mscwiz Posted July 16, 2001 Share Posted July 16, 2001 I'm running on the VooDoo Banshee graphics board with 16MB of memory. My comp meets all the other system requirments. After reading the other posts i see the problem with voodoo cards. My comp is locking just after loading graphics and the sound gets stuck. ctrl alt del doesn't work it locks altogether. although i see there isn't a real good solution to the problem, does anyone know anything i can change or where i can get diffrent drivers (i'm currently using the ones at 3dfx.com). i'm also running directx8. thanks. [ 07-16-2001: Message edited by: mscwiz ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted July 16, 2001 Share Posted July 16, 2001 The Voodoo series should cause lockups. The problems with the pre-Voodoo 3 cards (including the Banshees) is the lack of support for certain graphical effects. What sound card do you have installed ? Which OS are you running ? You may want to check for audio driver updates. If you know how to check for IRQ usage, check to see if your video card and sound card are sharing an IRQ. While this is perfectly "legal" in PCI/Windows terms, it can cause some problems since some drivers don't cooperate well together. If your sound card is in a PCI slot next (or possibly the second slot away from the AGP slot) to your video card, then it is very likely sharing the IRQ with the video card. To change this you will most likely have to physically move the sound card to another PCI slot in order to change the IRQ (and there are some other things you may need to do in the CMOS/BIOS setup). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mscwiz Posted July 16, 2001 Author Share Posted July 16, 2001 I have Win98. I just recently got the latest drivers for my soundcard and the IRQs are not shared. is there anything else i can do? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted July 16, 2001 Share Posted July 16, 2001 Uh... I need to amend my first post in that Voodoos shouldn't be a necessary cause of lockups. In other words, since you have a Voodoo series card it doesn't mean that you should have problems with CM. Again, are you sure that the IRQs are not shared ? This doesn't mean that a violation will be listed in the Device Manager, but that both devices will be using the IRQ (double-clicking on the Computer in the Device Manager should give you an IRQ usage list). Is anything sharing an IRQ with your sound card ? What sound card do you have ? How much memory do you have ? Are you sure that your shortcut points to a directory on the hard drive and not your CDROM ? You can attempt to turn off your sound in CM with the Alt-S command. Ambient sounds (background) are large files that may cause problems with some PCI sound cards. There's no list of incompatible sound cards, but depending on the configuration (usually a shared IRQ) there can be problems playing these larger files. I'd suggest making sure that only the Explorer shell and Systray are the only applications running (other than necessary video, sound or other hardware drivers) when you do a Ctrl-Alt-Del. [ 07-16-2001: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mscwiz Posted July 16, 2001 Author Share Posted July 16, 2001 ok, i have 192MB of RAM but my soundcard is old (ESS Audiodrive ES1938). I can't disable the sound doing Alt S because it locks up during the "intiating 3D graphics" part and it locks up just as the sounds start (the bird sounds it does when the game first starts {background sounds etc}). i'm using the latest soundcard drivers and videocard drivers. I'm also running Win98 but i had Mellinium on a while back and it did the exact same thing. The IRQs aren't the same in comparison with the Videocard, but the soundcard is sharing with my ethernet card. Any other suggestions? thanks for helping. [ 07-16-2001: Message edited by: mscwiz ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted July 16, 2001 Share Posted July 16, 2001 Do the sounds halt soon after the computer attempts to load CM's graphics or do they continue (but you can only see the "Initializing..." screen) ? From the sound of it (uh.. bad pun), your sound card most likely isn't to blame, but something about your video is. You may want to delete the CM Prefs file (in the C:\PROGRAM FILES\CMBO directory) and select a lower resolution the next time you start up CM. I'm not familiar with the control panels for the Voodoo cards, but you may want to go to Start Menu > Settings > Control Panel > Display control panel > look around and see if you can see any 3dfx/Voodoo related tabs, if not go to > Settings tab > Advanced button > in here there should be some 3dfx/Voodoo/DirectX tabs (and possibly GLIDE ?). Check for any settings regarding DirectX and disable GLIDE if it is a toggable feature. This may require a restart in order to take effect. You can try out this control panel to see if it provides any help. V.Control (at top of page): http://www.voodooextreme.com/koolsmoky/th3.html 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mscwiz Posted July 17, 2001 Author Share Posted July 17, 2001 It is locking up while the "initializing" screen is up. It locks up as soon as the sounds play. No graphics ever appear. One thing i noticed is that even in software mode (which eventually is a choice after clicking cancel as the resolution selection drops) is that it still locks up so it makes me think its the soundcard. What do you think about this? Thanks. