Secondary PCI card just for this game

[Budwise]

nVidia Drivers that are Campaign Compatible
I posted this on the other nVidia post but I will post this here.

I muted the audio and I COULD START A CAMPAIGN AND HAVE IT PLAY!!!!
I will try some more and post what I find.
NVIDIA CARDS BE DAMNED. I have a Sound Blaster Audigy card.
I GOT IT, I GOT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nvidia players, TURN OFF THE HIGH OPTION UNDER SOUND AND PLAY USING MEDIUM.
Also, keep the Campaign Resolution at 1024x768.

[Budwise]

Never mind, just tweak the settings.

[Budwise]

nVidia Drivers that are Campaign Compatible
I posted this on the other nVidia post but I will post this here.

I muted the audio and I COULD START A CAMPAIGN AND HAVE IT PLAY!!!!
I will try some more and post what I find.
NVIDIA CARDS BE DAMNED. I have a Sound Blaster Audigy card.
I GOT IT, I GOT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nvidia players, TURN OFF THE HIGH OPTION UNDER SOUND AND PLAY USING MEDIUM.
Also, keep the Campaign Resolution at 1024x768.

Well, if you want to play the Elmos on High/maybe Late, do the above. If someone can figure out how to play on early with a Catholic Faction. Please let me know.

[Budwise]

NVM. Even playing as the Elmos, I get CTD's. Well, at least I saw the Campaign map with a Nvidia card. If someone more technical than me can use this to diagnose the problem, then I would be more than happy to try other options, but right now - I GOT NUTTIN.

[Budwise]

For a laugh on incompetance in a professional setting, read on. I had to reverse the email conversation so you would read the earliest first. Please remember while you read that each responce took almost 3 days to receive back.

Customer 08/14/2005 07:52 PM
I bought a brand new nVidia GFX card and tried to uninstall the old drivers (This games campaign mode is not compatible with the newer drivers) to play it. Too my horror, my new GFX card is so new that the older drivers WILL NOT WORK with the card. So, is their anyway you can make a quick fix for nVidia gfx card players or note how to get around this Crashing to Desktop fix with the newer drivers.

Even knowing that a lot of people don't play online with this game anymore, there is still a strong single player community playing it.

Just for added help, I sent a copy of my latest DxDiag file to see if that may help.


Response (Lawrence Watthey) 08/14/2005 07:56 PM
Hello,

Thank you for contacting Activision Customer Support.

You have the latest drivers available installed for your video card. There is no support I can offer you for a card that is not working properly in this manner.

I suggest you contact the company that makes your board or your system manufacturer or a repair shop to properly troubleshoot your hardware.

Thank you for your patience and support, and please let us know if we can be of further assistance.


Well, thanks for taking the time in reporting back but thats not really helpful. A lot of people are having this problem (see here https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=52406 ) and it seems like a simple problem for your company to fix. The problem isn't just with my computer, its everyone who owns a nVidia card with newer drivers.

You see, the game crashes with the newer gfx drivers, period. You can try this yourself if you have a nVidia card.

Response (Lawrence Watthey) 08/14/2005 08:17 PM
Hello,

If the card itself is ok, you can try the driver archive at nVIDIA: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp-2k_archive.html

You should start with the 77.72 drivers which can also be found here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_77.72.html

I also suggest a complete uninstall/reinstall, ensuring that you do not install any 3rd party add ons, mods, or anything else not from the discs themselves.

Thank you.

Customer 08/17/2005 01:37 AM
Tried those right after, and then the next one back, and then the next one. When I got to the driver Version: 71.89, it says that my GFX card can't find a driver.


Response (Stephen Frick) 08/17/2005 07:26 AM
Hi, try installing one of the two drivers listed below.

You may need to remove the driver currently installed before being able to install an archived driver.


http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_53.03.html

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp-2k_45.23.html



Customer 08/20/2005 11:47 PM
Yeah, I tried them and they don't recongnise the 6200 Nvidia card that I have. The drivers that you suggested are too old. Any other ideas, or if you can get me an account that works for nVidia (I can't log in because their site has a problem and won't register a new account) or ask them what to do that would be nice too.


Response (Sam Akiki) 08/22/2005 06:44 AM
Hello,

It looks like you may have to do a little housecleaning on your system. I suggest you uninstall the game, and delete the game folder. Now I want you to do the following:

- Do a complete ScanDisk
1) Click the Start button > Settings > Control Panel.
2) Double-click the Administrative Tools icon.
3) Double-click the Computer Management icon.
4) Under Computer Management > Storage, highlight Disk Management.
5) Select the C: drive.
6) Right-click and select Properties.
7) Click the Tools tab.
8) Under Error-checking, click the Check Now... button.
9) Checkmark all the Check disk options.
10) Click the Start button.

