Demo won't run - fear for the Real Thing

[Chicago Otto]

I hope that there is some help for my problem with the Combat Mission demo. I have downloaded it twice (at 2+ hours each time) and followed suggestions from Combat Mission creators and still cannot get it to run.

Here is what happens when I try to run the demo: the resolution selection comes up first, always as 800 X 600 which is correct for my computer. After I accept the selection, the opening screen and sound start and then shortly, sound stops and activity appears to end. I have let the machine sit for at least 15 minutes before ctrl+alt+del to unlock screen.

My computer: Dell Dimension 8100, Pentium 4, 1.3 Ghz

Features:

- Windows ME

- 256MB PC800 RDRAM

- 32MB NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 4X AGP Graphics card

- SB Live! sound card

Things I have done so far:

1. Upgraded DirectX to version 8.1

2. Upgraded GeForce video driver (Can't remember version number, but it was something like 28.40. This version was issued at the end of February)

3. Asked Dell to confirm that sound and video cards were not sharing IRQ's. (They say they are not sharing)

4. Deleted the previously downloaded demo and re-downloaded a new one.

5. Confirmed that the screen resolution offered by CMB is the same as my present settings (800 X 600.)

6. Made sure that there was no file named “Bynd Ovr Pref” (CMB suggestion)

7. Did my best to make sure that there was as little running in background as possible. This included making a shortcut to the demo .exe file (so I wouldn’t be running it from Windows Explorer), shutting down the virus detector (Norton) and looking through the list on “close program” and shutting down everything except the keyboard, the shortcut list and three other things I couldn’t identify but one of which caused the computer to shut down when I closed it.

Thanks for any suggestions you can offer.

[Schrullenhaft]

Pressing Shift+S will turn off the sound. Have you tried this to see if the Demo will run any longer ?

You may want to uninstall ALL of your NVidia drivers and set your video card to be a 'Standard SVGA adapter'. To do this I'd suggest downloading the Detonator Destoyer that you can find at Guru 3D at the top of the list of the NVIDIA Detonator dirvers listing. It should work for Windows ME (but it won't work for 2000 or XP). You can also check the Add/Remove Programs control panel and it will often list NVidia drivers that have been installed with a setup program. I'd suggest using the Detonator Destroyer at some point to make sure that ALL of the NVidia files are deleted.

After this (you'll probably need to reboot first) I'd suggest reinstalling DirectX 8.1 and then reinstalling your video driver (after rebooting when you're finished with the DirectX setup). As for the Creative SB Live, do you know what drivers you're using ? More than likely since you have a newer computer you're probably running Liveware 3.0 (which seems to be the latest posted by Creative for Windows ME, though I'm fairly certain that there was a version 3.1).

Basically the programs that you'll want open in the 'Close Program' list are Explorer (which will shut down Windows if you close it) and Systray. Everything else is optional (actually Systray is somewhat optional too); your video and sound drivers don't need any particular programs to be running in order for them to work in CM (though you'll find that the Live may have a lot of programs associated with it for Environmental effects, etc.). If you post some of the names in the Close Program list that you can't identify I may be able to identify the programs and make suggestions for which ones to close.

[ March 10, 2002, 08:11 PM: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ]

[Brian 'Condor' Wilson]

Is the movie starting? Could it be the quick time movie that's causing you problems? I belive holding the shift key while starting the game will disable the movie.

Just a thought.

[Schrullenhaft]

I don't think that the Gold Demo has the QuickTime intro movie.

[Chicago Otto]

Well I'll be Montgomery's bat boy! - Shift + S executed during set up worked. I still see the "choose screen" first. After accepting that,the movie and sound start, which is when I hit Shift + S. Amazin'. Any chance this indicates a fix that will get the thing to start "normally."

Thanks one heck of a lot for your suggestions!

[Schrullenhaft]

If the game runs stably with the sound turned off, then I'd guess that there is some sort of problem with your sound card. This could either be a conflict with the video card, the motherboard chipset or some other driver or piece of software that gets loaded up. The Dell Dimension 8100 is based on the Intel 850 chipset and I'm not familiar with any particular problems with the Live cards and it.

Sharing IRQ's is a definite possibility here, especially since your system is probably using ACPI. While IRQ sharing isn't necessarily wrong, it may be problematic for some devices because their drivers don't like 'sharing' and I believe this may be true of the Sound Blaster Live drivers. In CMBO a lot of audio data is sent to the sound card (though the Demo uses a lower sampling rate for the audio), especially with ambient (background) sound on. You may want to experiment with your sound settings. When you press Shift + S you cycle through three possibilities, Off, On and On + Ambient. I'd try out the On without the Ambient and see if CM will run for you.

The Demo should be a good example of how well CM will run on your system. However I have heard of people saying that they had problems with the Demo, but the Full version worked fine.

[Chicago Otto]

Turning sound on once the game has started does not seem to cause any further problems. I will try cycling through the options as you suggest. Thanks again.