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted July 17, 2001 Share Posted July 17, 2001 Do the sounds continue to play when you lockup on the "Initializing..." screen or do they halt, stutter or do something else strange and/or annoying ? It's a possibility that the audio drivers could be causing your problems. The ES1938 is also known as the ESS SOLO-1, which is slightly more common in clone laptops. What version of the audio drivers are you using ? Here's a download for the 1146 (?) version of the drivers: http://www.windrivers.com/company/ess/index.htm This is Acer's listing for the 1140 drivers: http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/tm_340.html Here's a motherboard (ECS) manufacture's listing (unknown version): http://www.ecs.com.tw/ecs/ecs/p6bx-ms/p6bx-ms-d.htm Here's ESS' listing of drivers including 1160 for Win98 and 3038 for Win98SE/ME/2000: http://www.esstech.com/techsupp/drivers.shtm Here's yet another site with a version 6455 (?): http://www2.driverguide.com/uploads/uploads8/6455.html Does your ethernet card hook up to a DSL or Cable modem ? Does software load up for that connection each time you boot ? If so try disconnecting the network cable from the card and see if this has any affect on CM (most likely it will not). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mscwiz Posted July 17, 2001 Author Share Posted July 17, 2001 The sounds stutter or repeat quickly when it freezes at the same part of the WAV file. It locks up only a few seconds after the sounds start. I recently got the latest soundcard drivers 2 days ago from there website. Is there any way to completely disable sound without going into the game? At the windows desktop, it only plays one wav at a time unlike most soundcards, but most games it is able to do multiple sounds but it may be related to the problem. The only other thing that I could say about the videocard (which i dont think thats the problem anymore now that it still doesn't run in software mode) is that i'm using it's refrence drivers from the 3dfx.com website since the company that makes my Banshee went out of business (Eontronics) and after searching and trying to use the website (which no longer exists) i can't find the specific drivers for that videocard which give me more customizable options in the adv. display menus. That Banshee utility that you mentioned in your last post did most of what it did though. Is there any way to disable sound to see if thats the problem that makes it lock up or what do you think i should do next? thanks a lot for helping me through all this. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted July 17, 2001 Share Posted July 17, 2001 There's no way of disabling the sound before loading up the 3D battlefield to my knowledge. Which specific version of Windows 98 are you running, is it the 2nd Edition ? If so try the v. 3038 drivers to see if they are any better if you haven't already). Otherwise I'd suggest going to Start Menu > Settings > Control Panel > System control panel > Device Manager tab > open up the "Sound, video and game controllers" item and find your sound card > double-click on the sound device (the primary one for the ES1938/SOLO-1) > General tab > Device Usage section check mark the "Disable in this hardware profile" check box, close up the windows and restart the computer (which is should prompt you to do I believe). You should have no sound and hopefully the system won't attempt to redect your sound card again. Try CM again and see if it will start. It may not work properly without a soundcard being present, but it is worth trying. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lempereur Posted July 17, 2001 Share Posted July 17, 2001 I have a Vodoo Banshee on my old machine and CM works fine. Make sure the drivers are all updated. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mscwiz Posted July 17, 2001 Author Share Posted July 17, 2001 thanks, i'm guessing its my soundcard i just changed its drivers and i'm about to test it again i'll post back in a few min. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mscwiz Posted July 17, 2001 Author Share Posted July 17, 2001 ok, with the new drivers, it failed the same again. Then, i tried to disable the soundcard, and when running the game I got a blue screen saying "DirectSound error, cant init device". it then locked up at that point. is there anything else i can do? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted July 17, 2001 Share Posted July 17, 2001 You said you had Windows ME installed earlier. Did you reformat the hard drive to get rid of this OS ? The only suggestion I have at this point is to uninstall both your sound and video drivers (and any associated software control panels for them). You can do this by booting into Safe Mode and removing the sound and video devices listed in the Device Manager and using the Add/Remove Software control panel (or a specific Uninstaller if available) to possibly remove any associated software. You may also have to go through the Registry and remove listings regarding your video and sound (most of the enteries should be in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE in the Software, Enum and System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class subkeys). Then you would have to go through the C:\WINDOWS\INF\OTHER directory and remove all the INFs pertaining to your sound and video card. At that point you can reboot and the system will detect your sound and video again. Except this time don't install any drivers for your sound and leave the detection of the Voodoo Banshee at the default SVGA PCI adapter. After the requisite reboots reinstall DirectX 8.0a. After the necessary reboot then install the latest Banshee video driver. After the reboot for this then install the audio driver (I'd suggest the ESS-supplied v.3038 if you're running Win98 SE). Here's a site that lists the 1.04.21 driver (which seems newer than the one listed at 3dfx, but there's conflicting info on the page where it says that it is only 1.04.0): http://www.voodoofiles.com/1852 [ 07-17-2001: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lempereur Posted July 18, 2001 Share Posted July 18, 2001 I am guessing its a Direct X issue. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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