- Do a complete Defrag
1) Click on the Start button > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter.
2) Select the C: drive.
3) Click the Defragmentation button to start. A defragmentation may take awhile depending on the size of the drive and amount used.

Now reinstall windows. All you need to do is put the Windows disc in the cdrom drive and then run setup.exe off of the disc. Choose to do an upgrade. This will replace missing or corrupted files. Once that is done go ahead and reinstall the game. Let us know how this turns out!


Customer 08/23/2005 10:33 AM
Okay, thats just plain annoying now. I don't mind waiting a few days for help but when you get back to me, suggest something reasonable.

First, I do both on a regular basis.

Second, A LOT OF OTHER PEOPLE ARE HAVING THIS PROBLEM AS I STATED BEFORE - I doubt scandisk would fix that problem.

Third, its only with Nvidia cards crashing to desktop. AND EVERYONE IS HAVING THIS PROBLEM.

Please come up with something reasonable because I am really loosing faith with your company.


Response (Sam Akiki) 08/23/2005 01:05 PM
Hello,

At this point I am out of suggestions. The problem may be hardware related. Check to make sure you have all of the latest bios updates and drivers for your motherboard. Many motherboard chipsets require separate AGP, IRQ routing, and Busmastering drivers to be installed in Windows to run properly. You should also make sure that your AGP aperture size is set to 64MB in the motherboard BIOS and that you are not overclocking your videocard or processor. Contact your motherboard manufacturer for help with drivers and BIOS settings. You may want to check for any other hardware conflicts that may exist as well. You could also have a bad stick of RAM. If you have more than one stick of RAM in your system try pulling one out and trying the game. If it works then you know that you may have a bad stick of RAM. Finally you may have power consumption issues. Your power supply might not be adequate for the amount of hardware in your machine. A 300 watt power supply is the minimum necessary for a machine that is fully equipped. If your power supply is less than 300 you may want to look into a better power supply. If you still cant get the game to work then you may want to consider returning the game at this point. If you have any further questions feel free to contact us.

Customer 08/24/2005 12:38 AM
I put what was said here on a MTW forum board. Apparently they are getting even more useless information from nVidia. I don't know what is the incompatibility between the newer nVidia drivers and your game but I honestly hope that your company could fix it. I mean come on, you owe us at least that. ONCE AGAIN, its not just me but ALL NVIDIA CARD OWNERS that are forced (We can't downgrade drivers with the new cards) to use the newer and more incompatible drivers.

If your company would just do a half-hour worth of research and put in a newer GFX card from nVidia and try to run the campaign mode, you would come to the same conclusion as all of us. JUST AT LEAST TRY IT.

[Budwise]

Hope you are all having a better time with the Nvidia site. If you would like to waste your time, please feel free to write Activision as well at http://activision.custhelp.com/cgi-b...p_sid=HPEGDNNh but I doubt it will do any good.

[Zild]

It's the standard, three-phase Tachnical Support approach:

1) Blame the user's equipment and setup.
2) Blame it on another company's product.
3) Suggest a refund - it works out cheaper for them than fixing it, because so few people ever make it to step three!

Had the same thing with my ADSL with UKOnline AND Tiscali!

[Odin]

When I first got MTW many moons ago I had trouble running it on my rig. Activision wasnt helpful at all, and if it werent for the detailed information on sites like the org of people who had a similar problem I might not have ever figured it out.

Fansites are the best way to get support for an issue. I know that doesnt help you out to much budwise, but thought I would offer a note of moral support none the less.

[Vladimir]

I think I may have had this problem ONCE with my game. My system has hardware up to 7 years old and software ~4 years old. Yes, the advantage of having an older system is that they're best for older programs.

[Budwise]

When I first got MTW many moons ago I had trouble running it on my rig. Activision wasnt helpful at all, and if it werent for the detailed information on sites like the org of people who had a similar problem I might not have ever figured it out.

Fansites are the best way to get support for an issue. I know that doesnt help you out to much budwise, but thought I would offer a note of moral support none the less.

Thanks, I just mostly wanted to tell others about them. I really wasn't expecting much help but I was hoping others would send information and complaints in and force them to patch this game.

