GPL Problem

Recently, I've experienced an annoying intermittent problem with GPL, and I'm hoping one of you guys can help. At times, I can't exit the car to return to the pits. In other words, when I hit <esc> then <enter> when I'm in the car, nothing happens. That command should return me to the pits so that I can tweak my set-up, etc. In fact, even <Shift-R> won't work at those times, either. The only thing that I can recall changing recently was that I enabled fast Disk read-writes in my BIOS. I don't think that this caused the problem though, because when I went back to disable it, the problem still persists. My system is an Athlon XP1700, 512 megs RAM, Win 98SE, Radeon 8500LE, SBLive sound card. One thing I noticed that may or may not be related is that the sound in GPL crackles a bit. Not sure wthen that started, though. Any thoughts/help with this would be appreciated. Thanks! Bert

Recently, I've experienced an annoying intermittent problem with GPL, and I'm hoping one of you guys can help. At times, I can't exit the car to return to the pits. In other words, when I hit <esc> then <enter> when I'm in the car, nothing happens. That command should return me to the pits so that I can tweak my set-up, etc. In fact, even <Shift-R> won't work at those times, either. The only thing that I can recall changing recently was that I enabled fast Disk read-writes in my BIOS. I don't think that this caused the problem though, because when I went back to disable it, the problem still persists. My system is an Athlon XP1700, 512 megs RAM, Win 98SE, Radeon 8500LE, SBLive sound card. One thing I noticed that may or may not be related is that the sound in GPL crackles a bit. Not sure wthen that started, though. Any thoughts/help with this would be appreciated. Thanks! Bert

"BRH @attbi.com>" wrote... > Recently, I've experienced an annoying intermittent > problem with GPL, and I'm hoping one of you guys > can help. This sort of thing is usually because of some program in the background taking "the focus" away from GPL. You therefore start sending keyboard commands to that program instead of GPL. Hitting alt-F4 enter might close the offending program and return the focus to GPL. Do you have anything installed which auto-updates itself, like an anti-virus software or RealPlayer or somesuch? -Scanning for virus activity (trojan) or spyware is something you should look into. Also, if your graphics card allows it, try running GPL in a window at 320x200 or somesuch, so you can have it in the corner of your screen an see what's going behind your back as you play GPL. HTH, Jan. =---

"BRH @attbi.com>" <"bertrh<no-spam> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> Recently, I've experienced an annoying intermittent problem with GPL, > and I'm hoping one of you guys can help. > > At times, I can't exit the car to return to the pits. In other words, > when I hit <esc> then <enter> when I'm in the car, nothing happens. > That command should return me to the pits so that I can tweak my set-up, > etc. In fact, even <Shift-R> won't work at those times, either. > > The only thing that I can recall changing recently was that I enabled > fast Disk read-writes in my BIOS. I don't think that this caused the > problem though, because when I went back to disable it, the problem > still persists. > > My system is an Athlon XP1700, 512 megs RAM, Win 98SE, Radeon 8500LE, > SBLive sound card. One thing I noticed that may or may not be related > is that the sound in GPL crackles a bit. Not sure wthen that started, > though. > > Any thoughts/help with this would be appreciated.

I can only suggest two pretty obvious possible causes. Occasionally in an online race I got to press esc/enter, but accidentally miss pressing esc. This means the chat entry is activated, so you can't shift-R, press F10 or anything else until you've pressed enter again. The other possibility is that some app like ZoneAlarm or a virus scanner update has brought up a dialogue box in the background. You have to alt-tab to get control back in gpl. I doubt this second one would be the problem though, since the sounds usually completely disappear when gpl doesn't have focus. hth, Malc.

Thanks for those suggestions, guys... I'll try them out. Malc wrote:

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> "BRH @attbi.com>" <"bertrh<no-spam> wrote in message > news:[email hidden]... > > Recently, I've experienced an annoying intermittent problem with GPL, > > and I'm hoping one of you guys can help. > > > > At times, I can't exit the car to return to the pits. In other words, > > when I hit <esc> then <enter> when I'm in the car, nothing happens. > > That command should return me to the pits so that I can tweak my set-up, > > etc. In fact, even <Shift-R> won't work at those times, either. > > > > The only thing that I can recall changing recently was that I enabled > > fast Disk read-writes in my BIOS. I don't think that this caused the > > problem though, because when I went back to disable it, the problem > > still persists. > > > > My system is an Athlon XP1700, 512 megs RAM, Win 98SE, Radeon 8500LE, > > SBLive sound card. One thing I noticed that may or may not be related > > is that the sound in GPL crackles a bit. Not sure wthen that started, > > though. > > > > Any thoughts/help with this would be appreciated. > > I can only suggest two pretty obvious possible causes. Occasionally in an > online race I got to press esc/enter, but accidentally miss pressing esc. > This means the chat entry is activated, so you can't shift-R, press F10 or > anything else until you've pressed enter again. > > The other possibility is that some app like ZoneAlarm or a virus scanner > update has brought up a dialogue box in the background. You have to alt-tab > to get control back in gpl. I doubt this second one would be the problem > though, since the sounds usually completely disappear when gpl doesn't have > focus. > > hth, Malc.

Thanks for those suggestions, guys... I'll try them out.

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> > Recently, I've experienced an annoying intermittent problem with GPL, > > and I'm hoping one of you guys can help. > > At times, I can't exit the car to return to the pits. In other words, > > when I hit <esc> then <enter> when I'm in the car, nothing happens. > > That command should return me to the pits so that I can tweak my set-up, > > etc. In fact, even <Shift-R> won't work at those times, either. > > The only thing that I can recall changing recently was that I enabled > > fast Disk read-writes in my BIOS. I don't think that this caused the > > problem though, because when I went back to disable it, the problem > > still persists. > > My system is an Athlon XP1700, 512 megs RAM, Win 98SE, Radeon 8500LE, > > SBLive sound card. One thing I noticed that may or may not be related > > is that the sound in GPL crackles a bit. Not sure wthen that started, > > though. > > Any thoughts/help with this would be appreciated. > I can only suggest two pretty obvious possible causes. Occasionally in an > online race I got to press esc/enter, but accidentally miss pressing esc. > This means the chat entry is activated, so you can't shift-R, press F10 or > anything else until you've pressed enter again. > The other possibility is that some app like ZoneAlarm or a virus scanner > update has brought up a dialogue box in the background. You have to alt-tab > to get control back in gpl. I doubt this second one would be the problem > though, since the sounds usually completely disappear when gpl doesn't have > focus. > hth, Malc.