rec.autos.simulators

by **Joe** » Fri, 27 Apr 2001 11:32:18

One trouble with N4 that ruined it for me was an almost constant "Cannot
Load Track (and or) Cars, Weekend Canceled". I got this about 75% of the
time either on or off line. There was an apparent bug in N4 that effected
people with an ATA100 drive going through either a Highpoint or Promise
controller. "Cannot load..." happened to all on occasion but for people with
this setup it happened a LOT.
I and others with this trouble sent MANY emails to Sierra/Papy about
this; none ever got a reply. Because of this silence I returned the game
with the intention of buying it again if they addressed the trouble in a
patch. Something I apparently had to wait until the patch was actually
released to find out.
I read the "readme" and saw nothing regarding the trouble but before I
abandon N4 completely I thought I would ask if there were any people out
there who had this trouble with Version 1 but (so far) not with the patched
version.

by **Pete** » Fri, 27 Apr 2001 11:50:25

Joe I have ATA100 drives in a RAID configuration with the High Point
controller and no problems at all. Do you have any other slower drives
attached to the system as well?

Pete

by **Larr** » Fri, 27 Apr 2001 12:18:14

Running ATA100 here. Never seen this one :)

Probably will blow up on me tomorrow!

-Larry

by **Joe** » Fri, 27 Apr 2001 13:23:10

Thanks for the reply. I dont know how many folks are using ATA100 drives
with no trouble, it is just that everyone I saw with the trouble had an
ATA100 and either a Highpoint or Promise controler.
ABit KT7-Raid, BIOS WZ01B with Highpoint 11 beta bios. Highpoint 103
drivers. I have a WD 40 gig ATA100 as Pri Master and a WD 8 gig DMA33 as Sec
Master. There is no raid setup, just "a bunch of drives" On the VIA
controler I have a CDRW as PriMaster and a generic 32X as Sec Master. No
slaves anywhere, Everything to its own channel.
That 8 gig is just a storage drive where I keep "stuff" until I am ready
to put it on a CD. All programs, swap files, and everything else is on the
40 gig ATA100. I have had this setup since November and have had no trouble
with anything. If this setup is the source of the troubles then NASCAR 4 is
the only program that complains.
I did the usual uninstall, defrag, reinstall several times. Changes swop
file sizes, tried a bunch of different drivers, I even reformatted the drive
trying to get it to work. No joy.
If you have any ideas I would appreciate them although I can try none
at the moment. When Sierra/Papy answered none of the many emails I grew
disgusted with being ignored and returned the game back before the return
deadline passed. It was a beautiful game when it worked but with it working
only about 25% of the time it was just not worth the frustration.
I would not mind giving it another try if I can find one of people that
had the trouble pre-patch but not post-patch.

> Joe I have ATA100 drives in a RAID configuration with the High Point
> controller and no problems at all. Do you have any other slower drives
> attached to the system as well?

> Pete

> > One trouble with N4 that ruined it for me was an almost constant
> "Cannot
> > Load Track (and or) Cars, Weekend Canceled". I got this about 75% of the
> > time either on or off line. There was an apparent bug in N4 that
effected
> > people with an ATA100 drive going through either a Highpoint or Promise
> > controller. "Cannot load..." happened to all on occasion but for people
> with
> > this setup it happened a LOT.
> > I and others with this trouble sent MANY emails to Sierra/Papy about
> > this; none ever got a reply. Because of this silence I returned the game
> > with the intention of buying it again if they addressed the trouble in a
> > patch. Something I apparently had to wait until the patch was actually
> > released to find out.
> > I read the "readme" and saw nothing regarding the trouble but before
I
> > abandon N4 completely I thought I would ask if there were any people out
> > there who had this trouble with Version 1 but (so far) not with the
> patched
> > version.

by **LoneRegiste** » Fri, 27 Apr 2001 15:38:40

I have N4, on a highpoint ATA100 RAID 0 drive, and it works perfectly.

by **Milan Poll** » Fri, 27 Apr 2001 17:05:35

Are you using the VIA chipset ? VIA just acknowledged a problem with PCI
latency for their chipset, causing data-loss, so probably also trouble
reading from a drive. The problem mostly occurs when reading or copying
large datafiles, but is made worse by using a SBLive!, which really hogs the
PCI-bus.
For me, a PCI latency patch makes my HD run at about twice the speed, my
system really slowed down after I added my SBLive!
Here's one latency patch: http://koti.mbnet.fi/parru/
And here's another: http://www.viahardware.com/download/viatweak.shtm
The 4-way-interleave patch is really good for considerably speeding up
memory efficiency, works well here, not related to your problem, though.

best wishes,

Milan

by **Mike Grand** » Fri, 27 Apr 2001 22:11:32

Using an IBM/ASUS CUSL-C on one machine and a WD/IWLL KA266 on another, both ATA100 and no problem at all.

