Need help with 8.0 and Win2000 (Full Version)

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sf_bill -> Need help with 8.0 and Win2000 (3/17/2004 11:03:32 PM)

I play during lunch hour at work and my PC has been upgraded to Win2000, 1Gig RAM, Pent 4 3.2GHz and Direct X 9.0b.

When I start the game (game window or mech.exe) the screen goes black and then goes back to Windows. No error messages. I tried setting to different screen resolutions but no improvement. I installed from a copy I used for my home computer (which works fine) and downloaded a fresh install without any change. Even tried 8.01 as a lark but no change.

Any suggestions? I have played SPWAW during lunch for the past 3+ years and would like to continue as I do not get much time at home for games.

Thanks,
Bill J



Les_the_Sarge_9_1 -> RE: Need help with 8.0 and Win2000 (3/18/2004 12:13:05 AM)

I do wish you luck, but hmm I am wondering why a company would use a 4 year old OS for a "new" upgrade?

I would have thought they would have gone with XP Pro

For that matter, it is interesting that you can still buy Win 2000.



chief -> RE: Need help with 8.0 and Win2000 (3/18/2004 8:07:07 AM)

Does Win 2000 have a "Compatibility Mode" like XP, if so try it in Win 9x compat. mode.

Just a tought....Good luck



chief -> RE: Need help with 8.0 and Win2000 (3/18/2004 8:10:23 AM)

Another quick tought......Is your "DirectX 8.0 or better ?



Voriax -> RE: Need help with 8.0 and Win2000 (3/18/2004 4:35:59 PM)

Admin restrictions? Perhaps you are not allowed to install&run additional programs?

Voriax



Major_Johnson -> RE: Need help with 8.0 and Win2000 (3/18/2004 7:40:51 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Les_the_Sarge_9_1

I do wish you luck, but hmm I am wondering why a company would use a 4 year old OS for a "new" upgrade?

I would have thought they would have gone with XP Pro

For that matter, it is interesting that you can still buy Win 2000.


Well I'll tell ya, were I work we upgrade users to w2k, as well as XP. And in the past few months I've even reinstalled NT!!! Honestly allot depends on what software they need to run. As we all know, allot of the older software, like our DOS based games, just will not run on anything newer than a 9x based operating system. As for your comment about still being able to purchase w2k, I've even seen ME for sale!!
Just some FYI. [:)]



Major_Johnson -> RE: Need help with 8.0 and Win2000 (3/18/2004 8:08:23 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: sf_bill

I play during lunch hour at work and my PC has been upgraded to Win2000, 1Gig RAM, Pent 4 3.2GHz and Direct X 9.0b.

When I start the game (game window or mech.exe) the screen goes black and then goes back to Windows. No error messages. I tried setting to different screen resolutions but no improvement. I installed from a copy I used for my home computer (which works fine) and downloaded a fresh install without any change. Even tried 8.01 as a lark but no change.

Any suggestions? I have played SPWAW during lunch for the past 3+ years and would like to continue as I do not get much time at home for games.

Thanks,
Bill J



One question is, was it an actualy upgrade from the old o/s (operating system), or did they wipe your old system and do a fresh install of w2k? If it was a true upgrade from the old o/s, that may have whacked SPWAW, and you need to uninstall, the reinstall. If you did a fresh install of SPWAW on w2k, it should work. But let's start with the first scenario, that it was an upgrade. This is what I would do:

1. I would copy any saved scenarios or MC's to another folder somewhere else on your hard drive, and if you have the room, just copy the whole SPWAW folder and it's contents.
2. Uninstall SPWAW from your system (using add/remove programs) then delete the remaining original install folders. This is to make sure that any remnants from the original install is totally off your pc.
3. Then, using add/remove programs, do a fresh install of SPWAW.

Footnote: I'm in the IT field, so in a way, this is what I do. I say use add/remove programs because that is what I was told when taking some introductory training for w2k. My instructor said to always use add/remove programs when installing/uninstalling programs, because that gives windows more control over the process. And I have seen that proved true while doing my job, where if you just click the .exe a program may not install correctly and hence will not run correctly. But when I used the add/remove programs option and choose the .exe that way,the program installed and ran properly.

Now if this was fresh install of w2k, then I would just do #3 of my suggestions.

You also mentioned a black screen. That could point to a video driver problem. Did you check to see if there were any upgrade for your video driver?? You might find one by going to the windows update site and letting it scan for any updates that your system might need and that will include driver updates.

I hope you get your issue solved. But just out of curiousity, how can you only play SPWAW for an hour?? [:D]



sf_bill -> RE: Need help with 8.0 and Win2000 (3/19/2004 12:04:27 AM)

[:(]

Used Add/Delete Progam to uninstall and got a runtime error for ium6002.exe and the uninstall aborted. Uninstalled again and no error and SPWAW uninstalled. Reinstalled from CDROM using Add/Delete. When I ran mech.exe the screen switches to 800x600 but then pops back into windows.

