rec.autos.simulators

I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem.  I play ICR2 and N2
rendition versions from DOS, with a Thrustmaster GP2 and Intergraph
Intense 3d.  Fairly often, the display will crash on startup.  I am left
with a band of color across the top of my screen.  It does not
completely crash my system; I can keep hitting esc and enter until I am
back to my DOS prompt.
I am able to play the non-rend versions fine, and other games don't have
this problem.  The other 3d accelerated games I have I play in Win95
with no problem.  I can't use ICR2 or N2 again until I reenter Win95,
and then exit to DOS again.  This is so aggravating!  I am incredibly
relieved each time I actually see the Papyrus splash screen pop up!
Both sims are fine once they start without the problem.
One weird thing is, I have more of a problem with it if I start the
system, hit F8, and use the Command Prompt than if I just exit Windows.
I have about 40K more memory with the Command Prompt only, without my
mouse and CD drivers..
This is an IBM 133 Pentium with 512K L2 and 32 RAM.  Could this possibly
be the Intergraph BIOS?  I don't know that much about that; I'm using
ver 79.  Any suggestions are appreciated!

It is your motherboad BIOS.  For some reason it is not turning on the
DMA control you need in DOS.  This is usually part of the 'virtual'
video drivers in Win95.  That's why you can sometimes get it to work
after having booted first to Win95.  However, all is not lost.

There is a diagnostic tool for the Rendition/Verite cards called
DMADAIG.  One of the nifty things it does is turn on the DMA
instructions in your motherboard's chipset.  Just run this utility from
the DOS prompt and then run the Rendition version of N2 or ICR2.  I have
it run as part of the autoexec.bat when booting to DOS for N2 & ICR2.
You can get this utility at
ftp://ftp.sequoia-dev.com/pub/Hawaii/dmadiag.zip

% I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem.  I play ICR2 and N2
% rendition versions from DOS, with a Thrustmaster GP2 and Intergraph
% Intense 3d.  Fairly often, the display will crash on startup.  I am left
% with a band of color across the top of my screen.  It does not
% completely crash my system; I can keep hitting esc and enter until I am
% back to my DOS prompt.

% I am able to play the non-rend versions fine, and other games don't have
% this problem.  The other 3d accelerated games I have I play in Win95
% with no problem.  I can't use ICR2 or N2 again until I reenter Win95,
% and then exit to DOS again.  This is so aggravating!  I am incredibly
% relieved each time I actually see the Papyrus splash screen pop up!
% Both sims are fine once they start without the problem.

% One weird thing is, I have more of a problem with it if I start the
% system, hit F8, and use the Command Prompt than if I just exit Windows.
% I have about 40K more memory with the Command Prompt only, without my
% mouse and CD drivers..

% This is an IBM 133 Pentium with 512K L2 and 32 RAM.  Could this possibly
% be the Intergraph BIOS?  I don't know that much about that; I'm using
% ver 79.  Any suggestions are appreciated!

--
**************************** Michael E. Carver *************************
     Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town.

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