Windows Vista Problems WITH Solutions

[daedalus5]

I've decided to start a Vista only thread. Please post all Vista only enquiries in here. (Hopefully the next OS will play all games with no fuss whatsoever - highly unlikely, dut highly wanted!)

[22 Stars]

Thanks for this great thread. I just got a new pc with Vista Home pre-installed. I have virtually every Trek game released over the last 30 years, and I was wondering if, before I install them, there is a list of titles that we already know do work under Vista.

[J. Allen]

My system specs:


Hardware:

AMD Athlon XP-M 2800+ 1.6Ghz Processor
1.5 GB DDR400 PC3200 RAM
160 GB WD 7200RPM Hard Disk
nVidia GeForce 7300 LE PCI-e 16x 256Mb Graphics Adapter
17" Sceptre NAVI-X7 LCD Flat Panel Monitor


Software:

Windows Vista Ultimate 32 bit w/ Service Pack 1 RC



Working under my Vista machine so far, with no modification:


Star Trek: Away Team
Star Trek: Klingon Academy
Star Trek: Elite Force
Star Trek DS9: The Fallen
Star Trek: Starfleet Command I, II & III
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
Star Trek: Armada I & II
Star Trek: Hidden Evil
Star Trek: The 25th Anniversary Edition
Star Trek: Judgment Rites
Star Trek TNG: A Final Unity
Star Trek: Bridge Commander
Star Trek: Captain's Chair
Star Trek: Starship Creator I, II
Star Trek: New Worlds

All of these I've tested on many settings in Vista, and they've worked quite well, so far.

J.

[22 Stars]

Very cool, thanks so much for the help with this. Maybe over the holidays I'll reinstall some of these!

[Jaro Stun]

Hello,

I see you included ST:Hidden Evil in your "Works with Vista" list.

I also have Windows Vista (see my specs) and I was unable to play it. When I started the game in D3D mode, it crashed while loading the new game (if I remember correctly it was like: "Sprint engine stopped working"). I was unable to start the game in Glide mode, and in SW mode it loaded, but everything was terribly wrong (sound, colors...just about everything).

Compatibility mode (Win2K, WinXP) didn't work for me at all.

Did you encounter this error? And if so, how did you solve it?

My system specifications:
Intel Core2Duo T7700 @ 2,4GHz
4GB RAM
NVidia GeForce 8600 MGT 256MB
Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit (DX10 obviously)

Thank you for any info.

[J. Allen]

Jaro Stun said:
Hello,

I see you included ST:Hidden Evil in your "Works with Vista" list.

I also have Windows Vista (see my specs) and I was unable to play it. When I started the game in D3D mode, it crashed while loading the new game (if I remember correctly it was like: "Sprint engine stopped working"). I was unable to start the game in Glide mode, and in SW mode it loaded, but everything was terribly wrong (sound, colors...just about everything).

Compatibility mode (Win2K, WinXP) didn't work for me at all.

Did you encounter this error? And if so, how did you solve it?

My system specifications:
Intel Core2Duo T7700 @ 2,4GHz
4GB RAM
NVidia GeForce 8600 MGT 256MB
Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit (DX10 obviously)

Thank you for any info.

That's odd. I didn't have any trouble playing it whatsoever. The whole install ran smoothly, and the game ran optimally. I know this is a common answer, but did you update your drivers to the latest set, and have you downloaded the service pack yet?


J.

[Jaro Stun]

Thanx for your reply.
I have the latest drivers from NVIDIA but I haven't tried the Vista SP1 RC1 yet, as I'll wait for the final release.

However, I do update my system frequently via Windows Update, so I don't think SP1 will be a big impact for me.

[J. Allen]

Jaro Stun said:
Thanx for your reply.
I have the latest drivers from NVIDIA but I haven't tried the Vista SP1 RC1 yet, as I'll wait for the final release.

However, I do update my system frequently via Windows Update, so I don't think SP1 will be a big impact for me.

I'll put it this way. Before the service pack, most of my games either failed or were choppy and slow. My file copy rate was abysmal, and that was with all of the updates sans the SP1 RC1. I installed the service pack, shut down, restarted, and it was like I switched on an entirely different computer.


J.

[PlanetMudd]

Yeah ... same here .. I installed the service pack, shut down, restarted, and it was like I switched on an entirely different computer...

...I'd never seen a bluescreen of death on Vista until I install that hacked piece of script.

[AmbassadorKosh]

I work in computer repair shop, yeah I'm a computer tech, and what you all are describing are the most common complaints and praises of Vista. For some SP1RC1 is a god send and for others it's the devil himself, that SP is a release candidate only and all the bugs haven't been worked out yet. Nvidia drivers and Vista don't get along well at all for some people, but for others there's no problem. With Vista, you just have to experiment with the settings to see what works best, at least till MS gets the bugs out or Windows 7 is released, whichever comes first. To let you know how alot of people feel about Vista, since the release of Vista, our shops business in reinstalling XP has more than doubled, and it's mostly on brand new machines that came with Vista preinstalled.

