I need help!

[Sonic]

Please listen to my plight geniuses of ROME.RO (geniuses not including me).  I thought I had a top of the line computer, its a compaq lets start there. I got it last year. windows 98 to be more precise.  The memory in the computer is empty! the only games in it are doom2, final doom, ultimate doom and starcraft.  (I have put in and taken out games in the past, games the are weak like duke nuken, heretic 2, etc) but there are still 9.30 GB left.  We've virus checked it and no viruses are present (we have a fairly recent virus checker also got it a couple months ago)  On the tower it says compaq presario ok?  and the numbers 5461 above the cd drive. I am giving ALL THE INFORMATION I KNOW, so maybe I can be given the problem.
Now to get to the point, you know my computers sounds fine right? Or is there something wrong because I have tried installing quake 3, diablo 2,  disciples 2,  myst 3 and unreal tournament GOTY edition.  NONE OF THEM WORK!  WHY!!!!!!!!!!! everytime I install a game the computer crashes.  WHY WHY WHY!!! I NEED A SMART PERSON TO HELP ME! thanks for your cooperation.

[lonewolf]

You gonna have to:

A)Learn fast and fix it yourself
B)Learn fast and tell us more
C)Learn fast and explain really well to a 'computer technician'
D)Call someone out and hope they are worthlessly stupid (like most of em are)
E)Pray to god

[Brick_Sledge]

I supose you should buy Windows 98 For Dummies.

Try going into the start menu, accesories, system tools.
Then choose disk cleanup, then do scandisk, then disk defragmenter.

For more information, right click "My Computer" and hit properties.

Perhaps you don't have Direct X or a good video card.  Maybe should contact tech support from the game makers.

[[S.F.C]Sarge]

What kind of errors do you get when you start those games?
 
 [ November 29, 2002, 06:26 PM: Message edited by: [S.F.C]Sarge/CrAzYCoW ]

[jmichl]

I think I've discovered the problem!

 

quote:its a compaq lets start there.

In all seriousness...I've never seen a Compaq play games without problems.  Have you reinstalled Windows 98, or put in/removed hardware recently?  I know that doing those things can cause problems on Compaqs.  If you haven't done any of that, then Brick_Sledge's advice is the way to go.

[lonewolf]

To be honest, any brand name machine is a load of piss these days.

I don't like not having 100% control over the setup of my machine.

That way, if it goes wrong (if, not when!) I can only blame myself, and also it's highly likely I know the problem solution anyhow.

[Sonic]

quote:Originally posted by [S.F.C]Sarge/CrAzYCoW:
What kind of errors do you get when you start those games?
 
 <small>[ November 29, 2002, 06:26 PM: Message edited by: [S.F.C]Sarge/CrAzYCoW ]</small>

They are all different.  Diablo two crashes after I install it and when I restart the computer and click the icon it doesn't work at all, and if you click it to much it freezes the computer.

Quake 3 always freezes right at the enter keycode part.

Myst three everytime I install it says I am missing a file, and when I find it (its always there but located in some odd place) and get it to work and the games starting up, it freezes.

Diablo one kinda works but when I'm playing it every 3 minutes it will quit out automatically back to the desktop (the screen vanishes)    

Disciples 2 just goes wacky, I only tried it once and was to frustrated to try again, I don't really remember what happened but something like it froze.

Unreal tournament goty edition works which is wierd, along with quake 2.  Riven works and I thought these were high powered games.  

 Wierd huh?

[Sonic]

quote:Originally posted by Miles Invictus:
[QB]In all seriousness...I've never seen a Compaq play games without problems.  Have you reinstalled Windows 98, or put in/removed hardware recently?  I know that doing those things can cause problems on Compaqs. [QB]

I can't say I have. The only thing I've done is played low class games like doom and duke nukem on it, and browse the internet.  The highest powered game I think I have ever gotten to work was quake 2.  Otherwise I don't think I've done anything to the computer besides play games on it.

[lonewolf]

I think it's time to pick up that POS and throw it in the bin.

Then, whilst you endure a lack of computing, you learn beginner to intermediate levels of computer hardware and software technical support and then create your own 'Doom 3 killer'. Using the best a man can get (and I aint talkin' 'bout no Gillette either!) you make the best home system know to exist on the face of the planet at the current minute.
Trust me, after your tenure without a PC, having an uber system and the knowledge to exploit and use it to it's maxim is the most satifactory sensation ever!

Well, except 'the' sensation...but im guessing you aint old enough for that (see harry potter thread lol).

[Sonic]

LONEWOLF!  are you implying I throw my computer out?   I wquld but I'm to danged broke to buy a new one.  I have a total of 900 dollars in my bank which is for college..... I know its not very much and five dollar in my wallet.  I know i know, im trying to get a job  

[RacerTex]

Sonic,

What was the last thing you installed? If it was the first Diablo it tries to install DirectX 3.0 with is bad news when playing Quake. My first suggestion would be to download the latest Direct X... 8.1 I think.. from microsoft's website. See if that clears up lots of your problems.

If that doesn't it might be time to throw in that System Restore Disk and start fresh, installing the oldest games first, of course.  The system restore disk will erase the contents of your hard drive. So any letters, save games or downloaded files will be lost if they are not properly backed up.

The last issue would be going into the Control Panet and the system icon. Look at the second tab and scroll down that list looking for red x's or yellow !'s. Could be your graphic accelerator card has developed an issue that needs to be resolved. UT GOTY, Riven and quake 2 could be in software mode bypassing the need to use the problem altogether.

Hope one of those suggestions take care of the prob for you.

[RacerTex]

Might check the systems tab before throwing in that evil restore disk.

[satori]

Sonic. Sorry to hear about your PC woes. It really bites when you're box goes south. K, Here's where I would start. There are utilities that will bench mark your PC in terms of the specific Hardware. Tucows is an excellent source for this.

Check   HERE  

There's various utilities here that will give you clues on what hardware may have gone bad. I usually like to check RAM first. There's a lot of Bad RAM out there.

That's what I'd do if I wasn't comfortable reformating my machine. Personally I reformat on a semi monthly basis to keep my PC clean and to keep up to date on rebuilding my machine. This is not for everyone though. It probably is a good idea to format once with a clean format, get yourself a copy of Ghost image and image your hard drive. Then you can blow it away at your leisure and rebuild much faster. To be honest it sounds like you have a Windows problem (perhaps 98SE would fix the problem). If it's hardware I don't envy the next few days of benchmarking. If you're still not getting anywhere try visiting  Anandtech.com Sign up on the forums and go in to the OS section and ask your question with the details you provided. There are a lot of very helpful people there. I can usually figure my own problems out, but every so often, if I can't figure it out, that's where I go. I have to agree with Lonewolf on the Name brand PCs. They're not really worth paying the cash for unless you go for something like an Alienware, but then who can afford those things... I'd rather just build my own machine. Best of luck dude!

[Sonic]

Thank you for the suggestions guys, maybe the directX is the problem.  Sometimes over the weekand I will try to fix it (I don't get much time on the computer between homework and Basketball practice     )  thanks again!

[lonewolf]

You format almost monthly? WHY!

Unless it's a business machine, home machines don't need this kinda punishment.

Just set it up, do it right, and your all set forever.

Up until I had my new HDD come, my WinME install had been stable for 1year+ and before that my 95B had been stable for maybe 2years+

Formatting is such a....drag