New video card

pcarell · Post by **pcarell** » Sun Dec 23, 2001 4:31 am

I installed a nVidia geforce2MX400 64mB gamecard and now my SPWAW (v7.0) crashes as soon as the AI fires. Reducing the hardware acceleration improved the situation but it still crashes. I have 320 mB of RAM. Someone suggested this might be an open GL incompatibility, whatever that means. Does this mean the end of SPWAW, the best game there is? Help!

john g · Post by **john g** » Sun Dec 23, 2001 5:11 am

Originally posted by paulcarell:
I installed a nVidia geforce2MX400 64mB gamecard and now my SPWAW (v7.0) crashes as soon as the AI fires. Reducing the hardware acceleration improved the situation but it still crashes. I have 320 mB of RAM. Someone suggested this might be an open GL incompatibility, whatever that means. Does this mean the end of SPWAW, the best game there is? Help!

Spwaw doesn't use opengl for video, that is normally used only for 3d gaming like fps. It uses directx. What you have is a conflict between your nvidia video driver and directx. What driver version and directx version do you have? Don't feel too bad, most of the players of spww2 can't play it after they change to nvidia boards. Nvidia boards are great at what they do (play quake3 very fast), but they have a history of having terrible drivers (users have to change drivers each time they want to play a different game) and there has never been a stable product that will work 100% with directx (just ask Derek Smart his opinion of their boards).
thanks, John.

pcarell · Post by **pcarell** » Sun Dec 23, 2001 6:36 am

Thanks. I have DX8.0. The driver is nvdisp.drv version 4.13.2311. I deleted the steel.prf file and got to turn 2 before crashing.

Frank W. · Post by **Frank W.** » Sun Dec 23, 2001 9:47 pm

Originally posted by paulcarell:
Thanks. I have DX8.0. The driver is nvdisp.drv version 4.13.2311. I deleted the steel.prf file and got to turn 2 before crashing.

hallo paul!

i have a geforce mx,too.
the one from hercules.

this card makes absolutly no
problems with any game....

but,i must admit that i have not
installed the 7.00 version...

i have heard that there is a driver
version from nvidia that causes problems
under 2000 and xp.

check this and update the driver.

greeetinx

frank

gdpsnake · Post by **gdpsnake** » Mon Dec 24, 2001 1:00 am

Good info,
I was thinking of getting an NVidea card but not if they cause such problems. I currently have a rage fury maxx but that causes problems with other games like stronghold, Russo-German war, Cossacks and some others.
Seems cards are being developed for the 3d action first person shooters which I hate.
Anyone know a new card that will work well with 3d RPG and wargames that use directX? Which are the best video cards? And what motherboards/processors should I look into?

BomBeer · Post by **BomBeer** » Wed Dec 26, 2001 4:49 am

I got a ATI Radeon 7500 with Win2K. It runs SPWaW v7 great. This card is also great with 3d games.

moore4807 · Post by **moore4807** » Wed Dec 26, 2001 5:10 am

I too have Hercules mx400 64mb Videocard, current driver update is .2181 I noticed it worked better with Win98SE than the new XP I installed. SPWAW 7.0 gets choppy but doesnt freeze, however having said that it SUCKS with Diablo II (constant crash)
I personally think its the XP thats causing it, funny though I've also noticed that my Symantec Norton 2002 wont recognize the Video driver but it shows up when I look it up under properties...

Still monkeying around with it-wish you luck too.

tracer · Post by **tracer** » Tue Jan 01, 2002 12:49 am

Try using the DirectX diagnostic program; when you install DirectX this program (DxDiag.exe) is placed in your windows/system folder and a shortcut for it is placed in the program files/directx/setup folder. This will test how your video card (and other system hardware) runs DirectX commands.

I use a Creative Labs TNT2 Blaster Ultra32 and have always been able to run SPWAW, though I will get the occasional 'burp' when the game launches ('directx initialization failed', rarely, and hitting 'enter' fixes that). I previously used the nVidia reference drivers, but lately these have been optimized for G-force based boards so I switched to the manufacturers latest drivers.

Frank W. · Post by **Frank W.** » Tue Jan 01, 2002 1:05 am

Originally posted by gdpsnake:
Good info,
I was thinking of getting an NVidea card but not if they cause such problems. I currently have a rage fury maxx but that causes problems with other games like stronghold, Russo-German war, Cossacks and some others.
Seems cards are being developed for the 3d action first person shooters which I hate.
Anyone know a new card that will work well with 3d RPG and wargames that use directX? Which are the best video cards? And what motherboards/processors should I look into?

no prob - get a geforce card.

because of new version (gefroce3 ti500) the "old" gf 2 had become cheaper.

i run almost everything w/ the geforce exc. old dos stuff. okay,i´m not shure for 2000+XP,but on 95/98/98SE/98ME this card series are good.

i read some review of the new ati cards,recomendable,too as it seems...

pcarell · Post by **pcarell** » Thu Jan 03, 2002 12:52 am

Thanks for your various suggestions. DXDiag shows no problems. It now looks as if the problem is not the nvidea card; I switched to a Radeon card and SPWAW still crashes as soon as either side fires. I have ordered MC#3 so I can reinstall.
Meanwhile are there any other suggestions. I haven't been able to play SPWAW for over a month, and that's no kind of life. Will there be an answer in 2002?

Frank W. · Post by **Frank W.** » Thu Jan 03, 2002 1:34 am

Originally posted by paulcarell:
Thanks for your various suggestions. DXDiag shows no problems. It now looks as if the problem is not the nvidea card; I switched to a Radeon card and SPWAW still crashes as soon as either side fires. I have ordered MC#3 so I can reinstall.
Meanwhile are there any other suggestions. I haven't been able to play SPWAW for over a month, and that's no kind of life. Will there be an answer in 2002?

what have you changed till your last non crah play?? find out and try to refigure it...

sometimes chipsets of athlon boards make problems. those from via AFAIK.

i going w/ intel + win´98 and everything runs fine here,okay no help for your peinful living without SPWAW <img src="frown.gif" border="0">

moore4807 · Post by **moore4807** » Thu Jan 03, 2002 1:50 am

Paul,
Maybe I missed it but what system are you running with the video card? I've just found out that my 2 yr old motherboard only supports 8mb of direct video... I'm abusing it with 64mb video ( it lives comfortably in the 32mb range without throwing up). This is the source of my problem according to the manufacturer... (advice taken with a large grain of salt).
Time to convince the wife for a new desktop...hehehe

pcarell · Post by **pcarell** » Fri Jan 04, 2002 10:57 pm

It looks like a sound problem, rather tan the video card! I turned off the sound FX at preferences, and the crashes stopped. Best of all, with the sound back on SPWAW continues to run. Keeping my fingers crossed! <img src="tongue.gif" border="0">