DescentBB

I changed to Win 2000 pro. which solved some problems I was having with my old win98 install. Did a clean install, formatted the C drive. D3 was on my D drive and so not affected except I lost my command lines. But now it runs very klunky lots of ping spikes and net loss. Is this an unsolvable W2K issue or has any one got some ideas? And yeah it is not an optimum high quality game set up but dammit it used to work ok!

AMD 1300
Gforce3 MX 32
3 gig C Drive
40 gig D drive
256 ram
Crappy built in sound card on K7S5A mother board

It seems like you may have a driver issue.

I would imagine that the command lines would fix this problem if you haven't already tried that.

Plus the Fact that you lost the Registry entries for D3..... Ding Clunk Ding DOH!

If anyone here has D3 on 2K they can Export the Registry entires For Outrage/Descent3 in Local and User for you

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Outrage]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Outrage\Descent3]
"StraightToSetup"=dword:00000000
"LanguageType"=dword:00000000
"ProfanityPrevention"=dword:00000000
"VideoDetectSettings"=dword:00000002
"PreferredRenderer"=dword:00000002
"RenderingDeviceName"="GeForce 5950 with AGP8X/AGP/SSE2"
"SoundcardName"="SB Audigy 2 Audio [D000]"
"SoundMixer"=dword:00000001
"LauncherSoundEnabled"=dword:00000001
"EnableJoystickFF"=dword:00000000
"EnableCHFlight"=dword:00000000
"EnableMouseman"=dword:00000000
"PredefDetailSetting"=dword:00000004
"NetworkConnection"="LAN"
"ConnectionSpeed"="Fast"
"KeyboardType"="United States"
"FindFastDisable"=dword:00000001
"CmdLineOptions"="-nointro -framecap 999 -nopentium3 -playermessages -nooutragelogo -nosparkles -nomotionblur -nocompress -nooutdoorfog -nospuncho"
"DetailLevelConfigured"=dword:00000001
"RS_vsync"=dword:00000000
"OpenGLWarningShown"=dword:00000001
"UpdatePromptShown"=dword:00000001
"net directory"=""
"DefaultNetConn"="Direct TCP/IP"
"TrackerLogin"="Suncho"
"TrackerPassword"="likes boys"
"MOTDVersion"=dword:00000004
"LastMOTD"="The 1.4 patch has been released!
Make sure and hit auto update in
the D3 Launcher to get it! Have fun!"
"BypassChat"=dword:00000001
"RS_gamma"="1.520001"
"SND_mastervol"="1.000000"
"MUS_mastervol"="0.000000"
"RS_pixelerror"="10.000000"
"RS_terraindist"="120.000000"
"Dynamic_Lighting"=dword:00000001
"TerrLeveling"=dword:00000000
"RoomLeveling"=dword:00000000
"Specmapping"=dword:00000001
"FastHeadlight"=dword:00000001
"MirrorSurfaces"=dword:00000001
"MissileView"=dword:ffffffff
"DetailScorchMarks"=dword:00000001
"DetailWeaponCoronas"=dword:00000001
"DetailFog"=dword:00000001
"DetailCoronas"=dword:00000001
"DetailProcedurals"=dword:00000001
"DetailObjectComp"=dword:00000002
"DetailPowerupHalos"=dword:00000001
"RS_resolution"=dword:00000002
"RS_bitdepth"=dword:00000010
"RS_bilear"=dword:00000001
"RS_mipping"=dword:00000001
"RS_color_model"=dword:00000000
"RS_light"=dword:00000000
"RS_texture_quality"=dword:00000000
"VoicePowerup"=dword:00000001
"VoiceAll"=dword:00000001
"ForceFeedbackAutoCenter"=dword:00000001
"ForceFeedbackGain"=dword:00000000
"SoundQuality"=dword:00000001
"SoundQuantity"=dword:00000028
"Default_pilot"="Suncho_Ass.plt"
"DMFCAutoTimeLimit"=dword:00000001
"DMFCAutoDeathMessage"=dword:00000001
"DMFCAutoTeamSelect"=dword:00000001
"DMFCStatHUDMessages"=dword:00000001
"DMFCAutoSaveStatLevelEnd"=dword:00000000
"DMFCAutoSaveStatDisconnect"=dword:00000000
"DMFCMenuBackground"=dword:00000000
"DMFCCanChangeTeams"=dword:00000001
"DMFCLagLossIndicator"=dword:00000001
"DMFCShowHudCallsigns"=dword:00000000
"DMFCServerShowHudCallsigns"=dword:00000000
"DMFCDeathMessageFilter"=dword:00000002
"DirectIP"="192.168.1.1:2092"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Outrage\Descent3\Version]
"Minor"=dword:00000004
"Major"=dword:00000001
"Build"=dword:00000000



Or the long way REINSTALL!

