[RayfordSteele]

I'm a FS2 Noob, and having just installed V1.2, I have had the worst time getting the game to run.

Half the time, the game won't load at all, but I'll just get a blank screen.  When it does load and I finally can get to the pilot selection screen, it may or may not crash when I click on anything in the main hanger.  If I get past that, then it crashes trying to load up the mission, each time requiring a hard-reset.

System specs:  AMD 1.3 T-bird
384 MB SD-RAM at 133 mghz
relatively cheesy DFI  AM75-TC mobo. (my Asus was fried by my apartment wiring probs)
3DForce2 MX-64
Turtle Beach Quadzilla, (Aureal 3D 5-speaker digital capable)
Win '98 SE.  (can't afford to spend any money on XP right yet)

[RandomTiger]

Wow, that sounds a bit mad, never heard of anything like that.
Freespace has been one of my more stable games.

I would check that nothing else is running that is interfering with it. For example FS2 and ICQ dont seem to get on too well.

Is your system stable apart from FS2?

Other things you could do:

Check your graphics drivers are up to date and not a beta or anything.
Check your DX files are all the same version and OK
Turn 3D acceleration down in control panel.
Delete your pilot files
Try running game with hardware sound off.
Reinstall it.
Defrag your harddisc
Reinstall your OS
Format your harddrive
Chuck your computer out the window and spit on it

Also you could try the fs2_open exe to see if it works any better:

http://fs2source.warpcore.org/fs2_open.exe

and report the bug if it doesnt work with that to

http://fs2source.warpcore.org/bugzilla/

[RayfordSteele]

Thanks.

Let's see...
No ICQ here.

DX has been a little weird in the distant past.  I use a Saitek X36 HOTAS which came with DX 7 something and was a nightmare to install because of an endless-install loop error of some kind, and also have X-Wing Alliance which came with DX 6 something.  Now I'm running the latest 8.x, but there's probably some old files lurking about, although I wouldn't think they'd be an issue if they're not called up.  Why Microsoft made DX such an impossible nightmare to work with is beyond me.
I'm personally no DX expert.  There was some monitor program somewhere to check what version all the files were, but I don't have the foggiest where it was or what it was called.  Why don't they put it in the @#$% control panel?

Hardware sound off?  Is that in the game options somewhere?

Defragged recently.  Reinstalled Windblows so many times I can see the ads in my sleep.  Graphics drivers should be up-to-date, as I downloaded the latest a few weeks ago.

Machine is relatively stable otherwise, although I used to have blue-screens every once in awhile on boot.  I'm suspicious that my Saitek USB causes it.

And here's a new one:  every once in awhile, my computer will fail to detect my CD-ROM and CD-Writer.

Dude, the next computer I buy will either be a Dell, or a Mac.  I'm done building these things.

[RandomTiger]

Im not sure about your grumbles with DX, its been quite simple for a while now, are you sure theres nothing in control panel?

The hardware sound thing is a problem I used to have. I think I dropped my sound card or something and after that using hardware sound crashed some games.

To be honest it sounds like your system is a bit messed up to me.
If it makes you feel any better I build my own machine as well and my secondry harddisc disappears sometimes and I never got my ISA slots working.

Might be worth trying a different OS.

[diamondgeezer]

Start --> Run --> dxdiag --> Return --> Dunno what you're looking for exactly, but it'd be in there somewhere...

[EDIT] Err... wasn't one of the source code boys telling me that FS2 doesn't use DX8? There is a source code mod in the works, though...

[RandomTiger]

Yep, Im in the middle of that. FS2 is currently DX5.
I could give RayfordSteele a preview exe to try out if he wants but I have a funny feeling it wont make much difference.

[RayfordSteele]

Okay, I found dxdiag squirreled away in it's program files directory;  no flags there, although there's files going back to 3/22/98 in some cases.  Version 8.1.

Maybe there's a DX5 specific file that's messed?

It'll run every so often, depending on the weather, the phase of the moon, etc.  But it usually takes about 5 tries.

Quite simple for somebody whose aware that it's there, perhaps.  But not for the layman.

My system is way too complex to even consider an OS upgrade at this point.  (Plus, I'm outta cash).

