Emperor - probably driver problem - need help

[Nebachadnezza]

I used to play emperor no problems, and I THINK I've played since I upgraded to a geforce 4 ti 4200. But yesterday I decided to have a game, and emperor gave me an illegal operation when i started it. I reinstalled and now when i run it, my monitor goes black and nothing comes up. The game is running.. i can hear it, and if i alt-tab back out to windows everything's fine. My drivers are the latest, I use windows 98se, I have an AMD 1.2 thunderbird 384 megs ran, geforce 4 ti 4200 and a panasonic floppy drive. driver problem, display problem, emperor problem? help would be appreciated.

-Nebachadnezza

[Nyarlathotep]

Could you attach your ddiag with the tests on the sound and display tab run ?

Also, check out my site in my signature and see if it can solve your problem.

[Nebachadnezza]

Thanks for the speedy response. I tried that link in your signature, but the tips didn't help my situation. I would also like to note that my screen doesn't just go black as i previously said. It's as if my monitor goes into low-power mode. The screen goes black, you can hear it power down, and the light begins to flash.

I originally attached a screen shot of my dxdiag results.. which i promptly removed after mr.Maha Gobbie pointed out my error.

-Nebachadnezza

[Nebachadnezza]

[attachment archived by Gobalopper]

[Gobalopper]

By dxdiag file he means the text file you can get by clicking "save all information...".

[Nebachadnezza]

[attachment archived by Gobalopper]

[Gobalopper]

Ya the file attachment features of this forum software aren't the greatest unfortunately.

Things you might try would be updating the drivers on your video card, 11/18/2002 is your version date so there should be something newer. Also DirectX 9 is out now and might help.

[Nebachadnezza]

[attachment archived by Gobalopper]

[Gobalopper]

DirectX Files Tab: Several files (ddraw.dll, ddhelp.exe, d3d8.dll, etc.) are beta versions, which are unsupported and could cause problems. You should reinstall DirectX to get the latest version.

That seems odd. It says you are using DX9 but says those files are still beta versions.

[DukeLeto]

Isn't DX9 still Beta?

[Gobalopper]

Well I have XP and DX9 and don't get those errors. Maybe its still in beta for Windows 98.

[DukeLeto]

But on the MicroSoft website it says the full version won't be released until Marh 19.

[Gobalopper]

Are you sure?

http://www.microsoft.com/directx/

[Nebachadnezza]

[attachment archived by Gobalopper]

[Nyarlathotep]

First thing I would advice is to upgrade your VIA drivers.

Second, try to set your desktop resolution to default refresh rate, in stead of optimal.

Make sure all background programs are closed. Press ctrl-alt-delete just once. You can close all, except for "Systray" & "Explorer".

Make sure all power save settings are turned off (also in the BIOS).

Try lowering the hardware acceleration.

Try to delete the display adapter and reboot. This way Windows will detect it again and reinstall it.

[Nebachadnezza]

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Setting the refresh rate to default was the key. Thanks Nyar and Gobalopper.

-Nebachadnezza

[DukeLeto]

Are you sure?

http://www.microsoft.com/directx/

Oh, hehe, no why didn't I see that earlier?

[Nyarlathotep]

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Setting the refresh rate to default was the key. Thanks Nyar and Gobalopper.

-Nebachadnezza

You're welcome. Happy gaming :)