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by **SSJ4Goku** » Tue Feb 24, 2004 9:26 am

Hi,
I have some serious problems when running games in Windows XP.
I can install the games and run them a few times then after that they dont load at all no errors or anything - just get a quick flicker of the hourglass then nothing. But the weird thing is if i apply a no cd crack to the game it will work, but i dont want to do this as i have payed for and own these games. And after the game is run afew times i get the same problem again.
I have checked my directx settings and done all the tests and it reports nothing is wrong.
My pc specs are:
ECS K7S5A motherboard
AMD Athlon XP 1800+
256MB RAM
80GB Seagate HDD
Onboard sound - Cmedia AC97
Geforce FX5200 video card
Running Windows XP Pro

The games i have tried are Neverwinter Nights, Max Payne 2, Rainbox Six 3: Raven Shield, Broken Sword 3.

They all have the same problem.
I think there could be an Windows XP hardware compatibility issue but im not sure.
I have run Neverwinter Nights on Redhat Linux 9 - using the Linux binaries, its runs perfect and i dont have these problems.
I have also got Max Payne 2 running perfect in Linux with Winex. This is why i am thinking its a windows issue - anyone know of issues with AMD or ECS motherboards in WinXP?.

If someone could help me find the problem here it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

by **liljim** » Tue Feb 24, 2004 7:49 pm

This is a somewhat picky board.(im on one now)Its very power hungry,whats your power supply?What type of memory are you using?What version board is it?Look in the lower left hand corner near the pci slots and you will see rev 1.x/3.x unless its a pro.Also on the back of the mobo manual it should say what it is.Another thing that makes this board run great is a bios flash offered by "Honey X".Theres more on that and alot of other issues with this board

by **SSJ4Goku** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 2:08 am

by **liljim** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 9:03 am

by **SSJ4Goku** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 11:19 am

by **liljim** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 6:44 pm

Do you have any pci cards in slot 1?

*as suggested in ks75a forum,can you get your hands on a different cdrom drive?

by **SSJ4Goku** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 9:52 pm

Yeah i tried that on xp and still had the same problem.
I have had different cdrom drives in my pc and still have this problem.
Anyway i think it may be fixed.
I have installed Windows ME - installed the standard drivers from my motherboard and video card cds.
Installed Neverwinter Nights and Broken Sword 3.
Both games are still working without crashing - its been about 12 hours since i installed the games on ME whereas they crashed after about 2 hours on XP.
So maybe there is an incompatibility with my hardware and XP.
I was thinking this as the games also worked perfect on linux, even though they were running on winex except for Neverwinter Nights.

I think the os was the problem but only time will tell.
Thanks for all your help.

by **liljim** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 11:36 pm

it hurts to see someone leave XP for ME...one last suggestion if you decide to try again is the sis agp driver found ,If you havent already done so.

by **SSJ4Goku** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 5:35 am

Yeah i also had the latest agp drivers in XP.
I know i dont want to use ME but at least it is working in ME.
I have win2k also i might give that a try see if i have better luck

by **Wigwam** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 11:57 pm

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