Problem on installing FS 8.0 on a PC with XP

[chastaincl]

I recently had a thread in which I tried (and failed) to get FS to work with my new home PC that has Vista and an Nvidia graphics card. As an alternate I decided to keep my old Dell with XP (that I had been using as my home PC) as an occasional platform to play FS 10.43. I had this Dell "tuned" at a local Micro Center with the result that only XP remained (and as expected the Dell does open and close much quicker now). The original video card (that had always worked with FS) was left in place.

I deliberately did NOT physically connect this Dell to the Internet as I never plan to use it for Internet purposes again.

So to this Dell with XP I installed the original FS 8.0 just like my notes said I did back in 2003 when this Dell was brand-new. The Scenario Editor installation went fine. I then double-clicked on the shortcut (that had been added to the screen when the basic FS and Scenario Editor installation was occurring)to install Intel Indeo and that seemed to succeed just as in the past installation.

I then still had a shortcut to install Direct X Media which I double-clicked on (even though I actually had no notes from 2003 of having done this when I last installed FS 8.0). When the installation asked me about "the rate at which I would be accesing the internet" I selected "unknown".

I then got a message that the software had not been passed by Windows logo testing. I clicked to "Continue anyway". I was then quickly told that the "Setup is complete".

PROBLEM
After re-booting I started FS 8.0 but the text on the FS menu was "blacked out" (solid black rectangles where text should be). Did I err in not having the Dell linked to the Internet? Or was I even wrong to do the Direct X installation at all?


Thanks,

Clark Chastain

[William Miller]

Clark,

What version of DirectX did the system have before (if you know), and what version do you now have after the install?

The DirectX installer is not supposed to overwrite a newer version of DirectX, and I personally have never seen it do so although I have seen one or two reports (over the last ~ 8 years) where the user reported it did overwrite a newer DirectX installation.

[chastaincl]

I am sorry but I actually do not know. The old Dell (before I perhaps foolishly had it recently tuned) had presumably downloaded multiple newer DirectXs over the years since 2003. I did a search for "DirectX" on the Dell and the only "DirectX" that could be found was a folder in "C:\windows\System32" that was dated 08/14/2009, which is the date I did the installation of FS 8.0. recently

What bothers is me is that when I did that installation and double-clicked on the shortcut to "install DirectX media" (which had been created along with the similar Intel Indeo shortcut by the FS installation process) I did NOT get messages telling me that I already had newer DirectX files (as I did when I had double-clicked on the Intel Indeo shortcut). This makes me wonder if the tuning I did on the Dell was flawed, somehow produced a PC w/o DirectX? Is that even possible? The subsequent DirectX installation messages I got asking about my Internet connection speed and saying that "this software has not passed Windows logo testing" were new to me but I supposed they were because I was not connected to the Internet.

QUESTION: Should I download some specific DirectX release to install on this Dell and then try to re-install FS 8.0? I do want to retain FS 10.43 (after I first see that 8.0 works) a few more years if I possibly can.

Clark Chastain

[William Miller]

Clark,

The safest bet at this point is to reinstall your original operating system on the machine (from your original XP OEM disc) and to not update DirectX (even if/when the game asks).
If your OS is the original Windows XP release (pre-SP1) it would come with DirectX 8.1, which means v8.1 is the lowest version of DirectX that would run on XP, anyway.

[chastaincl]

Mr. Miller,

Unfortunately after 6 yrs I no longer have the disk. I thought I had a simple approach to retaining FS by keeping my Dell w/ XP but I guess my tuneup idea was a bad mistake. To try and get DirectX 8.1 installed I will either:
1. Have to try to download it from the MS site or
2. Take the old Dell PC back to Micro Center (or a competitor) to try
and get them to do it.

Is it possible for me to do the DirectX 8.1 download from the MS site? Or would that not necessarily fix what is wrong with my DirectX? I assume an uninstall of FS would not address getting rid of whatever DirectX I installed with it.

And I have to ask just how can I determine what DirectX I do currently have? Should I be able to look in "C:\Windows" somewhere and determine what it is?


Clark Chastain

[William Miller]

Clark,

Here is a good page from Microsoft that explains how to use the DXDIAG program build into the Windows OS to determine your DirectX version:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/190900

When it asks if you wish to check for WHQL signatures you can simply tell it "no" and it will still work fine for purposes of finding out DirectX info.
Under XP I believe you can test your DirectX installation for any errors as well, using that utility.

Post what version of DirectX you have installed and we can go from there...

[chastaincl]

Mr. Miller:

Sorry for the delay in replying. When I ran the DXDIAG tool on my old Dell with XP it showed (on the "System" tab) the following as the DirectX Version:

DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)


Clark Chastain

[William Miller]

Clark,

From your report it appears your DirectX version was not accidently replaced by the Fighting Steel installer and is version 9.0C, so that is not an issue.

Let us determine what version of the game you are having a problem with: uninstall FS/FSP (delete the folders they were in as well), and then install just the original Fighting Steel game. Run the game and see if the same issue you reported occurs at that point. If so, then the issue is not specific to FSP but to the original game as well.

[chastaincl]

Mr. Miller:

I did as you said:
1) I deleted the three shortcuts (Scenario Editor, Intel Indeo, DirectX) on my screen
from the last installation
2) I went to the XP Control Panel and uninstalled both FS and FS Scenario Editor.
3) I then went to Explorer and in the path "c:\Program Files" I deleted the "SSI" folder
4) I then emptied the contents of the recycle bin

I then used my original 1999 FS installation diskette to install the first version of FS (8.0). After the familiar installation sequence completed I only used one of the three shortcuts that had been placed on my screen, the one for Intel Indeo. As before I got messages saying I already had newer versions of video 5 codec and video 4 codes.

