Closing game problem.....

[mfred]

I was wondering if anyone could help me with a problem.

When I have played CM for a long time, and then close the game, the hard-drive goes crazy for ever while the computer unloads. Then I try to reboot, once the game has closed, the hard-drive won't stop and the computer won't shut down. After a couple of harsh demands on the keyboard ( Ctrl Alt Delete ) a message reads system is busy or unstable, and I notice Rundll32 is running still, I took the option to go back to Windows and the harddrive stopped after a couple of minutes and the computer shutdown. I tried a scandisk and defrag onnce rebooted but Windows could not get past checking the file allocation tables and the harddrive just kept going over the same process continually.

I re-installed Win 98 which allowed me to scandisk and defrag again, and my computer was stable.

But I just finished another long session and the same problem, the harddrive just wont stop.

I think it might be the lack of ram, but I'm no expert. Any help would be appreciated.

Cyrix 300Mhz processor (7-pin...upgrade ideas ??? )

A-trends Motherboard

Maxtor harddrive

32meg EDO ram

Voodoo 2

Sondblaster pci

Win 98

DirectX 7

Latest Drivers

I know the system is nothing great, but I can play the medium scenarios without any problems.

Thankz

mfred

P.S The games BLOODY FANTASTIC

[This message has been edited by mfred (edited 07-21-2000).]

[Schrullenhaft]

I don't think that CM directly calls "RunDLL". I believe another process is running in the background that may be calling this software (uh... it could be Explorer, USER.EXE, etc.).

A problem with "checking file allocation tables" is usually indicative of a hard drive problem (which shouldn't be CM's fault). I would suggest running a "thorough" check of your drive with scandisk, which should do a surface scan to find possible defects in your drive and map them out.

Depending on your motherboard model you may want to check out a BIOS update (but you'll have to correctly identify the model # and the revision # of the motherboard). Be careful in applying BIOS updates, because if you lock up here then it's going to require a trip to a knowledgeable computer repair shop.

Cyrix CPUs don't really have a great reputation compared to Intel and AMD (they were basically the "cheapest"). Depending on your motherboard and it's revision level you may be able to upgrade to an AMD Socket 7 CPU which will cost less than US$100 (though your motherboard and memory will need to support 100Mhz bus speeds if you want anything over 350Mhz).

[mfred]

Thanks for the reply.

I did a through scandisk and everything was fine.

To start the game, I sent the CM.exe to the desktop as a shortcut. Do you think this may cause the problems.

Thanks again.

[Schrullenhaft]

You did perform a full install to your hard drive correct ? If you run off of the CD, you'll get some slow performance.

A shortcut placed on your desktop from a program on your hard drive shouldn't be any problem.

[mfred]

I sure did, mind you I am having a lot less problems than most.

I heard there was a program to unload the memory without rebooting. Do you think this might help.

Is there a way to run the game from Dos.

Thanks.

[Schrullenhaft]

There's no way to run the program from DOS. It is dependent on Windows and DirectX to run.

The "memory program" that was mentioned in another thread (can't seem to recall what it was) might be your best bet.

You may also want to experiment with your virtual memory settings. Go to Control Panel > System control panel > Performance tab > Virtual Memory button > select the "Let me specify my own...". Here you will now be creating a permanent swap file (so the amount you specify as the minimum will be unavailable for file storage on your hard drive). If you have the free space specify a minimum of 200Mb - 400Mb and a maximum of 300Mb - 600Mb. You may want to experiment with these settings to see if you get any different results or not.

[Guest Big Time Software]

Do not run CM from the CD-ROM. It won't work properly. Only run the Combat Mission.exe file that's installed on your hard drive. Do not use "shortcuts" to the CM application on the CD-ROM either.

Charles

[mfred]

I am running CM from the hardrive, and I have created a 200mb - 400mb swap drive for virtual memory. Still the same problems.

Also with the Beta demo the mouse was slow and jerky, but was fine with the Gold demo, and now is slow and jerky again with the final version.

I have been offered a second Voodoo2 card the same as mine to interleave with. One card will deal with +, and the other -. Would you consider this a good fix.

Thanks