Re: VXD fix and thanks jbodin!

Glad to help!! <G> FYI, I've also found a couple of utilities that improve stability and/or boost performance that some of you might be interested in. The first is a utility called "Powertweak," and even with the VXD fixes, I still found that my system was VERY unstable with D3D games. The reason is that I have a Socket 7 motherboard with a VIA chipset, and there are some stability problems with that chipset, especially if you're using a PCI sound card and an AGP video card. Powertweak REALLY helped stabilize my system, mainly because it was able to recognize my VIA chipset and automatically optimize my system for either compatibility or speed (both settings worked fine, and I now have a MUCH more stable system). You can download Powertweak here: http://www.tweakfiles.com/processor/powertweak.html I also just found a nice little performance-booster called "Cacheman," which optimizes memory and disk cache. Memory managers have never done squat for performance for me in the past, but this one is truly GREAT. I gained 2 - 4 fps in NASCAR Heat just by running Cacheman, in fact, giving me frame rates in the low 20s on my K6-2 400 system with 64 MB of RAM and a 16 MB Voodoo Banshee card. The real kicker for me is that before I ran Cacheman, NASCAR Heat was showing my video card to be a "bottleneck" (the CPU was listed as "good"), but after installing Cacheman and using it to optimizing my system, it upgraded my video card rating to "fair," which seems like a substantial improvement (my polygon throughput rating in NASCAR Heat's benchmark test improved significantly thank to Cacheman). Cacheman also improved my performance in F12K (MUCH smoother frame rates), and GP3 also became MUCH more playable on my system (as a result, my respect for GP3 has gone up immensely now that I can actually get usable frame rates and graphics details, but I still prefer F12K at this point). The nicest thing about Cacheman is that it is FREE (it's "postcardware," actually, requiring NO registration fees at all), and it can also do automatic configuration, so you don't even have to be all that computer literate to use it. There are pre- programmed settings that you can use, including "3D gaming" and "Low memory system," both of which worked nicely on my system (I noticed larger performance gains with the "Low memory system" setting, though, so maybe I need more RAM! <G>). You can find Cacheman here: http://www.tweakfiles.com/processor/powertweak.html Hope all this helps a bit, in addition to my previous post about the VXD fixes! -- JB In article <8nc404$60r$[email hidden]>, Toni Lassila <[email hidden]> wrote:

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> I stumbled upon jbodin's message in Deja about patching Win98 to > include some VXD files to cure hangups when running D3D games with a > Voodoo Banshee. It involved downloading the patch from this address, > and what do you know, it works! Now I can run GP3 with the latest ref > drivers without lockups and the framerates are finally enjoyable > (enough): > > http://users.megapathdsl.net/%7Erevolution/vxdfix.html > > Thanks jbodin! >

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.

OOPS! Correction on the URL for the Cacheman link: http://www.tweakfiles.com/memory/cacheman.html Again, it's a GREAT little program!! -- JB In article <8nc9ia$k2u$[email hidden]>, [email hidden] wrote:

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> Glad to help!! <G> > > FYI, I've also found a couple of utilities that improve stability > and/or boost performance that some of you might be interested in. > > The first is a utility called "Powertweak," and even with the VXD > fixes, I still found that my system was VERY unstable with D3D games. > The reason is that I have a Socket 7 motherboard with a VIA chipset, > and there are some stability problems with that chipset, especially if > you're using a PCI sound card and an AGP video card. Powertweak

REALLY

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> helped stabilize my system, mainly because it was able to recognize my > VIA chipset and automatically optimize my system for either > compatibility or speed (both settings worked fine, and I now have a > MUCH more stable system). You can download Powertweak here: > > http://www.tweakfiles.com/processor/powertweak.html > > I also just found a nice little performance-booster called "Cacheman," > which optimizes memory and disk cache. Memory managers have never

done > squat for performance for me in the past, but this one is truly GREAT. > I gained 2 - 4 fps in NASCAR Heat just by running Cacheman, in fact, > giving me frame rates in the low 20s on my K6-2 400 system with 64 MB > of RAM and a 16 MB Voodoo Banshee card. The real kicker for me isthat

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> before I ran Cacheman, NASCAR Heat was showing my video card to be a > "bottleneck" (the CPU was listed as "good"), but after installing > Cacheman and using it to optimizing my system, it upgraded my video > card rating to "fair," which seems like a substantial improvement (my > polygon throughput rating in NASCAR Heat's benchmark test improved > significantly thank to Cacheman). > > Cacheman also improved my performance in F12K (MUCH smoother frame > rates), and GP3 also became MUCH more playable on my system (as a > result, my respect for GP3 has gone up immensely now that I can > actually get usable frame rates and graphics details, but I still > prefer F12K at this point). The nicest thing about Cacheman is that it > is FREE (it's "postcardware," actually, requiring NO registration fees > at all), and it can also do automatic configuration, so you don't even > have to be all that computer literate to use it. There are pre- > programmed settings that you can use, including "3D gaming" and "Low > memory system," both of which worked nicely on my system (I noticed > larger performance gains with the "Low memory system" setting, though, > so maybe I need more RAM! <G>). > > You can find Cacheman here: > > http://www.tweakfiles.com/processor/powertweak.html > > Hope all this helps a bit, in addition to my previous post about the > VXD fixes! > > -- JB > > In article <8nc404$60r$[email hidden]>, > Toni Lassila <[email hidden]> wrote: > > I stumbled upon jbodin's message in Deja about patching Win98 to > > include some VXD files to cure hangups when running D3D games with a > > Voodoo Banshee. It involved downloading the patch from this address, > > and what do you know, it works! Now I can run GP3 with the latest

ref

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> > drivers without lockups and the framerates are finally enjoyable > > (enough): > > > > http://users.megapathdsl.net/%7Erevolution/vxdfix.html > > > > Thanks jbodin! > > > > Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ > Before you buy. >

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.

I stumbled upon jbodin's message in Deja about patching Win98 to include some VXD files to cure hangups when running D3D games with a Voodoo Banshee. It involved downloading the patch from this address, and what do you know, it works! Now I can run GP3 with the latest ref drivers without lockups and the framerates are finally enjoyable (enough): http://users.megapathdsl.net/%7Erevolution/vxdfix.html Thanks jbodin!