VOGONS


Dune 2000

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First post, by DataPro

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Hello,
I have a wonderful Hewlett-Packard Vectra 562 from 1995.
It's running fine till 1995.
I got Dune 2000 on CD for Win95/98 last week.
Game is installed (with downloaded official patch 1.06) and when I launch it, screen goes black and my display says "frequency not in range"

It's the first time I got this kind of message under windows 98SE. I use 1024x768 native monitor resolution (24bits)
I can go back to windows by pressing ALT+TAB and kill Dune2000 task.

I tryed to start the game with many resolution (640x480 256colors, 800x600 16bits...), no change.
My machine : P166Mhz 256Ko L2cache + GPU Matrox G2 (G200) 8 Mb + 112Mb RAM - Requierements for the game are Pentium 133Mhz / 16Mb RAM / 2Mb VRAM / Win95 or Win98
I have no resident program, no antivirus and no internet connection on this machine.

Please, any idea ?

HP Vectra 562 P166Mhz/256Ko L2 cache/Triton 430FX - 112Mo RAM - 2x 32Go+64Go CF Card - Matrox G2 8Mo - SB AWE64 ISA (PnP) + Roland MT-32 & M-GS64 (SC-88) & JV-1010 - Nec USB 2.0 PCI - Promise Ultra100 TX2 - Hama multicard reader

Reply 2 of 20, by DataPro

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Thanks.
I read "read me" and many forums before coming here.
I tried -p and also -g and -8 with no success.
With -g, I got a black screen with no message from display.

My display drivers are the lastest ones and Direct X is 9.0c

HP Vectra 562 P166Mhz/256Ko L2 cache/Triton 430FX - 112Mo RAM - 2x 32Go+64Go CF Card - Matrox G2 8Mo - SB AWE64 ISA (PnP) + Roland MT-32 & M-GS64 (SC-88) & JV-1010 - Nec USB 2.0 PCI - Promise Ultra100 TX2 - Hama multicard reader

Reply 3 of 20, by Meatball

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First, try setting your desktop to 16bit. This game is only 16bit color, anyway.

If that doesn’t work, Then try setting your desktop to 640x480, 16bit color, 60hz refresh rate. Run the game.

Next, can you try a different monitor? (Though I think the problem lies with the G200.)

Try removing DirectX9. This game is DirectX5 and your graphics card is DirectX6.

Use uninstaller (or reinstall OS):
https://sourceforge.net/projects/directx-remover/

Install DirectX 6.1
https://archive.org/details/microsoftdirectx6.1englishsetup

Alternatively, try older G200 drivers. Many games with any card break with newest drivers.

Last edited by Meatball on 2022-04-14, 14:10. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 4 of 20, by leileilol

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Dune2000 is trying to initialize 640x400 and failing. Westwood's C&C games on windows would usually have a letterboxed 640x480 compatibility option in there for that situation, as not all DirectX display drivers give that mode.

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long live PCem

Reply 5 of 20, by ZellSF

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leileilol wrote on 2022-04-13, 13:22:

Dune2000 is trying to initialize 640x400 and failing. Westwood's C&C games on windows would usually have a letterboxed 640x480 compatibility option in there for that situation, as not all DirectX display drivers give that mode.

That's what -g is.

If he's tried that, he's tried 640x480.

Reply 6 of 20, by DataPro

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Thanks.

I've searched in graphic control panel and found a special settings tab in Matrox Powerdesk. It allows me to tweak manually each graphic mode.
I realized that default frequency for 640x400 & 640x480 was 85Hz and my monitor supports only 70Hz.
So by adjusting and saving settings, I don't have the message on my display monitor.

BUT Dune 2000 is stuck on a black screen at launch and I have no clue.

HP Vectra 562 P166Mhz/256Ko L2 cache/Triton 430FX - 112Mo RAM - 2x 32Go+64Go CF Card - Matrox G2 8Mo - SB AWE64 ISA (PnP) + Roland MT-32 & M-GS64 (SC-88) & JV-1010 - Nec USB 2.0 PCI - Promise Ultra100 TX2 - Hama multicard reader

Reply 7 of 20, by Meatball

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DataPro wrote on 2022-04-14, 19:25:
Thanks. […]
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Thanks.

I've searched in graphic control panel and found a special settings tab in Matrox Powerdesk. It allows me to tweak manually each graphic mode.
I realized that default frequency for 640x400 & 640x480 was 85Hz and my monitor supports only 70Hz.
So by adjusting and saving settings, I don't have the message on my display monitor.

