Hpt. Lisse

40C is nothing, my friend. I thought you had said 55C, which is still not going to cook your CPU, but is starting to get up toward warm. Your 1 Ghz Athlon lists a maximum temp. of 85C before thermal failure. Pro jocks look to keep it running under 40, while most home builders deem anything between 40 and 50 as acceptable. Measure the temp after playing CM for an hour and see what it says... Hpt. Lisse PS. Oh, and any software that will reduce the heat of a CPU is doing so by reducing the instuction load - so it's going to slow down your CM experience significantly.

Re-install windows, which is only slightly less work...

Once your you hit 512 or 640 with 98SE, that's when the problems start. If I recall correctly, there is some way of manually changing the Win settings to work around this problem, but those brain cells died long ago. Schrullenhaft?

OpenGL is an excellent graphic API - and the support versions/drivers change alot less frequently than Microsoft's Direct X protocol. And yes, OpenGL is supported by OS X, which has been a fairly serious problem of late. As far as the Ti4600 being a DX8 part - which it is - the GPU will use software to translate the DX9 calls it recieves, where the DX8 calls (or commands) get directly processed by the GPU itself (which is much faster). For Nvidia chips, you need a FX5200 or better to have a DX9 part. Let me see if I can find that chart for ya... Here it is. This whole thing has been quite an experiment for my brother - we've been trading off a Ti4600 in his box with a FX5600 non-ultra, he plays Dark Age of Camelot online. While the Ti4600 is a faster GPU in many ways, DAOC does employ some DX9 calls, which the FX5600 translates directly. We see them being roughly equivalent in this game. Same thing goes for 3DMark2003, which employs DX9 into its test suite. So the FX5600 actually beats the Ti4600 by a small margin using this as a benchmark. In theory, CM would run faster with the Ti4600 card, as there are no DX9 calls in its code structure. Hope this makes sense. Never post before A)your first cup of coffee, or B)your first beer. Hpt. Lisse [ May 09, 2004, 12:52 PM: Message edited by: Hpt. Lisse ]

Can't say anything beyond the WWII (perhaps Korean) war era would interest me at all. The chance of CMX2 engine truly capturing the essence of the volitale, unpredictable nature of the Vietnam war is next to none. There isn't an AI programmer in the world that could do it. WWII gets my vote.

Bump

Jack - I'd say the MCP-T is better, unless you are using an Audigy I - level soundcard or above. Remember, it's not just a quality issue (MCP-T decodes Dolby 5.1 in real time, etc) but a speed issue. I remember seeing a comparison chart (at Tom's Hardware, maybe?) that measured the framerate drop (CPU load) with some games using 5 different on-board audio setups. Nvidia's MCP-T chip was the winner by a huge margin. There's some great links in this forum concerning what background applications can/should be turned off in WinXP to speed things up. It also can be configured to look alot like 98 did (which is the way I run it.) Everything with 98 is a pain in the ass (and I was a holdout, mind you) - instability with all USB devices, the "where's the driver" game, problems with addressing memory greater than 512MB, etc. Sure, this stuff can be worked around, if you want to spend the time and effort doing so. I'd rather use that time playing CMAK, man.

PeterX, we really need to know the motherboard brand AND model to help you with this. What was your previous CPU? Has your BIOS been updated (you are sure this mobo is fully compatible w/XP3000 processor?) You might want to download SiSoft Sandra 2004 freeware from here - choose the standard (non-professional) version - this is an overall system analysis tool that would give us the answers we'd need to help you further.

I've had great luck with Epox mobos, have had several in a row that never let me down. Usually pretty cheap, too. For high-end Gigabyte is my favorite. The thing to remember w/NForce2 mobos is to get one that has the MCP-T (not just MCP) southbridge chipset. The "T" is what gives you serious on-board audio muscle.

Schrullenhaft, he mentions that he's just playing the demo... hmm. What version of Direct X are you using?

