Rise Of Nations and Windows XP

Hiya,
Thanks, I have disabled the auto-restart, and I will reply
again once I reencounter the error (I started a new game,
and have so far not encountered the error, but I am not as
far as I was yet).
Nick, I have and installed the patch before I actually
started playing the game.
Thanks,
Daryl.

Hiya,

I managed to get it to happen again. Was playing the game
and the blue screen appeared. It was a "Stop Error Screen"
and this was the first paragraph: "A problem has been
detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage
to your computer." Under Technical Information, it had the
following: "STOP:0x0000008E
(0xC0000005,0xE2F7F0FC,0xF6175B04,0x00000000)"

I have found the memory dump that the computer performed,
if that would be of any help.

Thanks,
Daryl Keehn.

PS: Could the error have anything to do with me having
installed DirectX 9.0 on a machine that has a video card
built for DirectX 8.1? I installed 9 so that I could run
some other games, and I have had no problems with them. If
this is the case, is there any way I can go back to 8.1
without performing a complete reinstall of Windows (I have
no System Restore Points that go back far enough).

Hi Daryl,

Does the error message in this article resemble the one
you saw? http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=325730

It points to your video driver as the culprit. At your,
request, I can post the recent driver and instructions for
your brand of video card.

DirectX is made to be backwards compatible. It's a
better idea to get DX 9 to work on your system, since
software being released now require that version. :-)

--
Cheers, Windows XP MVP Shell / User
Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

Game FAQs: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite: http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call / Contact
MS Support at: http://support.microsoft.com/default...d=sz;en-us;top
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
__________________________________________________ _______

"Daryl Keehn" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:084b01c39af5$e3d99b60$a401280a@phx.gbl...
| Hiya,
|
| I managed to get it to happen again. Was playing the game
| and the blue screen appeared. It was a "Stop Error Screen"
| and this was the first paragraph: "A problem has been
| detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage
| to your computer." Under Technical Information, it had the
| following: "STOP:0x0000008E
| (0xC0000005,0xE2F7F0FC,0xF6175B04,0x00000000)"
|
| I have found the memory dump that the computer performed,
| if that would be of any help.
|
| Thanks,
| Daryl Keehn.
|
| PS: Could the error have anything to do with me having
| installed DirectX 9.0 on a machine that has a video card
| built for DirectX 8.1? I installed 9 so that I could run
| some other games, and I have had no problems with them. If
| this is the case, is there any way I can go back to 8.1
| without performing a complete reinstall of Windows (I have
| no System Restore Points that go back far enough).

>-----Original Message-----
>Hiya,
>
>I managed to get it to happen again. Was playing the

game

>and the blue screen appeared. It was a "Stop Error

Screen"

>and this was the first paragraph: "A problem has been
>detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent

damage

>to your computer." Under Technical Information, it had

the

>following: "STOP:0x0000008E
>(0xC0000005,0xE2F7F0FC,0xF6175B04,0x00000000)"
>
>I have found the memory dump that the computer

performed,

>if that would be of any help.
>
>Thanks,
>Daryl Keehn.
>
>PS: Could the error have anything to do with me having
>installed DirectX 9.0 on a machine that has a video card
>built for DirectX 8.1? I installed 9 so that I could run
>some other games, and I have had no problems with them.

If

>this is the case, is there any way I can go back to 8.1
>without performing a complete reinstall of Windows (I

have

>no System Restore Points that go back far enough).
>.
>Yo...First of all direct X doesnt make a diference man

And if ya wanna install dx8, uninstall dx9 frm the ad
remove frm program, files .And install dx8.Nothing will
happen. BTw what Os u usin...Xp i guess
k..

Hiya,
I have a NVIDIA GeForce4 420 Go Video Card with 16MB
memory.
Cya,
Daryl Keehn.

Hi Daryl,

Updating video card drivers can solve most gaming issues. Here's some
rules of thumb though to always keep in mind. Shut DL accelerators, fire-
walls and antivirus programs off while downloading or installing drivers and
updates. Also check the game's website (or Fileplanet.com) for patches.

