rec.autos.simulators

I recently bought N3 and I am having a problem with the game suddenly
disappearing and returning me back to my desktop as though I was running
nothing at all.  The screen flicks to black and an instant later the
desktop re-appears.  I am able to run N3 or any other software
afterwords.  I don't have to re-boot.

The problem seems to crop up when the graphics are intense, but not
always.

I recently bought a VooDoo3 2000 PCI card w/16MB. I downloaded the
lateest drivers from the 3dfx website.  It still does the same thing.

Where to start ?

I have a AMD K2-350
SoundBlaster 512 PCI
128 MB ram
fresh install of Windows 98

Sent via Deja.com http://www.racesimcentral.net/
Before you buy.

Make sure you do not have any screen savers set to come
on after so much time.

It is possible that it thinks your computer is idle, then kicks
on the screen saver which then drops you back to your
desktop. You would never actually see the screen saver
cause as soon as it kicks you out, your computer would
think you were active again.

Since you just installed new hardware and new drivers, I recommend
"freshening" your system (especially the VXD) files as described here:

http://www.mcs.net/~revolutn/vxdfaq.htm

It's a bit of a tough read, but they do have a batch file that will take
care of this automatically.  I had similar problems and used the manual
method, so I can't vouch for their batch file, but I DO know that what they
say makes sense AND works.

-- JB

Well, I would look at this^^^^ first. Make sure you
have the updated SB512 drivers. The stock ones
from the cd will crash the game. Look for a file
in the Nascar3 directory called debug.txt. It will
log any errors that happened before the game
dumped. And as somebody else has said, make
sure either your screen saver is turned off or,
go into the properties of the shortcut and turn
off 'allow screen saver', if possible.
Later. -Mark Gums