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Thread: Windows XP Home...*Sigh*

  1. #1
    Senior Member gore's Avatar
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    Windows XP Home...*Sigh*

    OK, on my Laptop, I had a nice dual boot set up of Slackware Linux 10.2 and Windows XP Home Edition. I wanted to play Unreal Tournament (This whole thread isn't about games) on my Windows Partition. I've played both Unreal Tournament, and Unreal Tournament 2003 on this Laptop before without problem.

    So I start installing it, and finish. Start it up, and..... It starts playing, then LAGGING. I don't mean a little like when you play Doom 3 on the minimum specs, I mean it's borderline freezing up but the sound is there.

    Hmm, OK, the last time it didn't work great because the hardware was really new. OK, I'll install UT2003 as I know it works perfectly on here. I removed it mainly to get more space when I wasn't playing it as much.

    I grab the install CDs, and install it. When it gets done I start to play it and it starts working fine. A minute into the game, it starts doing the same thing. It's lagging horridly.

    Think downloading 3TBs of Data over Dial Up. THAT much lag.

    OK, now starting to worry, this is odd. Hmmm, what could it be..... So I start looking over a few things, I check the Graphics card out, and the driver is working fine. I start up Doom2 and it works fine. Hmmmmmmm, weird.

    OK, start up Quake, no problems there....

    OK those are old games though, and they don't run from the CD... Maybe it's the CD-ROM.... So I boot up my Windows 2000 Professional / SUSE 10.1 Dual Boot machine.

    I install UT on there, and when it's done.... IT WORKS FINE......

    Weird, a few months ago I was playing UT2003 on this very laptop without a problem, and now it just isn't working.

    I remove the drivers for the video card. Reboot, try again, and again, still not working.

    OK, download the newest DirectX (Grasping at straws at this point) and try that.

    Reboot, nothing.

    OK, getting pissed off wondering what the hell is doing this and why it won't play. I thought at first maybe the CD had a problem, but the installation went fine, no errors, and then installing on another machine works fine even though that one barely meets the minimum requirements, and does NOT have minimum for UT2003 meaning I can't play it, so why won't it work.

    Check Nvidia.com and grab newest drivers. Go to install and it no longer supports the GeForceFX GO 5200.... OK, go to Windows update and make sure to install that driver.

    OK, reboot, NOTHING AGAIN.

    OK, I remember back when I wouldn't install XP SP2, AHA! Maybe that's it!

    Take SP2 off and listen to it bitch about being taken off. It finishes, I reboot, NOTHING.

    Get pissed off, do a back up and reformat the thing after removing all partitions so only Windows XP Home is on there. Finish the install, start installing all drivers from the CDs so everything is working. Finish up that, install UT2003 again..... SAME DAMN THING......

    OK, can someone tell me how in the hell it's possible to take a game that works fine, then uninstall it after a while because you needed the space for a school project, and a few months later go to reinstall the game and for some reason it won't work????

    I just finished installing the 8,000 updates for XP except for SP2, which by the way THANKS MICROSOFT! I LOVE HAVING A TASKBAR ICON TELLING ME WHEN SP1 SUPPORT ENDS EVEN WHEN I SAY DON'T SHOW UP!

    Oh and a huge thanks for making the way to get rid of this annoyance being a REGISTRY EDIT!....Consumer OS my ass.

    Anyone had even a remotely similar problem EVER? I just want to play UT2003....

  2. #2
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Yes,

    But with a game, and on Win2000................single boot, Athlon 1900+, 1024Mb PC2100 DDR.

    I suspect that you might have the "SWS".............very nasty, and the Doc won't give you a scrip for it.

    "SWS" is "Stale Windows Syndrome". You must have heard that "back then" we used to format and reinstall every six months or so? That was quite important, as it sort of "clogged up" for no apparent reason, and got progressively slower..............

    I would bet that if you did a format and reinstall of XP SP2 you could play UT2003 with no problems.

