VOGONS


First post, by PARUS

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Hi people,

The bug I'm going tell about is very strange and shows itself in ONE game only as I saw.

GeForce2, GeForce4 (Ti, MX), GeForceFX, GeForce6 - it doesn't matter, this bug is present on all these cards. It is absent only if I use detonator version less than 45.23. If 45.23 --- 81.98 the bug is present always.

What is this: when I play Jeoff Crammond's Grand Prix 3 in Windows 98SE, the keyboard freeze occurs at any moment - if I press and keep a key at this moment this key stays "pressed". Any key pressing at the freeze time is vain. ESC key (exit race) doesn't work too. The freeze time can be 1-2 sec, can be 2 and more min. Periods between freezes can be long, can be short. There is no some correlation.

If I install 32.20 or 31.00 detonator then keyboard freezes in GP3 disappear. Unfortunately 3x.xx series are for cards up to GF4.

My cards:
- AGP GeForce 4800 8X
- AGP GeForce 4200 8X
- AGP GeForce 4200 4X
- AGP GeForce 5200 128bit
- AGP GeForce 5900XT 256bit
- AGP GeForce 2 MX200
- PCI Quadro NVS 100 128bit
- PCI GeForce FX5700LE 128bit
- PCI Quadro FX500 128bit
they all are tested, all have this bug with 45.23+ drivers.

My system:
- i865G
- Core 2 Duo
- Windows 98SE

By the way on my another machine this GP3 bug never comes! This machine:
- VIA KT333
- Athlon XP 2500+
- GeForce Ti4200
- Windows 98SE

What do you think guys? Which file in detonator distro can be responsible about it? Can I take one file from 31.00 distro and put it into 45.23 distro before clean installation?

Thank you in advance.

Reply 1 of 17, by STX

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According to PCGamesWiki, there's a 1.13 patch for Grand Prix 3. Have you applied that? Maybe the patch would fix the issue, but I don't really know.

Reply 2 of 17, by PARUS

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Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately the 1.13 patch is installed already.
And this bug is present on both GP3 and GP3-2000 (Expansion Pack) versions.

Reply 3 of 17, by STX

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Do the 44.03 drivers have the freezing problem? (Note: I think that the 5700, 5900XT and your Quadros were released later than these drivers, but the 5200 should work.)

Reply 4 of 17, by PARUS

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Yes. I have tried 41.09 too already. The same happens.

Reply 5 of 17, by STX

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You do have an extra-fast CPU for Win98. Have you tried underclocking it and running the game with 4x.xx drivers? (I'm just making a guess. I haven't run Win9x on anything faster than a Pentium 4 or Athlon XP.)

Reply 6 of 17, by appiah4

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If it's a USB Keyboard try a PS/2 one, could be a VIA chipset issue?

Reply 7 of 17, by STX

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Even though I like to blame VIA chipsets for odd quirks, I think the original post mentioned that the system in question has the 865G.

Reply 8 of 17, by appiah4

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STX wrote:

Even though I like to blame VIA chipsets for odd quirks, I think the original post mentioned that the system in question has the 865G.

He said KT333?

Reply 9 of 17, by STX

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The KT333 system is the system on which "this GP3 bug never comes".

Reply 10 of 17, by appiah4

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STX wrote:

The KT333 system is the system on which "this GP3 bug never comes".

Are you sure? Because he mentions another machine which does not exhibit the bug, then starts to list hardware for "this machine" which to me means the machine that exhibits the buggy behavior being described?

EDIT: Just noticed the system specs right above. Sorry. Confusing post though.

Reply 11 of 17, by pentiumspeed

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C2D too fast for that driver probably. Try different CPUs: P4 socket 775 2GHz or get slow 775 pentium dual core 1.8GHz and see?

Cheers,

Great Northern aka Canada.

Reply 12 of 17, by PARUS

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Sorry guys I didn't say, it doesn't matter what the keyboard. I've tried PS/2 and USB with the same result. And I started this system even on FSB400 - 100x11=1100MHz CPU, 100x6=600MHz CPU. With the same result. I haven't tried P4. Do you think it's worth to run it?

Reply 13 of 17, by pewpewpew

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PARUS wrote:

... I haven't tried P4. Do you think it's worth to run it?

Before that I'd test or swap the RAM. And I'd try another HDD with a fresh install of 98SE. The second is unlikely as you've already been trying different drivers, but perhaps they share a library that has a little corruption.

I don't think it's impossible that the hardware is too new and you're hitting some weird timing error. But I'd check the RAM first -- that's not unlikely. In this case I'd probably let the test run overnight to get several good passes before trusting things..

Reply 14 of 17, by Revolter

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PARUS wrote:

I haven't tried P4. Do you think it's worth to run it?

I can confirm the bug exists even on my Celly 800 /w Geforce2 MX, so it's not CPU/platform-related for sure.

Celeron 800@1066, 512MB, GeForce2 MX AGP/GeForce 8400GS PCI, ES1938S/Dreamblaster S2, DOS 6.22/Windows 3.11/Windows ME/Windows 2000

Reply 15 of 17, by PARUS

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OK, so it's Intel+nVidia+GP3 combination bug only. Sadness.

Reply 16 of 17, by pentiumspeed

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Don't think so.

Geforce2 came out in 2000 and 2001, Geforce3 in 2001, PIII came out in 1999 and 2000. So I would say PII and that was what is minimum on this game's box, supports directx 7.

Maybe this is a CPU speed bug particular to this GP3? Try 500, 450, 400, 350?

Cheers,

Great Northern aka Canada.

Reply 17 of 17, by alexclaudiu2003

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I had a similar problem with keyboard
the solution is to install Direct X 7.1 or Direct X 8.0