Windows XP and Games...

TheZombie · Mar 19, 2003

I recently switched from Me to XP and since the change I've found that all my games, and in fact anything relating to DirectX, have a habit of freezing every few seconds, then suddenly surginf again, then freezing and so on. This renders them completely useless to me. I am now going to have to switch back to Me (hard format method. System restore just isn't reliable) to see if I can cure it. I'm wondering though, has anyone else experienced similar troubles with XP? FYI I have all the latest drivers and bios' and stuff and according to Norton SW03, my pc is fine. Yeah...right.

"If I didn't see it, it's not illegal"

Kidrock · Mar 19, 2003

probably cause you have updated your direct x, with me it think you get direct x7 and when you updated to windows xp your direct x updated to 8.1, you may just have to change your direct x settings.

THE IDEA OF WAR IS NOT TO DIE FOR YOUR COUNTRY, BUT TO MAKE THEM DIE FOR THERES

jiffy · Mar 19, 2003

It’s obvious your set up isn’t working right, but it will be hard to help you if you switch back to WinME. Could be heat, power supple, BIOS setting, driver to name a few. Anyway it would be helpful if you gave your computer descriptions, cpu temp, and the steps you took to install WinXP, also is it an upgrade or a clean install.

***************************************
When you feel that reality does not suit you, live a fantasy life.

dhlucke · Mar 19, 2003

You seem to have upgraded from ME to XP. Do a fresh install of XP. ME is the plague and you'll want every trace of it off your hard drive imop.

GOD BLESS AMERICA

silverpig · Mar 21, 2003

^
|
|
What he said

Some day I'll be rich and famous for inventing a device that allows you to stab people in the face over the internet.

blah · Mar 22, 2003

If you wanna play, stick with 98x line (or at least 2k), XP does not cut it with games, too much going on in the background.

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

psykoikonov · Mar 23, 2003

If you wanna play, stick with 98x line (or at least 2k), XP does not cut it with games, too much going on in the background.

Don't know where that came from. I've now got 5 computers now running XPProSP1 (3 of them were running 98se). Nothing but good things. Granted there are ALOT of things that need to be changed on a clean install of XP, however the benefits are enormous. The one computer has an original AIW Radeon on a A7M 266 D, with one MP1800+ and 512MB of RAM. Went up 40fps average!! Went up pretty well 50 fps in MOHAA (from 35 tops in 98 to no less than 55 and often 95fps with XP)!! Not to mention all the things you don't have to do ie.install modem or NIC drivers are usually automatic

, setting up a network is usually a breeze. Also it can be hard to get the right drivers for 98 now, ya ME drivers but ME stinks.

<A HREF="http://forums.btvillarin.com/index.php?act=ST&f=41&t=421&s=205efc501496823a64ba7fbd37152ff2" target="_new">Psyko's Rig</A>

Toejam31 · Mar 23, 2003

It sounds to me that somebody needs to do some tweaking to get it right:

<A HREF="http://www.overclockersclub.com/windowsxpservices.shtml" target="_new">Windows XP Services removal guide</A>

<A HREF="http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp.htm" target="_new">Kelly's WinXP Korner</A>

<A HREF="http://www.theeldergeek.com/index.htm" target="_new">Elder Geek On WinXP</A>

I load my systems with 12 processes total running in the background, which takes about 65MB of RAM. I think that's pretty good for any Windows OS.

Time to go play a little Max Payne. It's like butta, bro.

Toey

First Rig: <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=17935" target="_new">Toejam31's Devastating Dalek Destroyer</A>
Second Rig: <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=15942" target="_new">Toey's Dynamite DDR Duron</A>
________________________________________

<A HREF="http://www.btvillarin.com/phpBB/index.php" target="_new">BTVILLARIN.com</A> - A better place to be.

blah · Mar 23, 2003

""Don't know where that came from.""

From own experience.

""MP1800+ and 512MB of RAM""

Yeah, that is about right amount of power with which XP starts to play ok, anything below that (like my 1.13G P3 laptop with Radeon vid) would not run smooooth at all (Win2k runs UT smoooth like a butter, XP chops it off like some super chef) Same PC, different OS, different results. XP1700 desktop has no problem, but still choppier than ME or 2k.

Yeah, by the way, ""Went up 40fps average!! Went up pretty well 50 fps in MOHAA" - on the same hardware?? never heard sucha bull in my life.

And if you need XP to help you set up a network, that alone tells me your "expertise" in computers.

out.

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

dhlucke · Mar 24, 2003

I have run XP on a 400Mhz PII, 450Mhz PIII, 800Mhz Duron, Tbird 1000, Tbird 1400, and a XP2100+. It's fine on all of em.

I've run XP with 128MB, which is decent, but runs on virtual memory a lot. 256MB is fine. 512MB is really nice.

The fact that you would recommend ME is really discouraging. ME is garbage.