Before you update your drivers, I recommend that you install DirectX 9.0b*:
http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...90b_redist.exe

Here are the steps I recommend you use to update your driver. If you've
never done this before I recommend you also look over the Nvidia's FAQ: http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=support_faqs Release
Notes:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_52.16

ACCORDING TO:
http://download.nvidia.com/Windows/5...tes_v52.16.pdf
Your Geforce 4 420 GO is on the list of cards compatible with the 52.16 driver,
however if you have any problems, you can get the latest driver from your laptop
manufacturers website...

2. Download the latest driver v. 52.16 for your Nvidia Card Win XP/2000:
http://download.nvidia.com/Windows/5...glish_whql.exe

3. Save the .exe driver in My Documents\My Drivers\Nvidia 5216

4. Restart the computer in Safe Mode by pressing the F8 key
about once every second as it's rebooting to pick Safe Mode.

5. Click Start / (settings) Control Panel / System / Hardware
Device Manager / expand +Display Adapters / right click on
the adapter, pick "Uninstall", and click No if asked to reboot.

6. Use Control Panel / Add-Remove programs to uninstall the
previous driver (exe)software which may have been installed.

7. Restart the computer in Safe Mode by pressing the F8 key
about once every second as it's rebooting to pick Safe Mode.

8. If Windows prompts you to install the adapter, click "Cancel".

9. Double click the 44.03 driver we saved to My Documents\
Drivers\Geforce folder in step 3 to install.it. If it complains about
Windows Logo Certification just click "Continue". This is normal.

10. After you reboot, go to Control Panel / Display / Settings and
choose 32 bit Color Quality, and 1024x768 Screen Resolution.

TROUBLESHOOTING:

Test your drivers using DXDiag: Click Start / Run / type: DXDIAG
Click the "Test" buttons in the Display, Sound, Music & Network Tabs;
If any of the Display options are Disabled and you cannot Enable them,
your most likely solution would be to update your Chipset Drivers as per
my website: http://www3.sympatico.ca/nibblesnbits/Video.html#v11

Along with your Video card, Sound Cards, Motherboard Chipsets,
and Video Monitors may also require updated drivers. Even your
motherboard's BIOS may need to be updated for compatibility with
your Video card. These steps are listed at: http://NibblesNbitsVideo.tk

Perhaps the old Nvidia drivers did not completely uninstall. If that's the
case, use this utility to completely uninstall the drivers and go to step 7:
http://content.guru3d.com/index.php?...atorrip&menu=0

The latest video drivers sometime don't work with a particular game.
(Check the Video suggestions in the readme.txt file in your game folder/CD)
If there's no suggestions, try an older (WHQL) driver, and/or if you still
experience problems try a Beta driver, or even an Omega driver instead:

BETA Drivers: http://download.guru3d.com/
OMEGA Drivers: http://www.omegacorner.com/

There you have it, if you have any questions feel free to post them! :-)

--
Cheers,
Jimmy S.

Additional Support Resources: My Zone.com Helpsite: http://nibblesnbits.tk
Microsoft Online Tech Support: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=376
Game FAQ's: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
__________________________________________________ _______

"Daryl Keehn" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:05be01c39bc4$13629930$a601280a@phx.gbl...
| Hiya,
| I have a NVIDIA GeForce4 420 Go Video Card with 16MB
| memory.
| Cya,
| Daryl Keehn.

Hi all, Im hoping someone here will be able to help me with
a problem that has been driving me crazy.
Recently I reinstalled my system, just to get it 'clean'
again. As part of the reinstallation, I also downloaded all
the latest drivers, patches etc. Before I go any further
though, heres a list of my hardware;

Athlon XP 2200
Motherboard K7S5A
512MB DDR RAM
Geforce 4 Ti 4400 128 MB RAM
Audigy sound card with firewire port
Sony DVD Drive
LG CD-RW Drive
Monitor - Samsung SyncMaster 152T digital (with latest
drivers also installed)

