How to deal with tech problems and tech questions -- the report form to follow for fastest responses [ Edited ]

[Gorath_the_Elder]

This is the text from the Original Post in the Social site's ME-1 Self-Help Technical Discussion forum, and rather than keep referring new arrivals back to the old, now locked, forum, it seems appropriate to bring a copy here instead.  
 
Incidentally, if your message ~~ PLEASE NOTE THIS ~~ PROBLEM REPORTS DON'T BELONG HERE IN THIS THREAD ~~ has inadequate information in it, you might as well not have posted it.  

    Chris Priestly wrote...

    Hello Mass Effect 1 fans.

    This forum is for fans and customers of Mass Effect 1, both for the PC version and console versions, to share help and assist each other with technical issues.

    Please remember that official game support for Mass Effect 1 is shared by Electronic Arts and Microsoft.

    If you have a Mass Effect 1 PC issue, official support can be found through EA Customer support here: http://support.ea.com

    If you have a Mass Effect 1 Xbox 360 issue, details on official support from Microsoft can be found here: http://masseffect.bioware.com/me1/support/support_xbox360.html#int.

    { (Edited:  I've referred DAO gamers here sometimes, also,  /s/ Gorath.) }

    Please try to help one another with problems, but remember the best way to ensure accurate support is to contact the official support provided.  (Edited by Gorath here: When you want to pose a question for your fellow game players, especially for the PC Game version, these are the basics previously laid down.)

    1.  It’s important to identify which product is experiencing the problem.

      a.   Is it the console version or the PC version?  (Edit: Most of this opening post here is strictly applicable to the PC version.)

      b. Media: physical disk or digital download (and which vendor)
     
    2.  System Details

      a. Processor name / Core count / Core Speed / Main RAM Amount                                               

      b. Display Adapter / VRAM / Driver Version (just saying "latest drivers" doesn't help -- Edited: only ATI / nVIDIA cards are supported)                                                   

      c. Sound Adapter / Driver Version

      d. Operating System (& service pack if applicable)

      e. Direct X Version

    3.  Problem Details

      a.  When it comes to problem details, think about the five basic questions: Who? What? When? Where?  Why? Okay, so “Who?” doesn’t really apply here, but the others do.

      b.  What?  What is the nature of the problem that you’re seeing?

      c.  When?  When does the problem occur? Every time you engage in a particular action or only after so many hours of play?

      d.  Where? Where does the problem occur? Is the problem localized to a particular planet or does it occur everywhere?

      e.  Why? As much as possible, can you isolate the problem to a specific set of steps?

    If you follow these guidelines, and provide the requested information when posting, it will increase the likelihood that someone will be able to help you diagnose the problem and find a solution.

    Please report issues, after checking these steps, in new threads.

P. S.  Please use every day business style punctuation and spelling.   

Chris' original message (very slightly edited to eliminate ME-2 references), had been posted in the combined ME-1 and Me-2 forum that was all that there was for Tech on Social's site at first, and was never copied to the newer ME-1 only forum, and never pinned on top.  It should have been, and eventually, this version was..

A practical version of the System Requirements is needed.

Minimum System Requirements for Mass Effect on the PC
(Corrected from dumb, Pie in the Sky marketing exaggerations to the real thing)

Operating System:
Windows XP or Vista

Processor:
2.4+GHZ Intel or 2.0+GHZ AMD

Memory:
1 Gigabyte Ram (XP)
2 Gigabyte Ram (Vista)

Video Card:**
NVIDIA GeForce 6 series (6800GT or better: 210, 310, 7100, 7200, 7300, 7400, 7500, 7600 GS, 8200, 8300, 8400 GS, 8500, 9200, & 9300 are below minimum system requirements)
ATI Radeon X1650 XT (X1300, X1300 Pro, X1550, HD 2400, HD 3100, HD 3200, HD 3450, HD 3470, HD 4200, HD 4350, HD 4550, and even HD 5450 are below minimum system requirements)

Hard Drive Space:
12 Gigabytes

Sound Card:
DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card and drivers

** Only AMD and nVIDIA products are supported, and please do not make the mistake that Bethesda Software's ignorant marketing department made (Skyrim requirements).  GDDR memory is useless without the bandwidth and the core capacity to deal with as much as a card might be equipped with, usually overloaded with the cheapest kind, to scam the unwary newbie shoppers.

( Note that the unpatched game will *not* run in Windows 7. )

The only appropriate comments to add for any thread such as this one will consist of the occasional bumps to make it easier for new arrivals to find it, until or unless a pinned replacement is added on top here. 

[Gorath_the_Elder]

No Data In = No Data Out. 

