Odd Video Problem: Screen Blackouts

herald · Post by **herald** » Mon Apr 15, 2002 5:17 am

Hello, Fellow Warriors:

Just finished DL'ing & Installing SPWAW. I must say this
game is AWESOME. Worth every second of the 40+hours
it took to DL.

To my problem:
I have to place this in the "Serious Annoyance" category.
Quite frequently (every minute or so) my screen will
black out. It can happen on any portion of the game or the
editor. The resaon it is only a "Serious Annoyance" is that
moving the mouse around will cause the screen to reappear
wherever the cursor passes over. Additionally, any action
that causes the map to move will bring back the screen.

I am running:
Windows 2000 Pro SP2
Athlon 1500Mhz
1 GB PCI 150 RAM
Sound Blaster Audigy
NVIDIA Ge-Force II GTS with 64MB DDR RAM
Detonator 23.11 Drivers
DirectX 8.1a

Any Hints?
Thanks,
Herald

Mojo · Post by **Mojo** » Mon Apr 15, 2002 5:47 am

Mine does that when Norton Antivirus decides to start up on it's own which it does for some reason from time to time. Maybe something you have running in the background?

I am, BTW, a certified computer dummy so if this is a ridiculous response pls disregard

bchapman · Post by **bchapman** » Mon Apr 15, 2002 7:33 am

I have this problem too. Sometimes when starting a game, it will start up on a blank screen. I have to move my mouse around to find a button to select. After selecting a play mode, the screen appears normal. Also, If I Alt-Tab out of SPWAW and go to another program, then re-enter SPWAW, the screen is blank until I move the mouse (Which unerases the area that the pointer passes over), and as Herald pointed out, if you can make the map move, the screen re-appears.

Then there doesn't seem to be a problem until I exit and re-enter again.
Not sure if this is related to my previous posted message or not. I usually play the game with something running in the background, including Norton. On my old computer, when Norton started up, everything would freeze up, but I never notice that Norton is running on my new system, except for boot up.

Supervisor · Post by **Supervisor** » Tue Apr 16, 2002 2:12 am

SPWAW was designed to run at 800x600, try running it at this resolution it may help also double check your refresh setting for the monitor. Try running the game directly from the mech.exe file, this bypasses the autorun menu, which are notorious for memory leaks. Delete the steel.prf and holder.txt (if you have one) file within the MatrixGames\SPWAW\save folder then restart the game. When you change anything in the prefernce screen the steel.prf file will be recreated don't worry about the holder.txt file it does nothing but has proven to be a problem for some unexplained enomolies.

chief · Post by **chief** » Tue Apr 16, 2002 8:02 am

BPCHAPMAN: Since my game is basically your game with updates to 7.1 and MCLV installed. I wanted to say that its working fine at this end and you may want to check further in your machine. I would assume that if mine works without a failure yours should also. I believe you understand what I'm mumbling about. Good Luck guy......chief:(

bchapman · Post by **bchapman** » Tue Apr 16, 2002 7:44 pm

Chief, I'm beginning to think it's my video card.

I've checked for new drivers, and have the latest ones installed. I might try down grading my Direct X. It really isn't causing me any great problems I can't live with, just a little frustrating sometimes.
Thanks,
Bascom

chief · Post by **chief** » Tue Apr 16, 2002 8:35 pm

BPCHAPMAN: I may be behind times but I have Direct X ver 4.03 still installed....goes to show you, I guess I believe in if its working don't update. Someday it will probably catch up to me and then..........

Good luck guy

mogami · Post by **mogami** » Wed Apr 17, 2002 5:18 am

Hi, Before playing close everything not needed by cntr-alt-del
This will free up memory and avoid software/hardware conflicts
with multiple programs trying to use the same VxB /IRQ.

Supervisor · Post by **Supervisor** » Wed Apr 17, 2002 6:02 am

Cheif: How can you get away with that DirectX version? SPWAW requires 6.1 to run properly. Never less if it ain't broke don't fix it eh!:D

:rolleyes:

chief · Post by **chief** » Wed Apr 17, 2002 7:13 am

Gmenfan: Yeah I know what your saying about 6.1, but before I ran my last post I looked up my latest configuration report and I re-checked my CNET Catch up and they both confirm that version. Its funny though when I install a couple of SSI games for variation, (I'm sorry guys I weaken and have to have a morale boost) they install 7.x and all works fine till I remove said games and everything goes back to 4.3 version. I never remove SPWAW from machine. I can install PG II, SP III and Silent Hunter and still have over 400Mbs free space. By the way that's one of those games at a time, I only have a 2GB hard drive and 48MB RAM. I guess I live right and the gods of SPWAW smile on me or maybe they are laughing like halibut. :rolleyes:

tracer · Post by **tracer** » Wed Apr 24, 2002 5:38 pm

I had this exact same problem; it would occur about 1 of every 10 times I launched SPWAW, beginning with version 5. I was using a Creative Labs Ultra Blaster (TNT2, nVidia Detonator drivers) vid card and DirectX 7.0; when I switched to a Radeon 7500 and DirectX 8.0a in January the problem disappeared. I originally installed DirectX 8.1 with the new card, but it caused numerous display problems in SPWAW. Hope some of this helps.

herald · Post by **herald** » Fri Apr 26, 2002 11:26 am

Many Thanks to all for the suggestions. The situation
has improved somewhat, but not gone away entirely.
I think I am going to have to back out DX8.1a, and try
it with 8.0

Thanks
Herald

Warhorse · Post by **Warhorse** » Fri Apr 26, 2002 8:19 pm

I noticed my files say 4.3 also, but it is indeed version 7! I think that is just a version of the file, not the version of DX involved?! I'm afraid to try version 8, as I run many older DOS games too, and they are tricky enough to run with Win ME, much less throwing DX8 at them!!:eek:

tracer · Post by **tracer** » Sun Apr 28, 2002 6:29 pm

Originally posted by herald
Many Thanks to all for the suggestions. The situation has improved somewhat, but not gone away entirely. I think I am going to have to back out DX8.1a, and try it with 8.0

If you plan on dropping back to a previous version of DirectX you'll need to use a program like DirectX-Buster to clean out the files first. Its available at www.directxbuster.de free of charge.

herald · Post by **herald** » Mon Apr 29, 2002 1:20 am

Well, I used DX Buster, and reverted to DX 8.0, and lo,
my graphics problems have all gone away!

Many thanks to all here,
and Happy Tanking!

Herald

Supervisor · Post by **Supervisor** » Mon Apr 29, 2002 1:36 am

Great news, now feel free to join us for the down and dirty ins and outs of SPWAW in the SPWAW forum.

chief · Post by **chief** » Fri May 24, 2002 3:37 am

Warhorse: Just got back from vacation up in the north country and saw your post on versions of Direct X, I now undrstand how I've been getting away with 4.3? for so long, thanks for clearing that up.

Gmenfan: I guess that also clears it up for you as how I was able to get away with it. Boy have I got a lot of reading in front of me.
I had withdrawal pains two days after i left my comp behind and my brother-in-law didn't have internet.

Its great to be back on line/forum

George Marker · Post by **George Marker** » Fri May 24, 2002 3:55 am

I had this problem last summer and I finally had to replace the video card. Have not had any problems since that time.

Odd Video Problem: Screen Blackouts

Odd Video Problem: Screen Blackouts

close all programs

ha hahh