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Author Topic:   NT4 SP3 Lockup

Thee Kragus posted 03-16-99 01:44 PM ET
I installed the full version os SMAC - I changed to 256 colors (1024 by 768) - I downloaded and installed the US upgrade 2.0 on my NT4 with SP3 and, still, it lockes up. The game shows the initial FIRAXIS screen twice and then goes black. My screen stays this way until I call the task manager with ATL-CNTL-DEL. This shows that SMAC is not responding???? Did I through $40 away???
Fusker posted 03-16-99 03:14 PM ET
You do realize they don't claim the game works with NT....the requirements list only '95 or '98 as required operating systems. I'm trying to get it going on NT at work....try taking out the movies.
Darc Foret posted 03-16-99 03:22 PM ET
I had similar problems but did eventually get things to work under NT 4 SP 4 except the sound stuttering issue. Haven't finished browsing through this forum to see if that has been resolved. The readme.txt indicates that the designers use some sort of emulation under NT for the sound that may cause trouble.
My Video Card is a Hercules Thriller 3D. I ended up flashing the cards BIOS and re-installing the video drivers. What actually seemed to make the difference was switching from 65K colors to 24-bit (16M) at 800x600. It then showed the opening movie sequence properly. Before that I had the exact same symptoms. First Firaxis logo screen, blank with mouse pointer, then second Firaxis screen, then blank without pointer. CTRL+ALT+DEL brought up Task Manager indicating the Program Not Responding and the CPU pegged at 100%.
The wacky thing is that the downloadable demo ran just fine on my system without any modifications whatsoever. It really surprised me when the shipping retail version I installed wouldn't work!
Hope some of that helps you or anyone else that has the same trouble.
Lee Johnson posted 03-17-99 09:30 AM ET
"My Video Card is a Hercules Thriller 3D."
My condolences. I bought one of these a year ago and had nothing but trouble with it. I don't know that the drivers *ever* settled down to a point where I would have been happy with the card; mine is sitting in a box, having been replaced LONG ago.
LarsHanson posted 03-21-99 12:41 AM ET
All the NT4 machines I installed the game on (six) required SP4 to work properly. And the stuttering problem still exists - and will indefinitely. The problem there is Microsoft's support of DirectX for NT - 6.1 works great on Win95/98, but the DirectX in SP4 is nowhere near that level. Hopefully SP5 will update DirectX - otherwise it's wait until Win2000 for us NT users.
As far as playability goes - you only really need to hear the audio on the first playthrough. (Secret Project movie audio has always been OK) After that - it is very easy to live without. BTW, you should hear the cacophony when you have 100 cities and most of them finish an improvement or reach population max on the same turn.
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Author	Topic: NT4 SP3 Lockup
Thee Kragus	posted 03-16-99 01:44 PM ET I installed the full version os SMAC - I changed to 256 colors (1024 by 768) - I downloaded and installed the US upgrade 2.0 on my NT4 with SP3 and, still, it lockes up. The game shows the initial FIRAXIS screen twice and then goes black. My screen stays this way until I call the task manager with ATL-CNTL-DEL. This shows that SMAC is not responding???? Did I through $40 away???
Fusker	posted 03-16-99 03:14 PM ET You do realize they don't claim the game works with NT....the requirements list only '95 or '98 as required operating systems. I'm trying to get it going on NT at work....try taking out the movies.
Darc Foret	posted 03-16-99 03:22 PM ET I had similar problems but did eventually get things to work under NT 4 SP 4 except the sound stuttering issue. Haven't finished browsing through this forum to see if that has been resolved. The readme.txt indicates that the designers use some sort of emulation under NT for the sound that may cause trouble. My Video Card is a Hercules Thriller 3D. I ended up flashing the cards BIOS and re-installing the video drivers. What actually seemed to make the difference was switching from 65K colors to 24-bit (16M) at 800x600. It then showed the opening movie sequence properly. Before that I had the exact same symptoms. First Firaxis logo screen, blank with mouse pointer, then second Firaxis screen, then blank without pointer. CTRL+ALT+DEL brought up Task Manager indicating the Program Not Responding and the CPU pegged at 100%. The wacky thing is that the downloadable demo ran just fine on my system without any modifications whatsoever. It really surprised me when the shipping retail version I installed wouldn't work! Hope some of that helps you or anyone else that has the same trouble.
Lee Johnson	posted 03-17-99 09:30 AM ET "My Video Card is a Hercules Thriller 3D." My condolences. I bought one of these a year ago and had nothing but trouble with it. I don't know that the drivers ever settled down to a point where I would have been happy with the card; mine is sitting in a box, having been replaced LONG ago.
LarsHanson	posted 03-21-99 12:41 AM ET All the NT4 machines I installed the game on (six) required SP4 to work properly. And the stuttering problem still exists - and will indefinitely. The problem there is Microsoft's support of DirectX for NT - 6.1 works great on Win95/98, but the DirectX in SP4 is nowhere near that level. Hopefully SP5 will update DirectX - otherwise it's wait until Win2000 for us NT users. As far as playability goes - you only really need to hear the audio on the first playthrough. (Secret Project movie audio has always been OK) After that - it is very easy to live without. BTW, you should hear the cacophony when you have 100 cities and most of them finish an improvement or reach population max on the same turn.