W7 noncompatibility and a few fixes...

[Happy Joe]

Since up grading the ol' game computer (everything except the DVD, hard drive, and case) I have been busily installing some old favorite applications and games; most install and work fine with windows 7 home premium 64 bit. However a few had problems;

Quake 2 (game); this worked fine when doing my initial evaluation of W7 (32 bit) but after quite a bit of hassle I could only run it in a window at low resolution on the new sysytem...
Solution; It turned out that Nvidia drivers(for the video card) with versions greater than about 190.00 have problems running old open GL games... regressed to a 185 level driver... problem solved. (Hopefully, Nvidia will fix this with new driver releases.)

Diablo II (and I assume LOD); a compatibility warning is displayed immediately after trying to start the game.
Just for giggles I went ahead any way to see how bad it could get. The game got past the character screen to the install portal and locked.
Installed the 1.12a D2 patch from blizzard and diablo 2 now works fine, although it still displays the compatibility warning when starting the game. Note: the following solution was also found when researching this issue;

Problems running Diablo II w/ LOD expansion - Windows 7 Forums
"Yes there is a fix, I had the same problem initially... Try these steps, these should help:
1.) Make sure you are running at least v 1.12 so you can use the now-legit "NO CD* fix, Running from the CD often causes a read-buffer issue in W7, and having all those files on your hard drive will result in increased performance.
2.) YOU MUST Run Diablo II in Compatibility mode for *Windows XP SP 2* (Running in SP1 or 3 will cause error messages during gameplay)
3.) Run the Shortcut as an Administrator (Running as a local user causes W7 to limit its *AUDIO* functions... because it thinks the game is trying to exclusively access your sound device) and while you're there, check the box that says *Disable desktop composition*. This will allow Diablo II's 3D effects to render correctly. It temporarily disables Windows Aero and other Visual effects until the game has been exited. These effects are not compatible with the game.
4.) Go to your Diablo 2 folder and change game.exe to the same settings (Run as admin, Compat. mode for XP SP2, disable desktop composition)
5.) The only way I was able to use the 3rd mouse button was by using the older, non-legit version of D2loader.exe (An old hack they used for the no-cd thing until Patch 1.12 came out). You can now use this *hack* online as Blizzard has removed its illegitimacy and disabled the automated Battle.net Warden from detecting this online anymore as many Vista and 7 users have to use this to use their middle mouse buttons, hehe.

Thanx to Archangel!... Although I needed none of the above.

It should be noted that the 112a patch is in 2 parts one for Diablo 2 and one part for LOD ; load the first after installing Diablo 2 and the second part after upgrading to LOD.
The "NO CD" from blizzard is a part of this patch and documented as such by Blizzard;
"For users that originally performed a 'Full Installation'
and wish to run without the CD, all '.MPQ' files should
be copied from the Diablo 2 CDs to the Diablo 2 directory.
Most users will only need to copy D2Music.mpq from the
Diablo 2 Play CD and/or D2xMusic.mpq from the Lord of
Destruction CD. Mac users will need to copy these music
files and rename them to 'Diablo II Music' and
'Diablo II Expansion Music' respectively."

Crysis Demo has been found to sometimes have issues with 64 bit systems.
(Why play the demo when the game is out? I just happen to like a few of the mods for an occasional quick gaming fix...). (One of my quick jollys is to drive a hummer back up the trail to the beach where you first encounter the Koreans and then back to the first buildings. In real life I like four wheeling on difficult trails...)
This also turned out to not necessarily be a W7 issue, it may be a Nvidia problem; by switching AA off in the game control panel the original Crysis demo works fine (locks up with a black screen and a Crysis has stopped working error with AA).

If I encounter more problems and/or solutions I will post them up...

Enjoy!

 

[Happy Joe]

Crysis the full game...
This one has me stumped; there appears to be a basic incompatibility between the crysis 64 executable, and directx in 64 bit (or maybe nvidia's drivers).
Crysis runs for a while then about the time I think "its working" it crashes.
There are at least 2 modes of crash, and a couple of faulting applications, one leaves some video on the, locked up, screen and gives a repeating sound (motor boat, or raspberry).
The other locks up the computer with a black screen, and a message that crysis has stopped working. some times no message displays.
This happens in both dx10 and dx9 modes in both the 64 bit game and the 32 bit game running in simulated 64 bits.
It happens with all patches, every video driver that I could access and all simulated operating system settings under trouble shooting. (Yesterday was very unproductive). I even downloaded the most recent redistributable DirectX files from Microsoft and installed them.
I searched the web rather thoroughly and have tried virtually all the suggestions; no joy.

Finally I installed a 32 bit version of Windows 7 on a different drive (the rest of the hardware remained the same); problem solved. Crysis seems to work perfectly in both dx9 and dx10, but only in a 32bit environment.
conclusion; the 64bit version of W7 is not yet ready for prime time, at least with respect to crysis.

