[Black Pete]

Newbie warning!
Hello everyone, hope I am in the right place. I am a player, not a modder (yet anyway), and I am writing this cos´I ran into weird technical problems...

Like this: I played the HOTO version of FS2 and got hooked. I was playing the official campain when between I think mission 35 and 36 my comp crashed and restarted! Since then not much has worked properly. I tried creating a new pilot, starting over. And that worked for one session then next time: the same thing. I then: uninstalled, reinstalled, bought new harddrive where I kept the game installed(since the old one was dying and I thought that could be it). No change. I thought **** this, and got hold of the retail version. Same thing happens! The error logs say something about a problem with Directdraw and a problem with writing to a location (a lot of numbers). But the DirectX-diagn. tests passes. My masterdrive is cramped to the max. Could that be it? This is getting frustrating. I want to play, and upgrade to Fs_open and so on...

I have: 2300 AMD cpu, 256M ram, DirectX8, Crappy Graphics card (but over the system requirements)

Any thoughts? Are you just rolling your eyes? Should I direct my problems somewhre else?
Thanks beforehand!

[Clave]

My masterdrive is cramped to the max....256M ram, DirectX8, Crappy Graphics card

Address all these issues first, then you may be in with a chance.

[Black Pete]

But... eh? What are  you talking about? I´m talking FS2 original here. My comp is running freelaps round the rec. requirements.
This is some kind of magic thing that occurred in game when I played without trouble for a while. And its not the same HD, not even the same game! But still: Start a campain and Im ****ed.
I got to update DirectX and so on but I have little hope. These things always happen to me...

(Oh, I had so many pretty medals... .)

[Dark RevenantX]

get something less crapmed.  The nonexistance of the ability to use VRam does weird things.  Free up at lease two gigabytes of space, or get a bigger HD.
You do not need DX9, or a better video card.  They will be a large problem if you want to use SCP, though.
Perhaps the CANT WRITE TO LOCATION error is due to the cramped hd.

[ShadowWolf_IH]

I agree with dark.  Also, as far as i know, not many of the people here really have much experience with the HOTU version, although you will find of answers for it here.  For a nominal fee i could direct you to where to get the FSO's of the actual disks.  but you have to be willing to pay the fee for that.  The fee is...you gotta stick around and become an active and productive member of our little corner of the galaxy.  

k?  let me know if you want the link.

[Dark RevenantX]

Lol!  Good idea to increase the number of active members.  I know this link, but I will not spoil your fun, shadow.

[WMCoolmon]

1) Move the following to a new Freespace 2 directory:
smarty_fs2.vp
sparky_fs2.vp
sparky_hi_fs2.vp
stu_fs2.vp
tango1_fs2.vp
tango2_fs2.vp
tango3_fs2.vp
warble_fs2.vp
root_fs2.vp
FRED2.exe
FS2.exe
Freespace2.exe



2) Run Freespace2.exe . Make sure everything is setup to your liking
3) Run FS2.exe. Does the error still occur?
3a) If yes, download the Launcher and fs2_open 3.6.5 to the new directory, run the Launcher, then fs2_open 3.6.5 and see if the error STILL occurs. If yes, a VP is probably corrupted or something. You might need to defrag your hard drive.
4) Next, copy the files from data/players/single in your old FS2 directory to the same directory in your new one.
5) Start FS2.exe in the new directory, try playing as usual.

IMPORTANT: make a copy of your data/players directory if you care about the pilots in it. 3.6.5 will destructively convert old player files to the new format, it will warn you about this.

Also, as long as you don't use the mediaVPs (or only a couple of the lower-memory intensive ones) you could get as good as or better framerates than retail.

[Black Pete]

Thanks for the input guys, I will try the tips.
As I wrote in thy top post, i´ve moved past HOTU to retail. DL´d the ISO´s from Edonkey so I spoled your fun myself ShadowWolf, sorry;)

[Setekh]

Manners, guys! Welcome to HLP, Pete.

[Black Pete]

Gee, thanks!

[Steel]

definitely defrag your hard drive and free up some space on it.  you say crammed to the max, but not if you have any free space ( pun???) on it.  you must, and as suggested 2GB would be great.

free up the space first, then defrag...

[Black Pete]

Nice! Exellent play with words...
Will try tips when time and money is in my favor. Time since I am a bit tied up with recording a rockopera (I have a home studio) and money to buy a bigger master HD cus´creating "freespace" (giggle) that size is impossible...