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General discussion

Question about My computer

Mar 3, 2005 6:33AM PST

I have a Dell Pentium 4 2Ghz processor with a Nvidia GeForce 4 MX graphics card running on Windows XP. My system will not run any of the Need for Speed games, on the most recent one I tried, Need For Speed: Underground, starts to load and then it crashes suddenly. Any ideas?

Discussion is locked

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A few issues.
Mar 3, 2005 6:42AM PST

1. It's how old?

Why it matters. Many never remove the case yearly and remove the dust and dust bunnies. Such can build up on the CPU heatsink, clog the CPU cooling fan and you may find it to crash after running the game for a few minutes.

2. The lovely drivers insanity.

Most users never find out how to locate the latest video drivers or others. Microsoft, Dell, Windows will never do this for you (well so far). Instead you heed off to nvidia.com and get the latest, then you run the latest DirectX setup and hope you've done enough.

3. Spyware and pests.

If you got, then you get to visit the Security Forum to find out how to eject all the vermin.

Bob

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a couple of things
Mar 3, 2005 6:49AM PST

ok my pc is approximately 2 1/2 years old, I do remove the dust regularly, and I have downloaded the latest drivers, and the game begins to load but crashes before I can actually start the game..all I see is the Need for Speed Underground loading screen with the three bars under the name, and then it crashes. i will try the security forum to get rid of any spyware I may have also.

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Drivers... then run the latest DirectX updater.
Mar 3, 2005 7:12AM PST

I see you have 2 out of 3 or 4 items under control. How about that DirectX?

And if you did that, you need to read the forum tip since you left out the needed info.

Maybe the audio drivers need an update too.

Bob

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Updated Direct X, still no dice
Mar 3, 2005 7:40AM PST

Where is the forum tip? The thing I don't get is that I have games like The Sims 2, Grand Theft Auto 3 and Vice City, and they all work fine

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PLEASE REPORT YOU ARE NOT SEEING THE TIP!
Mar 3, 2005 8:11AM PST

It reads:

Tip: If you are asking for help to troubleshoot a computer-related problem, please be sure to include all the necessary information (ie: operating system, model number, hardware, software, etc) that will help others identify your problem for a speedy resolution.

If those programs work then you may have found a game that doesn't work on your system. Without the details I can't doublecheck.

Bob

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my computer is...
Mar 3, 2005 8:17AM PST

a Dell Dimension 8200 desktop, with a Pentium 4 processor at 2Ghz, with an 80GB Hard drive, and a Cd burner, it also has an ethernet port, as well as 4 usb ports. Oh yea and as previously stated, my graphics card is a Nvida GeForce4 MX 420. I am running Windows XP Home Edition. Anything else that would be helpful?

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This is what I found
Mar 3, 2005 9:30AM PST

System Requirements:

* Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
* 933 Mhz or faster processor
* 256 MB RAM
* 8x or faster cd-rom drive
* 2 GB free hard disk space
* DirectX 9.0c compatible video card
* DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
* Internet/LAN (2-6 players): Cable, DSL or faster broadband connection required: One set of game discs per player.

Does your computer meet the requirements?

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Re: This is What I found
Mar 3, 2005 11:53AM PST

Yes, my system meets all of those, in fact it surpasses most of them.

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Missing items.
Mar 3, 2005 9:46AM PST

I reviewed your posts. Missing info is:

1. System Ram.

I don't think that's it since the other games would complain if you had less than required.

2. The patched up XP.

XP without SP1 would be a bad thing. SP2 could create issues in which if you install some game, install SP2 the game may need to be uninstalled then reinstalled. No mention of the SP level.

3. Your account type.

Most games (in fact all) require you be in the administrator group.

4. Beyond what's in the tip, we then dive off into the EVENT VIEWER to see if it logs why the application crashed. The Event Viewer is noted in Start, Help and Support as well as www.google.com You'll want to find the EventID and Source listed.

