Windows2000 problem

[calavera]

hi everyone!

i got problems starting alpha centauri on my win2k pc, does anybody know how to fix it?

thanks,

calavera

[Googlie]

I've had no trouible running smac or smax on my win2K laptop

Here's the old fixes that copmne from the readme.txt file - I did do the forceoldvoxel algorithm and the forced video=1024 tweaks on my laptop - might be worth a try

TROUBLESHOOTING - If your computer has problems playing the game (crashes, returning to desktop, etc.), please try the following:

1. Reinstall DirectX 6.1. This can be found on the CD in the \DIRECTX folder.

2. Rename the SOUND.DLL to SOUND.DL_. While disabling the sound, it may correct your original problem.

3. If you receive the message "CPU Not Supported", and you have a non-Intel processor such as an AMD K-5, try to run the game anyway. Many AMD processors show up as a 486 in verification tests, but if your machine is 'Pentium Compatible', it shouldn't be a problem.

4. Increase amount of free hard drive space on the C: drive, especially if you have 16 or 32 megs of memory. Defragmenting this drive will also often increase the amount of space available for Windows to use as Virtual Memory.

Also keep in mind that larger maps require more memory. Try a smaller map.

5. Let Windows handle your swap file size. This can be adjusted by running the System Control Panel, selecting the Performance menu tab, then the Virtual Memory button, and selecting "Let Windows manage my virtual memory settings".

6. Update the Windows 95/98 drivers for your Video card, Sound card, and Monitor.

7. When running the game you return directly to the desktop, you may not have your monitor setup correctly. Try to manually set your desktop to one of the resolutions the game supports (1024x768x8bit (256 colors) or 800x600x8bit). If you cannot manually set the resolution, you will need to contact your computer's manufacturer for details on how to do so.

8. If you are using an TNT2 based video card (Hercules TNT2, Diamond Viper v770, etc.) try setting your hardware acceleration to 0 in the system control panel.

9. If the game's volume has changed since installing Alien Crossfire, try setting those values in the audio/visual preferences.

10. Some Plextor CD-Rom drives have been reported to cause movies to stutter when played off the CD. Contact Plextor for a BIOS upgrade which solves this problem.

11. If you're experiencing crashes in the sound.dll, perhaps your sound card is having difficulty supporting the Alien Crossfire's 3D Audio. Try setting the EAX and DS3D entries in the 'alpha centauri.ini' file to 0.

12. Any 'Unable to allocate draw-buffer' errors most likely relate to
DirectX not being installed. Try reinstalling DirectX 6.1 from the \DIRECTX folder on the Alien Crossfire CD.

ADDITIONAL TWEAKS

Once the game is installed, a file is created called "Alpha Centauri.ini".

This file contains various settings and preferences for the game, but can also be edited by the user. The following commands will allow you some control over the look of various parts of the game.

WindowsFileBox=1
Setting this to 1 allows you to use the traditional Win95/98 file
navigation dialog.

MainFontSize=16
You can increase or decrease the size of the font used throughout the game.

DirectDraw=0
Settings this to 0 disables DirectDraw. This disables the automatic window resolution resizing during program launch.

Video Mode=800 or Video Mode=1024
This forces the screen resolution to either of these two sizes.

8BitMovieSound=1
This forces the sound quality to 8-bit from the original 16-bit. If your sound card has DirectX compatibility issues, this may improve movie performance.

ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=1
If the game crashes intermittently, try adding this line.

[xeno7667]

Here the link:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/TechNet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/downloads/appupd.asp

You need a Windows 2000 Compatibility Updates, then it runs.

[Yxklyx]

Yeah, you should go once a week to http://windowsupdate.com and install the latest patches for Win2K. Some of them are important patches that fill in security holes in the OS. You'll need to be Administrator when you do so. I found the Compat Updates there too.

[odisseus]

I have another problem with win 2000.

In the message window at the end of each line a capped "à" character appears.

How can i avoid that? Any idea?

[zulu9812]

Actually, I can't even get the damn thing to install on Win2k SP2: it was installed but I uninstalled. I just bought Alien Crossfire, but now I can't install Alpha Centauri! I checked the registry to see if there were any entires for Alpha Centauri, siure enought here were. I deleted them, but the game still won't install! What gets me is that I know the game works with my system set-up, but now it won't. Anyone have any ideas?