NFS Carbon for PC Connection Issue

[SkippyThorson]

My problem in Vista is also now on XP. I recently installed Need for Speed Carbon Special Edition on XP after it basically halted itself on Vista.

I had it on Vista for about a month, error free, when an issue came up where it tried to connect to the EA server, and would crash to the desktop. Now, since I had it set up to connect automatically, it did that whenever I started the game, and thus could not get to a menu to change it.

Well, I put it on XP, and set it to not automatically connect. It does still crash to the desktop though when I try to go race online. The game itself runs very well - better than it did on Vista - I upped some graphics options here and there, and have the same save game back with all my cars.

I have a friend running the same game it on his iMac G5, and it works fine for him. Could it be a problem with the firewall or the game itself? I thought about buying the other version (not Special Edition) but if I can solve this, that would be a better option. Any ideas?

[jerkto]

Game crashing when trying to connect to Ea server... sounds familiar. Guess EA still hasn't got its act together.

From my experience with EA games, you want to make sure you have the latest patches of the game, the latest version of punkbuster (if the game is using punkbuster anticheat), and make sure to enable punkbuster through your firewall. And oh, yeah, make sure to allow the game itself through your firewall.

BTW, ea server is known to be unreliable. Players are sometimes refused connection to ea game servers (especially during first time registration). Ea has found an excuse of course, saying they use every Tuesday evening and some other days for general maintenance.... You'd think they would devote some more resources for product support instead of acquiring every new startup company.