Game Trouble with XP

[JaxInDaBoxx]

I have recently purchased a new computer which came with a Windows XP. I have since then been having problems getting a few games to play which I will list below. I have tried to no end to fix this problem on my own to no evail. I uninstalled Windows XP and Installed Windows ME which fixed the problem, problem is that I like Windows XP and would like to continue to use it, I since then have reinstalled Windows XP, and again the games do not work. My computer specs are as follows: 1.4 AMD Athlon, 40g HD, 258 MB SDRAM, S3 Savage 4 3D graphics, I have tried updating all the drivers and currently have all the updated drivers and patches from the cards manufacturer. The following are the games that we have had trouble with and the problem which we have encountered: SIM Rollercoaster and SIM Themepark the game starts to load then when u start to play the game closes. I have tried changing all the graphics settings and still canont get the game to play properly.

The biggest problem we have had is with MechWarrior 4: This game loads fine and allows u to play but when playing the Mech travels very slow to slow for normal game play. I found something verry odd when I accidently hit the hybranate button and then hit it again to turn the system back on the game then plays beatifully. Odd huh! Unfortunatley this cant be done during multiplayer play in the zone as it kicks u offline. I have tried adjusting graphics settings as well as have all the games patches and driver updates, and I am still unable to play in multiplayer games.😕 If anyone can help me I would greatly appreciate any suggestions u could give me, JaxInDaBoxx

 

[RobbieSan]

Have you tried running the games in Win98/Me compatibility mode? It might help.

right click on the game's shortcut or EXE > properties > compatibility > Win98/Me

 

[JaxInDaBoxx]

Thanx for ure suggestion

Thanx for the suggestion robbiesam, I did try that after u suggested it and it did not make any diffrence. I do appreciate your suggestion though, JaxInDaBox

 

[RobbieSan]

Bummer. I checked S3 Graphics for any newer drivers but the latest one is Oct. 2000. Guess that doesn't help you. Maybe try one thing. Uninstall one of the games. Before you reinstall it explore the cd and do the compatibility thing on the setup.exe file. That way XP knows to install it as a Win98/Me program and that may help. If not, then the game might be having a problem running with that video card. If that's the case you may want to look at a new card like a Geforce2 MX400 32MB or 64MB.

 

[Skinandbones]

Mechwarrior

I'm running Mechwarrior 4 on XP pro and didn't even have to use a compatibility mode with Zero trouble. I'm using a Hercule's Prophet 4500 video card.

 

[JaxInDaBoxx]

Ive tried both the 32 mb and 64 mb Geforce 2

RobbieSan, I have tried both the 32 and 64 mb Geforce 2 cards, and experienced more problems with driver compatiblilty than with the Savage 3, and the game still ran poorly. I dont beleive that it is the video card as the game played beatifully using the same card with Windows ME, and I have tried other cards and had the same problem. thanx for your suggestions though.

 

[JaxInDaBoxx]

SkinandBones

I have tried other graphics cards, the Geforce 2 32 mb and 64 mb, and still had the same problem. Have u ever ran the game on another OS other than XP? Because I would never have known that there was a problem if I hadent played the game before using ME. The problem is not that visible if you have never played the game on another OS. But thanx for ure suggestion. JaxInDaBoxx.

 

[jwible]

This is a suggestion. I have recently upgraded to XP Pro. I have EverQuest SoL loaded. XP was having many issues with the game and I started reading all the posts on here about gaming issues. Most of the posts have you looking at drivers for video cards and chipset issues. I found that after all of the updates I still had issues with sound being messed up. I have found that the true source of most of my problems is memory. There are a lot of tweaks out there to speed up XP, but if you use your machine for gaming, these system enhancements can work against your gaming. I have 640MB of RAM and will probably increase it. SoL is very intensive. I have been playing around with Virtual Memory settings as well. Many people say that when you have over 512MB+ of Ram that you can set your VM to 0, don't. When the system gets low on memory and no VM available SoL starts to load then quits. By increasing setting to 500MB game runs. Sound was still messed up, so I had to set the sound accelerator to 0 and sampling down to the lowest rate. Now sound is fine. I set the graphic accelerator down 1 notch from full and graphics are great. I won't say that this will fix your gaming issues, but I saw similar things and it really came down to a memory issue. I was able to once get the task manager to start right after SoL loaded and saw that the game wanted 200MB Ram by itself. Don't think the games you are running are that intensive, but with only 258MB installed, I would not be surprised if that was the cause for the game not loading. (That seems to be XP's response to memory issues).

System
PIII 733MHz
ABIT VT6X4
640MB RAM
Sound Blaster Live!Value
PNY GeForce 2MX/MX 400 PCI
Fujitsu 8G HDD
Maxtor 12G HDD


Just my 2 cnz

 

[ChronoCrossUT]

Updated and modified S4 drivers here;

http://www.savagenews.com/drivers/s3/savage4.html

Maybe this might help ya, they do have specially modified drivers allso from individuals who really love the savage chipset. I use to run a viper II and loved it in UT because at its time when I was rocking at 100fps with it everyone else without it was avg 30 to 40fps. And I used some of the modified drivers before for my card it was sweet..

 

[JaxInDaBoxx]

Thanks for the suggestions I fixed the problem

Thanks for all the suggestions, I fixed the problem in attempts to get another game to run, which was runing fine and quit running all of sudden lol. I had to reformat the system and I finnally found the correct drivers for my graphics card. I all games are now playing perfectly so far, thanks again for all the suggestions. Jaxindaboxx

 

[eGoalter]

hehe

yea i bet you were using win me drivers and the win 2000 drivers huh?