I have had the same motherboard for the past year, and love it. Rock solid, even with a mild overclock of a Barton XP2500+ CPU. (The mobo will unlock your XP1800+ for some improvements.) Dump your soundcard, the on-board audio processor (MCP-T) is more powerful and capable than the Hercules Fortissimo 2 card. 512 MB is enough to support Win XP, so do it for your sanity's sake. Though I did originally run the Epox mobo with 98SE for a month or two before my conversion, so it can be done. Mobo comes with a firewall/anti-virus program that's decent, too. Remember than XP can be trimmed down, too, like 98, as to what runs in the background, etc.

Check this thread below: black screen

I researched your box at HP, so here's the deal: First and foremost, the Intel Extreme Graphics chip ain't so good. Neither is its' successor, the Extreme Graphics 2 chip. I have played CMBB, I think, while setting up my fathers' rig last year on such a chip, but I honestly don't recall this 1mm video shift problem. You will not see fog, either, though of course that has no bearing on battles with fog in them (just a shorter LOS). Unfortunately, the motherboard in your HP does not have an AGP slot, which would allow you to get a decent graphics card and disable the on-board EG chip. There are a few PCI slot (of which your system has three) video card solutions, let us know if you wish to proceed in that direction. I would suggest making sure that your driver for the EG chip is up to date - the newest driver dated 12/2003 is available here. Let us know how you make out.

Go into Program Files, and then into the CMBB folder. There is a file here called "Prefs", which stands for preferences. Delete it. Try to start CMBB again, and it should go through the graphic startup process where you choose which resolution/refresh rate you want to play at.

Slag us your system specs, check your monitor (CRT) settings to see if your refresh rate is pushing them off the screen.... but only in the info box? What video card do ya got?

Do you Overclock? Do you leave your system on for days at a time?

Try installing the game normally, instead of copying the disc to your HD. Could be a corrupted file.

Really. I find myself enjoying AK QB's (set in Italy, of course) much more than BB's, though I do agree with you about the randomly created maps. For a fun time, try setting Force Mix, Nationality and Quality to "Unrestricted". Give the AI at least 25% more troops, then allow the computer to pick BOTH sets of troops. You'll want to play the assualting side, of course. Depending on the map, it can be quite challenging to employ troops that you haven't hand-picked.

Play the senario "Debut of the Honeys" from the Senario Depot. Even with fog limiting LOS to 200m, those dust clouds can be seen a kilometer away...

Okay, so dish us your rig, version of windows, etc. Try going here - DSL Reports requires a free sign up now, but they don't send you junk e-mails, etc. Under that tools section, choose Tweak Test - follow directions. See what the report says about your TCP/IP connection, and let us know. It couldn't hurt to download Memtest86, just to make sure everything's operating correctly. I once had a bad stick of PC133 RAM that caused Unhandled Exception errors. [ April 11, 2004, 02:13 PM: Message edited by: Hpt. Lisse ]

Retail or mail order version of CMBO?

According to the CMBB manual, this error is from your DirectX file being corrupted. Re-install DX 9b and then your video drivers, then test again.

If the sound card is suspect, you could reduce the Hardware Acceleration (sound) to see if that helps. I will tell you that, with my eVGA FX5900 non-ultra and the same drivers you've got, CMBB/CMAK plays like a champ, but I have to Alt-Tab out of the intro to CMBO (with AA/AF on) in order to initially see anything. (black screen). But it plays fine. Since you have WinXP Pro, have you tried the Admin Tools to see what errors/problems have occurred upon bootup?

"Prefs never change when deleting prefs file". Never heard of that... are there multiple HD's on your system, or multiple partitions on your HD? Test your video card. Turn off AA/AF. Turn off x8 AGP Enable in the BIOS if possible. I see you've messed with the refresh rates. Gotta another Nvidia-based card around? Throw it in and test that with CMBO. Last but not least, pull it out and Enable the on-board video chip and see if CMBO locks up with that (may have to lower the resolution, though). We'll get to the bottom of it, hang in there, bro!

Right, so the lastest driver release solved alot of problems for the Nvidia-based cards, so you should pick them up ASAP. The FX5200, quite frankly, doesn't sport alot of graphic horsepower, so if you employ x4 AA you may notice some scrolling slowdowns when rolling around larger maps. (This image enchancement makes your graphic card work pretty hard!) There are several recent threads dealing with newer graphic cards, drivers, etc. in this section.