From bad to WORSE!

[VRT_RIDEBLUE]

Well, long story here, I have had an issue with mcm2 booting me from game for about 6 months now, sometimes to desktop, sometimes it restarts, the whole story here....

1 Hard drive, 2 partitions, 98se on 1 partition/xp pro on other partition, 2 256 ram chips, amd 2.4+,radeon 9700 pro (128) the problem started to occur when the 9700 pro was purchased, I found some older drivers that worked pretty well with the Radeon tweaker utility from 3d guru, was most stable for about 6 months, then started crashing with no changes really to operatiing system, I run mcm only on 98se.

So I decided to reformat (like 3 different times) each partition to see if it was software issue, no fix, so I got 2 drives, 1 loaded with 98se, and other XP Home with SP2 and all the updates, direct x 90c, latest radeon drivers from ati, mcm still bootes me on XP and 98se drives (98se drive had all the older drivers, they seem to work better) Still boots me, got a 1 gig of ram chip, loaded 98se again, still boots me, loaded windows ME, still boots me....

So I figured it had to be the radeon 9700 pro as it did it on booth drives, any ram chip I used,So I just got a new GeForce 6600gt, still boots me on xp, and wont even load mcm on 98se drive (it starts to load, it never prompted me that there is a hardware change and mcm wants to test it etc)  it just goes back to desktop. Now it does launch and run on the xp drive with the GeForce card, but it will still boot me time to time (after 2 laps or sometimes 10 laps) I have also added an external fan with case cover off so i blow air on the MB.

My conclusion, could it be the way I am running 2 drives? I cant see why, but it is the only thing I have not tried (going back to 1 drive)  or the motherboard?  it has the latets bios also. any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated

Signed Desperate mcm addict  (btw I have 3 high def tracks I would love to finish for you guys but I cant when this happens (High def Hangtown, Vegas and Glen Helen)

[mcm2boys]

Hey Dave

A few things come to mind, first that i remember something from way back about win98 being sensitive to the amount of memory installed - it didn't used to like a lot of memory for some reason, also since XP has given a few problems to MCM i wondered if you tried win2K on your system. I run win2K with Radeon 9500 Pro and haven't had a problem i think i'm using Catalyst 5.7 drivers on it right now.

Seems you've tried a lot of configurations now with pretty much the same results, so it sounds to me like it is caused by some other common part. Which makes me wonder about over heating, does it run more laps from cold than after it's been running a while or is it pretty much random? Is your system overclocked CPU or GFX? I know it was a while back now but can you remember what you did to your system just before MCM started doing this, new hardware, drovers, software? (I think you said before it was the ATI 9700 installation that started it?)

Which version of DX are you using on win98? I'm guessing all other games run ok on the system?

One other thing comes to mind, how much power can your PSU supply? Although a PSU problem would probably bring the whole PC down not just MCM2..

Laurie

[VRT_RIDEBLUE]

I have thought about running win 2k, I am thinking about going back to 1 drive on win 2k, on my 98se side i have tried direct x 8.0 and the latest 9.0c.

My gut feeling is its the way I am running 2 drives, and yes it plays all other games pretty good, the Nascar 2005 game was dumping me at times, but not since I have the GeForce card it hasnt.

Ill keep ya posted

[4130BMX]

This is probably a stupid question, but when you reformatted, did you just simply Backup your system or did you actually re-install MCM2?

You never mention reinstalling the game but I'm sure you've tried that since you have gone through the trouble of completely different OS.

I have a similar PC,  AMD Athlon xp 3.0+ with Radeon 9550 256mb card,  I use hydravision drivers and I run Windows XP with SP2 and all that jazz, and I do not have a problem with it.  512ram and stuff,  so I'm starting to think that for some odd reason it could be the fact you have your partitions set up that way.

Why do you have two operating systems in the first place?  seems kinda useless unless you have some program that can only be used with the older version?

[VRT_RIDEBLUE]

Yes I have erased the drive, reformatted etc with fresh installs, the reason for 2 operating systems, 2, 1 the wife likes xp (user friendly) and I like 98se for mcm cause I am hooked on the freestyle pro controller, which does work on xp, but its not the same, it sticks when in turns, not as sensative etc etc, and I had less issues (in the past with mcm and 98se) I am reading more and more to get to the bottom of this.

[VMX_Slowpoke2]

hope you get it fixed soon

[mcm2boys]

Another thought, have you got any background progs running that might interfere with MCM?

I  don't see the partitions being a problem (though i could easily be wrong) unless you have less than about 500MB spare on your Boot drive, even hen i probably wouldn't be a problem.

I just ugraded my GF MX2 drivers to the latest 77.77 and the screen in MCM2 was all messed up so i reverted to v56.xx and it's all running ok again. This could be the combination of the MX2 and the drivers or MCM2 and the drivers or just all 3 together, hard to tell. So which drivers are you using on the GF6600? Could try going back to the earliest drivers that work with the 6600..


MCM2 was made to run on DX6 i thinkthe right ver. can be found on the CD) but i have had it work with 7, 8 and 9b (not tried 9.0c yet) do they make a version of DX9 for Win98 - i thought win98 was no longer supported?


Laurie

[metal_miracle]

Dx9.0A supports 98 not sure about C because i did read that it did and another place it did..

www.superfoxs.com they got a direct-x install program that works..

then try the dx9a

[koliflower]

I seem to have the same kind of problem with a new machine: MCM2 crashes itself and WinXP/2000 when starting, loading a game, after shutting it down or in the middle of playing (never more than 1/2 hour).

This is on a new machine (AMD64 3200, 2 Gig DDR-RAM; ATI X-700, 256Meg; driver updates; DirectX9 a or c)

I had it running on reliably in XP with an AMD Athlon 1600+ with a lighter-weight ATI video card, but it never ran well after the intial game install and a little run time (it started with frame rates over 100, but deteriorated till I could barely get 60 with much reduced options loaded).

I'm about ready to find an older machine that was primo for MCM2 and just use that for the game, any suggestions on that?

[VRT_JPRLisbon_]

http://dirttwister.com/smf/index.php?topic=1227.0

[koliflower]

No joy.That's where I started from (1 OS, MCM2 on  boot drive with 1 partition, new install of OS and HD, pro install of drivers).

Thanks,.

[MDx_Wayne]

At my house, the wife has her own comnputer.

[BPh]

lmao ^^^^^  I will do the same this week...

[DirtTwister]

I had a similar problem a while back.  I run two drives and lots of partitions.  It ultimately deteriorated and ended up being the processor failing.  It also only seemed to occur when doing 3D games. 

There are tons of heat related issues that can cause random problems that are hard to pin down.  The only to prove for sure is to replace things part by part and that includes, power supplies, motherboards, processors, and memory.

Bruce