Mal Elder

heh, I guess my problem is I have a few old monitors that aren't multisync capable, so I have to match adapter refresh rate to the rate of the monitor itself with those. Then there's the new monitor that changes modes, but after switching rates, won't display anything, unless I turn it off then on again. Very annoying (: I'm curious if thats a result of it sitting on the geforce card, and that not switching properly...changing the adapters rate doesn't seem to alleviate this issue.

I believe thats going to affect the monitor's refresh rate, while the NVidia utility changes the refresh rate of the card...If I'm reading everything about this correctly, the cards stick at a refresh rate of 60 no matter what the monitor is set too, which would result in graphic wackiness, for lack of a better, more technical term (:

heh, of course you need those things...but dude must have something from the old machine left over, unless he's using a friends box to connect to the forum (: in my case i already have all the other stuff sitting around from other machines that have since departed...I, like most of my friends, only need one of each of the other items for a box, and if someone comes over and wants to use a machine, they get to use the generic stuff (; Point was you can get a great computer for a lot less than 1k nowadays...I just saw extreme flat trinitron 17" for $175 out there... Don't know about UK prices (;

heh, i should hope so...I just built a 1.4gig, 512DDR RAM, Geforce3, SB Audigy machine for $650 US. Is the other 550 for shipping? (:

look real close while plugging in the AGP card...every AGP card i've gotten so far has the little arm you screw into the case just a tad too low, not allowing the card to plug in all the way...the workaround i've been using is to bend that arm back, but then you can't screw in the card and have to be careful playing around with it.

That's silly if you've been reading the other messages...this problem existed in Windows 2k...XP is built upon 2k (in fact if you did a "ver" at the command prompt in the early releases of XP, it reported back a higher version of Windows 2k). So XP has inherited this hiccup, the problem isn't because of the existence of XP. And it's only a minor text error...using the workarounds listed on this board makes the game playable. Why the white color in question just can't be changed is beyond me, I guess, but according to BTS, this is a Driver issue...not even a bug really, because all my other games work fine. Funny tho, I guess all the other programmers didn't use this "standard" directx call that is causing CM all the hassle. But BTS has been honest with us about all sorts of other things, and since I'm not a programmer, I'll go with the fact that they say it's an NVidia problem for now. (The Pool of Radiance excuse (doesn't work well with nvidia cards either) doesn't work with me...it seems POR was a POS no matter what your hardware was.). This issue has been cornered pretty well, no need to starting raising new issues with the same symptoms (it's my RAM, it's my OS, it's my mom's fault, etc.). If one little flickering section (for me it's only the #'s in the "# Turn of #" section) makes this game unplayable for you, you got worse issues (:

i searched on support.microsoft.com under Windows 2000, using the keywords "hibernate" and "power" (because hibernate is a feature of power management)...found this article...it refers to 2 laptops, but it might explain the issue... http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q240/9/53.ASP?LN=EN-US&SD=gn&FR=0&qry=power%20hibernate&rnk=7&src=DHCS_MSPSS_gn_SRCH&SPR=WIN2000 thats Q240953 if you are MSKB/Technet-capable. Basically says that your BIOS is going to control how things wake up in the system, and can influence the way 2000 boots back up again. Hibernate has to "awaken" each piece of hardware, and depending on how your hardware responds to the sleep command in the first place will affect how it wakes back up. There's all sorts of different power levels that hardware can set itself too...there can be numerous things to look at here. Assuming an "elephant" is roughly equal to a second, a minute boot isn't a bad thing...

i'd run dxdiag before using any of those dx uninstallers out there (from the run line on the start menu). As long as it says all your dx files are ok, then you don't need to worry about backing down your dx. All newer versions of dx are completely backwards compatible, so uninstalling it is not necessary...thats why it works that way; only new features are added, old features aren't taken away or changed.