Not sure what else to do. 1 hour per day does not seem like a lot but it is alot more than the 0 hours I am at now.

Any additional help would be appreciated!!!!

Thanks,
Bill



Belisarius -> RE: Need help with 8.0 and Win2000 (3/19/2004 1:18:10 AM)

sf_bill

this is an indirect answer; ask dlazov.

If he doesn't know, then I have no clue. [&:]



tracer -> RE: Need help with 8.0 and Win2000 (3/19/2004 7:36:38 PM)

I've put v7.1, v8.0 and H2H-fr on my Win2000Pro box without an incident...I think those who pointed to 'permissions' are on the right track.



Major_Johnson -> RE: Need help with 8.0 and Win2000 (3/21/2004 12:55:14 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: sf_bill

[:(]

Used Add/Delete Progam to uninstall and got a runtime error for ium6002.exe and the uninstall aborted. Uninstalled again and no error and SPWAW uninstalled. Reinstalled from CDROM using Add/Delete. When I ran mech.exe the screen switches to 800x600 but then pops back into windows.

Not sure what else to do. 1 hour per day does not seem like a lot but it is alot more than the 0 hours I am at now.

Any additional help would be appreciated!!!!

Thanks,
Bill



Well, then to me it seems like a video driver/card issue. If the program installed without any errors, then I don't think it's a persmissions issue. I suggest you make sure that you have the latest and greatest driver for your video card. One way to do that is by selecting windows update from your start menu (Start button). Once it gets to the webpage, follow the prompts and let it scan for updates. There are 3 catagorys of updates, Critical, Suggested and Driver. There just might be an updated driver for your video card listed there. If so, click on driver and choose to add the update and then run it. Let us know how you make out.



robot -> RE: Need help with 8.0 and Win2000 (3/21/2004 5:11:02 PM)

Windows doesnt always have the latest drivers out listed as updates. I have tried the windows update thing to check for newer drivers and have yet had one listed. The best way to check for newer drivers is to go to your cards web page. Im not sure but i think there was a thred abut 2000 problems here before. At that time something was suggested about downloading some thing to fix 2000, To help spwaw to work with it.



robot -> RE: Need help with 8.0 and Win2000 (3/21/2004 5:15:19 PM)

Do you have 8.0 d installed. Wasnt there a patch to 8.0 to make it 8.1 I run xp and have not had any problems at all. I run it at 600 x 800 32 bit. Have only been kicked out of the game once i believe and this was during a bombardment. Had to run from mech exec is all. Dont get the opening credits is all. But after the first time i usually turn them off or fast click thru anyways.



Major_Johnson -> RE: Need help with 8.0 and Win2000 (3/21/2004 5:29:24 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: robot

Windows doesnt always have the latest drivers out listed as updates. I have tried the windows update thing to check for newer drivers and have yet had one listed. The best way to check for newer drivers is to go to your cards web page.



This is so true, but if someone really doesn't know a whole lot about computers and their workings (which is 90% of the people that I support) the Windows update is the easiest first step. BTW, the other 10 % of the people I support know just enough to really f*ck things up, and then they call me!!![:D]

The video cards manufacturer site is the preferred method.



robot -> RE: Need help with 8.0 and Win2000 (3/21/2004 5:40:43 PM)

True so true i am in the 10% of the people. I let my son do the walking thru the yellow pages for me. That way i have some one other then myself to blame.



Major_Johnson -> RE: Need help with 8.0 and Win2000 (3/23/2004 7:06:57 PM)

Yo rf! You get this problem resolved yet??

Well get this, I ran into what might be the same problem just this past weekend. I had been having some major o/s problems with XP the past few weeks, so this weekend I bit the bullet and installed ME. (Now don't all you pc savvy guys out there start shaking your heads!! [:)] If ME is patched and you have your anti-virus up to date and a firewall running, it's just as good, or bad for that matter, as any other Windows o/s. [;)]) Anyway, after reinstalling the game, and launching it, all I got was a black screen, like the introduction videos were trying to play, but not. Well I just did my normal thing of hitting the esc key twice and the main menu appeared. So it's a long shot, but I just wanted to share. Good luck!



sf_bill -> RE: Need help with 8.0 and Win2000 (3/24/2004 11:02:12 PM)

I tried to updating everything I could find (Direct X, video drivers, etc...) with no luck. I deleted all references in the Registry to SPWAW based on the advice from dlazov and did a clean reinstall to no avail.

I guess I will have to wait till we move to XP to try again.

Thanks for all the suggestions



SteeliiiBart -> RE: Need help with 8.0 and Win2000 (3/25/2004 2:20:57 AM)

I have w2k and use Spwaw without problems cause i use mech.exe.

If you start the program using the start/programs menu you either start start.exe or spwaw.exe both will try to run a video before you see the actual menu.

During video play the video card is forced to a mode it may not support causing a black screen or freeze.

Just go to the spwaw folder and double click on mech.exe.
Then you will have 600x800 mode supported by all video cards i guess.



Play online it's more fun.



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