Game problems

[blinc]

Was wondering if anyone else has problems with game cd's? We have Warcraft II and Diablo II right now. It seems the Diabblo game has a lot of problems... it freezes the computer up every now and then and sometimes it loads with everything being real jerky on the screen. Haven't had any problems with Warcraft though. Have cleaned the Diablo disc repeatedly. Any ideas or suggestions as to what might be wrong? Does anyone else have the game, if so do you have problems with it? What is the best thing to use to clean a cd? I've been using a tiny bit of alcohol on a cotton swab.

[utah007]

They have cd cleaning kits, however the game freezing or being jerky is rarely a result of the cd quality. When the game loads it is loaded into your memory. If its jerky on video it could be that your system is running out of resources... In other words...
A. You need new video drivers
B. You need more memory
C. You're whole system is due for an upgrade...

Alot of times though a simple driver upgrade for your video will fix your problems...

[TTP]

What he said. :)

[blinc]

ok... (reading off the invoice again {toothy} )we have a 32 MB Nvidia RIVA TNT2 Pro. That's the video part, I think.

Running out of resources... how do you check that out? Do you mean video resources or the computer memory in general? If it's video, what other applications might be using up video space? Does that make sense? We have 2 different photo programs, is that the same thing the video uses? There's things on this computer, we have NO idea what they are there for... came installed. How do you upgrade your system? Ummm... how can you find out exactly what programs are on your computer? Know that sounds silly but remember we've only had this thing now for 6 months. The books we have just don't explain real well how to do stuff and assume you already know the lingo, etc.

[TTP]

I'm pretty sure the 'Memory' he was referring to was RAM?
Assuming that, you can check that by holding down the Windows Key, little flag thing, and the hitting the pause/break key on your keyboard...this of course assuming you have a windows keyboard, if not right-click on your "My Computer" icon and then go down to properties.
Either way a screen will come up...once there click on the far right tab that I believe is labled "Performance," I'm not sure it's been awhile since I've been on anything but 2000.
Anyhow there will be a number with a percentage on that screen, you don't want the number below 80% IMHO higher the better...
To find out what exactly is running on your computer at all times hold down the windows key and hit the R key, or go to start and then choose run. In the blank box type "MSCONFIG," it doesn't matter if it's all caps or not, then click ok. In the upper-right-hand corner you will see, "Startup" Click on that tab and below that you will see a list of everything running on your computer at startup unless there is not a check-mark beside it, then it is not running at all times.
Now for most people the only thing that have to be checked are:
Explorer
and one other one....UTAH!!!!! Help...{mm}
I want 98 back...this 2000 sucks!
Sorry...

[blinc]

ok hit the little flag thing and pause break. Here's what it says:

Memory 128 MB of RAM
System Resourches: 42% free... that's not good huh?

trying the running thing now, here's what all has a checkmark... if we don't need it running, will ya let me know? heeeeelllp! {toothy}

Money Agent (don't think we need that)
Taskbar display controls
MSMSGS (Microsoft Messenger)
AIM
ScanRegistry
Task Monitor
System Tray
LoadPowerProfile
HPScanPatch
hpsysdrv
Adaptec DirectCD
USBMMKBD
Keyboard Manager
Vse... Yada yada... programs for viruscan, which we do want running at start up right? yup.
mgavrt...yada, (more anitvirus stuff)
StillmageMonitor
LoadPowerProfile (again)
Scheduling Agent
Encompass_ENCMONTR
Hidserv
Vshwin (more antivirus stuff)
Cal reminder shortcut
Updates from HP
Internet Answering Machine (Callwave - we use this one)
run=

Whew. Now if we can figure out what half of these are... maybe we can figure out if they need to be running or not. A question for ya... when we played the games, we were offline... would these programs still be up and running even if we weren't online? OR would they only kick on once we logged on?