just FYI, its not the default because when 95 came out, USB was not (: OEM's started putting USB on their machines, but didn't have a Windows OS that supported them, so at their request, MS made the B/C versions of 95 for OEM's Only...you cannot buy a B or C version of Win95 by itself, it only came with new machines, and technically MS doesn't have to support it (or didn't have too, now they don't support 95 unless you pay cash). As far as MS is concerned, if you need USB or AGP support, you should just get Win98 (the only Official Supportable option). Its a confusing topic, and it generated many support calls...thats the answer (;

Texture Acceleration is for AGP cards only, and as far as I know the Voodoo3 is a PCI card...if it is an AGP version, then it doesn't support Texture Acceleration as far as DX is concerned. Having it greyed out shouldn't matter, just means its not available...as long as the other sections work, you should be ok.

Thats wierd, they work great on my 2k box (: 2k Server is a poor platform for DX...it's not made to run games, so DX support is iffy in that area. Are these the 21.81 or 21.83 version of the drivers?

What kind of video card is it? First thing after you get the DX update is to make sure you have the newest video drivers...thats probably where the issue will be, DX8a will probably give you the same error. DX is making a call to the drivers and getting the wrong information back.

I've been running XP Pro at home for a while now (I got connections, used to work for the Evil Empire) and it rocks so far (: great networking, all my software runs fine, even some stuff that wouldn't work for me in 2k (West Front finally works again!). Just to give some confidence to those of you buying new machines (: It even loaded on with drivers for all my hardware, even my goofy Monster 3D soundcard, which nothing ever seemed to have drivers for. I give it two thumbs up.

I'm a firm believer that AV causes more problems then it solves. When I worked for MS support, at least half of our issues came about because of AV running in the background. It's intensive in the way it works (it has to be), thereby killing performance of your computer. http://housecall.antivirus.com and http://security.symantec.com both offer free online scanners. If you're nervous about virii, I'd keep the constantly running software off the machine and just hit these sites once a week. And they're free (: If you're on a slow connection, just start it before you bed down for the beginning. In my experience, the Symantec site is a little more thorough, but slower.

just out of curiousity, do you run Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing? when netmeeting is running in any form, direct3d will not work, so I'm wondering if when you logon (which loads the network services) are you also loading up netmeeting? I sometimes forget i have desktop sharing on, and can't start the game (:

hmm...is the modem also onboard or is it a seperate card? Although I never have much luck with it, you can goto Start, Run, and type msinfo32...under the hardware section in that program it has a section that will list Conflicting Devices...that may give you some information. Out of curiousity, is your Device Manager all clean? no red X's or yellow !'s (or pink *'s, purple U's, yellow Diamonds?) (; I've seen combo sound/modem cards that can't handle doing all their jobs at once (they have their own processor's that die when you try to use both functions (techies may remember the Dolphin DSP, or MWave Modem of Packard Bell/Aptiva fame). If both pieces are onboard, it's possible you could be running into an issue like that...hopefully we won't reach that point tho (: Is it safe to assume that if the sound card is listed as VIA, that that mobo has a VIA chipset? if so, have you gotten the nifty VIA 4in1 patch for their stuff? It solves all sorts of bizarre problems with their hardware and windows (: [ 10-12-2001: Message edited by: Mal Elder ]

Schrullenhaft is rite again (: there shouldn't be any issues messing with your router, you probably paid a lot of money for the setup (; Updating the CBOS is a good idea to protect against some of the newer virii (Code Red). Usually the management cable comes with the router, mine's a nice light blue color (; one end has a phone-type plug, the other a serial connection...it just lets you connect to the router thru the serial port, thru a terminal program like Hyperterm. If you know the IP address of your router, you can also gain access to it thru a web browser, if that feature is turned on in your router, it's a little easier to work in than the telnet session. Your ISP can definately help you out with this, and they shouldn't have any problems with it at all...the trick is getting a support guy that knows how (: If worse comes to worse, you can always contact your ISP and ask them how much it would be to setup static IP's. This will setup your router with an address that your computers will use as a gateway to the internet, and the computers will have internet-usable IP address's...this works around the whole NAT thing. Of course, at that point you're wide open to the 'net, but ZoneAlarm is free (; Just thought about this, if your friend has the same setup, he just might have to do the same thing...You both need to be able to have those ports accessible for it all to work (: Good Luck! (: [ 10-12-2001: Message edited by: Mal Elder ]

