cdyson37 Posted July 31, 2003 Report Share Posted July 31, 2003 Hi. Sorry that my first post had to be a problem/possible bug report, but the game doesn't seem to want to work on my machine. I looked through all the tech support forums and found nothing like this. After two failed installs, I reinstalled from scratch and made a note of everything I did. I did not initially install the patch this time (because when I did it last time the game wouldn't even load).Uninstalled BCMG.Rebooted.Find the folder's still there with 2.89MB of stuff - delete it.Put the CD in - autorun doesn't work (DOS prompt flashes up).Run setup.exe on disc.Installs fine, default directory etc.Run from start menu.Get splash, then two animations (BTW: my mouse cursor appears over the second one).Game loads, I start a new career.Game runs incredibly slowly, large pauses, unplayable.In an effort to speed it up, switch resolution to 640x480. Game crashes to desktop.Try to reload, two animations, crashes to desktop.Change the config ini file in BCMG directory to old resolution.Reload the game. Works this time.Still slow, switch to 16bit. Game now grinds to a halt.Quit the game.Patch with BCMG101.exe, my old version being V1.00.01.At the end of the patch program, it prints an error dialog full of random, unprintable characters (clearly reading from the wrong bit of memory).Re-load game. *LONG* pause, then get both anims.Crash to desktopSince then I've not been able to revive the game. I don't think re-installing will work. Any ideas? Thanks in advance. cdyson37. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jascatar Posted July 31, 2003 Report Share Posted July 31, 2003 I think you must FIRSTLY update your system profile before entering futher (to know your hardware configuration)... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdyson37 Posted July 31, 2003 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2003 I thought I did when I registered. Do I need to enter it all again or something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdyson37 Posted July 31, 2003 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2003 Er, that said, the info doesn't seem to be in my profile, so I'll just post it here.AMD Athalon 2000XP + Soyo M/board80GB EIDE H/DCreative Audigy 2 s/cardBig CTX monitor (CRT kind)GeForce 4 Ti 4600 g/cardFast CD/DVD driveI think that's it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spindoktor Posted July 31, 2003 Report Share Posted July 31, 2003 Follow these steps to add your system profile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdyson37 Posted July 31, 2003 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2003 Done. BTW: The link sig. testing thread (to which tere is a link on that instructions page) does not work. Fortunately the preview post button shows my sig. The DirectX bit might be wrong (I reinstalled windows recently and can't remember which DX I installed, but it'll be pretty recent). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jascatar Posted July 31, 2003 Report Share Posted July 31, 2003 click : start/run and type : dxdiag so you have DX window. And DON'T FORGET to type all the drivers version in your system profile. This is the *MOST* important ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdyson37 Posted July 31, 2003 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2003 Sorry, I had a look at my drivers and they're pretty old (which I didn't realise), so I'm upgrading all of the important ones (graphics, sound) and I'll get back to you when I've done that. That said just about everything else on my system works (though GTA VC was running a bit slowly...) I have noticed that I'm the only one not including smileys/animated stuff so I feel I ought to include a dancing bannana in this post: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdyson37 Posted July 31, 2003 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2003 Having updated everything, I now get a general protection falut instead of the usual crash to desktop. [ 07-31-2003, 07:45 PM: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdyson37 Posted July 31, 2003 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2003 Nothing that uses Direct3d works now and the tests in dxdiag fail too. It's definately D3D because I have an opengl game that's working fine. This is annoying, especially considering that this is a fresh windows installation. I'll reinstall the whole thing, again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supreme Cmdr Posted July 31, 2003 Report Share Posted July 31, 2003 You need to install DirectX9 (its on the BCMG CDROM btw) and then all your drivers. Then uninstall, reinstall BCMG. Then apply the latest patch. Read the FAQ for steps on how to PROPERLY start from scratch with a patch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdyson37 Posted August 1, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2003 Thanks for your support. This seems to be an unrelated thing to the original problem. I've re-installed win98se, installed my graphics drives (from the nvidia site) and then installed DirectX9b (or was it c - the latest version anyway), downloaded from microsoft.com. Anyway, same problem, nothing that uses Direct 3D will run, and I get this error message if I test d3d with dxdiag: Test failed at step 8 (Creating 3D Device); HRESULT = 0x80004005 (Generic failure). I've tried installing the Creative drivers (based on the nvidia ones), but I get the same message. I assume that the issue is the nvidia/creative drivers being incompatable with the latest d3d. So, any ideas on how to resolve this, bearing in mind that directx setups don't seem to allow you to install a previous version on top of a current one? Thanks for all your support. I am particularly grateful because this isn't really a BCMG issue any more (though it might be again if I ever get this fixed!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viper2000 Posted August 1, 2003 Report Share Posted August 1, 2003 Usually after I reformt and reinstall windows. I do the driver install for the video from the CD it came with, then I update with the ones from the site. Also I dunno if this will make a difference for this or not, but make sure you installed your chipset drivers. I had awhole bunch of probs with my comp cause I didnt install em. