rec.autos.simulators

I am racing GPL for the last two weeks, and loving every minute of it,
except the frequent crashes!

Info:
PII 350
128mb RAM
Matrox G200
Creative 3D Blaster Voodoo 2 12mb
Asus P2B motherboard
Sound Blaster Live Value
Win98

The game runs great when it runs, but it has been crashing on a regular
basis while driving or watching a replay (probably averages one
crash-per-hour). It either locks up the screen and sound and will not
allow a ctrl-alt-del reboot, or it closes GPL and throws me back to
Win98 (happens less often than the complete lock up). When it does
happen, one of the driver records is lost and/or the "best lap" records
are transferred to the wrong driver's name while the original
disappears.

I emailed Sierra and they suggested turning down the clock speed of the
Voodoo2 from 93mhz to 90mhz, which I have done, but the crashes still
keep happening. I've uninstalled GPL twice to do a fresh installation,
but the problem comes back. On Sunday, it locked up and upon reboot the
buttons on my joystick weren't recognized by either Win98 or GPL. I
tried rebooting and recalibrating several times - no luck. But, I
started it up last night and buttons work again; played for an
hour-and-a-half with no lock-up, but I doubt the problem is gone.

Is anyone having computer crashing problems like this with GPL? Every
other program runs fine for me. If anyone has any suggestions, please
let me know. GPL is fantastic, but this is very frustrating.

Thanks in advance
Paul

 But last night I tried lowering my 2d card acceleration, and it seems
to have fixed it (won't be absolutely certain until i've run it many
more hours). From the windows desktop go into 'my computer' - 'system' -
'performance' - 'graphics' and move the slider to the left or second
from the left. Before i was getting lockups roughly every hour, and
after turning down the 2d acceleration, it ran 4 hours without trouble.

 Hope this helps, it's worth a try.

 Roy Berube

<...>

I'm crashing a lot too- I will try this. What is the "penalty" for
turning this down?  if any. I mean, lower FPS, or what?

When mine crashes, this inability to recognize my wheel is common. I
tend to only crash during online races- and only at some servers, or
perhas only some tracks. I've been trying to race at France 3 times
tonight, with total freeze-ups each time! Irritating.

meanwhile I ran a 21 lap Monza race with no prob.

My crashes seem to come normally when in the waiting-to-race/practice
room, with replays going on. Trying to chat, for instance, seems to be
a reason to freeze.

Yes, I am having very similar problems. Racing at Silverstone right now
and I seem to experience more system lockups here than on Monza or Wat
Glen.
        My setup is: Celeron 450, 128mb ram, Voodoo1 4meg.

I, too think GPL is fantastic. Pity about the lockups though.
--
Richard Cowl

You may be able to stop your crashes by slowing your Celeron down.  While
mine ran fine at 450MHZ for everything else, GPL (and N2) consistently
crashed at that speed.  Running at 374MHZ both work flawlessly.

Dan.

Peter Holt