Win2000 - Game Crashes at Start

[Dave Morrell]

I've just done a clean install of Windows 2000 and now CTP won't play. The startup screen comes up fine, complete with sounds for clicking on buttons. But when I click on Play, the game appears to go into a normal startup (black screen, hourglass cursor) and after a few seconds crashes back to Win2000 desktop.

There are no error messages and nothing in the events log.

The game ran fine under Win95, Win98 and WinME.

Under WInME it was using DirectX7. Under WIn2000 it has the same.

There have been no changes in hardware.

Activision tech support has suggested trying a new video card (currently I have an oldish PCI card with a Cirrus Logic 5446 chip).

I haven't yet forked out the money for a new card. I was curious to see if others might have been down this road before me and could confirm that a video card was the fix, or maybe point out something else.

The main reason for the new video card is to get up to date drivers that Win2000 will put up with. I've tried to get new drivers for the old card, but they don't exist.

Any thoughts?

Dave Morrell

[blackice]

http://www.isdcorp.com/downloads/cirrus2.pl

That is a link to your 5446 windows 2000 drivers have you tried the 2000 drivers?

http://www.ntcompatible.com/c.shtml

That is a link to NT compatable games, CTP is listed as being compatable. They play test them so it has to be within the system or setup I would think. Also try dx8 it my resolve the issue.

[Dave Morrell]

Hi Blackice, thanks for the reply

The immediate problem was my favourite game not running under WIn2000. The NTCompatible site confirms that someone actually has made it run with no trouble and under a much earlier version of WIn2000. I've since installed Service Pack 2 and later compatibility updates, so it should be a snack to run it.

Replies in other forums confirmed that DirectX is not the problem, as DirectX7 is installed with WIn2000 (which I had discovered for myself between the time of asking for help and the time ti arrived - red faces).

You also gave a site to hunt down newer drivers for a 5446 based video card. No joy, I'm afraid. Card's just too damn old for anyone to be interested in supporting it any more.

I've just heard from Activision tech support that they tnink the card is the problem. Since other causes, such as DX and Win2000 incompatibility, have been eliminated, I think they're probably right, In fact, I'm putting money on it, in the form of a new card.

So, hopefully, that's that.

Cheers and thanks,

Dave Morrell

[blackice]

You also gave a site to hunt down newer drivers for a 5446 based video card. No joy, I'm afraid. Card's just too damn old for anyone to be interested in supporting it any more.

no problem but that site has nt and win2000 drivers just click the I agree at the bottom of the page and you have the nt and 2000 drivers for your 5446.

If you run via get the latest drivers too dx8 runs like a charm with the new via drivers.

Good luck game hard

[Dave Morrell]

Thanks for all your help. I've put in a new video card and it works like a charm. However, I'll look up the Win2000 drivers for the 5446 card, if they exist, and stick them on a disk with the old card.

Cheers
Dave Morrell