Lock Up/Freeze on Gateway

[ImperialOne]

Hello:

Combat Mission has certainly raised the proverbial Gold Standard for WW II combat at the tactical level. In terms of both its modelled accuracy and its 3D presentation, it is certainly the heir in-spirit to the Advanced Squad Leader series it was originally meant for.

In spite of this, I have a consistent problem to report: a consistent freeze after exiting the program. My mouse will actually still travel, but selecting with left click or the right click doesn't work. Essentially, the only way to get out of this is to turn the machine off as even CNTRL-ALT-DEL won't allow me to shut down.

Please note:

1] No background programs running (was checked for this)

2] 600x800 res at 85hz refresh rate (default selected by CM)

3] System is a Gateway Destination (27" monitor!) 450mHz Pentium III with Voodoo2 drivers updated through the latest patch (1/27/00)... 20 GB hard drive of wich 9GB remain free... computer is 99% unfragmented. Creative SoundBlaster card updated drivers.

4] Have the CM v1.01 patch.

5] Windows 98, updated

6] The mouse is infrared Gateway for the Destination system... and updated.

You know, I really don't think a game this well-done should have so many lockup/freezes.

What to do??

Thanks in advance.

Charles

ImperialOne@msn.com

ImperialOne@hotmail.com

[Schrullenhaft]

That's a strange one. I guess you should be thankful that the lockups aren't in CM itself.

Apparently your Gateway Destination has an ATI chipset for the primary display (from STB no less - 3dfx's subsidary). I'm not sure which Destination system you have, so there are two possibilities for the primary video driver. ATI has the latest drivers (the Gateway approved ones are a bit older to my knowledge). If your board is based on the Rage I/mach64 GT, then Windows 98 will have the latest drivers for it:

ATI drivers (Rage II/II+):

http://support.atitech.ca/drivers/3drageII+.html

If you're lucky it is an issue with the video reinitializing (since CM should be using the Voodoo2).

I don't know if a BIOS update would help or not. You'll need your system info (model #, order #) or some other info to determine which BIOS to download and update (if you even need an update):

Gateway Destination BIOS upgrades:

http://www.gateway.com/support/techdocs/references/motherboard/destindex.shtml

[ImperialOne]

Thanks for the tip... I've checked and it appears the ATI drivers are updated... I'll check the Gateway BIOS later today.

Charles

[ImperialOne]

I updated my BIOS, have DirectX7a... drivers udated ...it still happens. Ugghh.

Its a bit frustrating... don't know what to do or think.

Charles

[Schrullenhaft]

Are both your mouse and keyboard infrared devices ? Is it possible for you to borrow a non-infrared keyboard and mouse and see how they react with CM ? You may be able to keep your current drivers (depends on how unique your mouse/keyboard are...), just make sure that you use the same type of mouse (i.e. - if your infrared mouse receiver hooks up to the serial port or the PS/2 port - get a mouse that works on this same port).

I wouldn't think that an infrared device would be much of an issue, since (in this case) the infrared isn't something that normally needs a driver (infrared serial/parallel ports are another matter. Most users who have problems with CM encounter lockups within CM itself or some other type of problem when switching programs.

In fact, can you switch from CM back to the Windows desktop and back into CM ? Do you get the same problem or does that work fine ?