Topic: Advice to make OP run on WinXP machine

[Captain Krenn]

Almost forgot, there are a couple of links for getting the driver.  

The first one didn't work, sound card still kep messing up.  

This one however

http://www.pc-infozone.de/tiki-index.php

was the one that seems to have fixed it.

Look under the RealTek section

and download the one titled

  WDM V 3.48 Win 98GOLD/98SE/ME/2K/XP

it will download a self installing driver file

run the exe

after that, it seemed to be fine.

[Rogue]

Thank you for the information.

     I'm going to give it another shot this evening and see how it goes. I forgot to ask about the version of DirectX you are using and if you have run Starfleet Command OP or EAW yet. If I can get this system happy with everything I'll certainly be a happy boy.

     My father has completely different values for a computer than I do. There are two things he delights in. The first is finding a parking spot within spitting distance of the door. The other is a computer that boots in no time flat. It doesn't matter if it is stable or not but if that sucker boots in 2.7 seconds he giggles like a little girl.

    "Is that fast enough for ya, buddy?" says he.

     The reason he went MSI is for their reputation for overclocking. Hence, they make the best consumer mother boards under the sun. God, I love the man. He is an endless source of amusement. Another thing he does is pound the last key of any keyboard entry he makes. I am amazed that he hasn't driven the 'enter' key into the board yet. BAM!  

[Rogue]

Ah frig... so much for that. I just plain don't know here. The thing that sticks out as different between you and I is that video card. You have the Nvidea and I have the ATI.

At this point it will take components to troubleshoot. I'm going to take a break from it for a while and consider rebuilding the system from the ground up. I have a lot of components to work from and will concentrate on the bandwidth between the RAM and the processor. I don't have many requirements for a computer but it is required to run SFC. The one thing I can't get this one to do. Darn it!  

[Captain Krenn]

I am running Direct X  9.0b (4.09.0000.0902)

using windows xp pro with all the latest patches applied.

Not sure if thats of any help or not.

Krenn

System specs

Athalon XP 1800+
MSI K7N2 Delta L
Nvidia 5600 w/256 meg
512 Meg 2100 DDR
Seagate 40 gig HD
Maxtor 20 gig HD
52X Samsung CD drive
8X Hitachi DVD drive

Other devices(sound card, ethernet, ect...) are running off the mother board.

I used the drivers that I mentioned to run the sound card.  Did a fresh install of OP, then applied the patch before I ever ran the game.

Then I set the display settings to their hightest and run several single player missions. Everything worked great.

No sound stuttering or anything like that.  

Let me know if there is anything else I can tell you.  

...Now, if I can just find a way to bring down this Fed battleship with an XFF...

 

[Captain Krenn]

oh, forgot to see what revision the motherboard is.  

I'll check that tonight.

 

[Rogue]

Quote:
I am running Direct X  9.0b (4.09.0000.0902)

Krenn

System specs

Athalon XP 1800+
MSI K7N2 Delta L
Nvidia 5600 w/256 meg
512 Meg 2100 DDR
Seagate 40 gig HD
Maxtor 20 gig HD
52X Samsung CD drive
8X Hitachi DVD drive

Other devices(sound card, ethernet, ect...) are running off the mother board.

I used the drivers that I mentioned to run the sound card.  Did a fresh install of OP, then applied the patch before I ever ran the game.

Then I set the display settings to their hightest and run several single player missions. Everything worked great.

No sound stuttering or anything like that.  

Let me know if there is anything else I can tell you.  

...Now, if I can just find a way to bring down this Fed battleship with an XFF...

   

As a comparison to me...

DirectX 9.0b
Athalon 2100+
MSI K7N2 delta L version 1.3
ATI 9600 pro
512 Meg PC3200 DDR
Maxtor40gig
On board sound used - Realtek ACL650

OP patched to 2.5.4.12

That Nvidea you are running sticks out as the big difference. The RAM I am using from Crucial  should  be fully supported. I wouldn't be completely surprised that the Nvidea is a happy match for the Nvidea nforce2 chipset. Graphics adapters and their drivers are believed to be the cause of many a problems in some systems. I've tended to like ATI because often they are the first ones I've seen that write drivers for the the latest DirectX. Although... the only thing that seems to misbehave is the sound. Which is awful. And it still crashes in campaign play.

