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Please help me pick an OS

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Trotterwatch

Active member
I agree with Stezo2k and the order in which he puts the operating systems. XP Pro and 2000 are roughly even, so just get one of those and if there are still games giving you trouble dual boot with 98se.

I have had one game out of the many hundreds I have tried that wouldn't work with XP - and that was Carmaggedon 2. Apparently though there are ways to get it to work, but because of the copy protection on the CD, it can prove fiddly.
 
OP
EdgeBlade

EdgeBlade

Brandonn
I've hade a couple, 3 at max, games that won't work on XP. But I have many, maybe aroud 5, games that don't work properly.

Now one game that won't work on my machine works fine on the upstairs XP computer. I'm guessing XP and Nvidia don't play nice.

I'll update from whatever I get to XP once I get a new mobo, cpu, and vid card. Maybe. It may just be eaisier to save up and wait for the next OS to hit shelfs...
 
Eagle

Eagle

aka Alshain
Moderator
Man, I'm liking XP more and more. I installed something stupid that I shouldn't have and my registry got corrupted somehow. After only an hours work I was able to restore the registry from a restore point two days ago and saved myself the trouble of reinstalling the whole OS again.
 
AlphaWolf

AlphaWolf

I prey, not pray.
Eagle: You newb :happy: I've never had to use the system restore service, slows down your computer a lot. I never have had any problem that I couldn't fix that required a reinstall.

That aside, what exactly is that nvidia helper service for anyways?
 
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Trotterwatch

Active member
It is used for storing custom gamma settings, and that is about it. Setting it to disabled or manual will have 0% impact on games, and will make your shutdowns a lot quicker.

At first my shutdowns in XP were around 40-50 seconds, and I wasn't impressed. I disabled that service, and suddenly they were under 10 seconds.
 
Eagle

Eagle

aka Alshain
Moderator
AlphaWolf said:
Eagle: You newb :happy: I've never had to use the system restore service, slows down your computer a lot. I never have had any problem that I couldn't fix that required a reinstall.

That aside, what exactly is that nvidia helper service for anyways?
Click to expand...

Newb, I think not. I've been working on computers longer than you know. As for the system restore, It doesn't slow your computer down unless your using it. And like I said it only takes an hour or so to go through all the steps of using it to restore. It takes 5 mins to create a backup point. I back it up just before I install anything and I'm all set.
 
OP
EdgeBlade

EdgeBlade

Brandonn
Trotterwatch said:
What games are they, out of curiosity?
Click to expand...

There is a 3d pong game called Pong, that works on the upstairs but not my pc.

I had trouble getting Worms Armeggeton working. I ended up patching it with a non-official patch for the europe versoin and it somehow worked.

I can't get the video in Unreal to work (not UT), and the patch "isn't a valid win32 program" or some such alert.

Dungeon Keeper 2 wont work, may with the patch, no way to know. it's 20+ meg and I'm temeporally on 56k (I hope)

There are others, like IceWind Dale. A few others I don't rember.

I like XP, I really do. It's great to never reset! I just want the freedom to run everything I want properly.
 
T

Trotterwatch

Active member
I can't get the video in Unreal to work (not UT), and the patch "isn't a valid win32 program" or some such alert.
Click to expand...

If you get an error such as that, it simply means the patch you have downloaded is corrupted - re-download the patch. Unreal (the first one) works perfectly for me, I have even used it with the custom compressed textures from UT :) which makes the game very nice looking.

Dungeon Keeper 2 wont work, may with the patch, no way to know. it's 20+ meg and I'm temeporally on 56k (I hope)
Click to expand...

I own Dungeon Keeper 2, and it does work fine with the patch. The only problems are the sound (which is easily fixed with compatibility mode) and some of the cut scenes are not shown correctly. Apart from that it is perfectly playable.

Icewind Dale, is also playable in XP according to what I have read - what error do you get with that? Try turning down sound acceleration as a temporary measure, to see if that resolves the problem.

I haven't got UT to work right since I upgraded to Geforce 3.
Click to expand...