Mike Grandy

1996,99 NASS Online PRO Series Champion

Proud Member of Precision Racing Internet Race Team

3 A Champion Forever-Godspeed Dale

Thanks for the reply. I dont know how many folks are using ATA100 drives
with no trouble, it is just that everyone I saw with the trouble had an
ATA100 and either a Highpoint or Promise controler.
ABit KT7-Raid, BIOS WZ01B with Highpoint 11 beta bios. Highpoint 103
drivers. I have a WD 40 gig ATA100 as Pri Master and a WD 8 gig DMA33 as Sec
Master. There is no raid setup, just "a bunch of drives" On the VIA
controler I have a CDRW as PriMaster and a generic 32X as Sec Master. No
slaves anywhere, Everything to its own channel.
That 8 gig is just a storage drive where I keep "stuff" until I am ready
to put it on a CD. All programs, swap files, and everything else is on the
40 gig ATA100. I have had this setup since November and have had no trouble
with anything. If this setup is the source of the troubles then NASCAR 4 is
the only program that complains.
I did the usual uninstall, defrag, reinstall several times. Changes swop
file sizes, tried a bunch of different drivers, I even reformatted the drive
trying to get it to work. No joy.
If you have any ideas I would appreciate them although I can try none
at the moment. When Sierra/Papy answered none of the many emails I grew
disgusted with being ignored and returned the game back before the return
deadline passed. It was a beautiful game when it worked but with it working
only about 25% of the time it was just not worth the frustration.
I would not mind giving it another try if I can find one of people that
had the trouble pre-patch but not post-patch.

> Joe I have ATA100 drives in a RAID configuration with the High Point
> controller and no problems at all. Do you have any other slower drives
> attached to the system as well?
>
> Pete
>

> > One trouble with N4 that ruined it for me was an almost constant
> "Cannot
> > Load Track (and or) Cars, Weekend Canceled". I got this about 75% of the
> > time either on or off line. There was an apparent bug in N4 that
effected
> > people with an ATA100 drive going through either a Highpoint or Promise
> > controller. "Cannot load..." happened to all on occasion but for people
> with
> > this setup it happened a LOT.
> > I and others with this trouble sent MANY emails to Sierra/Papy about
> > this; none ever got a reply. Because of this silence I returned the game
> > with the intention of buying it again if they addressed the trouble in a
> > patch. Something I apparently had to wait until the patch was actually
> > released to find out.
> > I read the "readme" and saw nothing regarding the trouble but before
I
> > abandon N4 completely I thought I would ask if there were any people out
> > there who had this trouble with Version 1 but (so far) not with the
> patched
> > version.
> >
> >
>
>

by **Joe** » Fri, 27 Apr 2001 23:10:00

The Chipset is a VIA KT133. I had a SB Live when I first got the board
but never ran into that latency problem. I switched to a Turtle Beach Santa
Cruz about a month ago for reasons not related to the trouble. A reformat
guaranteed no residual SB drivers. "Cannot Load Track....." was still there.
I have seen those patches you mentioned. I have thought about trying
them out but on the principle of "If it aint broke dont fix it." I wanted to
wait for an "Official" patch or that BIOS fix VIA says they are working on.
Thanks

by **Eldre** » Sat, 28 Apr 2001 00:07:07

writes:

Any particular track? I have this same setup, but I haven't seen that error.
I've only gone to 2 tracks so far, though(lack of time).

Eldred

--
Dale Earnhardt, Sr. R.I.P. 1951-2001
Homepage - http://www.umich.edu/~epickett
F1 hcp. +28.67...F2 +151.26...

Never argue with an idiot. He brings you down to his level, then beats you
with experience...
Remove SPAM-OFF to reply.

by **Robi** » Sat, 28 Apr 2001 01:19:56

What brand of motherboard are you using? Abit has released a "beta" bios
(ktztb01 -- there is a readme file included that explains the features added
and what to set them to to take advantage of the fixes if you are having the
problems addressed by this bios) that address the pci latency issues. Don't
be concerned about the beta tag as everyone in the
alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit ng
that has tried it has sung it's praises and Abit's as well for releasing it
(including me.. I flashed to this bios without incident and it works). I
think it will move from beta to official soon. I am not sure if it will help
with problems on the KT133 as it was designed to address issues with the VIA
KT7A/KT7A-Raid 686B south bridge. I have not heard if it will "fix" anything
on the non-ATA100 KT133 chipset.
YMMV,
Robin