BUT Dune 2000 is stuck on a black screen at launch and I have no clue.

I have installed and tested Dune with v1.02 patch applied. I ran Dune2000.exe with and without the -g option, and I tried out all 3 house campaigns @10 minutes each of mining spice. I didn't experience any problems running the game.

The following hardware was used:

Windows 98 SE (Direct X 8.0a v4.08.00.0400; IE 5.5 SP2); No other patches
Matrox G200 (MGA-G200A-D2 chip; Compaq G2+DMILA/8D/CPQ) AGP 8MB (Matrox PowerDesk Suite Drivers v6.82.016)
Gateway VX900 CRT (Desktop 16bit, 800x600@85Hz)
Pentium 4 Wilamette 2.0GHz
SiS XP4 Chipset
512MB (256MBx2) DDR SDRAM@266MHz

Reply 8 of 20, by DataPro

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Thank you very much for trying.
For my part, I have not advanced; I know the game crashes but the PC is not crashed. I can go back to windows 98se and in task manager I get the message "Dune 2000" not responding.

Your Matrox card is the same as mine (except mine is PCI -no AGP on my machine). I didn't have any antivirus program loaded.
Thinking my CD is the problem, I tried also 2 different cracked versions of the game and it does the same.

HP Vectra 562 P166Mhz/256Ko L2 cache/Triton 430FX - 112Mo RAM - 2x 32Go+64Go CF Card - Matrox G2 8Mo - SB AWE64 ISA (PnP) + Roland MT-32 & M-GS64 (SC-88) & JV-1010 - Nec USB 2.0 PCI - Promise Ultra100 TX2 - Hama multicard reader

Reply 10 of 20, by Meatball

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DataPro wrote on 2022-04-20, 12:04:
Thank you very much for trying. For my part, I have not advanced; I know the game crashes but the PC is not crashed. I can go ba […]
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Thank you very much for trying.
For my part, I have not advanced; I know the game crashes but the PC is not crashed. I can go back to windows 98se and in task manager I get the message "Dune 2000" not responding.

Your Matrox card is the same as mine (except mine is PCI -no AGP on my machine). I didn't have any antivirus program loaded.
Thinking my CD is the problem, I tried also 2 different cracked versions of the game and it does the same.

Did you trying rolling back DirectX to version 8.0a or earlier?

Reply 11 of 20, by Meatball

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ala_borbe wrote on 2022-04-20, 12:43:

try changing the VGA cable and make sure that in device manager your monitor is set to plug and play monitor or that it actually shows the model of your monitor

It's probably not the monitor if Dune is saying "not responding" in the task manager.

Reply 12 of 20, by Meatball

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Oh, one more thing. If you're using Matrox PowerDesk, go to the advanced settings (in one of the "display properties tabs" and disable the "Bus mastering" option (then reboot). I have read this can resolve (I think at vintage3d.org) problems with some games.

Reply 13 of 20, by DataPro

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ala_borbe: thanks for advice but I am running PC computers since 1995 and I know basic rules & checks.
No issue with VGA câbles. I got 280 DOS games and more than 100 windows games running flawlessly on this computer.

So the issue comes from this game or its compatibility with hardware or driver, not the hardware itself.

Thanks Meatball. I will try in Matrox Power Desk this setting and also downgrading DirectX version.

HP Vectra 562 P166Mhz/256Ko L2 cache/Triton 430FX - 112Mo RAM - 2x 32Go+64Go CF Card - Matrox G2 8Mo - SB AWE64 ISA (PnP) + Roland MT-32 & M-GS64 (SC-88) & JV-1010 - Nec USB 2.0 PCI - Promise Ultra100 TX2 - Hama multicard reader

Reply 14 of 20, by Meatball

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DataPro wrote on 2022-04-20, 13:13:
ala_borbe: thanks for advice but I am running PC computers since 1995 and I know basic rules & checks. No issue with VGA câbles. […]
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ala_borbe: thanks for advice but I am running PC computers since 1995 and I know basic rules & checks.
No issue with VGA câbles. I got 280 DOS games and more than 100 windows games running flawlessly on this computer.

So the issue comes from this game or its compatibility with hardware or driver, not the hardware itself.

Thanks Meatball. I will try in Matrox Power Desk this setting and also downgrading DirectX version.

