JediBaron

Well I have an interesting little update. I just installed it on a fresh copy of Win2k. First off, the NT4 drivers HAVE to be installed and then un-installed. This gives you the needed registry entries for the player to install. After that, I installed the Creative Win2k drivers (I actually installed these first to test it out, but had to install them again to overwrite the NT4 driver files which have some of the same file names) One interesting side note on the clean install was that the autoconfigure on the screen worked just fine, so maybe it was just all my experimenting that caused it not to wok before. Later, JediBaron

Personally, I'm utterly convinced that the snap/crackle is a hardware resource problem. It appears to only happen in Win2k, only with certain motherboards, and only in certain configs. I had the problem with my K6-450 system before and now I've upgraded to and entirely new Athlon 750 and the problem just went away. I did have another problem with the sound system at first though. It appears that my Live card has really short leads and small differences in the heighth of my new board caused the card to appear and disappear from the device list at will. Also, I had to force the board to change the Live's resources as it refused to set them itself. Creative's version of PnP, I suppose. Finally, after propping the motherboard up with some washers, I finally got the sound card to stop appearing and disappearing. But now I have another problem with it. It now seems to lock up my machine with a short looping sound if I play games. It doesn't ever happen during normal operations. I tried replacing with a different card, but it still does the same thing. I now have a ASUS K7V motherboard (memory at 100mhz) and I wonder if anyone else has had similar problems with the board. I've tried changing from ACPI to normal and it doesn't make any difference. Thanks for any help.

I agree that there is something weird with why the Live card will work right in some systems, but not others. I myself have just fixed the damn crackling problem. For some reason the sound card seemed to infringe on the AGP's motherboard resources. When the card was configured by the motherboard it messed up, and then it kept requesting the same messed up resources which in turn messed up my Win2k drivers. I think that I finally discovered the root cause. On my Live! card the leads on the bottom of the card where it plugs into the PCI slot are shorter than any of my other cards. I believe that when the card originally configured itself, intermediate contact between it and the board caused it to be set up wrong. Well I placed a couple of washers under my motherboard to prop it up some. This forced the card to be 100% seated in the PCI slot. Unfortunately I also had to reinstall Win2k as it was too messed up. But after I did that, not a peep. Seems to be working flawlessly now - no problems at all. I don't know how many other cards were made with those really short leads, but it could definately be the source of lots of problems. Hope that helps!

I've never tried using 2 different SCSI types on the same chain other than SCSI1&2 devices. All my drives that I use now are all LVD. But you may want to try using the pnp on the drives and let the SCSI assign them. Practically all the newer SCSI cards that I've seen have that ability. Hope that helps.

PS If you want to try, get with me on ICQ or email and I can modify the inf file to detect your 2000U as a 1220U. But I'd need some info out of your registry first as I don't have a 2000U here.

Win2k comes with a generic UMAX USB twain_32 driver already. I have the 1220U and it works fine. Maybe you could fool the system into thinking the 2000U is a 1220U and use the generic Win2k interface.

Operating System: Windows 2000 Pro (running fully PNP w/o ACPI - wasn't working in the BIOS at install time, it is now but Win2k has to be reinstalled to use it) Processor: AMD K6-3 450 w/ 128 Megs PC100 Motherboard: DFI K6XV3+/66 with thier latest BIOS (running fully at 100mhz FSB) Hard Drive: Maxtor 13Gig UDMA66 7200rpm (formatted in NTFS 5) Video: AGP Diamond V770 TNT2 32 Meg (Beta drivers - v5.30, VIA AGP driver 4.02) Sound: SB Live! Sound (official Creative Liveware 2000 drivers) Modem: USR 56K INT PnP (firmware 5.0.0) Network: NETGEAR FA310TX Fast Ethernet Adapter (PCI 10/100 card) DVD Decoder: Creative DXR3 Dvd Decoder (beta1 Hollywood Drivers w/Creative NT4 drivers) SCSI: PCI Advansys SCSI Host Adapter CD Burner: Smart&Friendly 4x SCSI Printer: Epson Stylus 740 (USB) Scanner: UMAX Astra 1220U (USB) Misc: Creative PC-DVD 5X drive, 1.44 floppy, PS/2 Intellimouse w/ intellipoint for w2k (ver. 3.10.0.393) DirectX: Beta 8.0 (4.08.00.0073)