Any help would be appreciated. :)

[blinc]

Wow. I unclicked the money agent, the MSN Messenger and uninstalled AIM. With just those three things it jumped my system resources up to 75% free!!! WOW!!

Ok, the task scheduler... I don't have anything on that, is that to remind you to do stuff? I run an online virus scan at least 3 or 4 times a week (plus it's on all the time anyways), do the disk defragmenting once a week... if that's all the scheduler is there for, can I make that not available at start up? What else can I take off the starting line-up? {toothy}

[TTP]

Ooops missed this last night. See what we have here...

42% is pretty low, I'ld say that could be a big part of the problem...I see you've already got it up to 75%? You should see a difference, probably not much of one but one.

Money Agent (don't think we need that) You're correct
Taskbar display controls Not necessary
MSMSGS (Microsoft Messenger) Not necessary
AIM You already nuked it, good
ScanRegistry Leave this as is
Task Monitor Not necessary
System Tray Not necessary
LoadPowerProfile Keep 'er there
HPScanPatch This is for your scanner, you shouldn't need it, but leave it for now.
hpsysdrv Same as above
Adaptec DirectCD Burning software, don't need it starting up with ya
USBMMKBD Do you have a USB keyboard?
Keyboard Manager
Vse... Yada yada... programs for viruscan, which we do want running at start up right? yup. ok
mgavrt...yada, (more anitvirus stuff) Your choice
StillmageMonitor Scanner
LoadPowerProfile (again) Take this one out
Scheduling Agent Not necessary
Encompass_ENCMONTR No need
Hidserv No need
Vshwin (more antivirus stuff) Ok
Cal reminder shortcut Kill it
Updates from HP Personally I would find it annoying, but if you want to know if there are any updates from HP w/o going to there site and looking...this should tell you about those, so it's your choice. I would nuke it.
Internet Answering Machine (Callwave - we use this one) It's fine
run= Leave it


The virus stuff is up to you, I'ld go ahead and leave it and continue what you've been doing. Personally I have no virus scan because it they are resource hogs.
Anyhow, take those things out and see if it helps you out any. If not, it's back to the drawing board.

[blinc]

Hee hee
*happy dancing*
hee heeeeee heeeeeee heee!

I unclicked all those thingys and now it says the system resources are up to 84% FREE!!! yipppeeeee!!! Can't wait til Bill (the hubby) gets home so he can try the Diablo out. I can't seem to play it too well {rolleyes} but what with the weekend coming up, and the weather being bad, he'll want to play it. This is so neat! Thank you so much TTP and Utah! I'll let you know how this works. :)

*happy dances s'more*
{toothy}

[blinc]

Oh, forgot to tel you that yep we do have a keyboard with USB ports built in. Neat little bugger cause the mouse plugs right into the keyboard. It's got like a gazillion bttons that we still haven't figured out... half afraid to try stuff! Hey, just noticed it has a cd/dvd area with what looks like stop, rewind, forward, etc... woulda been nice to have 'em labeled. It's also got an "Internet" area with buttons to push for shopping, entertainmetn, finance, connect, search, people and email. Hmmm... wonder what they do? There's also a volume control knob on the keyboard, love that little bugger. oooh, a mute button, didn't notice that one before. On the other side there's a standby button... any idea what that does? A help and HP, then shortcut 1 and shortcut 2 buttons. Any ideas? Last but not least a "Documetns" area... find, print and fax. think I've got those figured out, although we still haven't used or looked up how to do a fax from this thing.

uh oh... I pushed the connect button to see if it was a thing to pull up the connect/disconnect for the internet connection... it pulled up a thing that says "Transferring -M" and put this up on the address bar.
http://redirect.paviliondownload.com/connect/EN_US/index.html?VER=0&URL=http://www.yahoo.com/p/hp/us/?http://hp.my.yahoo.com

umm... QUIT PUSHING THE BUTTONS ALREADY!!! {toothy}
if I disappear for awhile, erm... you'll know what happend