5. So far you may be just unlucky and have to call the game maker's support to see if they can ask more questions about your machine. However I'm wondering if the video card is just below the mark. I'll look at that a bit more.

Bob

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Does this Dell have some ONBOARD VIDEO?
Mar 3, 2005 10:02AM PST

Do tell.

1. "I think I've found the control-panel problem: it's in the regionalisation of the drivers. Go to Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options - and change English (United Kingdom) to English (United States) and they work..."

Again, just a nuance of these drivers. Are you using any other language setting?

2. From the Nvidia Gold FAQ ->
"2.18. Need for Speed 5: Porsche
2.18.1. I have problems with Need for Speed 5: Porsche. How can I fix them?
Question:
I have problems with Need for Speed 5: Porsche. How can I fix them?
Answer:
Try NVIDIA's latest (leaked) reference drivers. In particular 6.18 may help with speed and instability problems.

Make sure that the Direct3D settings in the NVIDIA control panel are set to defaults. In particular, 'Enable fog table emulation' should be enabled.

Try setting your Windows colour depth to 16-bit colour instead of 32-bit.

If you get lockups, try the following tips, in the Options/Graphics/Advanced Settings dialog:

Switch off lens flare.
Switch headlights to vertex."

3. http://www.icronticforums.com/archive/index.php/t-3181 is not a fun read as the GeForce MX owner writes about the same thing.

I don't see a ready cure.

Bob

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a few things
Mar 4, 2005 5:49AM PST

Onboard graphic processors are disabled as soon as it detects a card in the AGP slot. That shouldn't be a problem.

Service pack 2 is really bad. It makes normal games lag. But be careful if you want to uninstall it. Sometimes, it uninstalles a few network protocols along with it, and you end up not being able to get online. Have Windows CD on hand.

Many graphic heavy games actually need a lot more ram than the minimum requirement. You should have at least 512MB ram to run any new game. More if the computer is mutitasking with Bittorrent downloads or other such things. I would say one GB memory is enough. Running on page files is a really bad idea, especially if you have a lot of stuff on the primary hard drive where the OS is installed.

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About onboard...
Mar 4, 2005 6:59AM PST

The i8xx series chipsets have no true disable. As such I have to dig hard to find out about this board's chipset.

SP2 is da'bomb at our office with over 50 to 100 machines running it. While very few run games, not a single box is slower as a result of SP2. I don't agree.

Bob

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SP2
Mar 5, 2005 12:56PM PST

SP2 is just bad, and trust me, it does slow the computer down. I ran Halo and Dues Ex2 on my computer, and it lags significantly after installing SP2. Several people I know had the same problem, and had to uninstall. If you look at the amount of memory used by system processes, there is a big difference. Some of them use almost twice as much after SP2. They add up. Don't get SP2, it's just bad. The only thing it does is improving Windows firewall a bit. It's not worth it.

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Not what I'm experiencing here.
Mar 6, 2005 12:23AM PST

My machine runs faster with SP2 and my external USB 2.0 drives now work properly (chkdsk didn't work before SP2)

The office has from 50 to 100 XP machines on SP2 and none ran slower after.

Go figure.

Bob

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SP2
Mar 6, 2005 10:59PM PST

People don't run graphic heavy games on office computers. They usually work at very light loads with very few installed programs. That's why you never felt the lag. SP2 makes all system processes use much more memory. Try comparing it yourself, and you'll see.

Also, SP2 does support USB 2.0, but there is also a separate patch you can download from Microsoft. You don't need SP2 for it.

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Not my experience alone.
Mar 6, 2005 11:29PM PST

Many of my friends run SP2 and note its faster in games.

Why is that?

Bob

PS. Regard the USB 2.0 Patch. It didn't cure the issue we found. Only SP2 nailed it.

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What games are you running?
Mar 8, 2005 1:35PM PST

How can any computer run faster if you put more load on it? It's just impossible. The people I know all say that SP2 causes lag. They're running REAL games, including HL2 and Doom 3. What games are you running? Silly