Talk about Black Sea...

**Krevel** · 01-23-2005, 16:01

Bad news. A new Mobo basically amounts to a new computer. You'll be able to use most of your parts, though - if that's any consolation.

Have you checked the Dell site for a new mobo/video driver for your computer? That MAY solve your problem, but the lack of a dedicated video card may be insurmountable.

**ShellShock** · 01-23-2005, 16:44

Originally Posted by Krevel

Bad news. A new Mobo basically amounts to a new computer. You'll be able to use most of your parts, though - if that's any consolation.

Have you checked the Dell site for a new mobo/video driver for your computer? That MAY solve your problem, but the lack of a dedicated video card may be insurmountable.

I'm not sure how a new motherboard equates to a new computer, at least price wise. It would be possible to get a new motherboard that will take your existing processor, memory, hard disk and other cards, plus a new AGP graphics card. This could be a lot cheaper than a new computer, but you would really have to know what you were doing, to make sure everything was compatible, and you got quality parts.

**Blitz** · 01-23-2005, 16:49

LOL, you seem to have a lot of bad news fell sorry for ya

**The_678** · 01-23-2005, 17:57

I don't know about all this new comp stuff but I sometimes get the weird map black stuff and simply doing the alt+tab twice trick to fix it is alot easier than getting a new comp.

**ShellShock** · 01-23-2005, 18:11

According to board admin at the official RTW forums, the Dell Dimension 3000 does not meet the minimum system specs: see here .

**Red Harvest** · 01-23-2005, 21:03

The integrated graphics steal some memory (and memory bandwidth) from the system since they don't have dedicated memory of their own. What is probably happening is some sort of failure to allocate memory properly. It could even be related to some known memory leaks in RTW. At any rate, integrated graphics really aren't cut out for games like this.

PCI card choices are extremely limited. You can get an idea of what is available by searching o a site like www.newegg.com. I would avoid the ATi 9200's--some folks have been unable to get them to work, and they are notably absent from the list of supported ATi cards. That said, some have gotten the 9200 to work. And I'm usually pro ATi, I use an 8500 and 9800 Pro in my own machines (and had Radeon ViVo before them--still have it actually, but it is back in the box now since I don't have a 3rd machine.)

As a workaround, you might disable fog of war. Of course that has other negative effects on gameplay.

**Dooz** · 01-23-2005, 21:53

Well stew my foot and call me Jude... and I was all happy I just bought a new comp... Infamy!

But the thing is, my system specs are a whole lot different than what the Dell site says the Dimension 3000 should be. Cause I didnt' exactly buy it from Dell itself, rather from some special offer type deal at Costco.... YES COSTCO! (they even sell cars!... it's only a matter of time before they take over the world..) But I assume the fact that it doens't have the necessary hardware to install a new card is still the same... but just to be safe, is there any way I can personally check myself? Without takin apart the computer perhaps? Like just a few simple clicks of the mouse and a file sayin "You're computer is fully ready to let you experience the wonderful world of Rome: Total War at its absolute best. Enjoy."

...Maybe...? ...No...?