Windows Xp Game Problems! Help Plz

KboTKboT Join Date: 2002-11-20 Member: 9436Members
Hi everyone! I got Windows XP Pro and Im getting this very annoying problem. I installed my WinXPro over my Win98, I was kinnda lazy and did not want to Format so I did not. But then I started to get this problem. When ever I start up a game like for example, Warcraft III, The game goes down the the task bar. Then I click it to bring it back up and it just will go down back again (Or in most cases not even respond when I click on it). SO then I start up the game again and this time when it is Starting up I RAPIDLY click my mouse button and the game dosent go down to the task bar and it runs normaly. I also cannot ALT+TAB the game to the Task bar or I will encounter the same Problem. This happens with 95% of the games I use. My Comp specs are pIII 866mhz, 256 meg SD Ram, 32meg GforceTI2 3d Vid card, etc... I have Tried all the NIVIDA Drivers and I have the lastest DriectX.

I hope somone could help me or at least tell me what is wrong! This problem is very annoying!

Comments

  • DOOManiacDOOManiac Worst. Critic. Ever. Join Date: 2002-04-17 Member: 462Members, NS1 Playtester
    i've never heard of that. ever.

    but I do know that installing windows on top of another version of windows is always always always bad. Windows isn't really made to be installed that way, and it always breaks things. To get the best performance and least wasted space, you need to format. Yes it can be a pain to reinstall everything, but then you won't be having these big prolems, and your computer will be faster and more stable too.
  • DY357LXDY357LX Playing since day 1. Still can't Comm. England Join Date: 2002-10-27 Member: 1651Members, Constellation
    Oh dear you did the same as me.
    I installed XP Pro *shudders* over 98SE and
    regretted it within 20 minutes.
    You're having conflicts between the old drivers tne crap XP
    DECIDES you SHOULD have,
    In the end i formatted (well i got my mate Phil to come do it for me)
    and shoved 98SE back on...... haven't looked back since
  • FlatlineUTDFlatlineUTD Join Date: 2002-11-08 Member: 7695Members
    Yeah, you screwed yourself over by installing Windows on top of the other one. Backup what you need to (if you still can), and reformat. ALWAYS start with a clean install.
  • pantspants Join Date: 2002-12-20 Member: 11188Members
    edited January 2003
    aah crap, i did the exact same thing about 6 months ago. maybe thats why half-life keeps giving me error messages <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo-->
  • [WHO]Them[WHO]Them You can call me Dave Join Date: 2002-12-11 Member: 10593Members, Constellation
    always have to go with the clean install, for 90% of all software you have installed you won't have to reinstall. Most of the time after I format my c: (os only partition) I'm back up and running with 90% of my stuff working within 4 hours.

    and I've been running xp pro sp1 since late november. In that time I've only rebooted 3 times (once for a power outage) and the only thing that has crashed was internet exploder (4-5 times) which was never a fatal crash (meaning i could just open up exploder again and continue to browse).

    I've been running xp pro pre-sp1 since a long time before that (a year at least) with more or less the same results.


    the moral of the story...... XP is less crash prone than 98 if you know what you're doing.... and always always always always do a format before you install ANY windows
  • mojojojomojojojo Join Date: 2002-11-01 Member: 2017Members
    Don't necessarily have to go for a clean install. Normally I just delete the windows directory and then install. Haven't had any major problems with this. Only thing is you lose all the registry settings for all your programs in Program Files, but most programs seem to recover just fine, and those that don't you can just reinstall - which you'd of have to have done anyway.
    Of course, moving from 98 to 2000/XP, you'll be changing file system as well. 2000/XP comes with a tool to do this, but unless your extremely lucky you'll end up with a 512byte cluster size, which really messes up performance. I seem to remember readyroom.org had loads of information on this.

    Back to the original post. It doesn't sound like your OS install is the problem - it sounds like something else is stealing the focus. I have this problem if I start up a game before windows has finished loading properly. I assume this still happens after windows has loaded properly, so I'd say try closing down all programs before you run it - including stuff in the sytem tray.
  • [WHO]Them[WHO]Them You can call me Dave Join Date: 2002-12-11 Member: 10593Members, Constellation
    edited January 2003
    <!--QuoteBegin--mojojojo+Jan 20 2003, 05:17 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (mojojojo @ Jan 20 2003, 05:17 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Of course, moving from 98 to 2000/XP, you'll be changing file system as well. 2000/XP comes with a tool to do this, but unless your extremely lucky you'll end up with a 512byte cluster size,  which really messes up performance. I seem to remember readyroom.org had loads of information on this.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    I stuck with fat32, there's really no need to switch

    And I only format c: cuz all I have on there is windows stuff, so same difference.


    and about the registry. If you're really lazy about re-installing old stuff, you can make a smoother recovery by performing a "registry sandwich" as I like to call it.

