Problem with Dell install - ARGH!

[ichadwick]

I took my CMBB disk to the office yesterday to install it there so I could print some screen shots from my colour printer. I have a Dell 1.7 gHz, 512mb Ram, Win XP and what I believe is an Nvidia graphics card (TNT/GeForce2?).

After installation, CMBB presented me with its graphics selection box with the current res. I accepted it, but found the mouse acted strangely (jerky, and would not sit on the splash screen boxes - I had to be off to one side to activate any box). I chose a game, then the action screen came up - blank. I could hear the sounds, but there was nothing onscreen.

I figured this might be a resolution issue. I use a higher res on my work system than at home, so I quit, deleted the pref file, set hardware acceleration to a lower value (for the mouse), and restarted. I clicked through the res offerings, but missed the one I wanted. There's no way to go back! Somehow CMBB remembers that you've rejected higher res offerings and won't give you another chance at them. Why isn't there a "next/previous" option?????

I quit, restarted. CMBB then only offered me its lowest resolutions - 640 x 480. I clicked through these (going to next each time) but when I got to the end, it didn't start at the highest again - it only said "Can't initialize 3D engine" and quit.

When I restarted, I tried several of the lower res options, but CMBB either crashed to the desktop right away or presented me with a blank action screen.

I had no problems installing at home on a 1 gHz system with Win XP and a GeForce 2 at 1024 x 768. Is this a Dell problem?

I really think BTS should rethink the installation process and come up with something less user-hostile. Graphics should be presented a dialogue box with the current best guess option selected, but allow users to select their choice through some radio buttons or menu selections, not have to click tediously through the options.

There should also be an option to change graphics and sound within the game, not merely on installation. I don't want sound effects on load or at the splash screen at any time.

Any help would be appreciated on the Dell issue.

[easytarget]

it's probably safe to assume this isn't a hardware related problem

one or perhaps all of the below are not up to date on your machine at work:

1. bios

2. vid drivers

3. directx

4. mouse drivers

with issues on cm it's pretty safe to assume graphics drivers are a good place to start (especially since you mentioned a blank screen which is a common result of the wrong vid drivers) - so what vid card exactly is on this machine and what drivers is it running? - either updating them or rolling them back to an older set is often a soln for many of the problems users post in this forum

btw, you can roll back the default assumption the game saves regarding rez by deleting a file in the cm directory that ends in the word pref - you'll know you've got the right one if you're deleting the smallest file in the directory - this forces the game to re-create this file and lets you re-choose what rez you want to go with - i'd suggest going with the highest rez you can run at 85hz

[Schrullenhaft]

I'm not sure what is up with your mouse. What drivers are you using for it (Logitech, Microsoft, default XP drivers) ? To my knowledge this problem isn't related to the resolution you're running at. Are you using 'standard' cursors for you mouse or do you have some sort of animation/customization for them (this should usually just involve graphic corruption of the cursor if there's a problem).

What video driver version are you running ? The default XP drivers are based on the NVidia Detonator 12.40, which have some problems with white text, etc. in CM. What version of DirectX do you have installed ? DirectX 8.1 comes with XP, but some people may have jumped in and installed DirectX 9.0 which may have unknown problems.

When your screen came up 'blank' was there a dialog box on it saying 'Loading 3D Graphics...' ? Did you see this box at all after making your selections ? Was the screen actually completely blank or were there controls on the bottom of the screen ?

Unfortunately when CMBB offers a resolution of 640x480 it won't work. This is a hold over from CMBO, which could operate at 640x480 @ 60Hz with 'software rendering' (640x480 hardware rendering is available too). CMBB requires a minimum of 800x600 (because the interface has been setup at this minimum resolution) and hardware 3D rendering.

The resolution selection system in CMBB if fairly simplistic. Since CM is originally programmed on a Mac part of the idea here is to keep the amount of differences between the two to a minimum (in fact there is no resolution selection process on the Mac - its just set to the desktop resolution). Keeping in mind that CM is primarily a monolithic executable (a single, large file), the ideal was to keep the hardware setup options to a minimum to prevent the executable from getting unnecessarily larger. Thus it was decided that the best solution was to physically display the resolutions and allow the user to make their selection while actually seeing how it will display with their current setup.

CM starts with the current desktop resolution (rather than wasting time with a higher resolution that may not be supported by the monitor and/or the video card) at the highest refresh rate available at that resolution (which may often be higher than the current refresh rate). This refresh rate will usually be defined by the video driver and it may be limited by the monitor definition, but sometimes it isn't, so some refresh rates may get displayed that result in a scrambled screen. The advantage of this system (to my knowledge) is that it doesn't seem to suffer from the '60Hz Refresh Problem' of Windows 2000 & XP, whereas many other games do have a problem with this (though some users have said that they've run into a 60Hz problem within CM).

There is actually a 'next' button, except it is labelled Skip. If you don't click on this CM will just time out at a resolution within 5 or so seconds and then proceed to the next resolution/refresh rate automatically. This is helpful since some people will not be able to click on the box because the screen may be scrambled. CM then proceeds to the next lower refresh rate at that same resolution until it reaches 60Hz. At that point it starts at the next lower resolution, but at the highest refresh rate for that particular resolution. This process keeps repeating until 640x480 @ 60Hz is reached (this should be changed for CMBB so that the minimum is 800x600 @60Hz, but it hasn't happened as of yet). After you skip/auto-timeout on this resolution you will get the DirectX error that you saw. With the resolution selection scheme that CM uses a programming issue with DirectX will not allow the process to start over (in other words this is a DirectX programming limitation). Thus an error is generated when the last displayable resolution has been 'skipped'. This also means that there can be no 'Previous' button.

[ichadwick]

Thanks for the comments. It's Win XP, new in March or April, auto updates on, drivers all up to date. I don't think it's a hardware issue. I suspect either something to do with the Dell graphics card settings or Win XP.

The mouse issue is a well-known problem with Windows (documented on the MS site). Sometimes the full hardware acceleration causes problems with graphics in Win apps and causes a jittery/jerky mouse. The solution is generally to reduce the setting.

For whatever reason, I couldn't just delete the pref file and restart back at the highest res again. It always remembered what the settings were. So I removed it all. Maybe when I have more patience, I'll try again.

[Schrullenhaft]

If you've deleted the correct Prefs file (there's only one, if you've got only one installation) it shouldn't remember anything. If you delete that file CM should go through the resolution selection process the next time you launch it - it doesn't have a default resolution on the PC.

I haven't heard of any particular mouse problems regarding the acceleration setting in the Mouse control panel with CM. Are you using a driver that came with XP or did you install one separately ?

I wouldn't count on Microsoft to have the best hardware driver updates, if that is what you're using. Even the WHQL approved drivers aren't always the best or most compatible available.

Having an OEM NVidia card from Dell should make almost zero difference regarding your problems. The only differences are the BIOS, which is almost always a NVidia Reference BIOS with the Dell info strings inserted, and whatever RAM they selected for the board (and other component quality issues based on price).

Is your mouse an USB mouse and do you have other USB devices currently attached ?