menu black out

[Capt Ro]

help please...this just started happening to me....when i start a tcp/ip game the bottom menu on the map is all blacked out. the only thing i see is the white writing. i have to hunt for the go button and the movie buttons. i caint tell what condition my troops are in nor tell what quality they are. does anybody have any idea of what i did wrong for this to happen to me?

if anybody can help i will for ever be in their dept.

thanks ro

[Schrullenhaft]

This happens to some players in TCP/IP games and has been reported before. Unfortunately I don't know what the answer is to this problem. What platform (Mac or PC), what OS, what video card and what drivers for that card do you have loaded ? I haven't tracked any particular commonalities to this problem, but there may be some.

The only guess I can make is to 'ESC' to the desktop and re-maximize CM to see if this refreshes the screen (most likely not though).

[Capt Ro]

first ... thanks for the help. im on a hewlett packard pavilion system with a PIII 733 mhz with 256 ram. i am useing win 98 but i am not profecent enough on the pc to answer the rest of the questions. i dont know how to find the answers. the problem only happens to me when i try and host. i havnt had it happen when i connect to somebody else.

how do i setaside the 96megs of ram ive seen you talking about? thanks

ro

[Schrullenhaft]

The 'memory partition'/assignment of 96Mb only applies to Macs.

Have you tried the 'ESC' to the desktop (are re-maximize) to refresh the screen ?

I honestly don't know what the answer is to this problem. Your HP Pavillion most likely has an ATI video card/chipset, but I'm not aware of any particular issue with video cards based on them for a host or remote TCP/IP session.

If you're curious to find out what videocard/chip you have go to Start Menu > Settings > Control Panel > Display control panel > Settings tab > underneath the "Display:" text will be the name/type of your monitor and the video card that it is attached to. Often the name of the card will just be the video chip that is recognized by the driver (sometimes it is the actual brand-name of the card).

[ 08-30-2001: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ]

[Capt Ro]

thanks again...i have tryed the esc route but as you said it didnt work. :confused: i did find out (thanks to you) that im running a nvidia vanta...card i guess...ok thanks for your help

ro

[WWB]

Hey schulleraft, I have the same issue at times. I am running on a Celeron 800, 192mb RAM, with an Inno3d GeForce2 MX w/32mb. I am currently using the 14.60 drivers. I have only had the problem in 2000 (in 98 I am still using the 6.47s, and they have no issues).

I also have the invisible text issue, which is solved by minimizing.

The invisible screen-bottom issue is not solved by minimizing, but can be fixed by restarting CM.

On a side note, I am running dual boot. And when I switch OSes which I am playing under, CM redetects the video settings, even though I am using the same resoulution. And that first time I play, the disappearing white text issue goes away.

WWB

[Schrullenhaft]

Reviewing some of the past posts with this problem the most common element is that the user has an NVidia card. In fact the TNT series is the most common card I've seen from posters experiencing the menu-portion corruption while they host a TCP/IP game. However that is most likely a coincidence and not a true clue to the problem (some posters had ATI cards and GeForces).

Unfortunately I don't know anything about the behind-the-scenes mechanics of a TCP/IP game in CM. I wonder if people who host (and have, most commonly, an NVidia video card/chip) end up experiencing 2D problems. Maybe it's related to which machine gets picked to do the turn processing (in this case, the other machine that isn't running the NVidia card) ?

wwb_99 - I think I saw something similar myself, but didn't follow up on it when I installed some 14.xx Win2K drivers. Forcing CM to redetect its display settings (and rewrite the prefs file) allowed it to display 2D menu screens without problem (transparent text) until the AAR, if I recall correctly. Maybe this would be worth testing on a couple of machines to see how consistent it is.

[Holien]

I get this problem to and it seems to be when I am in chat.

However I had the problem the other night and I was not in chat.

The only way to clear it is shut down CM and reload.

I too have a Nvidia card, not sure of exact spec as at work. It has 64mb of Ram.

If anyone can give clues as to solve this one I would be grateful as while I can work around it, it is annoying.

Until then restart will have to do.

H

[WWB]

Schullenraft: I will do some testing on this machine, but I don't have access to multiple computers capable of running CM (at least that I can run CM on without getting fired). Of course that would mean I would have to fire up 98 again (ew. . .)

Also possibly of note is that Ro started experiencing said problems after I played a game with him and had said problem. Even though he has a hardware edge, apparently CM thought my machine is faster (maybe b/c win2k, but who knows).

WWB