The above description outlines what you need to do in your own message, if you have a problem. 

[Gorath_the_Elder]

We're still seeing "no information" requests for problem solutions. 

[EA_Spectre]

Thank you for creating this thread, Gorath! It is very helpful for the community.

I'd like to add that it is often helpful to add the Direct X Diagnostic Report (= DXDIAG) of your computer. 

To gather a DXDIAG on your computer, please follow the steps below:

1.  Press and hold the Windows key and the letter R on your keyboard
2.  You will see a Run box in the lower-left corner of your screen
3.  Type dxdiag in the text field
4.  Click OK
5.  If your computer has a 64-bit version of Windows, click the button Run 64-bit DXDIAG (see screenshot below)
6.  If your computer has a 32-bit version of Windows, that button will not be available

64-bit Users will notice the "Run 64-bit DxDiag" button in the bottom-left next to "Help" and should click it once it becomes available.  32-bit Users will not have this as a visible option.

Once you have an open DXDIAG report, there are several pieces of information that are especially helpful in pinpointing the cause of game performance issues:

• The main page of the DXIDAG is the System tab. On the System tab, make a note of what is written next to Operating System, Processor, and Memory. Those three pieces of information are the key components of the System tab.
• Next, click on the Display tab. On the Display tab (seen in the screenshot below) please note the information written next to the word Name. Finally, on the right-hand side of the Display tab is a Drivers heading. Please note what is written next to the word Date.

If you have any trouble reading the DXDIAG file yourself, you can save all the DXDIAG info as a text file and send it to an EA advisor for more assistance.

7.  Click the Save All Information button, found on the bottom of the DXDIAG report
8.  Save this text file to your Desktop if possible (note that this file can also be added as an attachment to an open support case on your account)

[Gorath_the_Elder]

---

@goraththeelder wrote:

We're still seeing "no information" requests for problem solutions. 

---

We are also still being accused of being employed by EA, and responsible for problems created outside of AHQ's areas of responsibility.  We do not deal with Code Number errors, eMail corrections, no buying, no selling, no refunding, no BUSINESS, not in here.  We are game players.  

[Fred_vdp]

I also see much rudeness in the posts from people who think we're EA staff. Even if you think you're contacting official customer support, there's no harm in acting like a decent person. The people at customer support are not responsible for whatever problems you have.

For those wishing to contact official support, I find the easiest method to open the Origin client, go to the help section, and pick the live chat option. The official help website has you going you in circles and is in need of a redesign. (Edit: since I posted this, the site has become easier to navigate.)

I also want to point out that is best to be clear in thread titles. If I see from the title that you have a problem I may be able to help with, such as "can't find save folder", I'll be more inclined to click on it than on a thread titled "Mass Effect" or "Need help".

[EA_Spectre]

---

@goraththeelder wrote:

We are also still being accused of being employed by EA, and responsible for problems created outside of AHQ's areas of responsibility.  We do not deal with Code Number errors, eMail corrections, no buying, no selling, no refunding, no BUSINESS, not in here.  We are game players.  

---

There are several people here on Answer HQ who do work for EA directly. They are:

• Community Managers with the EA Admin logo (like me)
• Moderators with the EA Admin logo
• Studio teams - usually named EA <studio / game name> Team with an official logo from the studio. Here an example:

All official EA employees have the little black and white EA logo in front of their name.

We are here to verify solutions, forward your feedback to the game studios, and let you know when they implement a fix or verified a workaround.

For everything that has to do with your EA / Origin / BSN account, see the announcement where it reads:

The reason why we cannot deal with account issues here is pretty simple: To verify your account, you will have to answer several questions. Many of these questions are about private information like your email address or the credit card associated with your account. This is nothing you want to display on a public forum!

[halfantattack708]

when i try to play mass effect EAtells me i reached activation limit

[ThandalNLyman]

---

@halfantattack708 wrote:

when i try to play mass effect EAtells me i reached activation limit

---

You'll need to contact an EA Game Advisor using the Help Center.

They are the only ones who can make changes to your account, especially changes like "which devices are authorized for which games".

[shadowpheonix18]

im un sure im in the right place but i having in game issues with mass effect 1 on pc i have modded the game with MEUITM mod

the problem is that not matter what choice i pick in the dialog in any convation shepard always uses the paragon line or the top choice in convations dosent matter what i click on that what he gose with its dosent matter where or what i try to say or with who hes choses top choice every time 

system info 

windows 7 64bit 

intel i5 4670k @ 3.4ghz 4 cpus `3.4ghz

memory 16gb ram 

video card nividea geforce gtx 780 3gb memory 

directx ver: 11