Colin McRae Rally & matrox millenium - DXInfo01.txt (0/1)

I can only sympathise with you. I have had the displeasure to receive crappy responses from Jayesh Patel. I have already commited myself to NOT buying anymore Codemaster product as I have spent many many many hours of wasted time with them. I had a Rendition V2100 3D card that is listed on the CMR box as being compatible and after I purchased CMR I discovered it would only run at 512x384 at low res with 3mm square blocks making up the trees. When I queried this problem I was told Codemasters had no intention of supporting Rendition cards even though you can choose Rendition in the games setup. He may not be in support (I can't remember now) but I did get a couple of responses from him a while ago. Be persistent and keep hounding them.. BUT... don't rely on them and keep looking for an answer. I wish there was someone to report them too. Consumer Affairs or someone who polices this sort of thing. They are by far the worst company to deal with I have ever seen and I am in the industry as well (I'm a HelpDesk Manager for Windows CE based devices) All I can offer you in help from my experience is to make sure you use DX 6.1 final release (at www.voodooextreme.com ) for starters. I have a Voodoo Banshee card and in the Banshee newsgroups I was told that the random lockups I get between races or stages is caused by a win95/CIH (or something like that) Virus. Mcafee virus scan is supposed to fix it so I'm downloading it now. I wish you luck Rgds BlakDog

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>Hi all, > I've been having a lot of problems trying to run CMR on my machine >and so sent an email to Codemasters to see if they could help me. >After sending the email *three* times, I eventually got a reply. >Here's a copy of my email to them: >> >> -----Original Message----- >> >> Sent: Monday, January 11, 1999 7:01 PM >> >> Subject: Colin McRae Rally *RESEND* of a *RESEND* >> >> Hi, >> >> I bought Colin McRae Rally (for the PC) recently and it has been >> >> driving (!) me mad ever since. Not the game in itself, but the many >> >> bugs that seem to be contained within it that make the game almost >> >> impossible to play for more than 5 minutes at a time. All the >> >> problems exist after the patch available on your web site have been >> >> applied, tho' the application of the patch did improve the situation >> >> quite significantly. I hope you can help to solve some, if not all, >> >> of these problems: >> >> 1. The total failure of the game to actually start! The intro always >> >> works fine, but then the Codemasters logo comes up on screen, followed >> >> by a prolonged bout of activity from the CD and then you get dumped >> >> back to the windows desktop! No error messages or explanations >> >> provided. >> >> 2. Random lock-ups at various stages of playing the game - mid-rally, >> >> in the menus etc. Only cure is a reboot! >> >> 3. Occasional "Please insert the CD" messages even though the CD can >> >> have been in the drive for hours. This sometimes manages to recover >> >> itself, but can lead to being dumped back to the desktop or a total >> >> lock-up of the system. >> >> 4. On the Rally School option, the display of the menu items on the >> >> "blackboard" is incredibly slow as if the machine has developed a >> >> stutter (the animation of the fan in the background also stutters). >> >> 5. When selecting the Rally option, you get the "Welcome to ..." >> >> screen, then the screen turns black and my monitor actually goes into >> >> sleep mode! I assume that this is some sort of Garage configuration >> >> screen by the sounds that emanate from my speakers. I've discovered, >> >> by trial and error, that if I press the "right arrow" and then >> >> "return" then the rally will actually start. However, I've obviously >> >> got no access to the options on that screen! >> >> Here's the specifications of my m/c: >> >> Processor: Intel PII 400mhz (Chaintech 6BTM m/board) with 128mb PC100 >> >> SDRAM >> >> BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v4.51PG (8/10/98) >> >> Video: Matrox Millennium 2Mb (driver 4.21, BIOS 3.00) >> >> 3D card: Creative Labs Voodoo2 12Mb (tried both 2.17 and 2.18 >> >> d3d drivers) >> >> CD: Panasonic CR-585B CDROM (24x) >> >> Sound: SoundBlaster 64 (4.38.16) >> >> DirectX: 6.1 >> >> OS: Windows 98 >> >> Controller: Digital Edge F1 Sim steering wheel & pedals. >> >> I hope you can solve the problems I've been having as from what little >> >> I've seen of the game it looks stunning! >> >> Seeya, >> >> Just. >And, here's the response (I've attached the dxinfo at the end): >> Dear Sir >> on looking at the DXINFO we confirm that you need the MATROX MILLENIUM 2 >> Regards >> Mr Jay Patel >> Technical Support Manager >> Codemasters Ltd >> P.O. Box. 6 >> Leamington Spa >> Warwickshire >> CV33 0DL >Now, this just doesn't make an awful lot of sense to me. I've got a >Voodoo2 card - the game is using this as the d3d accelerated device. >Why in the hell do I need to upgrade my video card just to run this >piece of software? Surely the only thing in the game that the matrox >card will be used for is displaying a few menus etc. >If there is anyone out there who can cast light on Codemasters >response (I've asked them to explain, but haven't got a reply as yet) >or have CMR running with a matrox millennium card + voodoo2 I'd like >to hear your views. >Thanks, >Just. >--- >[link lost in import] >=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= >Woody: What's the story Mr. Peterson? >Norm: The Bobbsey twins go to the brewery. Let's just cut to the happy ending.

