Problem running CM

[tony scott]

Just loaded Cm yesterday. The first time I tried to run the battlefield screen came up but the game was frozen. Every attempt afterwards would give me a white battlefield screen with a few colors visible that appeared to be unit bases. The interface part of the screen was fine. Here's what I've done so far:

1.Re-insatlled the game-though the install never gave me any graphical set-up options after the first install

2. Loaded direct x 8.0

3. Lowered screen resolution

Has anyone else experienced something similar?

I'm using an AMD 233 with 64 mb ram and an ATI II rage vid card

ANy help would be greatly appreiated

Tony

[Schrullenhaft]

What color depth are you running at ? When you "lowered the resolution" was this by deleting the CM prefs file and reselecting the resolution from the subsequent screens that come up when you run CM the next time ?

I don't know if these drivers are any different or better than what may come with DirectX 8.0, but I'd suggest these latest drivers from ATI:

ATI's website (Windows 98 section, 2420 driver):

http://support.ati.com/products/pc/rageii/rageii_drivers.html

What sound card are you using ? Is it a PCI card ? If so it may be sharing an IRQ with the video card. You'll want to avoid this since CM uses a lot of sound samples that can interfere with some display drivers utilizing the same hardware IRQ.

I'd also suggest jumpering the "INT" jumper on the video card to "ENA" in order to enable the IRQ for the card.

[tony scott]

thanks for reply. I lowered the resolution in "settings" for my display, not through the game. The manual stated that during setup there should be a screen that says"can you see this" or something to that effect. I never got that. My first set up gave me an option for screen resolution, but I could never get that screen to come up again, even after a removing the game and re-installing.

as for color depth, not sure what you mean. I did try 16 bit and 24 bit true color options, neither worked. I'll try the sound card options tonight

thanks

[Schrullenhaft]

CM runs at a resolution that is usually independant of your desktop resolution. However it will not run at a resolution that is higher than your desktop resolution (though there are ways around this with some utilities on the PC and Mac).

CM keeps its settings for the resolution (and some other things) in its preferences file (found at - in a default installation - C:\PROGRAM FILES\CMBO\Combat Mission Bynd Ovr Prefs). By deleting this file you will force CM to go through the resolution/refresh rate selection process the next time you launch CM (and this is the only way you can get this "screen" - either changing your desktop resolution lower than CM's setting or deleting the prefs file - although completely wiping out CM should do the same thing). The initial resolution is usually what you're currently running your desktop at (though the refresh rate may be different). You can click to Select or Skip a resolution (it will automatically go to the next resolution/refresh rate after a set number of seconds). However most of the time I've seen people get a DirectX error when they've skipped the last/lowest resolution/refresh rate available. The selection process usually doesn't cycle for most PC users. If you get this error just restart CM and make note what you're lowest resolution/refresh rate is.

You'll want to run CM at either 16 or 24/32 bit color (though the game only utilizes 16 bit color).