I did NOT use the shortcut to "Install DirectX Media.

I then ejected the installation disk and completely shut down the system. AFter I started it up again I checked at the Control Panel and it showed both FS and FS Scenario Editor to be installed programs.

But when I used my FS 8.0 disk and started the game to play it, I again have solid black rectangles where the text should appear on the FS selection panels. The video and audo seem normal up to this point and I have not tried to start a scenario to see what might happen.

Clark Chastain

[William Miller]

Clark,

Hum...so the issue reported also appears when using the original (unmodified/as shipped) Fighting Steel game, not only after installing a FSP update - is this correct?

Considering the the methods the original game performed text rendering in D3D this is almost certainly a video-related issue. What video card are you using in this machine? I will research it to determine what might be done to help the issue.

As to why it this issue appears now and not before -- well, there are so many possible reasons for that occuring that I simply cannot even guess as to which one at this point.

[chastaincl]

Mr. Miller:

My old 2003 Dell came with a "64 MB GeForce4 MX Graphics card". When I recently
made the apparently bad decision to "tune" the Dell they:
1) "wiped the hdd and installed oem xp"
2) added an additional 512 MB of RAM (the 2003 Dell had always only had
256 MB of RAM)

So supposedly I have the same Dell that had always worked in the past with FS except for what I note above. I bitterly regret the decision to tune it now.

Clark Chastain

[William Miller]

Clark,

Can you tell if the card is a PCI or AGP card? I ask because there is a setting that can be changed in the FSP .ini file that may help if the card is a AGP version...this setting is not in the original FS game, it was added during FSP.

Try the following "DzbLib.ini" settings (this is a text file located in the "Ini" folder in your main Fighting Steel folder)and let me know if the issue changes (for better or worse) at all:

[DBZLIB]
FULLSCREEN = 1
HARDWARE = 1
SCREENX = 640
SCREENY = 480
VIEWPORTTOP = 0
VIEWPORTLEFT = 0
VIEWPORTRIGHT = 640
VIEWPORTBOTTOM = 480
VIEWDISTANCE = 30000.0
FOV = 60.0
TITLE = 1
INTRO = 0
WRAPPERS = 1
MOUSEHELP = 1
SHOWFPS = 0
CAMPAIGNLOG = 0
GUNNERYLOG = 1
3DLOG = 0
PERFECTFORM = 0
CDROM = D:\
SOUND = 1
GRAPHICS = 1
AGP = 1
SYSTEMCHECK = 0
PLAYMOVIES = 0

[chastaincl]

Mr. Miller:

I did as you suggested with DzvLib.ini. and tehre were differences that I had to key in (the last three lines were completely missing and Gunnerlog and Graphics were "= 0").
But the same infuriating balck rectanges appear where I should see text in the menu at startup.

QUESTION: can you recommend a vendor selling an XP home PC whose graphics card seems to have worked smoothly with FS installation in the last year or so? That is starting to seem like my only solution at this point.


Thanks,

Clark Chastain

[William Miller]

Clark,

The only machine I have (other than my wifes netbook) currently running Windows XP (XP Home, SP3 with all updates) is a Dell XPS 420 2.4GHz Core Duo using an Nvidia Geforce 8800 GT 512Mb with the latest non-beta Nvidia driver (v190.62) and using the integrated audio hardware, and it runs FSP without any issues at all using the 'ini settings I posted.

That is of course no guarantee that the hardware in question will work the same on your machine, but at least on this particular machine it works without any issues, so that is at least a baseline to go from.

[CWatson]

Mr. Miller:
I then ejected the installation disk and completely shut down the system. AFter I started it up again I checked at the Control Panel and it showed both FS and FS Scenario Editor to be installed programs.

But when I used my FS 8.0 disk and started the game to play it, I again have solid black rectangles where the text should appear on the FS selection panels. The video and audo seem normal up to this point and I have not tried to start a scenario to see what might happen.

Clark Chastain

Is this FS or FSP 8.0? The original FS did not come in 8.0 did it? My original Fighting Steel is v1.0. I believe William wants you to try and see if the original Fighting Steel without any FSP upgrades will work on your machine.

CW

[chastaincl]

My mistake, what I was trying to say is that I used the original FS disc from 1999 (it says "Windows 95/98 at the bottom) and that is all that is installed on my XP Dell at this point, not the FSP 8.0, and certainly not the FSP 10.43 that was my objective.

I never bothered with trying to use the FSP v10.43.e file since the base FS is having this bad problem.


Clark Chastain

[asnrobert]

My mistake, what I was trying to say is that I used the original FS disc from 1999 (it says "Windows 95/98 at the bottom) and that is all that is installed on my XP Dell at this point, not the FSP 8.0, and certainly not the FSP 10.43 that was my objective.

I never bothered with trying to use the FSP v10.43.e file since the base FS is having this bad problem.


Clark Chastain

Yes, The original Fighting Steel will not work with XP SP2...

[CWatson]

Yes, The original Fighting Steel will not work with XP SP2...

It works on my Compaq desktop that has XP SP2 and my daughter's laptop with XP also. It appears to install fine on my family's PCs and Laptops with XP (3) and ME (2) but no luck at all with my Vista laptop. The trouble with the Vista laptop sounds exactly like the trouble you are having with XP "But the same infuriating balck rectanges appear where I should see text in the menu at startup".

It stopped working once on my desktop, would drop to desktop when initiating a turn, when I had auto updates on and I had to roll back a couple drivers to get it working again.

CW

Edit to add: I also had to download a program that removed directX and then reinstall directX after the auto updates messed with the turn function.

The posts where William walked me through the troubles do not appear on this forum.
It must have taken place in the old forum (yahoo group?).