    Here's how it works.....
    before you format/install, export your entire registry.
    format/install.
    export your entire NEW registry to another file.
    import your pre-format/install registry
    import your post-format/install registry

    basically this lets you keep all the new setting of the install and fill in all the gaps where old programs created new information.

    It will cause some registry clutter tho
  • pantspants Join Date: 2002-12-20 Member: 11188Members
    When I play NS (or any other half-life stuff) when its connecting to the server, sometimes it says "Bad Surace Extents ***/***" and exits hl, sometimes it says that the map has been changed since starting half-life and exits half-life, after either of these two happens, every time i try to connect to a server running a map that ive gotten an error on, it says the map differs form the servers and exits <!--emo&:angry:--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/mad.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='mad.gif'><!--endemo--> . Ive tried reinstalling half-life from different cds and stuff, doesnt work <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo--> . So if i want these maps to work again, i have to reinstall NS, which i do like every 3 days.

    Does this happen to anyone else?

    Anyone know how to fix it? im tihkning it might be cuz i instaleld xp over 98 now...
  • DezmodiumDezmodium Join Date: 2002-10-23 Member: 1575Members
    <b>Sound Advice</b>:

    Unless you want to risk messing your comp up even more than it already is, just backup, format, and reintall windows fresh. Everybody seems to have the easy solution. Well let me tell you, unless you REALLY know what your doing or are just lucky, the procedure that supposably will only take five minutes to do will take forever and be so much hassle that you will wish you did the right thing from the start. Trust me... If you aren't a computer wiz, fix it the clinical way otherwise you risk problems down the road that you may have more touble with than they're worth.
  • KboTKboT Join Date: 2002-11-20 Member: 9436Members
    Oh btw heres some more INFO for anyone able to help me;
    The games that this DOSE NOT do this on includes, Star Trek Elite Force, UT2K3, and Half-Life...Now what do these games have in common besides all being FPS....
  • Sephiroth2kSephiroth2k Join Date: 2002-04-21 Member: 481Members, Constellation
    try ctrl alt deleting and double clicking on the game, sometimes does it with my hl. (i have xp, pain in my ****)
  • KillymageeKillymagee Join Date: 2002-11-01 Member: 3136Members
    Heh I run windoze xp pro on 80 megs of ram, thats how optimized my system is. The only thing I hate about
    win xp and xp pro is having to open my task manager to kill hl after I get out of a game . <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo--> athough I don't
    have sp1 installed tho *shiftyeyes* <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->

    <img src='http://keenintelect.com/~quick/quick_hosting/iseeyou.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image'>
  • KboTKboT Join Date: 2002-11-20 Member: 9436Members
    <!--QuoteBegin--Sephiroth2k+Jan 21 2003, 11:24 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Sephiroth2k @ Jan 21 2003, 11:24 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->try ctrl alt deleting and double clicking on the game, sometimes does it with my hl. (i have xp, pain in my ****)<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    I do do that but I dont want to half to do that! Thats the problem.
  • Sephiroth2kSephiroth2k Join Date: 2002-04-21 Member: 481Members, Constellation
    kbot, for me double clicking doesnt close it, it just gives the program the focus, i don't know if you meant you don't want to close your hl or not.
  • KboTKboT Join Date: 2002-11-20 Member: 9436Members
    <!--QuoteBegin--Sephiroth2k+Jan 21 2003, 10:19 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Sephiroth2k @ Jan 21 2003, 10:19 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->kbot, for me double clicking doesnt close it, it just gives the program the focus, i don't know if you meant you don't want to close your hl or not.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    Wha???
  • EvildwarfEvildwarf Join Date: 2002-11-01 Member: 2489Members
    My advice is to remove the crappy XP version and get windows 2000 instead. Much more stable and ten times better overall.
  • Sephiroth2kSephiroth2k Join Date: 2002-04-21 Member: 481Members, Constellation
    when i double click in ctrl + alt + del it restores the program i do it on, not close it.
  • FlatlineUTDFlatlineUTD Join Date: 2002-11-08 Member: 7695Members
    <!--QuoteBegin--Evildwarf+Jan 22 2003, 01:24 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Evildwarf @ Jan 22 2003, 01:24 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->My advice is to remove the crappy XP version and get windows 2000 instead. Much more stable and ten times better overall.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    I coulda sworn that XP was Win2k with a "prettier" front-end. I've never had XP crash on me, even when I've tried to crash to crash it.

    I've used both OSes, and really haven't found a glaring difference between the two. I still say Red Hat is better though. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
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