That can't be right! If you have the normal Win2k install and install the NVidia drivers then you MUST have that key. The only possible reasons that I can think of of why you wouldn't have them is a) you're running a beta version of Win2k or you upgraded a Win95/98 box to Win2k If you did upgrade, and didn't remove all drivers, software, etc. from the system first then any amount of unknowns could be causing your problems. Some of the Win95 apps could still be lurking around. If that's the case, all I can really recommend is to do a fresh install on an empty drive. Your system may never work right if the upgrade didn't take correctly.

I've installed a couple HP's in Win2k before and I've never had any problem as long as I didn't install any HP softare. HP has had lots of probs in the past and I simply don't trust them. I always just install the Adaptec EZ-CD Creator and the DirectCD programs completely seperate from the HP install. It does sound as if the Install program could have been the root of all your problems. Just food for thought . . .

Are you useing Win2k? Are you runing EZ-CD Creader 4 normal or some kind of HP hybrid? Are you then runing Adaptec DirectCD? Is your burner on it's own IDE chain? There is definately not enough info in your post to warrent any kind of diagnosis!

I have the exact same card and both those games. They both work just fine in my system. I have a suggestion for your UT. UT has one of the strangest Video card interfaces I've ever seen. Every time, and I do mean EVERY time, you change anything with the graphic card, drivers, cards, different slots, you have to run the 'change 3D device' from UT-safe mode and let it detect the card again. Another thing you'll want to do is apply the win2k registry patch for the TNT2 drivers: run regedit goto HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\OpenGLDrivers delete the contents and make a new string called: RIVATNT and set the value to nvoglnt EG: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\OpenGLDrivers] "RIVATNT"="nvoglnt"

It's definately a mb pnp problem, not a win2k prob. After installing the Geforce did you go into the BIOS setup and tell it to refresh the pnp? It's usually an option such as 'clear NVRAM' or perhaps 'Reset Configuration Data'. There's a couple others too, but those are the most common. You should set that option every time you change any hardware on the board. If that doesn't work set Spread Spectrum to on or off (whatever it's not currently set to)

I would perfer leaked beta drivers to this incesant waiting! Where Creative's concerned, there's nothing else to try, nothing you can do, s**t happens - live with it. They completely messed up their DVD decoder drivers when they release Win2k drivers simply because they had no way to real world test them. So now, they're all messed up and we have to wait another 6 months for another beta driver that won't be fully tested either. I fully expect that the Live! drivers are going to be the exact same way. Creative is making us all suffer just to give us more drivers to mess up our systems because they had no one to test them during their development. Some of you guys said that you got back to the default Win2k drivers. I'd really like to know how. Sure I can remove all the drivers manually, but the sound probs that I have in UT won't go away. I get the same problem if I'm playing an MP3 in Winamp and do something with D3D. Really bad crackles. I didn't have any probs when I originally installed Win2k, just after the LiveWare install.

Alright, I spend this afternoon playing with the tweek settings on the Athlon I was finally able to get the GeForce to go faster than my TNT2. The best numbers I could come up with are the GeForce gained 10% speed over the TNT2 in both OpenGl and D3D. 10% is not what I'd call very impressive numbers though. BTW - all my test were done in 1024x768 in 16bit color

OK. My results show conclusively that the GeForce IS running slower than my TNT2!! My test conditions are: ran tests in both Win98SE and Win2K Detinator 2 Offical Release TNT2 card is a Diamond V770 32meg flashed with NVIDIA reference BIOS GeForce is a Guillemot 3D Prophet SE 32meg One system was a K6-3 450 w/ 128megs PC100 Other was a 750 Athlon (.18micron) w/ 128 megs PC133 Both systems had identical tweak settings. Both had 2X AGP and 100mhz FSB The tests were done using the latest Wintune. The TNT2 stedily performed 25% better than the GeForce in all D3D tests in Win2K, the OpenGL ran about 20% faster on the Geforce, but in Win98 it was also 25% slower Personally, I think I'm going to go with a Voodoo card next. I'm desiding which one to order today.