by **Chisau** » Sat, 28 Apr 2001 06:57:34

I have the same problem.Kt7-raid MB with one IBM ATA100 drive,no raid. I was
hoping the patch would correct the problem and was very dissapointed that the
problem hasn't been fixed or even aknowledged. I also had no replys from
Papyrus when I e-mailed them.
I tried the new Kt7 bios with no luck.I'm going to try a few of the Via
tweaks and such ,but I feel the problem is N4, I have absolutly no problems
with any other games.
Many kt7 users have had problems with the sound blaster live but I never
experianced these, so I don't feel this is the problem, again, this is the only
game I have this problem with, and I also noticed when I used the no-cd patch
from the The Pits, I seemed to have much less problems with the track's not
loading, but didn't use it enough to see if that did something.I'm going back
to the old version wioth the no-cd patch and see if there is a difference, if
I find anything I will or a way of making this damn game work I will post it.
This problem really is getting annoying, I love the Sim but I don't want to
spend half the time I have to play rebooting and screwing around just to get it
to work.
BP

by **Joe** » Sat, 28 Apr 2001 04:08:18

I downloaded that BIOS you mentioned. The readme says it is for the
KT7A-Raid. (with the "A") I have the KT7-Raid (no "A"). I dont think there
would be anything in it that would hurt the KT7-Raid but when dealing with
BIOS changes paranoia rules so I think it best to wait for the official
release.
Thanks

> What brand of motherboard are you using? Abit has released a "beta" bios
> (ktztb01 -- there is a readme file included that explains the features
added
> and what to set them to to take advantage of the fixes if you are having
the
> problems addressed by this bios) that address the pci latency issues.
Don't
> be concerned about the beta tag as everyone in the
> alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit ng
> that has tried it has sung it's praises and Abit's as well for releasing
it
> (including me.. I flashed to this bios without incident and it works). I
> think it will move from beta to official soon. I am not sure if it will
help
> with problems on the KT133 as it was designed to address issues with the
VIA
> KT7A/KT7A-Raid 686B south bridge. I have not heard if it will "fix"
anything
> on the non-ATA100 KT133 chipset.
> YMMV,
> Robin

> > The Chipset is a VIA KT133. I had a SB Live when I first got the
board
> > but never ran into that latency problem. I switched to a Turtle Beach
> Santa
> > Cruz about a month ago for reasons not related to the trouble. A
reformat
> > guaranteed no residual SB drivers. "Cannot Load Track....." was still
> there.
> > I have seen those patches you mentioned. I have thought about trying
> > them out but on the principle of "If it aint broke dont fix it." I
wanted
> to
> > wait for an "Official" patch or that BIOS fix VIA says they are working
> on.
> > Thanks

by **Pete** » Sat, 28 Apr 2001 18:27:23

Joe, I haven't read through the forums in awhile but I do recall that
there
can be conflicts between ATA100 drives and slower drives even when
they are both set as masters. What sound card are you using? I believe
the problem was acute with a SBLive. VIA and Creative are now admitting
there is a problem with file transfers.
Just for arguements sake you might try and disconnect the slower drive
and see if you still get the problem. Not a perfect solution but until VIA
and Creative put out new drivers it might be the only path you can take.
Just as an aside if I take out my SBLive from my AMD system I get
better file transfers across the network seems to cause about a 40%
hit in preformance although I'm still getting almost 3 meg/sec on
a 100mbit switch. It goes over 4 with SBLive out.
Why it only happens with N4 I can't answer but prehaps it is pushing
the system resources to the max. You might also try turning off the SBLives
hardware acceleration this might help(if you have one).

Pete

by **Chisau** » Sun, 29 Apr 2001 22:47:19

Hi Joe,

I was having the same problems with N4 as you, I have an Kt7-raid with only
one IBM ata100 and was constantly getting the "cannot load track" crap.
Yesterday I flashed my bios with the ZTbo1 beta and set the suggested bios
setting's and it seems like the problem is gone. I went through a bunch of test
to see if I would get the error, I kept changing tracks and going from test
season to single race , to championship season, constantly swichting back and
forth to tracks and so far I haven't had the problem, I'm hoping this is the
end of the problem.
I know you said you brought the sim back, so if you want to wait I'll let you
know if I have any problems in the next week.
I got the bios from http://go.to/kt7faq, I don't know if you've been to this
site but it has alot of useful info for the Kt7.

rec.autos.simulators

N4, ATA100 drives and the new patch

N4, ATA100 drives and the new patch

N4, ATA100 drives and the new patch

N4, ATA100 drives and the new patch

N4, ATA100 drives and the new patch

N4, ATA100 drives and the new patch

N4, ATA100 drives and the new patch

N4, ATA100 drives and the new patch

N4, ATA100 drives and the new patch

N4, ATA100 drives and the new patch

N4, ATA100 drives and the new patch

N4, ATA100 drives and the new patch

N4, ATA100 drives and the new patch

N4, ATA100 drives and the new patch

N4, ATA100 drives and the new patch