GOD BLESS AMERICA

blah · Mar 24, 2003

""I have run XP on a 400Mhz PII, 450Mhz PIII, 800Mhz Duron, Tbird 1000, Tbird 1400, and a XP2100+. It's fine on all of em.""

And you can play all yer games smooooth on all of these setups, right?

""ME is garbage.""

Based on what?

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

dhlucke · Mar 24, 2003

Games run fine. It's the videocard and drivers that are important.

ME is garbage based on the fact that I've run it on several different machines and all it does is crash. It is the most unstable OS I've ever used. It's the most unstable OS anyone I know has ever used. It lasted 2 weeks on my main rig before I coastered the CD.

GOD BLESS AMERICA

psykoikonov · Mar 24, 2003

Blah, perhaps you should stick with 98 because were all full of sh*t.

LOL
Psyko

<A HREF="http://forums.btvillarin.com/index.php?act=ST&f=41&t=421&s=205efc501496823a64ba7fbd37152ff2" target="_new">Psyko's Rig</A>

Toejam31 · Mar 24, 2003

You actually ran it for two weeks? DUDE! And I thought I was brave.

I managed to get through part of a day before formatting. Call it four hours, and that would be closer to the truth. That's about how long it took me to realize that the rumors were true, and it was a patched-together mess.

Toey

First Rig: <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=17935" target="_new">Toejam31's Devastating Dalek Destroyer</A>
Second Rig: <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=15942" target="_new">Toey's Dynamite DDR Duron</A>
________________________________________

<A HREF="http://www.btvillarin.com/phpBB/index.php" target="_new">BTVILLARIN.com</A> - A better place to be.

silverpig · Mar 24, 2003

The longest I was able to keep a ME system up was 5 days... and the last 2 were on life support as I didn't have sound, and 3D stopped working.

I just had a 50 day stretch with XP, and only rebooted because I needed to get a program I just installed to work.

Some day I'll be rich and famous for inventing a device that allows you to stab people in the face over the internet.

blah · Mar 24, 2003

Hehehe, and all of you people call yerselvz "PC guru", bwahahaha, shoot me in the pinky, gg.

How can you call yerselvz such a honorable thing if you can't get an OS to work for a while. I am probably the guruest one here, caz I have ME working for my kid (note: ME and 6 years old kid) since it came out on dual boot with w2k. He plays all his games on it without having any OS "crash"es, and if game does something weird, he knows how to "fix it" without "format/reinstall". That is what I call "Guru", hehehe.

I have XPpro chuckling along on my laptop, and have it for the only reason that MS Streets&Trips (use it on the road a lot) gets frozen on w2k for no reason (probably they made it do it there

Note: that is the only reason for XP and not w2k, caz UT is liquid fluid on 2k and choppy on XP (same machine), and trust me, I know a little bit how to tweak stuff.

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

jiffy · Mar 24, 2003

To easy

***************************************
When you feel that reality does not suit you, live a fantasy life.

TheZombie · Mar 25, 2003

Just an update for those of you who have provided some ideas, tips and small bags of motherborad screws (which, by the wya, really worries me). Up until my great XP upgrade I had been running Me flawlessly for almost 2 years. Personally I found it to be quite stable and reliable. I also ran Win2k for a while on dual boot and was equally as impressed. BUT! Then I thought...hang on, I can't network with Xp users properly cos microsoft are lazy (or it could be games programmers. who knows?) so I'll upgrade to XP. Initially thats what I did. I upgraded. But that went straight to hell from the minute it said 'welcome...'. So, I had no choice but to reformat to get rid of XP (cos Me couldn't run fdisk/format for some stupid ass reason) and reinstate Me. Sadly Me was having a whole lot of trouble with my 80gig/20gig hard drives (apparently they're 12gig and 19 gig). I spent 2 days rummaging through microsoft knowledge and some general bod-stuff but I couldn't find a solution, so I had to return to XP. Which I have done. I have now updated XP compluetely, all new video, audio, hard/cd/dvd/floppy/zip drives, dx9, all the updates (and 'all' is a lot) plus NortonSW 2003 and every game and software that I wonated on me old puter. And do you know what I have found? After a £105 case upgrade (to a nice cooling unit that keeps the chip at <50 degC)it STILL sodding well freezes every 3 seconds then surges and so on. And, despite my earlier statement, it affects every aspect of the computer. It's constant. Unless I leave my pc on overnight, then it works fine. If I turen it off for a couple of hours and return, it's all buggered up. But a nice 8 hour stint and all's well. go figure. I haven't.

PS I also have a nice old k6-350/voodoo3000/sbawe32 (yes, it's real)64mb simm 15 gig hd running Me perfectly happy like. It runs all the games that it can as well as it can without any blue screen of death! Sadly UT2003 looks poo.