I installed onto the computer WinXP SP 1, I then went to
the MS win update site and basically downloaded and
installed everything there, so all patches have been
applied.
I have installed the MB drivers required for XP (its using
a SIS 735 chip).
I installed NVidia 52.16 WHQL drivers and the latest
drivers for my audigy card.
Im also running Norton Antivirus 2003, and Kerio Personal
firewall 4.0.7

Ok now to the problem;

I installed Rise of Nations succesfully, downloaded and
installed the latest patch, also without problems. I can
start the game and see all the videos, Microsofts logo, the
intro movie etc...
The problem is that when I get to the game main menu, the
whole screen flickers, by flickers I mean shows the menu,
then goes black for a fraction of a second, then shows the
menu etc, and this repeats. The behaviour is the same even
in-game.
So far in attempts to resolve this I have tried;
Reinstalling the game
Reinstalling the graphic card drivers (uninstall then
reinstall)
Reinstalling the monitor drivers
Trying older versions of both the graphic card and monitor
drivers
Changing the refresh rate of the monitor
Changing the resolution
Changing the colour depth
Performing the DXDiag tests (all successful)
Trying nohardwarecursor when starting the game
In dxdiag forcing the refresh rate to match my monitor
(70mhz)
In the game itself changing the resolution colour-depth etc
Turning off hardware accleration for graphics and sound,
plus various combinations of the above.

I have installed other games on my system, Diablo II,
Warcraft 3, Splinter Cell, Freelancer, none of them exhibit
the same behaviour as rise of nations.

I have also tried installing rise of nations on a friends
computer, a dell gx150 with a geforce 4 mx card, and he has
none of the problems that I do.

Checking the event log, Ive noticed that for each
'flicker', the following is posted in the applications log

Event Type: Error
Event Source:
Event Category: None
Event ID: 0
Date: 11/16/2003
Time: 23:30:02
User: N/A
Computer: <Name withheld>
Description:
The description for Event ID ( 0 ) in Source ( ) cannot
be found. The local computer may not have the necessary
registry information or message DLL files to display
messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the
/AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and
Support for details. The following information is part of
the event: 1.
Data:
0000: 3f 3f d1 2a e7 ea 92 2d ??Ñ*çê'-
0008: 92 3b d9 22 88 9a f7 c5 ';Ù"^s÷Å
0010: 2f 2f c1 3a f3 f1 82 3d //Á:óñ,=
0018: a1 1f 2e 45 f8 f9 8a 35 ¡..EøùS5
0020: 3e 1a 62 13 03 3b d5 08 >.b..;Õ.
0028: 2a c9 07 03 89 36 ae e4 *É..?6®ä
0030: 80 28 54 ea 9f d1 2f fe ?(TêYÑ/þ
0038: 48 f8 fd f3 c8 69 07 ad HøýóÈi.*
0040: 6e 7f 91 6a 3f 5e c6 8c n'j?^ÆO
0048: e9 88 da af e7 a9 da 65 é^Ú¯ç©Úe
0050: c0 90 95 9b b3 b1 c2 7d À�.>³±Â}
0058: 99 98 76 8d ba b9 ca 75 T~v�º¹Êu

Could any of you help me to shed some light on this please?
I have exhausted all the possibilities I can think of at
the moment. Thanks in advance for any help.

Regards

Andrew

As an update to my previous message, Ive noticed that if
log in as "Administrator", then the game runs without the
flickering mentioned in the previous post.
Also noteworthy perhaps is that Kerio Firewall doesnt seem
to be started by default under this account.
One things though is that the same error message as before
-
The description for Event ID ( 0 ) in Source ( ) cannot
be found. The local computer may not have the necessary
registry information or message DLL files to display
messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the
/AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and
Support for details. The following information is part of
the event: 1.
-
Is still listed in the event log....

The usual account has admin rights on the computer and is a
member of the local admin group. Ive checked in the
settings for kerio and I have given RON permission to run
etc.

Now Im honestly more stumped than ever, I dont see why it
works in admin and not in my account when it has admin
rights, and if the firewall is 'filtering' the event log
message and preventing it from displaying all the
information, then why is it the same message in the
administrator account which should have full rights and no
firewall...

Once again any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.
Many thanks

Andrew