Your first assumption is probably right. The drivers should work fine. Your chipset and AGP drivers are most likely the problem. Get those drivers from Ali, and then try Detonator 2 drivers again. [This message has been edited by JediBaron (edited 29 June 2000).]

I don't know about that. I just recently aquired a GeForce and replaced my TNT2 and got minimal performance gain. In fact my D3D test scores are even 25% lower than the TNT2!! I'm currently building a 750 Athlon and plan to do a side by side of the TNT2 and the GeForce. So I will have perfect numbers here promptly. I'll post them and eveyone can let me know what they think.

I'm also running 128 megs with a TNT2 and have no problems with slow loading. There is a little sidenote to memory on Win2k, though. According to many sites the memory usage in Win2k, while MUCH more efficient than 98, deals with games in a much more direct manner. This means that when a game wants to make a 32meg precalculated table, Win2k tends to give it the 32megs. Win98 would only give it what it could spare. Therefor, many sites have recommended running with at least 192 megs for games. I personally plan on going to 256 shortly, although I really haven't had any problems with 128. (MORE IS BETTER - hehe)

My guess would be that you've had problems with the hardware configs. That's the only probable reason why you wouldn't be able to install those mission packs. The K7V has A LOT of different configs compaired to the Intel boards. First make sure that you have the newest BIOS. Their BIOS is still evolving relatively fast so having the newest is pretty important. Next, you should have is both the hardware identify patch and AGP patch for Via chipsets installed (win2k versions available at Via's site) Third, the K7V is capable of 133+mhz FSB. If you have it set to 133mhz make sure you have PC133 to back it up. Otherwise you should go back to 100mhz. Hope that helps

Man just dump NT4 and go to 2000. All the multimedia in NT4 is all just quick patches anyway. Win2k was designed with multimedia support built in. (No matter what any of the looser no driver companies say - MS should have just shoved it down their throat. But instead they conceeded and made ME. Damn all 16bit OS's. When Intel forces everyone to buy the newest stuff which doesn't even work right nobody complains, but when MS does it - EVIL BILL GATES!!! or MICROSOFT MUST DIE!!! Intel's even planning their next chip to not be 8086 compatible - it's going to have to emulate it to run all our progams. They're going way beyond where our software is right now, because software vendors cry when they have to patch their programs for use in a totally 32bit environment.)

First and most obvious, I'd check your balance in the audio controls Second, you have a differenet pin config on one of your internal audio cables. That's the cable the runs from the cd drive to the decoder and then to the sound card. Basically theres 2 diferent types of connectors big 4 pin (usually black) and small 4 pin (usually white) connectors. The prob is usually in the small white connectors as some manufacturers wire them differently. The dominant type (and the one that's plugged into my card) goes red-black-white-black (there can be only one of those blacks as they're the grounds). But sometimes they make the cables red-black-black-white. You can change the pin config by using a needle to lift up the little plastic clip and pull out the prong. Hope that helps BTW - The big 4 pins (usually only on the drives connector, but some sound cards use it too) are always red-black-black-white (the colors on your cables may not be normal so you can use that to tell which are red (right) & white (left) [This message has been edited by JediBaron (edited 20 June 2000).]

Yep, absolutely no problems here either. Operating System: Windows 2000 Pro (running fully PNP w/o APMI - wasn't working in the BIOS at install time, it is now but Win2k has to be reinstalled to use it) Processor: AMD K6-3 450 w/ 128 Megs PC100 Motherboard: DFI K6XV3+/66 with thier latest BIOS (running fully at 100mhz FSB) Hard Drive: Maxtor 13Gig UDMA66 7200rpm (formatted in NTFS 5) Video: Diamond V770 TNT2 32 Meg (official Detonator 2 drivers - v5.22) Sound: SB Live! Sound (official Creative Liveware 2000 drivers) Modem: USR 56K INT PnP (firmware 5.0.0), 3Com Windows Modem PCI ADI (PCI Winmodem - VXD 1.00.028) Network: NETGEAR FA310TX Fast Ethernet Adapter (PCI 10/100 card) DVD Decoder: Creative DXR3 Dvd Decoder (beta1 Hollywood Drivers w/Creative NT4 drivers) Misc: Creative PC-DVD 5X drive, 1.44 floppy, PS/2 Intellimouse w/ intellipoint for w2k (ver. 3.10.0.393) DirectX: Beta 8.0 (4.08.00.0073)