Lets face it, we are a niche group and unless this game gets popular really fast, I doubt they will lift a finger to fix it. What is lame though is that they are still selling this game in bargain bins everywhere and nVidia card holders will be severely disappointed. I just hope with the massive refunds that will hopefully happen, they will change their stance on this game.

[antisocialmunky]

I think it's time to break out the torches and pitch forks and revive the angry peasant revolts of old.

[Zild]

Lets face it, we are a niche group and unless this game gets popular really fast, I doubt they will lift a finger to fix it. What is lame though is that they are still selling this game in bargain bins everywhere and nVidia card holders will be severely disappointed. I just hope with the massive refunds that will hopefully happen, they will change their stance on this game.

I wish that would happen, but I can almost guarantee it won't. Firstly, Activision can't do anything with it - that'd be up to The Creative Assembly. And CA have a 'one-patch policy' from what I hear (though they were forced into making two for RTW). Besides which, I think they're only really concerned about RTW and Spartan: Total Warrior these days.

I have to say I'm immensely annoyed with a lot of games - my most recent PC game was released a year ago (got it about three months back), and the majority are far older. Some of them I've never been able to get working on any PC. I think there should be something stopping them selling games that are increasingly unplayable - the standard response 'we can't guarantee software will work, given the many possible combinations of hardware and software' just doesn't cut it with me.

I think this is a major issue that the game industry needs to face, and one of the reasons I will always defend consoles.

[Budwise]

I was the one who posted the long Customer Support information with Activision and after their last reply, they sent me this.

Response (Sam Akiki) 08/24/2005 07:07 AM
Hello,

Unfortunately we no longer have a relationship with the developer of this game. Creative Assembly was purchased by Sega a few months ago. It would be unlikely that there would be a patch released by us. This is most likely a problem with the Nvidia drivers. Nvidia would have to fix any problems they introduced into the game. If you have any further questions feel free to contact us.


First, why the hell didn't they just tell me this to begin with?

Second, when the hell did this happen?

and Third, why the hell didn't they just tell me this to begin with?

Thought you all would like to know, thats all. I reposted this under the Activision post.

[Zild]

That happened earlier this year - April kind of time, from memory.

My advice - don't buy RTW out of protest (I'm doing the same, because of the huge time it took them to make the second patch for it).

[Budwise]

That happened earlier this year - April kind of time, from memory.

My advice - don't buy RTW out of protest (I'm doing the same, because of the huge time it took them to make the second patch for it).

Right on - oh wait, I wasn't going to buy it anyways because I heard it sucked.

If anything, I might buy it USED off of ebay, so they get nothing. Or, I could have a friend download it free off of the internet.

Just kidding, I don't pirate software because that would be wrong.

[kiwitt]

R.I.P. MTW You were a great game. You were killed by NVIDIA.

[Budwise]

I was just wondering, its really low and I wanted to know on a AMD 3000+ chip that it would play well with such a crappy GFX card?

[Pillowfighter]

Well...I have an old 1.2 celeron pentium integrated chip set box that I have a ATI 7000 card in a PCI slot. I think I put it in 2+ yrs ago so I could give Rise of Nations a whirl. The performance on that game wasn't that great, but prolly also due to only 384 sdram. Since then we have purchased a couple other computers, a laptop and another desktop(which I normally play MTW on). I really only game a couple hrs a week with work, school, and other interests and am fairly new to MTW actually. I did however put MTW on the old puter so I could play it when the better half is using the other PC. For me it's ok and I don't really mind it that much, but from skimming some of your other threads I think you would not be really happy with it.

Here are some screenshots of the game using the ATI 7000. There can be some slow downs when alot of men and artillary on the field. Also I remember having some display\driver issues that I sorted out when I first put in the card. I don't remember exactly what they were being a couple yrs ago now....think I had to use a cleaner and new install of a ATI driver.

Neways...here are some shots of the game and let me know if anything else I can answer for you.


Pillowfighter

[Budwise]

Uh, that is ugly. Yeah, the battles on the nVidia card that I have look freaking sweet. If they stay stable, I might just play my friend in the best of seven that I suggested. Should be the easiest 50 dollars I ever receieved.

[kiwitt]

Nvidia players, TURN OFF THE HIGH OPTION UNDER SOUND AND PLAY USING MEDIUM.
Also, keep the Campaign Resolution at 1024x768.

Will this work ?!?!?

I was almost ready to write a R.I.P. post. "MTW you were a great game"