Check your IRQ settings. I bet your nic and sound are tied together.

Testiculese wrote:Check your IRQ settings. I bet your nic and sound are tied together.

Haha, that would be interesting now wouldn't it. Every time you hear a concussion firing you freeze in place.

Try updating your network card drivers. When I installed my new P4 board I let Windows install the default drivers for my NIC. As a result I was having trouble getting BF1942 to connect to games, it would disconnect before the level even loaded. Turned out the default drivers are crap and I after I updated them with the real ones from Realtek's website everything worked fine.

Thanks guys. Actually Testi may have something. I get a lot of freezing up when there is a lot of action and weapons exploding all around. Sound does seem to be an issue and I have sound effects turned down to the lowest setting. I will see if I have the tech smarts to sort out the NIC, IRQ issues myself or if I have to come crawling back for advice.
Thanks again.

Yes my NIC and my onboard sound card share IRQ11, so does damn near everything else. There are only 15 IRQ available and most of the hardware uses 11 for some reason. I can't change any and don't have anywhere to change them to. I guess it is just a function of the K7S5A mother board. That is what you get for going cheap. Thanks again for the help.

Its doing that because you have ACPI enabled.

By the way, there is no such card as a Geforce3 MX. The only flavors of GF3's available are the vanilla, Ti200, and the Ti500. I'm guessing you have a Geforce2 MX, since only the GF2 MX and GF2 MX220 are the only GF2MX cards I'm aware of that come with only 32MB of RAM. (Some MX220 cards come with as little as 16MB...which is rather pathetic.)

GF2 MX32 it is. The GF3 was just wishful thinking I guess. Where can I get a vanilla one? Love that flavor.
I disabled the onboard sound card and installed an old Soundblaster PCI512 instead. Yes it was still on IRQ11 but everything works much better now.
Should I not have ACPI enabled? I hate messing with things I barely understand. I think I saw that option in my bios.

ACPI enables the use of IRQ levelling, which lets up to four devices safely share one IRQ; nothing wrong with that. If you have more than four, you start to have problems. If you do, you could try going into your BIOS and enabling "Reset ESCD Configuration Data", that *might* give your OS a wake-up call. Or you could upgrade to WinXP, which has far superior ACPI support, and does a much better job of configuring hardware. And, of course, be sure to get all the latest drivers you can for your hardware, even if they're not WHQL certified. If a driver doesn't work right, just get a different one until you find one that does (taking into account normal troubleshooting procedures, of course, which may or may not involve coming back here ).

I used to have a GF2GTS 32meg, and I now have a GF4MX440 w/ AGP 8x 64meg. The GF4MX cards are basically spruced up GF2s, which is great because they aren't too lacking in performance (compared to a GF2MX and other such crap, anyway). My 2D performance is great at 1600x1200@85

It should really be disabled if you play games.

I have 5 items on IRQ 11- two USB ports, graphics card,sound card,network card. (I might note my system plug and plays my graphics card as a (PCI)GF2 MX 100/200 where it is an AGP GF2 MX 32 I don't know if this is an error or a difference in nameing) If I disable ACPI in the bios "what's the worst that could happen" and do I need to manually assign IRQs to the devices now sharing 11? Which IRQs are available for shareing? I understand it is only above 10 or is it 10 and above?
As you can tell by my questions I am not a computer whiz and my wife hates it when I mess around with the computer so that it quits working. Not that I do that too often.

Don't disable ACPI, Windows installs a different HAL (hardware abstraction layer) depending on whether or not ACPI is present. Uninstalling it will make it redetect all your hardware, or at worst make your machine not boot.

Ford Prefect wrote: Did a clean install, formatted the C drive. D3 was on my D drive and so not affected except I lost my command lines.

You lost more than that ..... Reinstall D3 dude!

If you want to keep your D3 controls settings etc. pp, copy your complete D3 folder to some temporary location. Then reinstall D3 - that will give you proper registry entries. Then copy the previously saved D3 installation over the new one. Fix sound and gfx settings as necessary, and you should be fine.

I re-installed D3 but just overlayed the old install. Was that a bad thing? Everything works just like before I installed W2K. That is to say I still have a problem with network loss during on line games. Spikes to 25% are common every minute or so. I understand Ping but I am not sure if net. loss is from my connection or from my machine. Any thing I can do to reduce this problem?

That's not a problem, but that way round you will lose all your control settings etc. It's however the safer option, as you will also overwrite any local settings files that might mess up your system. If I have a problem with a game like yours, I chose the same way you went and take the time to reconfigure everything, saving me more trouble in the long run.