[J. Allen]

PlanetMudd said:
Yeah ... same here .. I installed the service pack, shut down, restarted, and it was like I switched on an entirely different computer...

...I'd never seen a bluescreen of death on Vista until I install that hacked piece of script.

Hence it's title as RC1 (Release Candidate 1). Also, did you get the patch from Microsoft's website? Anywhere else and the source is dubious at best. The final, polished, completed patch should be available in March.

AmbassadorKosh said:
I work in computer repair shop, yeah I'm a computer tech, and what you all are describing are the most common complaints and praises of Vista. For some SP1RC1 is a god send and for others it's the devil himself, that SP is a release candidate only and all the bugs haven't been worked out yet. Nvidia drivers and Vista don't get along well at all for some people, but for others there's no problem. With Vista, you just have to experiment with the settings to see what works best, at least till MS gets the bugs out or Windows 7 is released, whichever comes first. To let you know how alot of people feel about Vista, since the release of Vista, our shops business in reinstalling XP has more than doubled, and it's mostly on brand new machines that came with Vista preinstalled.

Yep, I agree, and I've had the same experience. Dell (the company I work for) started offering discounts on XP. I still have XP, and I still use it, however I made Vista my primary OS because I have to get used to it, tinker around in there, fix the broken and generally get a feel for the system.


J.

[sambod123]

Hi guys, nice to meet people playing the same stuff as me!
I have Vista and am trying to install Star Trek: A Final Unity from the old CD i have of it.
I cant install it, because the setup file didnt work:
"This system does not support fullscreen mode. Choose 'close' to terminate the application"
This comes up in a window called "16 bit MS-DOS Subsystem"
I dont know how you did it J Allen!

So i installed dosbox, followed the dosbox instructions, but when i run sttng.exe it starts to run, but then says it cant find a resource file, and that i should consult cdpath in sttng.ini

[J. Allen]

sambod123 said:
Hi guys, nice to meet people playing the same stuff as me!
I have Vista and am trying to install Star Trek: A Final Unity from the old CD i have of it.
I cant install it, because the setup file didnt work:
"This system does not support fullscreen mode. Choose 'close' to terminate the application"
This comes up in a window called "16 bit MS-DOS Subsystem"
I dont know how you did it J Allen!

So i installed dosbox, followed the dosbox instructions, but when i run sttng.exe it starts to run, but then says it cant find a resource file, and that i should consult cdpath in sttng.ini

I'm used to games never playing regardless of what system I have, but all of those games will work, they just require a bit of elbow grease and willingness to see it through.

The installation of Star Trek: A Final Unity was a tough one. We all know Final Unity didn't even want to work well on the original systems. I remember installing it on my 386. It didn't even want to work then, and I had to cajole it, so this is nothing new.

So after finding the following instructions, everything worked beautifully. Here they are:

1. Download and install DosBox. Latest version.

2. Create a directory for the game. Example: C:\STTNG.

3. Using windows explorer, copy all of the contents from the game CD to the new directory created above.

4. Create a new folder under the new directory called savegame. Example: C:\STTNG\savegame.

5. Unzip the folder within the new directory called STTNGINS.ZIP. It will ask to overwrite one file, let it overwrite the file or choose not to, it wont matter.

6. Open the STTNG.INI folder with notepad. Near the bottom of the listing are two entries, one called Path and the other CD. For both of these entries put the following-- . \ make sure there is a space between the period and slash. The period must follow the = immediately, no spaces. So it will look like this in both the Path and CD lines---- Path=. \ and CD=. \

7. Load the game CD into your CD/DVD drive.

8. Start DosBox and mount your CD/DVD drive as normal.

9. Run the setup.exe from the CD.

10. Let the program set up the audio and video as normal.

11. After setup finishes, exit DosBox.

12. When this is complete, restart DosBox and mount the drive and directory where the game is located...example: mount c c:\sttng

13. Change to the mounted drive. The command line will say Z:\ simply type c: and hit enter.

14. At this point you can check the contents of the mounted drive by typing dir/w all of the contents within the STTNG directory should list.

15. Start the game by typing in the usual at the command prompt...example STTNG

16. The game should load and run.



J.

[sambod123]

Post deleted by sambod123

[sambod123]

I managed to get up to Step 8 and the setup.
However the setup has been "checking cd speed" for hours now
Anything to do with it being a DVD drive? It shouldnt be, all other CDs work on it. This is ashame, i want to play it so much!
does anyone know of a replacement install file? (it was install.exe on the cd, not setup.exe if that made any difference)