haha - overheating will cause a multitude of errors on any system no matter what os. For anyone reading this post: If you smell something burning - your in deep s**t! Get your PC fixed, take it back, shoot it with a .22 in the back yard, just don't keep running it!

I've been using the sigma drivers since they came out and was happy that I could get drivers from Creative. Thus began my 3 hour legacy of DVD hell. After removing the old player, nt4 drivers, and sigma's driver I installed the new one from creative. At first I couldn't install the player app, Windows would try to use the default dvd player to play, which creative's drivers aren't even close to supporting. That just locked up my machine. I thought it could be remnants from the sigma drivers or earlier player so I removed all of them by hand. No luck. Finally I removed all traces of the new creative driver manually, booted into safe mode and installed the driver again. After rebooting, I was then able to install the creative player. Ah-ha I thought I had it - WRONG!! When I played a movie, it seemed to be dropping frames here and there - I'd say prob every 20th frame or so. But that wasn't the worst part. I let that go and used media player to play a couple mpeg music videos I have on my machine. The first one the video part ran at lik 1.1X normal speed while the sound went at normal speed. The second video ran at like 1/10th normal speed - both sound and video. After trying in vain to fix it, I finally had to give up. Uninstalled the player (mpeg still messed up) and then manually removed all the driver files. I installed the sigma ones again and then used the nt4 install from the new drivers. After that installed the new player and everything was perfect again. Better luck next time Creative In case anyone wants to know, here's my system: Operating System: Windows 2000 Pro (running fully PNP w/o ACPI - wasn't working in the BIOS at install time, it is now but Win2k has to be reinstalled to use it) Processor: AMD K6-3 450 w/ 128 Megs PC100 Motherboard: DFI K6XV3+/66 with thier latest BIOS (running fully at 100mhz FSB) Hard Drive: Maxtor 13Gig UDMA66 7200rpm (formatted in NTFS 5) Video: Diamond V770 TNT2 32 Meg (official Detonator 2 drivers - v5.22) Sound: SB Live! Sound (official Creative Liveware 2000 drivers) Modem: USR 56K INT PnP (firmware 5.0.0), 3Com Windows Modem PCI ADI (PCI Winmodem - VXD 1.00.028) Network: NETGEAR FA310TX Fast Ethernet Adapter (PCI 10/100 card) DVD Decoder: Creative DXR3 Dvd Decoder (beta1 Hollywood Drivers w/Creative NT4 drivers) Misc: Creative PC-DVD 5X drive, 1.44 floppy, PS/2 Intellimouse w/ intellipoint for w2k (ver. 3.10.0.393) [This message has been edited by JediBaron (edited 10 June 2000).]

We need to let 3DO know that people do play games on Win2k. Please e-mail them with a message saying that there are gamers out there with Win2K. Thanks all CS-Chris 3DO Customer Support Phone: 650.261-3454 Email: customer-support@3do.com Web: http://www.3do.com/support 3DO has emailed me and specifically said that they don't think that Win2k is a viable gaming platform. They therefor refuse to patch any of their games to work correctly in Win2k. I've attached the qoute that they gave me below. Dear Tony, At this point in time, we have no plans to make Might and Magic VII compatible with Windows2000. Windows2000 is not really intended for gaming purposes, as this quote from Microsoft's site would attest to: Adapting our older software to function on Windows2000 would take resources that are right now devoted to making the next generation of games. I apologize for any inconvenience, and I hope you can understand our dilemma. [This message has been edited by JediBaron (edited 11 April 2000).]