Matrix Games Forums

Having a problem with my laptop (winXP) that I don't have with my desktop (win98se).
With pacwar and WIR, the games load fine and start fine. The problem is all of the written info. (letters and numerals) are badly scrambled.

Read a similar thread dealing with a wimME mumeral only display problem. Didn't seem to apply.

Is this an XP problem? Am I missing some settings?

Presario700, winXP home edition, 645mhz mobile duron processor, 240mb ram, 30gig HD

Many thanks,
Bruce

Hi,

this maybe due to "large fonts" and/or "clear type"


from the Uncommon Valor FAQ

== Unreadable fonts (Windows XP):

This is due to Xp´s "ClearType" feature. In order to fix this problem just disable ClearType.

To disable ClearType font smoothing, right-click on your desktop, select Properties, select the Appearance tab and press the Effects button. There is a drop down box to choose between Standard or ClearType font smoothing

if turning of ClearType doesn´t help try to set your system fonts size to "normal" not "big"

Originally posted by brucertx
Having a problem with my laptop (winXP) that I don't have with my desktop (win98se).
With pacwar and WIR, the games load fine and start fine. The problem is all of the written info. (letters and numerals) are badly scrambled.

Read a similar thread dealing with a wimME mumeral only display problem. Didn't seem to apply.

Is this an XP problem? Am I missing some settings?

Presario700, winXP home edition, 645mhz mobile duron processor, 240mb ram, 30gig HD

Many thanks,
Bruce

From what I remember from this showing up in the past it is a Compaq problem, everyone who complains about scrambled text is using some model of Compaq computer.
thanks, John.

Gentlemen,
Thanks for the quick response!
Marc, tried the suggested fix(s). Sorry to say to no avail. John has said it might be a Compaq problem. Something in the display adapter itself possibly? Has anyone else, to your knowledge, found a fix?
I would love to "take" the games with me.
Thanks again,
Bruce

What Graphic processor/card is the Notebook using?

Marc,
Is this the info. you wanted?

S3 Graphics Twister K Compaq 16mb memory.

Bruce

Hello

You might want to try updating the graphics driver...a quick look at the Compaq website revealed several games that had text display problems with various compaq models.

But if you already use the latest drivers..then at least you can whine to Compaq

Voriax

If the Comcrap, opps... Compaq website, doesn't have the latest driver posted for the graphics chip, then you can get it from S3 Graphics website. S3 Graphics Twister Drivers Requires username and password, use archive for both.

Originally posted by Mustang
If the Comcrap, opps... Compaq website, doesn't have the latest driver posted for the graphics chip, then you can get it from S3 Graphics website. S3 Graphics Twister Drivers Requires username and password, use archive for both.

Hehe Mustang, allways on spot

It might indeed be the S3 chip , I heard quite a lot of "bad" things about it when I went through the stores to look for the Laptop I bought recently.

See if this thread helps. Getting Pac War to work in Win XP

Originally posted by Marc Schwanebeck


Hehe Mustang, allways on spot

It might indeed be the S3 chip , I heard quite a lot of "bad" things about it when I went through the stores to look for the Laptop I bought recently.

Back in February there was a good thread on why the text was corrupted. Newer video cards are leaving out EGA compatability so that the EGA fonts in WITP and WIR are corrupted. If you can find a bios update or video driver that adds EGA modes back in, then your problem will be solved. Similar to the problem some people had a while back with trying to run programs like SP or Age of Rifles and the screen output was a 1 in smear on the top of the screen, then it was a case of video cards no longer supporting vesa. Luckily for me, if I load univbe before running those programs the display here will work normally, otherwise I too have that 1 in smear.

Have you by any chance tried running univbe (or under its later name Display Doctor) and see if that helped the display? Back in the days of DOS it helped many imperfect video cards work.
thanks, John.

Thanks all for your speedy input. New drivers didn't help, nor did the info. from the other thread. I'm not familiar with univbe or Display Doctor. Would appreciate some more info.
Looks like it's time to crank up my whining skills with Compaq! Nobody hold their breath..

Once again,
Many thanks

Bruce

Do you have Clear Type Fonts turned on? If not, turn it on and try it that way, if already ready on, turn it off and see how it looks. In case you never heard of it, go to Control Panel, Display, Appearance tab, click the effects button near the bottom, check out the setting on the second line dealing with smoothing edges of screen fonts.

Edit** Just read the whole thread again and saw that Marc had you check the Clear Type Font setting already, Did you try it with that turned off and did it look any better?

Mustang,

I did indeed try disabling clear type fonts, as well as the other tips offered by all the helpful tips by everyone here. all to no avail I'm afraid.

Bruce

Another desperate suggestion: have you tried the XP's compatibility modes?

Voriax

Voriax,

I probably should have said that was the first thing I tried.

Thanks,

Bruce

The problem is related to your graphic chipset. It is a problem that seems almost solely in laptops. It seems to save space [lazy engineering?] that some of the early [DOS era] vesa files have been removed. The only solution is to get an update from the laptop or graphic chip vendor.

If you go to the ATI website and do a search of corrupted text and you should find a decent desription of the problem.

Just wanted to thank everyone for their input. Haven't been able to get any answers from Compaq as of yet. If I get a fix, I'll post it.
Many thanks,
Bruce