rec.autos.simulators

G'day....
I run ICR2 Rendition and have frequent problems with restarting saved
races.  The race will restart, may go for a lap, half a lap, 20
feet.....whatever.....and then the screen freezes whilst the sound
continues....ending with the noise of my invisible car crashing!!

This ONLY happens if I run "Indyfast.bat".  When I run "Indysafe.bat" I do
not experience the problem.  It happens with any and all of the various
carsets that I use, including the default sets.  The game has been
re-installed many times after doing a Nortons check and then a defrag of
the HDD.

I boot from a "Re-boot in DOS" mode from Win95.

Hardware is P-100, 24Mb RAM, Rendition 'Screamin' 3-D' card with 4Mb, and
the game is controlled via T1 wheel/pedals.

This problem does not happen in either NASCAR2 Rendition nor in the
standard Indycar Racing 2 (which I installed as the 'control' to see what
it did).

The system has been checked, re-checked and re-re-checked for memory
problems etc. but everything is clear.

If you have any ideas whatsoever I would appreciate your thoughts as it's
driving me whacko!!
--
Bruce
----
"To be or not to be?  Well, I'd rather 'be', if you don't mind!"

Both have the PCI latency timer set at 66 (the default).
Recently I swapped the Reactor cards to see if the problem followed
the card or stayed with the machine.  The problem stayed with the P166
machine.  I could probably slow this machine down to 150 and the
problem would go away.  I might try that next.

My son and I use these two machines to race head to head.  My graphics
will freeze, yet I can still steer my car by looking at his display if
he happens to be following me... :-).  So I know what you mean about
the sound going on.  I have run almost a lap past the freeze by
looking at his display!  Note that your computer is not hung.  You can
hit [ESC] enough times to exit to DOS which restores your video when
it switches to TEXT mode.

I have the next to the latest BIOS update from Intergraph. (I have 79,
I have not tried 103 yet).  I installed the copy of ICRII that came
from Intergraph.  I have not applied any patches or updates to ICRII.

What a shame.  ICRII rendition is an awesome game.  I love the
Michigan New track and the awesome graphics.  It sure is loose
starting out with those cold tires!

--
Best Wishes!!!
Robert Huggins
Raleigh, NC

: >feet.....whatever.....and then the screen freezes whilst the sound
: >continues....ending with the noise of my invisible car crashing!!

: I have the same problem on ONE of my machines.
: Both machines have the same Intel brand "Neptune" motherboard,
: Intergraph Reactor, etc.
: The one with the problem has the speed jumper set to 100 (66 * 1.5),
: and I have a P100/166 overdrive installed.
: The one that works properly has the speed jumper set to 90 (60 * 1.5),
: and I have a P90/150 overdrive installed.

I also USED to have this problem, but it was the original DOS version, not
rendition.

I also found that overclocking locked up the display.  The memory was the
problem.  I had a bad jumper that overclocked it to 180MHz.  Once I fixed
the jumper and set it back to 166MHz, it's worked perfectly ever since.

How did you discover the overclocking/bad jumper?
Alison

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http://www.nh.ultranet.com/~alison

: >
: >I also found that overclocking locked up the display.  The memory was the
: >problem.  I had a bad jumper that overclocked it to 180MHz.  Once I fixed
: >the jumper and set it back to 166MHz, it's worked perfectly ever since.

: How did you discover the overclocking/bad jumper?
: Alison

Well, I am a technician for a living, so I have good troubleshooting
skills.  I had just purchased this computer and it kept locking up on me.
Obviously, I was extremely ^%$#^$ having a new computer lock up every time
I was running ICR2.

I was able to find the symptoms, in this case locking up the video
display.  Once you have a hard core symptom, troubleshooting is made much
easier since you can repeat the failure at will (although sometimes it
would take an hour to do it, but then I just let the computer run the
intro to ICR2 which also locked up).  It also took me quite awhile to
actually fix it, since it became more and more intermittent every time I
tried something.

To make a long story short, I purposely overclocked to 200MHz.  The
machine locked up even before fully booting.  Then I put the jumpers back
to 166MHz and it worked flawlessly.  I let the intro for ICR2 run for over
1 WEEK solid, no exaggeration.  No locks up ever.

I then put the jumpers back to 200MHz and it locked up even before
booting.

Overclocked it to 180MHz, which btw is only 1 fps more than 166MHz on my
machine, and it went back to the locking up, but only once in awhile.  The
intro would run for maybe 4 hours before locking up.

Back to 166MHz and it again ran flawlessly for over 1 week solid.

The jumper that was bad was the jumper that controlled the clock for
166MHz or 180MHz.  Therefore, the open jumper made it 180MHz and locked it
up occasionally.  Even to this day I have not had it lock up at 166MHz and
can quite readily repeat the lock ups at 180MHz.

Another symptom was Quake would crash to DOS with memory errors.  Even
that runs flawlessly once I fixed it, although I don't play it much.

FIXED!!
Simply upgrading to a P166 MMX and increasing the memory from 24Mb to 32MB
appears to have cured the problem (plus making the sim now operate at
maximum frame-rate with maximum everything turned to maximum!! :-))

I have never overclocked my computers.......always played safe.  But I
think it may have been a memory problem.

Thanks for the feedback, folks!
--
Bruce.
"...and if you look back 4 seconds...no, 31 seconds...!"
(Murray Walker invents Time Travel, Imola,  27th. April 1997)
VRE: http://www.netspeed.com.au/brucek/vegemiteracing/index.htm
The STUNNED MULLET:
http://www.netspeed.com.au/brucek/StunnedMullet/index.htm

Doug-

Thanks very much for this excellent explanation!  Are you in New
England?  Maybe I could bring my troublesome computer to you!

<grin>

Alison

[snip]

Alison

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