I truly appreciate you taking the time to list your system. That should show me that there are three possiblities.

1. ATI 9600
2. PC3200 DDR
3. Bad mother board.

Perhaps I can locate a patch at ATI or manualy set the interupts. Any way this goes I can tell you I have invested far too much time trying to make OP run on this machine. It has completey worn me out.

As a possible useful information... there are updated drivers at Nvidea's website for the Nforce2 chipset. They have worked the best of any for me so far. You still have to instal the Realtek drivers which are up to 3.49 now. But if everything works for you then it is probably wise to stick with what you have.

Peace, Bro  

[Captain Krenn]

No trouble at all, just wish I could be more help.

The only tests I made were with the skirmish missions.  

I will try to single player campaigns to see if there is a difference
then I'll let you know.

Can't imagine why there would be, but I'll give it a shot.

BTW Do you have any trouble with your CPU temp sensor?  

Mine is reading at 72 C.  But when I put my finger on the CPU
its not even warm.  Just curious if the CPU sensor is on the motherboard
or if its using the chips sensor.  Which ever one it is, its reading incorrectly.

Just wondering if you were having the same trouble or not.

peace

Krenn
 

[Rogue]

You have provided invaluable information. I certainly have more to go on than I did before.

As for as the temp sensor... I have no knowledge of the problem. I did remember reading about the issue on the MSI forums for misreadings with the utiliy that is provided. But that's all I can tell you. Everything works on the K7N2 - WinXP system (I'm on my old pooter at the moment) except, of all things, OP. Ah well... it's hard to garner any sympathy for a single game. But, it's the only game I really care about.

For what it is worth... the system hasn't cost me dime one thus far. If, for a modest investment, I can smooth out this problem then I will still be fortunate. Except for the year it has taken off of my life... kidding, really.

Again, thank you greatly for the information you provided. I knew I was at the point where it would take components to troubleshoot and what you have told me gets me there in part.

Peace.  

[KBF-JD]

Quote:
You have provided invaluable information. I certainly have more to go on than I did before.

As for as the temp sensor... I have no knowledge of the problem. I did remember reading about the issue on the MSI forums for misreadings with the utiliy that is provided. But that's all I can tell you. Everything works on the K7N2 - WinXP system (I'm on my old pooter at the moment) except, of all things, OP. Ah well... it's hard to garner any sympathy for a single game. But, it's the only game I really care about.

For what it is worth... the system hasn't cost me dime one thus far. If, for a modest investment, I can smooth out this problem then I will still be fortunate. Except for the year it has taken off of my life... kidding, really.

Again, thank you greatly for the information you provided. I knew I was at the point where it would take components to troubleshoot and what you have told me gets me there in part.

Peace.  

Sorry I did not see this earlier.  There is something that EVERYONE here has missed....

The POWER SUPPLY.

Athlons hate cheap power supplies.  I had a cheap power supply cause almost the exact same behavior you are seeing.

If your dad is like me, he probably is used to finding the cheapest case/ps he can find.  They usually work fine.  But can cause these problems...

I'd look into it.

jd  

[RingWraith 413]

 I see that your using PC3200 RAM. I just read in the new issue of Maximum PC magazine that running your RAM asynchronously of your CPU may not work very well with Nvidia chipset motherboards. Try setting the memory clock speed to match your CPU in the bios (133).  And JD makes a good point about power supplies. Antec, Vantec and Enermax all make very good PS's.

                                                     DIF_Wraith 413

[Captain Krenn]

Ran some tests last night in single player campaign, everthing worked AOK.

then did some gaming on the Dyna servers, no problems.  

I did have some darn MS message pop up and crash the game from the messenger service.

Stupid pop up window saying "Your computer is leaking your iP address to everyone on the web.  Log on our sight
...blah, blah, blah..."

Turned off messenger service

I hate people who try to exploit other people like that.

 

[Rogue]

Thank you folks for all of the thoughtful advice. I'm going to give it another go this weekend and see what happens.

Power supply? Perhaps... It is a moderate 350 Watt power supply. I have noticed a number of people running 450 Watts and more. I have thought to unplug other devices to lower the power drain but I shouldn't rule that out as a potential problem.

The PC3200 could certainly be the problem. I'll give the lower setting a try.

