Hey Baron any ideas ??

[Dragosani]

being that you appear to have an unfathomable mine of info I was wondering if you can help me with the prob that has prevented me from playing IronStorm for many months now:
(pasted form other boards)
Subject: Did SP2 kill my games ??

My current XPcr8 has had no probs with ANY of my game titles, Then along came SP2. Now none of my MechWarrior, Bioware D&D titles will not run (splash screen then BSOD or just plain old input hangup (trackball/keyboard)). Even my low requirement titles like Aliens vrs Predator gold & MechCommander are now phutzd. BUT I can play D00M3, (even tho my XPcr8 is a AMD duron 1.2ghz, my framerates are equal to what i got when AvPgold worked lol ) Dawn of War, BlackHawk Down, Starcraft, & IronStorm. I have listed these titles to point out the various hardware requirements needed to put to rest the concern of an impotent cr8, after all, if I can handle D00M3, then I should have ZERO problems running older titles on this cr8.
So I can only conclude that it is SP2 that phutzd me, but it appears that i am the only person this happened to, I have yet to hear about this elsewhere.
So I had a g33k re-partition my drive and did the re-install/update/patch dance, including SP1 & SP2 from a 'slipstream' disc I believe he called it.
During this time I purchased a new dell flatscreen ( I 4get the model# ) So I get everything back and start to install all my games again. Same titles dont work/ Same titles do work. This morning I swapped my dell monitor with a buds 17'' futura (Likom D703X) to rule-out the 'auto-adjusting' that the dell does as the cause of my games hanging up.
( yes i have tried lowering the rez, no change, but this rez was fine b4 SP2 )
They still dont work.
So I humbly ask for any insights that I may have overlooked.
need more info..plz say so I have that Everest chumpy for any stats you may need 4 my cr8

Thanxz 4 the eye-ball time

If I only knew an 1/8th of what I think I know

[Baron Waste]

Well, you're certainly not the only one.

http://www.uk.atari.com/third_party/...ead.php?t=3731

So try this:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...m_gamesp2.mspx

and see if that helps. It does explain why your older titles are having problems...

[Dragosani]

Last night after clicking those links I went to the MS support forums (games) and pasted my above post. Hours later, a mod by the name of Chris H. replies with several links to try. yep your 2nd link was one of them. So I returned and informed him that the links dealt with either 'new features' of SP2 or how to get around the online issues. Not even an issue till i get these titles running again.
But what I luv was that his 2nd reply was the usual pat question " did you update your everything? " DUHHHH never thought ov dat DUHHH And more importantly it told me that MS employs mods who read just enough to presume your problem , as opposed to reading it all to get the full conveyance of an idea/concept/problem

Fast Stats of my cr8:
MoBo: Biostar M7VKD
Motherboard Chipset: VIA VT8363A Apollo KT133A
Proc: AMD Duron 1.2 Duron Alias: Morgan
640mb of Ram: (2) 256 PC133 SDRAM
(1) 128 PC133 SDRAM
Video Adapter: nVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 (MSI G4Ti4200)
DirectX:ver 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)

and yes this old cr8 can play the newer titles (DoW & D00M3) even in its current state

You can find our discussion at
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/e...xp.games&fltr=

Its titles " Jimmy S. I beseech you to hear my plea " and i wish that mod would this guy chris aint much help at all, whereas the replies from Jimmy S to other ppls probs, make it clear he is the one 2 C.

Yeah this evolved off-topic, but B4 U DC mods delete/relocate this thread, remember others may have similar problems when they go to start IronStorm.
And if they do, Then a path has already been made to fix it

[Dragosani]

Well gaming budz I must pass this little bit of info along
Yes SP2 had probs with most of my titles, and yes i had the latest EVERYTHING needed for my crate.
My Nvidia driver is newer than the one at the MS update site.
BUT it was not digitally signed by WHQL even tho I got it str8 from Nvidia site
I D/Ld the older version from MS update site
I can now play the titles I have jonesed for over 6 months
SO what is my point ?

WHQL digital signatures make ALL the difference
There is a reason why MS wont digitally sign certain items
I for one will no longer concern myself with just wether or not a 'driver' is the latest, Now I am a strict adherent of digitally signed drivers

[Baron Waste]

Yah, a 'new' driver can still be buggy. Even if it supposedly passed inspection, problems could occur. If it's been signed off, it's practically guaranteed to work. Your unsigned driver may gain its signature yet, but if it doesn't, you've avoided potentially major problems by not using it...