you're probably rite about a conflict...probably the easiest way to see if its an IRQ conflict is to go into System Properties (from Control Panel), goto Device Manager, and double click the Computer icon at the top of the list (i'm assuming win9x). One of the tabs should be an IRQ listing, you'll be able to see if anything is sharing an IRQ (modem and sound card in this case)...some hardware can share, but some can't (: If this is the problem, you can usually change the IRQ setting on either item, by finding it in the device list, hitting properties, and then going to the Resource tab. You'll have to uncheck the box to "Use Automatic Settings", then move the IRQ to one that isn't in use (the main list under Computer will help you again there). Other resources can conflict, which makes it a tiny bit trickier to track down, but basically you'd be doing the same thing with memory range, I/O range, etc. Win2k works pretty much the same way, except you can't get the nifty IRQ list as easily (the msinfo32 program can help you there if thats the case). Good luck (:

I have a the full release version of XP Pro, and CM seems to work fine on it...haven't played anyone with a Mac (I don't know those 2 guys ). Got a Geforce2 MX, a few of the translucent white text problems (actually, i only saw it in the turn # of # part of the screen). So far I like it (;

Just to add a little bit, you can have some real problems setting your AGP aperture size too big... from the MS support site... http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q253912 Basically mentions that you have a limited amount of memory usable by the system, and setting your aperture size to something big eats up that memory. I had mine set to 128 megs and had all sorts of random blue screens (in vcache, for you techy folks). Dropping down to 64 cleared up all my issues (: Just FYI if you start playing with it...

awesome (: Schrullenhaft, we should start our own support company (;

hehe, actually, it should be the first...the "run" keys in the registry are items that run on startup...so you got rundll calling g66task.dll to call the NvTaskbarInit function. probably something left over from an old video card, or an old driver if you've switched to new (reference) drivers... you can safely remove that item from the "run" key (folder) and that should solve the problem on startup... (:

hehe, not a dumb thing, I love having the newest/coolest stuff too (; DX just has that darn time-limit thing, so you've ran into more of a "limitation" than an actual problem...although not getting into CM is a problem (; yeah, from the command prompt should be good (: it should overwrite any new files with the old (original files), plus keep your current registry, which will keep you from having to reinstall all your other stuff...you'll need to get any Windows-related Updates (like from the Windows Update site) again, but anything non-Windows (not a file that came from your Windows CD) should remain behind intact. Your mileage may vary (: Some of the newer programs have files that tell Windows Installer that they are new, so not to mess with them...in my experience, DX is not one of those packages, but I've been suprised before. Win95/98 doesn't do this checking, WinME and 2k can if they want too (: I'd stick with a normal reinstall from the command prompt, if it works, you'll be back up and running in no time, if not, well, you'll have to do the wipe-out/startover part :/ (: .dll's are made up of many functions, and rundll/rundll32 is the program that "runs" those functions. An example I'm real familiar with: IE5 has a maintenance option, it makes sure all your IE5 files are the right size, date, and version. Usually you just click the Maintenance option in the IE Installer...but sometimes it's missing. Well, it turns out that there is a .dll (setupwbv.dll) that controls that part of IE. Inside setupwbv.dll is a function called "IE5Maintenance"...you can actually access that option by going to the Run line (on the start menu) and typing "rundll setupwbv.dll,IE5Maintenance", which basically says to Windows "run the IE5Maintenance function in the setupwbv.dll file". so rundll and rundll32 are only the workhorses here, usually with a rundll error, the problem is a missing target, not a problem with rundll itself. so in this case, I'd be curious what the rundll message states, it should imply another .dll that it is having an issue with. This is why version conflicts are bad...a program tells rundll it needs a function from a certain .dll, and say the .dll with that name is older than the one the program expects...rundll might not find the function called in that .dll, and you get a rundll error message (: oops, gotta get back to work...these short breaks are gonna get me (;