"If I didn't see it, it's not illegal"

dhlucke · Mar 25, 2003

I'm not sure what to tell you. A couple observations though. One is that you say you had to spend 105 pounds to get your cooling below 50C. This strikes me as odd. You should be able to do this with the stock HSF. What are you measuring the temps with? I would recommend motherboard monitor. Two, I'm not a fan of norton system works. I found that it can cause more problems than it solves. Try not to use it. The NAV is good though so just install that package and don't install the rest. Three, you still haven't listed all your components. List them completely and lets see if we can find another source of your problems.

GOD BLESS AMERICA

TheZombie · Mar 25, 2003

Heres the rig (as per dxdiag)
I've got the agp port set to 8x cos the same thing happens on 2x and 4x, so it makes no difference. If you really want to know more, I've got the winsys info saved as well. but it's a lot of info. v dull.

toms has a review of the gigabyte ga7vax somewhere apparently.
------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 3/25/2003, 14:01:22
Machine name: TOMS
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 1 (2600.xpsp1.020828-1920)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: GBT___
System Model: GA-7VAX (rev F10)
BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2100+, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.7GHz
Memory: 512MB RAM
Page File: 112MB used, 1138MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0 (4.09.0000.0900)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.0000.0900 32bit Unicode

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: RADEON 9700 SERIES
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: Radeon 9700AGP (ND)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4E44&SUBSYS_00021002&REV_00
Display Memory: 128.0 MB
Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (85Hz)
Monitor: Hansol 910A
Monitor Max Res: 1280,1024
Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0001.6292 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 1/21/2003 11:45:02, 268416 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
VDD: n/a
Mini VDD: ati2mtag.sys
Mini VDD Date: 1/21/2003 11:44:36, 569984 bytes
Device Identifier: {D7B71EE2-0D04-11CF-266B-0320A1C2CB35}
Vendor ID: 0x1002
Device ID: 0x4E44
SubSys ID: 0x00021002
Revision ID: 0x0000
Revision ID: 0x0000
Video Accel:
Deinterlace Caps: n/a
Registry: OK
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Not Available
DDraw Test Result: Not run
D3D7 Test Result: Not run
D3D8 Test Result: Not run
D3D9 Test Result: Not run

Description: SB Audigy Audio [D000]
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_1102&DEV_0004&SUBSYS_00531102&REV_03
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Type: WDM
Driver Name: ctaud2k.sys
Driver Version: 5.12.0001.0244 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
Date and Size: 3/22/2002 12:09:40, 835636 bytes
Other Files:
Driver Provider: Creative
HW Accel Level: Full
Cap Flags: 0xF5F
Min/Max Sample Rate: 4000, 191999
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 32, 31
Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 32, 31
HW Memory: 0
Voice Management: Yes
EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: Yes, Yes
I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): No
Registry: OK
Sound Test Result: Not run

"If I didn't see it, it's not illegal"

monkeyspank · Mar 25, 2003

[H]OCP reckon DX9.0A is out, with some good results...
I looked on the microsoft site but saw no mention. Gonna look again when i get in from work :/

 -- A bush in the hand is worth two birds at the bar

a4amd · Mar 25, 2003

"Sadly Me was having a whole lot of trouble with my 80gig/20gig hard drives (apparently they're 12gig and 19 gig"

i had a similar problem when i got my 80 gig. Even Win98 detected it as 12 gig. i then booted from floppy and then used Partition Magic 5.0 to format my new HDD. After that, when i re-booted, Win98 detected the HDD properly. the rest of ur queries, i have no idea.

TheZombie · Mar 26, 2003

Well lads, ladesses and others, I have some news that might just shock you.

I know what the problem was and now, after 6 hours of thorough and painstaking testing, I can say, catgorically, what it is.

Ready?

(and sorry for not mentioning this option earlier)

Zip Drive

In fact, the problem was XP constantly accessess and updates it's drive info, whether it be floppy, cd, zip or indeed digital camera memory stick. I found that with any of these devices in use, XP would take a really minor performance hit every few moments as it, presumably, examined them. But when my parallel port Zip 250 was conencted, it would take a SEVERE performance hit ,demonstrated by my troubles. So, for future reference, if you want XP to run smoothly, make sure that you have no 'mass storage devices' connected to anything less than USB.

Thanks again for your dedication, if all goes crap again, I'll leat my words and let you know!

TheZombie (uuuuurgghhhhh....)

"If I didn't see it, it's not illegal"

TheZombie · Mar 26, 2003

Oh and a note about my £105 cooling upgrade, I should point out that according to bios diags, my cpu core temp is 48degC and my system board temp is 36degC (going up to about 53 and 40 respectively in times of great...heating)

"If I didn't see it, it's not illegal"

dhlucke · Mar 26, 2003

Glad you got that worked out. Just for fun though, try checking your temps with <A HREF="http://mbm.livewiredev.com/" target="_new">http://mbm.livewiredev.com/</A>.

GOD BLESS AMERICA

Windows XP and Games...

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