possible stupid question

[CAP1]

hi guys, geeks, and gurus(well, the geeks and gurus are one and the same, so i say that with all respect  )

anyway, just got a new machine.

amd athalon dual core processor 6000+
3.01 ghz, 2 gig ddr3 ram, 80 gig hard drive, and it's a high rpm one, but i forget exactly what speed.....the guy that built it for me knew though, that my only concern with this machine was aces high though.

geforce 8600gt with 256mb, although he had told me it was made by asus?

got an acer 22" lcd monitor with it.


anyway, i d/l'd the game last night, installed, and opened the main screen. it was flashing colors and grey, and the clipboard was kinda sorta spinning.

so......i read about the driver update, which i will try tonight if i get home early enough, but what else should i do to fix this? or what else can i do to take full advantage of the new system?


thanks guys!!

john

[ImADot]

AMD dual-cores have a hardware bug, so you'll have to run AH2 in compatibility mode, or disable one core to play.  Search for "Spinning Clipboard" or look at Skuzzy's stickied posts.

[emanonpettes]

You may also want to read a post that is a bit further down "skuzzy help, new system keeps freezing up".

I was in the same boat, and read that link, which in turn led me to this forum link....

http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,199451.0.html

Which led me to the AMD site....

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_13118,00.html

Where you will find the dual core optimizer patch vesion 1.1.4.  This is what ultimately led to my game not freezing up, or showing gray looking screens with the spinning clipboard.

Hope this helps.

 

[CAP1]

cool/.....i'll chec k these all out.......but on dot's suggestion....if i disable one core....won 't i be hurting myself performance wise?

thanks!

john

[ImADot]

You shouldn't see any difference.  I think I read somewhere recently (perhaps in the aforementioned Skuzzy-help post) that the second core helps with background downloads and without it you would see little freezes and/or warping during skin downloads, etc.  I believe most of the performance is realized in good graphics and sound cards which free up the bulk of the CPU's tasks.

[Denholm]

If you have Windows XP (Pro, Home, Media, etc...) SP3 you have the dual-core patch. Just make sure to run the game in compatibility mode, Win 98 compatibility mode to be precise.

[CAP1]

If you have Windows XP (Pro, Home, Media, etc...) SP3 you have the dual-core patch. Just make sure to run the game in compatibility mode, Win 98 compatibility mode to be precise.

the machine does have windoz xp service pack 3.

 i tried the things in skuzzys sticky, on my shop puter. that was screwing up when i tried to watch a film.......did the windows update, and did the amd updat thing......the film viewer works fine now on that one. when i get home, i;ll be trying it out on that machine.

thanks!

think i'll try the easy way first, and set it to compatability as you suggest.

thanks guys!

[CAP1]

If you have Windows XP (Pro, Home, Media, etc...) SP3 you have the dual-core patch. Just make sure to run the game in compatibility mode, Win 98 compatibility mode to be precise.

ok.....i set it up to run in windows98 compatability mode. it got me in, but it was like......uumm......like an inchworm. it would haul bellybutton for a few seconds, then come to a screeching halt. then run fast again, then halt......a few seconds of each. it only does it in the game, nowhere else.



i then installed the amd patch from skuzzys post, and still the same thing. i did not install the windows patch as i have xp sp3 on this machine.

 anything else i can try?


thanks!!

[Denholm]

Try the Windows Patch. If it is a critical update it's typically something you want on your system. However there are those few times when you have to dodge some updates for the purpose of keeping certain software applications running. For instance a game I played called, "Free Allegiance" would generate a fatal error if you had .NET Framework 1.1 (with the hotfix) and .NET Framework 2.1 (SP1) installed. So I had to avoid the SP1 update for the .NET Framework 2.0 to keep the game running.

However I don't think you'll have to avoid any updates to play AH. Hopefully you get it fixed, sounds like a real pain.

[emanonpettes]

If you have the SP 3 the hotfix patch (kb896256) will not install.  You will get a message saying the service pack you are using has a more recent version.

I'm at a loss where to go from here for you.   The dual core optimizer (ver. 1.1.4) seemed to be the ticket to getting my machine back to where it needed to be.  Did you try NOT playing in compatability mode with the amd patch?  I was going to try that as my last resort, but did not need to as the patch seems to have worked.

At this point I'm at the end of my "experience".   Good Luck!

[skribetm]

maybe you minimized the program during the first run when it was caching the planeset/textures? when i did that last time the clipboard did funky stuff so i had to reinstall.

i'd update windows xp, nvidia drivers but leave the AMD cpu alone as the windows update shouldve fixed the issue.

ever tried a clean reformat and reinstall?

good luck and hope to hear you fix it soon.

[AirFlyer]

Seems they got the driver issue under control, on an other note I was under the impression the old AMD dual-cores couldn't utilize DDR3 memory, I could be wrong on this.

[Skuzzy]

I am not aware of any AMD dual-core CPU which can use DDR3 memory.  The first AMD CPU to support DDR3 (with some bugs/limitations) is the Phenom II CPU's.

[CAP1]

I am not aware of any AMD dual-core CPU which can use DDR3 memory.  The first AMD CPU to support DDR3 (with some bugs/limitations) is the Phenom II CPU's.

HHMMM.......
does the type of ram show in the dxdiag? i could've sworn that he said ddr3. would it not run at all, or would it do silly stupid stuff like this?

he's told me that he runs diablo? on his machine, which is the exact setup as mine, with no problems.

thanks again guys.....

[skribetm]

I am not aware of any AMD dual-core CPU which can use DDR3 memory.  The first AMD CPU to support DDR3 (with some bugs/limitations) is the Phenom II CPU's.

i'm not sure what bugs skuzzy is talking about, 'coz just yesterday a $229 AMD CPU with DDR3 just laid the hammer down on a $1000 Nehalem Core i7 extreme.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=3659852&postcount=180

http://www.overclock.net/hardware-news/462737-xs-team-finland-phenom-ii-3dmark.html

..oops, forgot the youtube vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwkzY8a8aFs&fmt=22