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]

I WILL NOT GIVE UP MY NVIDIA 6200. (I wasn't born with a silver spoon up my ass so no laughing/joking/snickering/flaming about my GFX card.)

SO, what good PCI GFX card would be good with this game. I know its an older game so PCI (NOT PCI-E) would work fine but I don't know which to look for. Does anyone here use a PCI GFX card to play the game. Does it work well? I should get a ATI card if this is possible to avoid driver conflict.

[Geezer57]

Here's one, using a Radeon 9250 chip:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814103167

Less than $68 delivered, and plenty powerful enough for M-TW.

[Shottie]

I'm in the market for a new vid card do you think a Radion 9800 Pro would work with MTW?

[Budwise]

Okay, I like nVidia better because I personally tested two similar cards from both companies and I like the visuals of nVidia so much better.

Well, I am just looking for a cheap fix to this game. Activision is being useless in Customer Support. I can't get even on the Nvidia Customer Support site so I am stuck with this option.

I really don't want to buy a new gfx card at all, I just want to play my favorite game, thats all.

[Budwise]

I'm in the market for a new vid card do you think a Radion 9800 Pro would work with MTW?

Yeah, I think it would - just stay away from nVidia if you want to play this game.

I played the game fine with my old ATI SE 9600 without a problem. I just sold that card when I "UPGRADED" to what I have now. Sure, all my other games look so much better but now I can't play this one.

[Budwise]

Here's one, using a Radeon 9250 chip:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814103167

Less than $68 delivered, and plenty powerful enough for M-TW.

Anything a little cheaper?

[antisocialmunky]

Mine's either a $5 ATI Rage 128 Pro or the equivalent a Nvidia TNT card depending if I'm trying to run Ground Control or not. It runs the game fine on normal size with lower settings for particles. It can handle 32 unit battles on average and larger. Huge is not recommended. It only really has problems with catepult shots hitting the ground(particles). Get those cards at clearances, they are rather obsolete.

[VikingHorde]

I'm in the market for a new vid card do you think a Radion 9800 Pro would work with MTW?

I think it would work perfectly. My last card (before my dammed GeForce 6600 GT) was a ATI 9600 XT and it even ran RTW as well as my new one . My next card will be a ATI, they get the job done right.

[Geezer57]

I'm in the market for a new vid card do you think a Radion 9800 Pro would work with MTW?

I'm using Radeon 9800 Pros in several machines on my network: my primary box has a socket-754 Athlon 64, the others are running Barton-core Athlon XP's. They all handle M-TW at 1600x1200 resolution at full detail just fine, even in big battles.

[Geezer57]

Anything a little cheaper?

Well, there's this one (also a 128mb Radeon 9250) for $52 delivered:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102522

And if you're really strapped for cash, there's this 64mb Radeon 7000 for under $34 delivered:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102318

If you can squeeze a few extra bucks, I'd stick with the first one posted in the earlier message, but in a pinch either of these will do OK (especially the $52 one).

[Geezer57]

Okay, I like nVidia better because I personally tested two similar cards from both companies and I like the visuals of nVidia so much better.

Well, I am just looking for a cheap fix to this game. Activision is being useless in Customer Support. I can't get even on the Nvidia Customer Support site so I am stuck with this option.

I really don't want to buy a new gfx card at all, I just want to play my favorite game, thats all.

Actually, if you compare similar graphics chip generations, it's pretty much a wash between NVidia and ATI hardware. Back in the day, I was a big fan of the original Voodoo and Voodoo-2 graphics cards - I still have a pair of Voodoo-2's that ran in SLI together. But NVidia's Riva TNT hardware wooed me with a bigger bang for the buck, and I became a dedicated NVidia user for years.

But when ATI introduced the Radeon 9700 series cards, it was pretty clear that my old GeForce 4 card was outmatched. And when NVidia's rebuttal (the first of the GeForce 5x00 series) bombed compared to the Radeon 9700, I tried my first ATI card - and was hooked!