I hope we don't wreck the other 379 games to save the 1! In my experience, no matter the hardware/software combination or from what time period they are from, there is always 1 game that never works right with the system assembled, necessitating the need for a 2nd (or 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and so on...) system. It's so annoying!

Reply 15 of 20, by DataPro

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Meatball wrote on 2022-04-20, 14:11:

I hope we don't wreck the other 379 games to save the 1! In my experience, no matter the hardware/software combination or from what time period they are from, there is always 1 game that never works right with the system assembled, necessitating the need for a 2nd (or 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and so on...) system. It's so annoying!

You're right!
I got this computer since 1995. Since 2014, I've upgraded storage to CF card and I've collected many PC games and try to make them work on it (CD less) with lastest patchs, new fan translations (like Monkey Island Ultimate 1&2) and tweaking to make most DOS games workings with my Roland SC-88 or MT-32.
And sometimes cracked version works better than my genuine copy.

HP Vectra 562 P166Mhz/256Ko L2 cache/Triton 430FX - 112Mo RAM - 2x 32Go+64Go CF Card - Matrox G2 8Mo - SB AWE64 ISA (PnP) + Roland MT-32 & M-GS64 (SC-88) & JV-1010 - Nec USB 2.0 PCI - Promise Ultra100 TX2 - Hama multicard reader

Reply 16 of 20, by DataPro

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I give up.
Dune 2000 doesn't work at all.

Thanks for your help.
I'll try later when I'll work on my next machine (P4 WinXP).

HP Vectra 562 P166Mhz/256Ko L2 cache/Triton 430FX - 112Mo RAM - 2x 32Go+64Go CF Card - Matrox G2 8Mo - SB AWE64 ISA (PnP) + Roland MT-32 & M-GS64 (SC-88) & JV-1010 - Nec USB 2.0 PCI - Promise Ultra100 TX2 - Hama multicard reader

Reply 17 of 20, by AlexZ

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Dune 2000 works fine on my Pentium III 900Mhz, GeForce FX 5600, Windows 98. I have DirectX 8.1 installed and NVidia driver 53.04. Game version is 1.0.2.

Pentium III 900E, ECS P6BXT-A+, 384MB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 128MB, Voodoo 2 12MB, 80GB HDD, Yamaha SM718 ISA, 19" AOC 9GlrA
Athlon 64 3400+, MSI K8T Neo V, 1GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 7600GT 512MB, 250GB HDD, Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS

Reply 18 of 20, by Shagittarius

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Slight Necro here but I'm having the same issue with my Win98SE Xeon 3230 with radeon 9800pro. The frequency is out of range.

Running with -g causes the game to crash instead of running in the background.

Note 1: It runs just fine on my Win98SE P133 on a Sony Multiscan 17sf CRT. Interesting side note though it seems to be using a res/freq I haven't set up my CRT for the planets are all egg shaped. Or something else is wrong.

Note 2: It also runs fine on my WinXP system which is hooked up to the same monitor physically the only difference in connect is DVI vs VGA. No problems with egg shaped planets on the LCD (Letterboxed). John Rhyse Davies looks better in egg shaped aspect.

Is there no way to force a compatible res/refresh on my X3230 system?

Reply 19 of 20, by DudeFace

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i think i had this problem, i did a dual boot 98/xp build for my dad a couple of years ago solely for playing C&C/ red alert and dune 2000, i remember having problems and i think it was the same issue with this game, out of range suggests the monitor cant display whatever resolution the games putting out, i remember trying a few different monitors (all lcds) as well as changing the display settings, nothing worked, i then went into the bios and disabled a few things and it sorted the problem, first one was
"shadow video bios"or "cache video bios" disable both, the other option i disabled was "memory hole at 15m-16m" after disabliing this one win98 refused to boot
until i re-enabled it , i didnt know wtf so i disabled it then reinstalled 98, all good after that .

that was on an ECS L4S8A2, 478 Pentium 4 2.4ghz, 2.5gb ddr, palit fx5200 128mb 64bit with the latest driver,

another problem i had was with the first command & conquer, i had already applied rloews PATCHMEM and stuck in two 1GB sticks and a 512mb, when trying to install the game it would fail and give me an error, i forget it was either not enough memory or out of memory, i had to pull some of the ram to install then put it back in after, and it worked fine, thought i'd mention it as even with PATCHMEM others may have this issue when installing dos games