To play crysis in 64 bits, with nvidia hardware: we will likely need to wait for Nvidia or Microsoft to fix the issues (not likely, IMO) as Crytek appears unwilling to issue more patches for this game. (As a last desperate attempt I will try installing Crysis Warhead in 64 bits and see if it works, maybe there are some bits that can be transplanted to make Crysis consistently work.
Crysis not working in 64 bits is rather surprising to me as the 64 bit version of Farcry (also by Crytek) works fine and it is an older game.

I have had good luck with all of the other applications (most are 32 bit, some; listed above, needed a bit of effort to get them working) tried so far, in Windows 7 64bit;
Office 2007,
Office 2000,
Serious Sam (1st and 2nd)
Sony Sound Forge 9 (have yet to try substantial cleanup/editing but it appears to operate)
Paint shop pro (again it seems to function though I haven't tried anything substantial yet)
Comodo firewall
Avast anti-virus
Reg Cleaner

Enjoy!

 

[Dave]

Well my web cam wouldn't work (but it wouldn't have worked with Vista either) but the new one I bought doesn't appear to work either. The audio that others hear sounds like a strangled mouse.

 

[Happy Joe]

If the hardware is rated for the operating system it should work... I would check the manufacturers' sites for the latest drivers and instructions, then check the machine settings/setup.
Often drivers for NT will work with XP. Vista drivers will usually work for W7. Keep the bits the same as the operating system 32 bit drivers for a 32 bit operating system and 64 bit drivers for a 64 bit OS.
I assume that your microphone is plugged into the mike jack (verify, don't rely on color coded plugs & jacks to keep you straight) refer to the documentation of your computer/motherboard, try changing the settings on any software/sound equalizers in your control panel, and/or try a different microphone. By making & playing back test recordings you should be able to check microphone operation and performance.

Hope it helps...

Enjoy!

 

[Happy Joe]

After another unfruitful day of playing intensely with W7; more information becomes apparent.
W7 seems to have no native support for openGL games...

Some friends expressed a desire to do some LAN games so; in the process or of going over the "extra" PCs for this winter; I decided to drop W7 on one of the newer ones to give my friends a taste.
With no hardware changes the "upgraded" machine will not play the same games in W7 (gives errors about not being able to find or load screen resolutions for the game), however it will play openGL games in vista using the on board video .
I tried all the usual fixes (old drivers , reloading the game, patches, etc). Nothing works.
During a period of internet research I found information that says basically; vista was the last Microsoft OS that was scheduled to support openGL. Apparently (I am drawing conclusions from on line discussions; always risky .. take this with a grain of salt); Microsoft followed through on their plans and did not include it in W7.
Additionally, the video card makers seem to be phasing out parts of the old openGL as they introduce support for newer versions.

Result; unless someone comes up with a workaround or patch the fun, old games may become unplayable on the newest hardware and software.
Examples of games that do not work well (if at all) unless played on old hardware with old drivers;
Serious Sam FE and SE
Quake 1 and 2
I have yet to try Doom 3,

Here is a link to a list of openGL games and apps;
List of OpenGL programs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Apparently I am able to play these games on my primary game machine because I have a year old graphics card and am using old (vista) drivers with W7 (this combination supports openGL, if I upgrade the drivers to the newest versions the games become less, or even un-playable). The several that I have tried with W7 on a machine with on board graphics refuse to run, even with vista drivers.

... Just a little information if you like older games and are contemplating a switch to W7...

Enjoy!

 

[Happy Joe]

Finally a modicum of success;

Crysis after a(nother) clean reinstall of the operating system and drivers seems to be working.

The system with the on-board video also seems to accept openGL games now (it took installing a W7 compatible video driver for a chip set in the same family, which was not approved for this particular video chip set, to get a the associated openGL support functional. (Ahh! the joys of running current software and old hardware...)

... Let the games begin!...

Enjoy!

 

[AE35Unit]

This is why i always say Games,thats what consoles are for! PCs are ridiculous,always needing this to run that,then that other program no longer runs as well so you need to buy/download/install that. And when you come to do a virus scan it gets to a huge game folder and just sits there for ages!

 

[Happy Joe]

Nah! Its no big deal... these openGL games are very old (some predate the inception of modern game consoles, I'm not counting the first Atari) and the old hardware that I had issues with predates XP. Its a tribute that they can all be made to run with W7, IMO.

The more modern games, for the most part, installed easily and run perfectly on W7. In many cases better than they did in windows 98, 98SE, ME, both XP Home and Pro, XP 64, Vista 32 or 64.

Try starting the virus scan at night then go to bed; most anti-virus software can be set up to automatically dispose of/fix problems.

My PCs, once setup, normally run without issues for years at a time (I did recently have a memory stick go bad (it is my first bad one in 10+ years). I normally upgrade the PCs; not because they need it, but to adapt them for other jobs, or simply because I happen to have the parts and like messing with their innards.
This last bit of playing with W7 was primarily for my own edification; an excuse to more thoroughly learn the newest OS.

Enjoy!