But times changed, and now NVidia has bounced back - but image quality between the two is pretty much a non-issue. At any given price point, you can get a great card from either ATI or NVidia, and not really be able to tell the difference between them. Because of driver conflicts only (and that may someday be resolved), and only with this particular game (Medieval), I recommend ATI over NVidia.

[Budwise]

Actually, if you compare similar graphics chip generations, it's pretty much a wash between NVidia and ATI hardware. Back in the day, I was a big fan of the original Voodoo and Voodoo-2 graphics cards - I still have a pair of Voodoo-2's that ran in SLI together. But NVidia's Riva TNT hardware wooed me with a bigger bang for the buck, and I became a dedicated NVidia user for years.

But when ATI introduced the Radeon 9700 series cards, it was pretty clear that my old GeForce 4 card was outmatched. And when NVidia's rebuttal (the first of the GeForce 5x00 series) bombed compared to the Radeon 9700, I tried my first ATI card - and was hooked!

But times changed, and now NVidia has bounced back - but image quality between the two is pretty much a non-issue. At any given price point, you can get a great card from either ATI or NVidia, and not really be able to tell the difference between them. Because of driver conflicts only (and that may someday be resolved), and only with this particular game (Medieval), I recommend ATI over NVidia.

Okay, let me explain. I ran to similar GFX cards that came out around the same time. An ATI Radeon 9600 and a Geforce 5500. Yes, I know the ATI ran a trillion times faster but when I put them in the same computer with the same configs - just swapping out the cards. THE NVIDIA HAD A WAY BETTER PICTURE!!!! I wish I had a screenshot but I swear upon my childs life the Nvidia card was a lot better on the eyecandy. The difference wasn't little either, the color was way better. The only thing the ATI card had was a little sharper picture. For pure realism much less immersion factor, stick with Nvidia - except for MTW.

[EatYerGreens]

Budwise,

I have ATI myself, only it's one of the cheaper ones - Radeon 9200 (I wanted twin monitor support and this fitted my budget at the time).

Anyway, the ATI control panel utility has a whole section where you can change the colour balance/depth to custom settings. I think you could have achieved equivalent richness of colour in this way and you were just disappointed by the default settings of one card versus the other. Evidently the NVidea team's idea of a good default setting is different from that at ATI.

In your shoes, I would have done exactly the same thing - gone for the one I liked best in its 'out of the box' form - but just wanted to make the point that you could have had the quality AND the colour to your liking.

[Budwise]

Thanks. Yeah I really didn't tweak with many settings but I remember tweaking with the color. But it wasn't just that, I can't even put my finger on it but if I had to live with the image from the card being my permenent eyes, I would 100% with NO regret go with nVidia. Like I said, I don't know what it was but it just looked better.

[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.

[Productivity]

Here's one, using a Radeon 9250 chip:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814103167

Less than $68 delivered, and plenty powerful enough for M-TW.

Which will be an utter nightmare to use - two different chipset manufacturer means two different sets of drivers. Don't do it.

[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.

[Geezer57]

Which will be an utter nightmare to use - two different chipset manufacturer means two different sets of drivers. Don't do it.

I'd like to know more about the nightmare situation - could you give us some examples of likely misbehavior?

Budwise's hypothetical configuration seems like it should work, but we all know these things can work differently in the real world.

[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 that it's the support more than the cards themselves matter. The hardware is pretty much split, however, Nvidia continously releases patches for everything including older obsolete cards. AIT ends it.

Nvidia TNTs caused my comp to lock up after shutting down windows though so...

[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.

[Productivity]

I'd like to know more about the nightmare situation - could you give us some examples of likely misbehavior?

Budwise's hypothetical configuration seems like it should work, but we all know these things can work differently in the real world.

Uh, because you are going to have two sets of drivers, from different manufacturers fighting and trying to do the same thing. It might work flawlessly, but it's unlikely.