Captain Krenn... you are my hero this week. You system is a close parallel of mine and your willingness to test is very... very... appreciated. I understand about the messenger crud. I unloaded it from Windows set up if I understand the program correctly. Certainly something I would have little use for.  

[KBF-JD]

Quote:
Thank you folks for all of the thoughtful advice. I'm going to give it another go this weekend and see what happens.

Power supply? Perhaps... It is a moderate 350 Watt power supply. I have noticed a number of people running 450 Watts and more. I have thought to unplug other devices to lower the power drain but I shouldn't rule that out as a potential problem.

The PC3200 could certainly be the problem. I'll give the lower setting a try.

Captain Krenn... you are my hero this week. You system is a close parallel of mine and your willingness to test is very... very... appreciated. I understand about the messenger crud. I unloaded it from Windows set up if I understand the program correctly. Certainly something I would have little use for.    

Quality is more important than quanity(watts)

"And JD makes a good point about power supplies. Antec, Vantec and Enermax all make very good PS's. "

Make sure whatever you are running is AMD certified.  The ones listed above are fine.  I know you can find Antecs at compusa, they are a lot more expensive there, but you can find CompUSA anywhere.  You can save a lot of money if you find a local computer shop with good quality PSs and a good rep.  A lot of people are selling "P4" certified Power supply/case combos(at very cheap prices)  that are not really good for Athlon MB/cpu combos.  They work fine for P4s & Celerons.

Athlons often require more juice at some of the voltages that the P4 combos don't use that much.

If it's a software problem, your event log should have some info...  If it's it's a "freeze up, it is usually hardware...  usually

jd  

[Rogue]

OK, ya'all ready for this. It works!

It wasn't the sound.
It wasn't the memory.
Not XP.
Not the power supply.
Not the mother board.
Not the mother board drivers or any other driver for that matter.



It was never defective to begin with...



I just assumed you had to run it in compatability mode.



It won't run in compatability mode.



You may now have fun at my expense. Gosh, I hate to tell on myself. I don't know whether to feel really happy or really embarased. Let's just say both and leave it at that.



Feel free to talk amongst yourselves and be glad you didn't do what I did and waste so much of your time. Never the less... should someone else run into this... don't make the same assumptiom I made.  

[Captain Krenn]

Oops

Well, all this fussing with systems settings and getting new sound drivers fixed my sound problems, so something good did come from this

Glad you figured it out!

 

[Rogue]

Quote:
Oops

Well, all this fussing with systems settings and getting new sound drivers fixed my sound problems, so something good did come from this

Glad you figured it out!

   

Thank you.

Well... no man is a complete failure. They can always serve as a bad example.

I'm gald this little adventure may have tipped you off to the Realtek drivers sooner rather than later. For what it is worth, I am using the Nvidea version 2.45 driver suite I got from their website. And the Realtek 3.49 audio drivers works just fine. I still have stuff to do but all should go well now.

Happy hunting and thanks for your willingness to help.  

[Toasty0]

Quote:
OK, ya'all ready for this. It works!

It wasn't the sound.
It wasn't the memory.
Not XP.
Not the power supply.
Not the mother board.
Not the mother board drivers or any other driver for that matter.



It was never defective to begin with...



I just assumed you had to run it in compatability mode.



It won't run in compatability mode.



You may now have fun at my expense. Gosh, I hate to tell on myself. I don't know whether to feel really happy or really embarased. Let's just say both and leave it at that.



Feel free to talk amongst yourselves and be glad you didn't do what I did and waste so much of your time. Never the less... should someone else run into this... don't make the same assumptiom I made.  

Mawahahahaha...I'm glad all the above is true.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Now c'mon'here, so we can give you a knuggy!
   

[Rogue]

Quote:


Mawahahahaha...I'm glad all the above is true.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Now c'mon'here, so we can give you a knuggy!
     

Knuggy accepted in the spirit it was given.

I was so thrilled to finally hit on the problem that I had no reservations in admitting it. It was more important to tell my little story so someone else doesn't make the same mistake... Hey, it could happen... right?

I also offer you a special thanks ToastyO. I think it speaks well of our little game community that we do our part to help each other out. Now I've got a smoking new machine that has a lot more power than I had before. That  will  run OP. That's how much I like this game. If it won't run SFC then what good is it?