Don't bother with ISA unless you absolutely need it.  It'll just slow down your system, or so I've heard.  All kinds of nightmare issues trying to keep it on friendly terms with newer software and hardware.  Sorta like trying to run SBPro emulation.

[Galemp]

Hey. another Left Behind fan!

Stick around, we're all friends here. Just stay away from an0n, he's a little crazy. And Carl and Killfrenzy, the resident Shivans. Flamethrowers are located behind the seats, plasma rifles in the lockers to the back, exits here and here, and your seat can be used as a flotation device in case of an emergency.

[glow=green]WELCOME TO THE HLP BB![/glow][/i][/b]

[RayfordSteele]

Galactic, what do we do if the pilot suddenly disappears? :wink:

Tiger, I tried your download, couldn't get it to run.
Tried 2 things:  1.  putting it in my main fs2 directory and just running it, and 2.  moving the factory executable out, renaming your file to fs2.exe, and running it.  Both times I got error logs.  Want me to send 'em?

[Knight Templar]

*Powering up main n00b fryer beam™*

"sir our heat sinks cannot stand the pressure! we have to stand down or we rip ourselves apart!"

" Damnit! .... Fine "

"open up Tertiary weapons systems.. gunnery control, you may fire when ready."

[Galemp]

Originally posted by RayfordSteele
Galactic, what do we do if the pilot suddenly disappears? :wink:

Hope we disappear too, of course.

(Sorry for the spam; can't help you with the problem.)

[vadar_1]

This sounds like you have of corrupted files, possibly due to a bad patchjob. Try a fresh reinstall, make sure it works, then patch it again.

edit:

Half the time, the game won't load at all, but I'll just get a blank screen. When it does load and I finally can get to the pilot selection screen, it may or may not crash when I click on anything in the main hanger. If I get past that, then it crashes trying to load up the mission, each time requiring a hard-reset.

Game wont load at all -> possible intro.MVE corruption, or bad initilization, due to sound, etc. At mainhall -> ANI corruptions, sounds, etc. So far these could be the result of a VP file corruption. Finally the loading of a  mission checks of files... across all the VPs... a corruption of any one of those thousands of files would lock it up.

[Stealth]

lol, vadar, you could've linked to my page you know

http://www.3dap.com/hlp/hosted/stealth/

click 'TUTORIALS' then 'UPDATING FREESPACE 2'

[RayfordSteele]

No patches currently running, and wouldn't a corrupted file kill it every time?  About 30% of the time it runs okay.

(Ray turns on his Lucifer shield...  Hah hah!  Can't hurt me!)

[vadar_1]

Originally posted by RayfordSteele
No patches currently running, and wouldn't a corrupted file kill it every time?  About 30% of the time it runs okay.

(Ray turns on his Lucifer shield...  Hah hah!  Can't hurt me!)

Not neccesarily. For me, I don't know if its a corruption or just a bad file, but the Shivan mara rotation ani for the weapons loadout screen (or maybe thats ship selection, but anyways) is semi-corrupted. So sometimes it will work fine, sometimes it goes all weird colors, and sometimes the ani crashes fs2 on me. On a larger scale, i once had a bad stick of memory in my computer, and winXP kept ****ing with me. Randomly throwing bluescreens and lockups at me from time to time. So a corrupted gamefile isn't always sure to act up. It might just do strange things. It seems odd that a patch would make the game incompatable with your system... though it does happen sometimes... like patch 1.04 for JKII... stupid lightsaber nurfing.... bastards...

[HAF-Guntharg]

Isnt there like two versions of directx?? One for NT technology like Win XP, Win 2000, and another for Win 98, Win 95 etc. It's possible that you have directx for Win XP, Win 2000 which whenever it tries to access directx, it would cause errors. My friend had a similar problem with his.

[Brummel]

if your systemfiles are all ok (?!), and if nevertheless you get bluescreens periodically, I suggest to check your RAM (just plug only 1 into the bank for each test).

The order of installing the drivers is important:
1) mainboard/chipset drivers
2) DX
3) VGA

is SDRAM clock set to 2? try to reduce to cl 2.5 or 3...
did you overclock anything?
how do other games behave?

FS2 is running with DX8! With Win XP and 98 SE...

put OFF you controller and try to run FS with Keyb...whats happening then?