Although I would never try it myself (: you can do a search on "directx" and "remove" on any decent search engine (i like Google)...there are some people out there that wrote their own programs for ripping out directx components, you may find one for removing dx8.1, although I kinda doubt it...it's too new (: The problem with these is I've never seen one that doesn't break something else :/ On that note, MS doesn't recommend using a beta piece of software on any computer you aren't prepared to format and start over with :/ Thats the problem with 3rd party sites that release this stuff, they usually don't give all the disclaimers that MS does :/ You have to apply to a MS beta program to get it legitimately, which includes you agreeing to all sorts of things, sending emails back and forth, and usually connecting to the beta site with a special password...nearly every step of the way you are reminded that "this is test software only, do not use it on a computer that cannot be wiped out...cuz that's where you are probably headed (:" (not an exact MS quote (; ). The main reason that directx can't be uninstalled is there shouldn't be a reason too (: Each DX is backwards-compatible with the previous version, and officially, I've never seen a real issue that you could blame directly on DirectX...in every case I've come across (and thats alot of them) it's been driver incompatibilities that cause the issue. Compared to other MS products, DX has an almost clean track record, especially since version 5+ Not to beat a dead horse (actually, I like too (: ), but since DX8.1 is beta (officially unreleased), no driver's are probably out there to support it, and definately no software that would take advantage of any new features that are included. Edited In: If it comes down to reinstalling Windows, you should do it from a command-prompt, not inside Windows itself...a reinstall inside of Windows won't overwrite new files, while installing from a command prompt should overwrite any windows files with the version from the CD... [ 09-07-2001: Message edited by: Mal Elder ]

yeah, once the .dll is gone, it's gone :/ the Registry only contains information on where that file exists (or existed in this case)...for that fact, that's how the registry works...its a database of where everything is in Windows and how it ties together with other things in Windows (: Rundll/Rundll32 are basically "loader" programs, they "call" certain functions inside of other .dll's, "running" them for lack of a better term (: They are vital, since most Windows programs consist of .dll's (which are libraries of functions...the bulk of whatever run's..for more rundll fun, search for "Dependancy Walker", a cool tool for tracking down .dll fuctions). So in this case, you have a leftover rundll line somewhere that is trying to call a function in newdotnetXXX.dll (whatever it's called), and since the .dll file is gone, you get the error... Thinking about this a bit, I think running AdAware again might be a good idea, depending on how it removes stuff...it might get rid of the reference to the newdot file in the registry, solving the problem...I think what happened is that AdAware may of wiped this out before, but going back to an older Registry broght back the reference to the file...the files themselves won't come back (: If worse comes to worse, don't be too worried about editing the registry...MS makes it sound scary, but if you take things slow and don't go crazy deleting stuff, you should be fine (: You're in 98, rite? Try this...goto Run, type in scanregw...it should mention something about the Registry already been backed up or not, and then ask if you want to back it up again...tell it yes (: then go Regedit to your heart's content, if worse comes to worse and you break something, you have that copy to go back to. You can do that by booting to a command prompt (hold down cntrl-key on boot, tell it "5. Command Prompt Only" (I think it's 5 (: )), and at the prompt, type in the "scanreg /restore" which will get you the list of Registries you can backup from...the most recent date will be your last backup (Windows makes one each day you successfully boot up, a default of the last 5 days technically). Worth a shot at least, the "hard" instructions at http://www.cexx.org/newnetfix.htm are done pretty well...using Regedit is like working in Windows Explorer. I will state that the Registry is basically the "brains" of Windows, but as long as you make a backup first, you should be pretty safe.