Just a thought, but have you tried tinkering with the graphics menu in CMR, which has an option to use a PRIMARY/SECONDARY card? Beyond that, I find this quite strange. I've never had any problems, as I use a Diamond ViperV550, but I would have thought that a Matrox Millenium - which is almost as popular as a 3DFX, would be well supported. Best of luck, Yours, Rehan

I have a Matrox Millenium 4Mb and M3D2 in SLI ,W98,Direct X6.1 and the demo runs without any problem at all. Lutrell

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>Just a thought, but have you tried tinkering with the graphics menu in CMR, >which has an option to use a PRIMARY/SECONDARY card? >Beyond that, I find this quite strange. I've never had any problems, as I >use a Diamond ViperV550, but I would have thought that a Matrox Millenium - >which is almost as popular as a 3DFX, would be well supported. >Best of luck, >Yours, >Rehan

This may interest you, snipped from alt.games. "I'm considering starting a newsgroup specifically to discuss and swap ideas on Codemasters game (TOCA, Colin McRae, MUSIC etc...). Is there enough interest to make this worth while, and does anyone know the email of a friendly game-related newsgroup administrator ?" >I can only sympathise with you. I have had the displeasure to receive >crappy responses from Jayesh Patel. >I have already commited myself to NOT buying anymore Codemaster >product as I have spent many many many hours of wasted time with >them.

I also have a Matrox card, a Mill. G200 with a Voodoo2 Sli setup. CMR works for me under either setup, both full game (imported) or the demo. however, I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend running the Powerdesk 2.3x and NOT the 2.5x CRAP. 2.5 is highly unstable. Make sure you have the newest bios as well. Get Direct-X 6.1 update as well. dx61core.exe is available all over now that it is out. Might check out http://www.3dracing.com/cmr for a great forum for help with Colin McRae Racing. Ed

> Get Direct-X 6.1 update as well. dx61core.exe is available all over > now that it is out. Looked into Microsoft DirectX pages, v.6.1 not found but only SDK developer's version 6.1. http://www.microsoft.com/directx/default.asp Where to go next? Esa --

> > Get Direct-X 6.1 update as well. dx61core.exe is available all over > > now that it is out. > Looked into Microsoft DirectX pages, v.6.1 not found but only SDK > developer's version 6.1. http://www.microsoft.com/directx/default.asp > Where to go next? Found one by myself... http://www.amdowners.com/files.html Esa --

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> I've finally solved the problems I've been having with CMR - I > downloaded the *new* patch available on CodeMasters web site (it's 1Mb > and not 600kb as it says by the way). It's a pity a certain Jayesh > Patel of CodeMasters isn't aware that it's there - he sent me an email > today and didn't even mention it! > Does anyone know what the new patch is officially supposed to fix? > I noticed that when I installed it, it actually *removed* some files > from the CMR directory that the first patch had created!!! Weird.

Ah the new patch! Patel wrote to me too, saying that Australia lock-up-problems would be history after this patch, which is due to be released shortly! And there it is already!? I must try it... Esa --