or so months. Whew. That's a mouthful.

If you can exchange your Pre, after considering the below, I'd do just that.

Copied and pasted from my posts in other threads:

SPRINT REPLACED MY PRE; Now NFSU works!
WOO-HOO!!!

[...]

After doctoring and wiping my Pre and still not being able to even PLAY Need For Speed Undercover, I took it to Sprint. Two hours later, they decided to order a new phone for me, apparently agreeing that it may be a hardware issue.

Two days later, I still hadn't heard anything from Sprint about the phone. I called and found out had arrived, yesterday! I picked it up, today, set it up, installed the latest update, installed NFSU, rebooted (just because) and I have played flawlessly (so far)!!!

Joy.

[tarirene]

It may be hardware on some phones, though to be fair, I believed it was a hardware issue on mine for the longest time - I had done what felt like thousands of reinstalls all to no avail - crash and unexpected error after a few seconds in the first race.

Then I turned the music back on. Weird, I know, but I didn't do anything else - and I haven't crashed since.

This was all before the update they released.

[west3man]

For some people, the problem is software/settings-related. I should've said that in the first post.

But once all of that's been tried with no success, it seems that there's a hardware issue at-work.

[Rudementry]

So you can get your Pre replaced if you experience constant crashing with NFSU and other 3-D games?

[west3man]

Originally Posted by Rudementry

So you can get your Pre replaced if you experience constant crashing with NFSU and other 3-D games?

The manager said they can perform some hardware tests, which I assume they did since they had my phone so very long but my files seemed to be intact when they handed it back to me. In other words, they may not have doctored it. (I can't recall, for sure, at the moment.)

Whatever they did, their evaluation concluded with the determination that I should get a replacement, at no cost.

For what it's worth, we do have the insurance plan.



Also, for those who wondered about the Warranty Date Codes on different Pre's that can or cannot run 3D games: 8/27/9.

My previous (original) Pre's date was 7/1/9 - a difference of almost two months, in case that matters.

[rlopin]

Originally Posted by tarirene

It may be hardware on some phones, though to be fair, I believed it was a hardware issue on mine for the longest time - I had done what felt like thousands of reinstalls all to no avail - crash and unexpected error after a few seconds in the first race.

Then I turned the music back on. Weird, I know, but I didn't do anything else - and I haven't crashed since.

This was all before the update they released.

Holy cow Batman -- that may be the true culprit.

I have been playing NFS without a single crash since the day it came out. My phone was purchased on launch day, June 6th 2009. Then I disabled the music using the NFS pref page so i could run the Music Player Remix and have my own music playing in the background. After a couple of minutes the phone crashed. I had assumed it was because I ran out of memory running both of these apps, but perhaps it was the music preference change.

So perhaps the new Pre worked for the OP because he got a fresh install of NFS with the preferences back to their defaults. But wait, he did install/reinstall NFS on his original phone too. That should have reset the prefs as well. Oh well, so much for that theory.

[tarirene]

Not to hijack this thread too badly, but I should mention that post-update (so as of a couple days ago) I can turn the music back off without crashing. Played a couple races yesterday anyway.

Edit: it started crashing again today, and wuddaya know, turning the music back on has stopped the crashing once again. come on, EA!

[west3man]

Some crashes happened after applying some tweaks, so I Repaired and limited my tweaking/patching. NFSU's been behaving ever since.

Clearly, there's a price to be paid for too much hacking. That said, there are likely some hardware issues at-work for some.

[Leedavis190]

I too tried turning the NFS music back on and to my surprise the game stopped crashing. Go figure... This was after doctoring, removing apps and other failed strategies to make the NFS run. I don't know what it means and it doesn't rule out a hardware problem.

[TheRealLink]

hmm, the code ##786# doesn't work on my gsm pre, is there a possibility to get the Warranty Date Code on a gsm device?

[west3man]

Originally Posted by TheRealLink

hmm, the code ##786# doesn't work on my gsm pre, is there a possibility to get the Warranty Date Code on a gsm device?

Dunno. Are you typing this in the phone dialer app?

[TheRealLink]

right into the little green phone ^^

[west3man]

Originally Posted by TheRealLink

right into the little green phone ^^

Did you ever find an answer?

[wallyo]

I have been pretty disgusted with Need For Speed. Old version of NFS crashes constantly and so does the upgrade. I did make an intesting discovery though. It will crash without playing. If you are experiencing crashes try this.

With SFX ON and MUSIC OFF. I load the game and just let it sit on the menu. It will crash all by itself without playing or using the device in any way in 3 to 5 minutes. Pretty regularly at the 4 minute mark.

With SFX ON 11 and MUSIC ON 11 I let it sit for 10 minutes without a crash from the menu. Played for about 20 minutes and still no crash.

With SFX ON 11 and MUSIC ON level 1, no crash at menu but it crashed after playing for about 8 minutes.

With SFX ON 6 and MUSIC ON level 6, no crash at menu it played OK. I quit after 10 minutes.

With SFX ON 6 and MUSIC ON level 3, no crash at menu and played OK till I quit at around 10 minutes.

With SFX ON 6 and MUSIC ON level 2, no crash at menu and played OK till I quit at around 10 minutes.

With SFX ON 6 and MUSIC OFF, crash at menu at a little over four minutes.

After you change any music settings leave the game and restart. If you get past 5 minutes at the menu try playing.

Definately a sound problem. In all my years tinkering with PC's sound has been the culprit too many times to count.

Keep the music level at at least 2 and give it a try.

I sent a not so nice support request to EA Friday and I am awaiting what I presume will be a useless reply.

[rxs2k]

OMFG!!!!!!

Someone make this a Damn Sticky!!!

Turning on the damn music and sfx fixed all my problems...