Windows XP for gaming...

[jfactor01]

I wondered if there are any special things you can do within Windows XP to optimize it for gaming. You can see my specs' in my signature. I found that after upgrading to XP that games didn't run as smoothly or efficiently as previous Windows versions, I've fixed the refresh rate lock problem, but it's still just not so good. Can anyone give me a list of Services that are safe to close, to free up system resources.

Any ideas will be helpful thanks,

Ps is there a fix for Enter The Matrix not working, after a refresh rate fixer has been used? After using reforce this comes up while trying to start the game "Error Creating Device 2", this is fixed be undoing the reforce changes, but this is not conveniant for games where I need the reforce changes on, to get full fps and performance.

 

[SkazzyUK]

Look in the tweaks section of the site for some useful twaeks, also do a search on these forums for gaming/windows tweaks and also on google,

And as for the matrix problem have you got the patch? if you have then put a message on the matrix forums or email tech support

Skazz

 

[Krux]

Originally posted by jfactor01
I wondered if there are any special things you can do within Windows XP to optimize it for gaming. You can see my specs' in my signature. I found that after upgrading to XP that games didn't run as smoothly or efficiently as previous Windows versions, I've fixed the refresh rate lock problem, but it's still just not so good. Can anyone give me a list of Services that are safe to close, to free up system resources.

Any ideas will be helpful thanks,

Ps is there a fix for Enter The Matrix not working, after a refresh rate fixer has been used? After using reforce this comes up while trying to start the game "Error Creating Device 2", this is fixed be undoing the reforce changes, but this is not conveniant for games where I need the reforce changes on, to get full fps and performance.

if you upgraded windows instead of doing a clean install of it that would be why your performance is lacking. do a clean install and if you bought and upgrade cd you can still do a clean install it will just ask you some time in the install process for a disk of an older copy of windows to verify.

 

[napalmnthemorning]

I would agree with Krux. I had originally upgraded my 98e to XP Professional and experienced performance inconsistencies especially in the responsiveness in RAM distribution from programs to games and other systems. After I did a complete install of XP (not the upgrade) I found my games and system to run more smoothly and consistently. Also right after you do a fresh install of XP, apply SP1 and driver updates before installing your other programs and games..

 

[jfactor01]

Nope, I reformatted and then clean installed. I was using 98SE before the reformat.

 

[Krux]

update your drivers for your mother board and video card (incase you haven't)

 

[jfactor01]

Got the lastest WHQL Det's for my GFX card. I honestly can't find anything out about my motherboard, Aida32 tells me its a ATI Radeon IGP-320(M) chipset, i'm not using the onboard Radeon though. Can't seem to find drivers for it.

 

[Geffy]

is the onboard graphics card disabled in the BIOS?

 

[jfactor01]

Yeh it is. And about the Matrix game, thats with the latest patch 1.5*

 

[Gus K]

Ps is there a fix for Enter The Matrix not working, after a refresh rate fixer has been used? After using reforce this comes up while trying to start the game "Error Creating Device 2"

Battlefield 1942 also would do the same if you used a refreshrate fixer. There was an entry in one of the .con files that had to be changed to allow any resolution to be changed. If you are not playing any OpenGL games and have SP1 installed you can do away with any refresh utilities. Run-> dxdiag and go to 'More help'-> Override and set your refresh choice there. With NVidia cards you can also set your choice under D3D settings (along with your desktop). If all this fails to fix your problems get PowerStrip , (it is free to use if you don't mind there splash screen). With this you can set all sorts of things (refreshrates, brightness, gama, vid card overclocking etc.) for specific programs.

 

[RobbieSan]

a clean install of XP on a drive with a previous OS will go much better if you do two things:

1. Zero fill - wipe the drive completely.. this will oblitherate any lingering code from previous OS's.. I know this makes a difference since I used Me before and even with FDISK removing and creating partitions I did not have a very stable XP install until I zero filled the drive and started completely from scratch as if no code had ever touched the drive..

2. NTFS - it is a more stable file system than FAT32.. I am able to run all my games nice n smooth n stable with NTFS..