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jascatar Posted August 1, 2003 Report Share Posted August 1, 2003 Don't forget to update or install the VIA Drivers if you own a VIA chipset. These are managing your VIA chipset BRIDGE on your motherboard especialy AGP. VIA are hardware drivers ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdyson37 Posted August 1, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2003 Usually I install the nvidia drivers straight from their site (because it's always worked before), and don't bother with the chipset drivers (because they don't appear to do anything, except remove a few warning symbols in the devices tab), but I might as well give it a go. I'm still pretty certain that this is a compatability thing, and I'll use creative's text chat support thingy to try and sort it out this afternoon. Thanks again for your support. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GhengisX Posted August 1, 2003 Report Share Posted August 1, 2003 hello, quote: (because they don't appear to do anything, except remove a few warning symbols in the devices tab), it's exactly these things that tell you your hardware and OS aren't completely meshed yet. anything can happen with your stuff in this state. strive to eliminate all questionable indications and warnings in device manager. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdyson37 Posted August 1, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2003 quote:Originally posted by GhengisX: strive to eliminate all questionable indications and warnings in device manager. Yup, my pocket money comes from re-installing other people's machines, and that's what I do. But when it comes to my machine I'm usually too lasy (have you ever been to an electrician's house: don't touch the light switches). That said, I've installed the drivers (the creative guy said that was a good idea too) and it works! DirectX tests work fine. Cue dancing bannana I'll reinstall BCMG when I get a chance - what was the FAQ the supreme-commander-guy was talking about, I couldn't find a link? Once again, many thanks, this has been exceptionally helpful and I owe you people big time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Falstaff Posted August 1, 2003 Report Share Posted August 1, 2003 I believe he was talking about the downloadable Trouble shooting FAQ. Found Here Oh... and that "Supreme Commander guy".... He's the guy who made the game. Just in case you hadn't found out yet. I like the dancing banana too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdyson37 Posted August 1, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2003 Thanks all. After all that, I've not been able to install BCMG, because my hard drive just crashed. I'm just trying to restore any recent data from my linux partition (wonder why I use linux for all non-game stuff: read the posts above!), then I'll send it back (it's still under warranty). I'll get back to these boards when I get a new HD back, assuming that nothing else breaks between now and then. Thanks again. I suppose this thread is closed. The dancing bannana was inspirational, by the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdyson37 Posted August 3, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 3, 2003 Okay, I've got windows working on a very old 6gb hard drive and I've worked out what the original problem was: sound. If I switch off sfx and music the game runs smoothly, but if I switch them on it's unplayable. This is probably not a problem with the game itself, because Tribes 2 is just like that if I use creative EAX or directsound, but its own 2d audio thing works fine. I tried setting my speaker settings to 2.1 speakers, but that didn't work. I thought that it might be that my CPU couldn't cope with positional audio on top of everything else but that seems to have been disproved by changing the speaker options, or that it still "thought" in terms of 3d sound before sending it to the speakers. Either way, is there any way of switching off any 3d audio settings from within the game, or does anybody know about this particular problem and my sound card (and how to fix it)? Thanks again, Charlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papi Posted August 3, 2003 Report Share Posted August 3, 2003 Here we go again... Look at the FAQ file , here's a snippet from it: quote: -x? : 3D sound processing. Where ? is one of the following: -x0 : no 3d processing. All sounds are mono without distance attenuation -x1 : no virtualization. Only basic positioning effects -x2 : light HRTF* -x3 : full HRTF* *Head Related Transform Function WARNING! 1-3 seem to affect only software 3D processing. i.e. if sound card supports 3D in HW, then every option from 1-3 will sound the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdyson37 Posted August 3, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 3, 2003 Thanks, I'll try those options and use the highest -x that works. Any idea why my card should act like this (kinda annoying, given the expense of a creative card)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Siemens Posted August 4, 2003 Report Share Posted August 4, 2003 Also: get the latest drivers for your card from creative. You may also try this: start the "dxdiag" program (Start button, run program, enter dxdiag), choose Sound, and try setting the acceleration slider one tick to the left, or even slower. You may even try this, latest drivers and slider setting, before playing with that -x# flag... Best regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdyson37 Posted August 4, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2003 Yup got the latest drivers. The game still ran a little slowly at -x0 so I'll try the slider. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiver Posted August 5, 2003 Report Share Posted August 5, 2003 The moment you described sound card problems I thought: is this guy running an AMD? And behold! He is! So then I wondered if his power supply was 250w? Bear with me because if it is, you may seriously want to bump that sucker up to 400. I have an AMD sitting on my shelf that I spent good money on several sound cards for with that EXACT same problem. Power supplies = the most tempting place to skimp when constructing your home system. If that checks out let's talk about your cooling situation and ambient conditions around your PC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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