To anyone this matters to:

[Miryan no Trunks]

I've not been around for the last 2 weeks. I don't know how long my absence will last, and here's Why.

First off, my dad fncked up my keyboard, leaving me Without a keyboard, for over a week. I finally found and hooked up my old one, just in time to find out that my computer's become self-aware.

So now, whenever we try to do anything on it, it will work for a max of 5 minutes (including boot-up time) before just fading into a huge stream of self-induced thoughts.

And it will sit there a think, non-stop, until you shut it off again.

Now, I say this is self-awareness, because it doesn't recquire any interaction in order to get to that state. You could shut down all programs, and leave it just sitting there, with nothing running, and it'll start thinking as hard as it can, accomplishing nothing.

And by as hard as it can, I mean, you can't even move the mouse more than a mm across the screen, every 10 minutes when it's doing this.

However, things will be remedied, oh yes.

Once my neighbor finally gets the new prices in (don't know when that'll be) I'll be getting a new 60-gig hd, and 128m of ram. That way, I'll be able to save the files I want to keep onto the new drive, and reformat this pos.

And then, then I'll be back.

Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused ¡¬_¬

[Sanis Prent]

Ack! Sorry to hear that Miryan!

Do you by chance run Win98? I had a similar issue with that, especially related to dynamic memory leaking.

If you multitask, do items on the task bar "black out" or do other funky things?

[Miryan no Trunks]

Yep, 98 >_< Dynamic memory leaking?

Assuming you're talking about the comp just wasting ram, cause that's where the majority of my problem seems to lie.

Have 128m of ram already in this pig, had windows up the v. mem to 1.5 gigs, and it's still constantly running at 100% mem load.

I do multitask, but it just stops doing anything period, aside from constant thinking.

Anyways, only cure for this thing is a good swift reformat, this drive's been going since march '99, and that was back before I'd figured out you could uninstall programs through control panel ¡^_¬

"Hmm, well, there's no actual uninstall File in the directory... soooo... guess I'll just have to delete it."

Woo, wonder how many problems That caused..

[Sanis Prent]

I had the same problems too :(

Get XP, it fixes all that up, but you'll also need 2x the RAM at least :)

But hey! RAM is cheapo!

[Miryan no Trunks]

Well, dunno about XP, but the plan Is to get an extra 128m of ram :) Lol, who knows, might go pick up XP at future shop, hear they're offering 128 megs of ram free if you buy it too ^_¬

[Sanis Prent]

:) its uber cool. You will luv it compared to crappy o' 98

[Figrin D'an]

XP is a very stable operating system, but be warned, there are still some significant driver issues yet. Also, I would be hesitant to run it on a processor that runs at less than 500 mHz. I'm not sure what kind of processor you have Miryan, but I thought I would bring that up.

Also, is your virtual memory manually set, or are you letting Windows manage it. I have heard of problems being caused by manual virtual memory settings.

ACK! Yeah, I would something probably got messed up by not using the uninstaller. There are a couple programs out there (I think Microsoft has one) that are "uninstall cleaners" that can help to clean up messes like that, and get stuff that some uninstallers miss.

Once you get things up and running again, you might want to clean your registry, too. After a couple years of installing and uninstalling, it can get pretty mucked up and cause problems.

[Sanis Prent]

Crap...XP went and ate my memory :(

Oh well...better having to reboot once every 2 weeks with XP, than once every 2 hours with 98 ^_^;

[Figrin D'an]

I've been very fortunate in my dealings with 98. I haven't had anything close to the types of problems I've heard and read about (or even witnessed on friends' machines.) My only problem now is that my machine is a couple years old and is slow compared to the latest processors... but, if I make I few upgrades, I can get it to last a while longer.

[Morgan Evanar]

The best place to buy ram is crucial, www.crucial.com
Free shipping, awesome support, and while being more expensive than some other vendors, dole out a quality product.

Miryan, Windows 2000 (NOT ME) is also a perfectly good alternative to 98, execpt it won't run a few games, like Homeworld.

You'll get similar uptimes to XP. I consider XP to be 2000 service pack 3 (2k is currently on SP2, a hefty 80 meg download for the network install).

But most importantly, the CPU load is a bit lighter.

BTW, buying RAM in less than 256 MB amounts nowadays is silly, seeing that 256 MB is only 34 dollars.

Anyway, whats your current specs, so I can make a proper reccomendation?

A complete parts list of your PC would be very helpful too, so I can tell you if you may run into any headaches.

[Sanis Prent]

Me's gettin a 256 SDRAM plug :)

[Melusine Galelei]

Poor MnT.. Hurry back when you can, Duder..!


@_@ ...And Windows 98 is evil. It took me ten tries to get it to boot.. >_< Damn Blue screen of death.

[Mortaniuss]

I changed mine so it's a Red Screen of Death. ^_^

[Dalethria Mal Pannis]

at least you are around I was getting worried about you :(

[TheHolo.Net]

To be totally technically correct

(spoilsport)Windows 95/98 does not have a Blue Screen of Death. That feature is only reserved for NT and Win 2000 users, whom were treated with a special feature known as a complete memory dump. Aren't they special? The Blue Screen in Win95/98 is nothing more than a general protection fault, bad enough to clear the GUI.(/spoilsport)

Hey Miryan, good to see you. :)

[Mhalbrecht Dalarsco]

XP has no compatible 3D Drivers yet, so many games, such as DII, look like crap.

