Archived from groups: alt.games.coh (
More info?)
Nostromo <nostromo@spamfree.net.au> looked up from reading the entrails
of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:
>Thus spake Xocyll <Xocyll@kingston.net>, Tue, 15 Feb 2005 17:52:49 -0500,
>Anno Domini:
>
<snip>
>The refresh change is a standard DirectX API no doubt, so it's *supposed* to
>allow apps to change it. Nothing strange there. It's why Win98 *doesn't*
>allow it, even though it's *known* to be less secure/protected/32-bit than
>XP, that is the *real* mystery here. I'd say you're just lucky that your
>desired end justifies the means in this case Xocyll...
The problem here is it's not allowing an application to change how it
refreshes full screen, it's changing the global setting, and it DOES NOT
REVERT when the app stops.
XP even allows a windowed mode application to change the refresh rate,
and that's just plain WRONG.
As far as I can tell the main difference is that win9x uses variable
refresh rates depending on the resolution - it always uses the best
refresh that the hardware can support while XP uses a fixed refresh rate
regardless of what the hardware can support and there's not even an
option to use the adaptor default anymore.
[Once again, new MS OS, and old options are removed because MS has
decided it knows what you want better than you do.]
Under 98se, the OS puts the refresh back to the best supported by the
hardware no matter what an app does. CoH changes it (or tries to) and
the OS determines what should be used depending on the hardware - this
is how it's supposed to be.
Just tested - turned on the monitors refresh notifier - there is no
change under 98se when CoH is started, the OS disallows the change.
With XP though, once an app changes the refresh XP just shrugs and says
"OK, whatever." and leaves the refresh changed.
And there's no way to stop it other than running a 3rd party app to put
it back.
I'll have to boot to XP at some point and see if refreshlock actually
locks it or just changes it back after XP lets random apps change
hardware settings.
>>>Keep in mind, it's been almost a year since you've had issues like that. CoH
>>>has been patches many times & so has XP & drivers. Might be worth another
>>>swing...?
>>
>>No it hasn't been almost a year Nossie. I didn't try playing under XP
>>till maybe 3 months ago.
>>I first installed it ONLY to be able to cave my settings in COH, then I
>>rebooted back to 98se and played - because XP crashed.
>>Patches come, patches go, CoH under XP crashes.
>>Drivers come, drivers go, CoH crashes under XP.
>
>So it's marginal hardware/drivers somewhere - *has* to be. If noone else (or
>very few ppl) are consistently getting these issues, then apply Occam's
>razor mate. XP is not to blame, but given this is one of the main games/apps
>that you need to work, the effect is exacerbated & amplified in your mind.
>Even if you have common, name brand h/ware, short of replacing every single
>part, 1 by 1, you'll never know until you overhaul the entire system.
I'm not the only one for whom CoH crashes under XP, it seems to be
fairly common. I'm forever seeing posts in the forums, and broadcasts
in game from people who crashed out and have re-entered, i've also
teamed with such.
The hardware is identical for XP and 98se, and i'm doubting that ALL the
drivers under XP are faulty.
Occam's razor says it's XP itself.
>Case in point: a previous company I worked for had a PC in a staff shop blow
>power supplies & mobos about a half-dozen times. We replaced the power
>supply; then the mobo; put surge protectors in straight away; replaced video
>card/hard disks. Have a guess what is was in the end? Bloody cd-rom drive
>shorting in some sort of strange loopback circuit.
>
>>I haven't tried under issue3 because I haven't had any problems under
>>98se. All the 98 issues got fixed.
>
>Cool.
>
>>>I agree. It might be worth a 2nd pass if you have a spare partition/disk.
>>>Mind you, install XP from a formatted disk. DO NOT upgrade from 98 whatever
>>>you do!
>>
>>It's still installed Nossie, and it was always installed in parallel.
>>I see no reason to actually boot to XP these days, when it's less secure
>>and less stable than 98se.
>
>You're talking CoH only here of course...or do you get issues under XP with
>other apps?
A couple other games that won't run under 98se have also crashed.
One of them also locked XP solid. Yes, as in hard-reboot necessary.
As I said, so much for this secure OS.
MS still doesn't understand what a sandbox is and still lets
applications access things they aren't allowed to in a proper sandbox.
>>I'll use XP for things that won't run under anything else.
>
>Not too many of those luckily for you ;-)
There's a few and there will be more eventually.
Until that time, there's no need to "upgrade" a functional system.
That's the bottom line, I won't upgrade because MS has decided it's time
to sell me another OS version, I'll upgrade when I *NEED* to and not one
picosecond earlier.
I stayed with 95 till I got a game that could not install much less run,
under anything less than 98 (Mech Commander 2), because *MY* 95 system
was rock solid and dependable.
Maybe, just maybe, for people who let MS decide what their settings
should be, the newer MS OS's will be more stable.
But these are the same people who have bought into MS's "reinstall the
OS every 6 months" nonsense. The people who reformat their harddrives
when reinstalling in the hopes this will "fix" problems.
[As an aside, at one point when I was dealing with NCPlay's tech
support, one of their drones asked "when was the last time you
reformatted and reinstalled" - the idiocy has become so ingrained that
tech support expect it/suggest it as a fix.]
Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr
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