Consistent CTD 'Error 8876086c'

[macstu23]

I'm new to Arma II, having recently acquired Arma II OA after a recommendation. I was however dissapointed to find that the game was freezing or crashing consistently, usually after only a couple of minutes, with the following error message coming up after a CTD;

'Error: Device reset failed. Error 8876086c'.

I was using the latest 1.54 patch with Arma II OA and BAF (also got the same consistent error with the 73478 beta patch). My PC specs are as follows;

Processor: AMD Phenom II 940 quad core
OS: Win XP Pro 32 bit
Graphics: XTX Nvidia GTX 260 (854mb) v258.96 nvidia display driver.
RAM: 2gb DDR 2
M/board: Asrock K10N78
Sound: Realtek HD onboard

I did all the recommended stuff for Nvidia users in the sticky in this forum to no avail, but after doing a bit of googling I found the following explanation for the error in Bistudio's 'Arma troubleshooting wiki':

"Cannot create system memory surface (Error code 8876086c) -
This is caused by third party content using textures with non 2^n (32,64,128,256,etc) dimensions. It may not effect all video cards."

So it seems it crashes because my GTX 260 card is 854 mb, and not 512 or 1024 mb. That is just a bit annoying. More-so since there's no mention of a fix or workaround.

Just for a laugh, I thought I'd try temporarily replacing my GTX 260 (854mb) with a Radeon HD 4670 (1024mb) that I just happened to have lying around the house. After switching the cards around and installing the latest ATI display driver, would you believe it ? Arma II runs fine on the HD 4670. No more freezing or CTD's...Yay! Sure I had to ramp the graphics down a fair bit but at least I can actually play the game now...And I'm rather enjoying it too.

However, it's just a temporary solution. There's no way I going to stay down a few notches in graphics cards just to play Arma II when my GTX 260 runs well on high visual settings with every other game I own. So I was wondering if anyone knows of a workaround for the 8876086c error or if it's an issue which is ever likely to be addressed in a future patch.

Thankyou in advance for your helpful replies.

[HitmanFF]

The reason you're seeing these crashes, is not because of your graphics card's video memory being 854 MB. This occurs because of an in-game texture that isn't 2^n dimension wise. So something in the game is using e.g. a 300x300 pixel texture, which will trigger this error message once the texture is attempted to be displayed.

I expect that all BIS textures are fulfilling this 2^n requirement (otherwise all nvidia card owners would see these crashes), so the cause is likely to be elsewhere (and thus not possible to be resolved with a patch). Either addon textures or squad logos are the cause.

Does this happen in multiplayer, and/or do you use addons?

[macstu23]

The reason you're seeing these crashes, is not because of your graphics card's video memory being 854 MB. This occurs because of an in-game texture that isn't 2^n dimension wise. So something in the game is using e.g. a 300x300 pixel texture, which will trigger this error message once the texture is attempted to be displayed.

I expect that all BIS textures are fulfilling this 2^n requirement (otherwise all nvidia card owners would see these crashes), so the cause is likely to be elsewhere (and thus not possible to be resolved with a patch). Either addon textures or squad logos are the cause.

Does this happen in multiplayer, and/or do you use addons?

^I should have said 896mb graphics card memory, not 854. Silly me.

I've just been playing pure vanilla OA with the BAF expansion, using the 1.54 patch and also trying out the beta patch, single-player only with no modifications. I want to be sure I've got a stable single-player game first before I go delving into multiplayer or mods.

I was experiencing the crash usually within a few minutes of gameplay whether on foot, in a vehicle or flying a helicopter, on both American and British missions. Sometimes it would CTD just from turning the camera to look around. Every time I got a CTD however, it was always that error message.

[Dwarden]

could you try please 73643 beta ?

also please create CIT ticket as explained here
http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=102991

and attach crash dumps files

or compress them and send to my email ...

[macstu23]

Thankyou Dwarden. I just completed the British single-player campaign yesterday (using the Radeon card) but I shall re-install the GTX 260 later today, apply the 73643 beta patch and see how that goes.
I didn't get crash dump files with this CTD but I'll save a copy if offered.
Thanks for the CIT ticket link..i'll fill it in later.

[macstu23]

Okay, I re-installed the GTX 260 card this morning, installed the 73643 beta and tried it out. Still got the CTD with the same error message, so I sent a CIT ticket along with a dxdiag text file.

Just to give an example, I tried out the 'Helicopter basics' mission in Boot camp. With shadows set to 'High' I got the CTD just before reaching the first hoop. With shadows disabled I got as far as hoop 3 or 4 before I got the CTD and familiar error code. Blegh.
Thanks for looking into it for me anyway. I have Arma II ordered as well so I hope the same problem doesnt affect that game too.

[ChrisAA]

I also have this problem, I had in in Arma 2 last year and it resurfaced in patch 1.54 for OA, nothing seems to work, multiple drivers, crossfire on or off, I don't know really.
This also came about when the issue of the flickering bug on 4870's returned, so two old problems/bugs came back in a new patch

I've sent off crash reports in the past.

Processor: i7 920 @ 4ghz
OS: Win XP Pro 64 bit
Graphics: 4870x2 (stock speed) v10.4 - 10.9(latest)
RAM: 6GB DDR3
M/board: Gigabyte EX58-UD5
Sound: Realtek HD onboard (Previously creative x-fi and also had problem)

I notice the only thing in common with the above user is our Direct X version, being up to date.

[Dwarden]

tried ftp://downloads.bistudio.com/arma2.c...uild_74123.zip
?

also please send crashdump files to my email @bistudio.com (obviously obvious what's infront @)

[ChrisAA]

I will try 74132 once the group I'm in updates to that one, on 73968 at the moment.