[TTP]

I've beem tring to find your keyboard on HP's website thinking they might have documentation as to what all those buttons do. I know what they do, but I think it would be easier if you had like a picture or something. Does this look like your keyboard?
http://www.hp.com/desktops/products/accessories/generated/C4742B.html
Also, there should be a model number and series name on your computer...hp Pavilion something or other...which one is it do you know? That should be on the invoice as well...just trying to find some files and documents for you and would rather it be facts from them other than I think/know so from me. :)

[blinc]

I tried finding the exact keyboard on their site... the one you found looks the closest. It's the one touch internet connect thing I think they call it. Ok, here's what I found... the product # for the keyboard is D7265M #ABA. It's a cobalt blue USB keyboard. There's numbers on the bottom of the keyboard: 5302H and then a P/N number 5184-4708.
The computer has a Hewlett Packard Pavilion wrote on the front with a 9600 right below it. So pretty sure it was the 9600 series? Theere is a system # on the back that says D72038. On the shipping invoice it says D7203B... ok... Then has CT0176870 underneath that number.

I've looked on the HP site and can't find the computer or the keyboard. Thinks ours, at six months old, is now oout of date! *roll eyes*

Just so you know, Bill tried playing his Diablo game last night and it went beautifully. Didn't stutter, glitch or freeeze up. Still trying to figure out why it only did it on Diablo though... it's never had a problem with Warcraft. Hmmm... any thoughts on that?

[TTP]

I'll give HP another look and see what I can find when I'm done here.
I'm pretty sure it had problems on only Diablo because Diablo has more graphics and graphics of greater detail which cause the video card and processor to work harder and you begin to get that lag-down when it can't handle what you're giving it.
The reason it was lagging is because your processor was busy doing all those other things, %42 free, but now it should do better with your +%80, that is quite a jump.
If it begins to have problems again, I'ld say it's probably time for some new drivers for your video card, or possibly another video card...more memory, faster processor...all those could effect that.
So now you can't peel the hubby from Diablo? Sorry...{toothy}

[TTP]

I found a few things that might be helpfull:

How to re-install a keyboard:
http://www.hp.com/cposupport/personal_computing/support_doc/nph00133.html

Multimedia functions of a keyboard:
http://www.hp.com/cposupport/personal_computing/support_doc/bph04790.html
Now it doesn't have your model listed as affected, but it should be real close if not the exact same and the pictures and stuff were good, so that's why I put that here.

Some general specs on 9600 series:
http://www.hp.com/cposupport/personal_computing/support_doc/bph05311.html
Now you did say that you chose what you wanted for this computer right? So it was CTO, Configured To Order?

What they say the keyboard should be:
http://www.hp.com/cposupport/personal_computing/support_doc/bph05311.html#P545_14287


Does that help any?

[blinc]

Ok I know who to call when I get lost! {toothy} I looked on their site for the info... well, dang there it is! Geesh, feel like a moron. Thank you TTP!!

[blinc]

Oh yeah, TTP he's eyeballing the computer right now...
NOOOOOO! Back! Back I say!
heeeeeeeeeeellllppp!!
*sigh*
getting the evil eye I think, see ya tomorrow... hopefully. If not, it's ALL YOUR FAULT TTP! {toothy}

[blinc]

I did have another question... what would cause the drivers to wear out this quickly? (If they are) We didn't even really use the CD part until about a month ago. How long are they usually good for?

[blinc]

Hello?
Heeeeeeeeellllloooooooo?
*echo*
*echo*
*echo*
{toothy}
Just wanted to let you know that so far so good. Bill hasn't had anymore problems with the games. Cool! Thanks again for the info... saved a lot of "Arrghing", cussin' and hairpullling over here.

[TTP]

:-o

Sorry! I wasn't ignoring you I promise! I just missed it...three years later... :-o

I'm glad it worked out for you! :)