    There might be a few solutions that do not involve reformatting though? Unfortunately, you are they only guy who can do the experiments, as you actually have a box that is "conditioned" and it might take me ages to get one set up that way? (and I don't have a modern lappy to work with)

    OK? Here goes:

    1. In Taskbar & Start Menu, go to "advanced" and clear the recent documents and other crap.
    2. Get CrapCleaner and run that.
    3. Defragment your HDD
    4. Go to your video settings and set everything to maximum
    5. Set the PC to give priority to applications.
    6. Set the page file to 2x the RAM

    Please let me know what happens................anyway, what the hell do you want to play UT2003 for...........you have discovered a far better game (almost an Easter Egg):

    Take SP2 off and listen to it bitch about being taken off
    Now you know that I will not be able to sleep tonight until I have tried that (several times )

    Do not despair, I have an alternative solution (notice that she is in flower, indicating a plant of 5+ years age):

    EDIT: Sorry, I know that this probably seems stupid, but would you try it with the sound disabled.

  3. #3
    Senior Member gore's Avatar
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    Hi,

    I reformatted and just realised that even Doom is starting to lag a bit.... This is beyond weird. I tried Unreal Gold and it was lagging too even though that game can run on a Pentium 2 and this is a Pentium 4.

    I'm starting to think maybe the video card maybe needs a replacement or something.

    Nice Cacti

  4. #4
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Arrrgh!

    I am afraid that does not sound too good to me. You have eliminated OS and other applications problems, which kinda points to the Video card on the way out?

    The other obvious contender would be your RAM.............? you might try Memtest86 at some stage?


  5. #5
    Senior Member RoadClosed's Avatar
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    Hard drive full?
    West of House
    You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
    There is a small mailbox here.

  6. #6
    Senior Member gore's Avatar
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    No, it had more than 10 gigs.

  7. #7
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Hmmmm,

    Not a solution I am particularly happy with, but you could try this:

    http://fredfred.net/skriker/?lp_lang_pref=en&p=297

    It seems that there are some issues with your card, the official drivers and laptops?

    Also try running a cleaning disk in your CD drive a couple of times.

    I have encountered problems between video and sound drivers, so check that you have the latest drivers for your sound as well.


  8. #8
    Senior Member gore's Avatar
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    Yea, I installed the Nvidia driver. And I know it's not the DVD drive, because Doom was lagging and it runs purely off the HD as does Quake.

    I reformatted twice, and when I first played the game I didn't have any other driver but the one the restore CD came with, and then eventually the Windows update one that it offers, and I sued that oo, Ii've tried before and after both, so I'm pretty sure it's the video card.

  9. #9
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Hmmmmm,

    You might try this: http://freestone-group.com/video-car...ility-test.htm

    And then check your RAM : http://www.memtest86.com/

    You might also try:

    1. Disabling sound
    2. Disabling power saving
    3. Reducing the resolution

    And see if any of those make any difference?


  10. #10
    Senior Member gore's Avatar
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    Well, when the resolution went lower, it gave a warning about me having an LCD and it would look like crap. It did that when I'd try playing games and I told it not to warn me again.

    I haven't changed any of the hardware on the box, it's a Laptop, and sound works fine, the Power saving, I have it plugged in so it's not in use right now though I have played this game while at school without it being plugged in.

    The sound card has it's actual driver installed so it's not a dummy driver.

    I've tried everything but new video cards because I don't have any lying around and specially not for a laptop.

    The RAM test is no biggie, SUSE CDs come with it and you don't need to install to do it. Actually I think all versions of Linux do.

    I'm just going to hve to wait until I can take the thing in and have the card switched or something as this is the only thing going wrong. I've checked the HD, and checked everything else I can with what I have and the only time you notice it even has a problem is when you try playing a game on it.

    Sounds works fine, the display looks normal and doesn't have any weird things on it... It seems to work fine other than when you try playing a game, and it doesn't matter which. It starts lagging it to crap and I get pissed off and turn the game off.

    That's the only thing. Other than that everything else is working fine.

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