rec.autos.simulators

Well, I've struggled now for about 36 hours trying to make N4 work
with my GeForce2MX, so far to no avail.  I even went and downloaded a
crack (Forgive me, Papy for I have sinned...) to see if the problem
was in the CD-ROM, but that was less than revealing as well.

Here's my status...

Either using the original or the crack executable, I randomly get one
of the following:

BSOD, reboot
Black Hourglass screen, cursor moves but nothing else happens, reboot
Crashes back to desktop
Mangled graphics on menu screen, reboot

Twice today, it actually loaded and ran momentarily -- in OpenGL mode
-- but BSOD'ed about 2 minutes later.

Additionally, now Mobil 1 Rally Championship won't run.  I even
re-installed it but it said I didn't have enough virtual memory!

Also, I can no longer play audio CDs on my CD-ROM through the
speakers.  You can hear it through the headphones, however.  I really
think it might be dying since it seemed to do a lot of seek and spin
even before the upgrade...

I've turned VSync off and on -- doesn't seem to matter.  I've got the
6.50 drivers.  I've set the acceleration one notch below the top --
doesn't matter.

What's really painful is that two times last night, it loaded and ran
beautifully -- like the rich man in perdition who saw Lazarus in
Abraham's bosom, I am tormented with this flaming problem...  :)

So what next?  I'm planning to go out tomorrow and get a cheapie
CD-ROM since I really need a new one anyway, but in light of the fact
that the crack doesn't work, do you guys think that it will matter?

Is the problem with N4 something exclusive to GeForce vidcards?  I
don't recall anyone with a Voodoo saying that he couldn't get the game
to run at all, and before my upgrade, I had a V3-2000 and the game did
run from the CD.  Slowly, but at least it ran...

So should I consider taking the GeForce back and getting a Voodoo5
even if it is now an orphan?

GPL is running okay, but only in a window -- it bluescreens otherwise
-- it also ran with no problems before the upgrade.

 I also have the TPTCC-patched version of N3 and it's running
perfectly.

The other main components of my system are a P3-800, 256 megs and an
SB Live Value soundcard.

Thanks in advance for any advice.  

Paul the Cat  =^..^=

"We've been sleeping all our lives --
At last we can open our eyes."
             -- Carly Simon

Can you list your system specs. Also, I had trouble with the 6.50 drivers
and went back to the 6.31 and everything was fine. Does it do the same in
D3D and Open GL. Is your sytem / video card overclocked.

--
Mike Grandy
Precision Racing
www.precision-racing.com

If thats the case try running a disck cleanup utilty. Make sure you scandisk
and defrag also.

--
Mike Grandy
Precision Racing
www.precision-racing.com

   Hey Paul.
     It sounds like you have a system problem for sure.
Your cd "may" be getting ready to fail, but the other symptoms suggest a
deeper problem.(can you say bios?)
  Try adjusting the agp aperture setting in the bios.  For some reason,
Nvidio...uhmm Nvidia owners have said this often helps.  2nd...clean out ALL
your old 3dfx files...right down to the registry.  If possible, back up any
critical
files and format your hard drive and re-install windows.
  (you should do this about once a year anyhow)
3rd suggestion is to try and swap the card back to the store to make sure
you
don't have a deffective MX.(rare but who knows....)
  Set your virtual swap file (in the device manager performance tab) to a
fixed
# that is 3 times your current memory, and preferably on a separate drive or
partition from where windows is installed.  And make sure you have plenty of
free space on your HD.  Good Luck Grasshopper.
One last thing to try...turn down the # of sound options and or disable the
3d sound if you have it enabled...and...get a program called 'enditall' to
close down many of your background programs that might be running.
dave henrie

12 gigs available...

Paul the Cat  =^..^=

"We've been sleeping all our lives --
At last we can open our eyes."
             -- Carly Simon

On Sun, 18 Feb 2001 14:30:27 GMT, "Mike Grandy"

P3-800 not overclocked
GeForce2MX not overclocked
256 megs of memory
SB Live Value
I had an IO Magic 40x CD-ROM but replaced it today with a TDK 16x
VeloCD Rewriter -- again, it didn't seem to make any difference...

Seems to be the same in D3D and OpenGL.  Also the same whether I'm
using the original executable and the cracked no-cd version

Paul the Cat  =^..^=

"We've been sleeping all our lives --
At last we can open our eyes."
             -- Carly Simon

Hi Dave and thanks for your help.  Since I'm a bit of a simpleton
regarding this kind of thing, how do I access this setting and what
change should I make in the agp setting?

I might do that.  I'm going to mess with it for a few more days, but
if it doesn't start working soon, I'm going to return either the card
or the whole computer to the shop since my problems started when I got
it back from the upgrades which include both the new card and a new
motherboard and cpu.  Before then, it worked, now it doesn't.
Coincidence??

That's "virtual memory," right?  I have about 12 gigs of free space on
my HD...  Before, I had the minimum set at 4096 but then I reset it to
allow Windows to handle the swap file.  Is 4096 still a good number or
would you suggest something else?  And "fixed number" means set the
minimum and maximum to the same, right?  Sorry I'm such a dolt but
when I get a warning box such as the one that appears when you reset
this to something manually, I like to be sure rather than mess up.

Right now, I can't even get to the menu screen to get to those
settngs...  I've have End It All and have turned off just about
everything before and it seemed to have no effect.

Thanks again for your help.

Paul the Cat  =^..^=

"We've been sleeping all our lives --
At last we can open our eyes."
             -- Carly Simon

  Sound card Paul.
Try disabling 3d sound in the windows Dxsetup outside of the game.
good luck
dave henrie

  unfortunately, I have a 3dfx so I can't say for sure,   But there have
been many users that mentioned the agp aperture.  First it is located in the
system bios.  That is found before windows starts up.  Usually you press the
DEL or F1 key to enter the bios.  When your screen is still black, before
the
window screens first pop up, you should see a line that tells you how.  If
you find the agp aperture setting,  set it to match your vid card memory.
i.e. if you have a 32 meg card, set your agp aperture to 32.  Ditto for a 64
meg card set it to 64.

  Thats ok...the 4096 sounds rather large, but you have the basic grasp
of what to do.  Choose the minimum and maximum size to be the same.
I've heard 3 times your system memory is a good number.  So if you have
128megs of onboard RAM then your virtual memory setting should be....
(doing the math, please wait...)384mb.

Well, I tried all your suggestions -- thanks again! -- but nothing
seems to help so I'm giving up the ghost and ordering a Voodoo5...
Everything ran like clockwork with my Voodoo3 so I'm a lot more
optimistic about that card...

Paul the Cat  =^..^=

"We've been sleeping all our lives --
At last we can open our eyes."
             -- Carly Simon

  Sorry we couldn't help....I have ZERO complaints with my V5.
I know there will come a day when the card is rendered usless by
direct X updates and such...but for now...especially since it is the only
card family that can run converted ICR2 tracks in 3d....I'll stick with
the V5.
dave henrie