N4, ATA100 drives and the new patch

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.

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 "Joe L" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:3ae78812$[email hidden]... > 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 peoplewith

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> 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. > >

Running ATA100 here. Never seen this one :) Probably will blow up on me tomorrow! -Larry "Joe L" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:3ae78812$[email hidden]... > 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 peoplewith

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> 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. > >

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. "Pete" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:R1MF6.640112$[email hidden]...

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> 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 > > "Joe L" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:3ae78812$[email hidden]... > > 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

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> > 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

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> > 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. > > > > > >

I have N4, on a highpoint ATA100 RAID 0 drive, and it works perfectly. "Joe L" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:3ae78812$[email hidden]... > 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 peoplewith

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> 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. > >

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

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 "Joe L" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... 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. "Pete" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:R1MF6.640112$[email hidden]...

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> 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 > > "Joe L" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:3ae78812$[email hidden]... > > 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

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> > 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

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> > 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. > > > > > >

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 "Milan Poll�" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:9c8kqf$5n2u6$[email hidden]... > 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 hogsthe

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> 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 > > >

In article <3ae78812$[email hidden]>, "Joe L" <[email hidden]> writes: > 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. 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.

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 "Joe L" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:3ae82b97$[email hidden]... > 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 BeachSanta > Cruz about a month ago for reasons not related to the trouble. A reformat > guaranteed no residual SB drivers. "Cannot Load Track....." was stillthere. > 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 wantedto > wait for an "Official" patch or that BIOS fix VIA says they are workingon. > Thanks

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 "Robin" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:MUXF6.884$[email hidden]... > What brand of motherboard are you using? Abit has released a "beta" bios > (ktztb01 -- there is a readme file included that explains the featuresadded > and what to set them to to take advantage of the fixes if you are havingthe > 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 releasingit > (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 willhelp > with problems on the KT133 as it was designed to address issues with theVIA > KT7A/KT7A-Raid 686B south bridge. I have not heard if it will "fix"anything

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> on the non-ATA100 KT133 chipset. > YMMV, > Robin > > "Joe L" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:3ae82b97$[email hidden]... > > 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. Areformat > > 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." Iwanted

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> to > > wait for an "Official" patch or that BIOS fix VIA says they are working > on. > > Thanks > > > > >

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

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 "Joe L" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > Thanks for the reply. I dont know how many folks are using ATA100drives > 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 asSec > 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 amready > 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 notrouble > with anything. If this setup is the source of the troubles then NASCAR 4is > the only program that complains. > I did the usual uninstall, defrag, reinstall several times. Changesswop > file sizes, tried a bunch of different drivers, I even reformatted thedrive > trying to get it to work. No joy. > If you have any ideas I would appreciate them although I can trynone > 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 itworking > 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. >

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.