[Morgan Evanar]

I'm running XP, and Max Payne, Counter-Strike, and Tribes 2 look just as glorious as they did under 2000 or 98.

Don't misinform someone, because, lets see:

ATI has XP compatible drivers.

nVidia has XP compatible drivers.

You can make 3dfx's 2000 drivers run on XP.

Hercules has XP compatible drivers for it's Kyro/ Kryo 2 boards.

So obvioulsly you are badly misinformed and FOS. Where did you learn this?

[Wolfgang Schreiger]

Ron, I believe Dave Chapell said it best in Half Baked:


You have smoked yourself retarded.

I've run every game I can get my hands on through XP. Total Annihilation, System Shock 2, Max Payne, Baldurs Gate 2, Pools of Radiance, all Rainbow Six's, Elite Force, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Star Wars Battlegrounds, Kingpin, the Sims, Hitman, Tiberian Sun, and a few others I've likely forgotten in my jaded gaming binge. ALL about 300 times more 3D intensive than Diablo 2 and ALL run superbly.

In fact, only one game that I've played WON'T run on my system so far, and thats Dominion Wars...simply because I don't have enough memory. XP is godsend to gamers.

I think ya need to check yo'self, before ya wreck yo'self.

[Morgan Evanar]

Ok, MAYBE if you are running a Voodoo 2 it wouldn't work.

But dear god man, spend $50 and get a PCI GeForce 2 MX!

[Mhalbrecht Dalarsco]

I was on another board, and someone was having XP problems running DII, and someone said that there aren't Glide drivers for XP.

[Morgan Evanar]

Please link me to the board so I can enlighten these ignorant, wayward souls.

3dfx is dead, and Glide is a long dead API.

D e a d. Even so, I'd be willing to lend a hand to get the stuff working as best I could.

Tell that person to use an actual supported API, like D3D or OpenG, and it'll work dandy, provided the drivers are half decent.

Also, try the win2k drivers, the default drivers in XP don't install any support for any non Microsoft APIs, like OpenGL and Glide.

If he is using a V5-5500, he has my most sincere sympathies. If he is using anything older, he needs to get out of the dark ages, and get something more modern and fuctional like an ATI Radeon or GeForce 2.

3dfx hasn't constituted performance 3d for at least four years now, since the days of the TNT2/Voodoo 3.

And Glide hasn't constituted 3d for even longer.

Let this be a lesson kiddies: Don't use old, unsupported hardware.

[Sanis Prent]

I was about to add that XP doesn't support ancient things like the original System Shock, but Morg got the bases covered about Glide being ancient :)

[Morgan Evanar]

No DOS support in 2000/XP, and they are prolly no goes with non 32 bit apps, but I'm not certain on this one.

[TheHolo.Net]

Very little point in DOS games or non 32 bit games anymore, least thats my opinion.

[Morgan Evanar]

Well, you could always have a small, clean 9x partition for legacy stuff, like 1 gig.

[TheHolo.Net]

But then there are people like me who have multiple PCs.

I have:

2 - Win98 PCs TNT2 16MB Vid w/128MB RAM (a 266MHz and a 450 MHz, both PIIs)
1 - Win2K PC ATI All In Wonder Pro 8MB(TV Capture(non gaming) w/256 MB RAM (400MHz PII)
1 - WinXP PC GeForce2 32MB w/512MB RAM (1.33 GHz Athalon Thunderbird)

I think I have legacy covered.

[Morgan Evanar]

Yeah, I have it covered at home too, but I'm not at home =p.

When at home:

486 DX 50, 32 MB RAM, 2 MB vid, Win95

P2 350, 96MB RAM, Savage3d 8mb, Win98

k6-2 500, 256 MB RAM, TNT2 32 MB, Win2k

Laptop: Celery 700, 64 MB RAM, ?vidcard?, XP.

Laptop: Celery 800, 128 MB RAM, ?vidcard?, WinME.

Duron 800, 256 MB RAM, GeForce 2 MX, WinXP

I've got legacy covered too, but my sisters get really grouchy when they can't use their PC.

[Sanis Prent]

Back home I still have my old IBM Aptiva 486/66 processor, 750 MB HD, 8 mb RAM, 14.4 modem, and Win 3.1

I keep it because I still luv these old games :)

[TheHolo.Net]

That reminds me, I should probably replace one of those TNT2 16MB cards with the 32MB TNT2 Ultra I took out to to use my old TV Capture card. :)

[Morgan Evanar]

I've come to the conclusion I have a lot of computer parts. Maybe too many.

[TheHolo.Net]

You aren't the only one.

Looks at extra modems, video cards, CDROM drives, mice, keyboards, soundcards, hard drives, floppy drives.........add naseum. :x

[Mhalbrecht Dalarsco]

I think it was the Diablo II General Discussion at www.battle.net
D2 only supports Glide, and I think OpenGL.