Eagle, UT does work but I know what problems you are experiencing. Probably, sound problems (echoeing) and relatively low framerates. Try lowering sound acceleration, and turning off AntiAliasing... it is a pain though, but the blame can be attributed to one of the Nvidia drivers.
 
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Eagle

Eagle

aka Alshain
Moderator
I've had no sound problems, but the framerates were super slow. Also it will randomly crash for no good reason at all on Direct X so I had to use OpenGL.
 
mesman00

mesman00

What's that...?
edgeblade, for the 3dpong game to u have the flash player installed on your computer that its not working on?
 
OP
EdgeBlade

EdgeBlade

Brandonn
mesman00 said:
edgeblade, for the 3dpong game to u have the flash player installed on your computer that its not working on?
Click to expand...

No I don't. Thanks for the tip.

Trotterwatch: Thats good to know, thanks.

I couldn't get IceWind Dale to install. The setup program said some thing about my OS not being supported. But I don't have the game anymore so it's allright.

So the only real disatvantage XP has for me is a small amout of video problems that could be fixed by upgrading. XP and Nvida seem to have issues for me
 
flow``

flow``

flow``
about the person with unreal.. i just read the top of this page..

install unreal, then the 226F patch.
then go to www.oldunreal.com and download the latest beta ogl driver and install it. switch to opengl mode, and she's perfect compared to the million glitches in software mode.

the only problems i've found thus far in the game, are when you start unreal and go thru the castle intro, the bridge is transparent. also all the shadows are just flashes of black and it makes stuff look really gay. but since there aren't many shadows, it doesnt hurt you too much..

fun game too :) i'm about half way thru it
 
T

Trotterwatch

Active member
Have you ever tried using the compressed textures, and the LokiGL renderer in Unreal (the first one). I can't remember how to do it, but it is actually possible, and makes Unreal look nicer :)
 
O

Olger901

Banned
I would personally go for Windows XP Pro, (If you have the money) Windows 2000 Pro or Windows 98 SE (DON'T ever use ME it is the worst OS EVER MADE!)

I use a Dual Boot with Win 98 SE and XP

Here are some comments about the OSes


Windows 98 SE:

Highest Compatability
Fast
Fairly Stable
Some hardware probs


Windows ME

VERY UNSTABLE !
VERY SLOW!
A lot of hardware problems
High Compatability
Gives about every hour a blue screen (if it isn't more)


Windows 2000 Pro

Very Stable
Medium Compatability
Medium in Speed
No Hardware problems I am aware of


Windows XP Pro

Fancy Outside (Teletubbie Land)
Stable
Medium/High Compatability
No Hardware Problems I am aware off
Very Fast
 
AlphaWolf

AlphaWolf

I prey, not pray.
Here are some numbers that compare 2000/ME/XP. I don't believe they have fully tweaked any of these installs though, they probably just did it right out of the box. Also all of the madonion benchmarks seem to favor ME a lot.

flow``: Are you playing unreal under the unreal tournament engine? I recently got unreal and UT packaged under a $14 deal that included ut2k3 demo (my UT cds were scratched), am considering playing the game under the UT engine (old one kinda sucks, but havent played the game yet) but sounds like a pain in the butt to set up. Any recommendations?

Also any windows UT users who want near linux quality opengl graphics, you can grab the beta OpenGL driver from unreal.epicgames.com, and if you are using a geforce card, set S3TC=TRUE. Prepare for a huge graphics quality increase if you installed the textures from the second CD.
 
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G

gokuss4

Meh...
well heres my opinion on the operating systems

Windows 98SE
Windows 2K
Windows XP Home
Windows XP Pro
Windows 98
Windows NT 4.0
Windows 95
(Light CENTURIES beyond! lol)
Windows ME

Windows 98SE is a lot more compatible with stuff and is fast with gaming.

Win XP has faster boot. goes a tiny tiny slower with games (maybe about a 3, 4, or 5 frames per second difference) and requires more ram than other operating systems.

Win2k doesn't go slow with games and has good compatibility, and has a fast boot but Win98SE has best compatibility.

nt and 95 have less compatibility but not buggy like WinMe.

WinME just plain sucks barely any stability, a little compatibility but not enough.
 
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