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Rockhound07

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Command and Conquer runs slow and choppy

Command and conquer starts out find but when I play higher levels of battles, the game becomes slow and choppy. I am at a loss as to why. Can someone help me on this? I have the following on my computer:

Computer      
Operating System      Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS Service Pack      Service Pack 2
Internet Explorer      6.0.2900.2180
DirectX      4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0)

Motherboard
CPU Type      Intel Pentium 4, 1615 MHz (16 x 101)
Motherboard Name      Gigabyte GA-8SQ800 Ultra  (5 PCI, 1 AGP, 4 DIMM, Audio, LAN, IEEE-1394)
Motherboard Chipset      SiS 655
System Memory      1280 MB  (DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type      Award Modular (05/15/03)

Display      
Video Adapter      NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600  (256 MB)
3D Accelerator      nVIDIA GeForce FX 5600
Monitor      COMPAQ S710  [17" CRT]  (129CG26KA905)
      
Multimedia      
Audio Adapter      SiS 7012 Audio Device
      
Storage      
IDE Controller      SiS PCI IDE Controller
SCSI/RAID Controller      ITE IT8212 ATA RAID Controller
SCSI/RAID Controller      Silicon Image SiI 3112 SATARaid Controller
Floppy Drive      Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive      Maxtor 94610U6  (45 GB, 5400 RPM, Ultra-ATA/66)
Optical Drive      _NEC DVD_RW ND-3540A
Optical Drive      E-IDE CD -956E/AKV
      
Partitions      
C: (NTFS)      43959 MB (33238 MB free)
      
Input      
Keyboard      HID Keyboard Device
Mouse      Logitech USB WheelMouse
      
I am assigning high points for this problem because, I have asked all of my friends and made many changes from what my computer was before. After all the changes I made, I am still having the same problem.  Thanks

Avatar of Sammo
Sammo

Hi there,

Which version of Command and Conquer is it, and what graphics settings do you have set on it?

For starters go to www.nvidia.com and make sure you have the latest drivers.

Sam
Avatar of ☠ MASQ ☠
And DirectX 9.0c

Are you having similar problems with any other games?
Avatar of Rockhound07

ASKER

Sammo,

I have Generals and Zero Hours. My settings are Resolutions 800x600 and Details are medium. I will check for the lastest drivers.
Are you having the same problems in any other games?

I had C&C:Generals myself and the videos never used to run smoothly, so it may just be a game issue?
Sammo,

No, I do not have trouble with other games. The game runs fine until I get to the advanced battles. Then it boggs down.

Masqueraid,

is there a link I can check for updates for DirectX?
Also make sure you are patched to version 1.07
http://www.gamershell.com/news/10194.html

This fixes some display problems with the FX series cards
One other thing you can try is manually over-riding the refresh rate.

Go to start->run and type "dxdiag" (without the quotes) and click "OK"

Wait for the window to load up then go onto the "More Help" tab.

Click the "Override" button at the bottom and enter "60" in the "Override value" box.

Make sure you have the "Override value" selected aswell.

Now exit dxdiag and try the C&C again and see what happens.
Sammo,

I tried what you suggested but the game was still choppy. In fact, the game stopped with an error message of something like, "the game as stopped because of a serious problem occured.This could be due to the processor overheating or other". I returned the refresh rate back to the default.
Hmm odd.

Did you get the latest drivers for your graphics card from www.nvidia.com and the latest version of DirectX from MASQUERAIDs link above?
Rockhound07, when you say "slow and choppy" do you just mean you get lag or is the video image corrupted as well (like this CS example: http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/5526/shot00025ad.jpg)?  If it's just lag it may not be a driver problem

Have you got the Generals patch?

Ignore the DX issue (my fault - as you have SP2 then DX9.0c will have been installed by default)

If you get video corruption & the patch and latest nVidia Forceware drivers don't work I'm going to suggest you try downgrading the driver to V. 66.93
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_66.93.html

I suggest you try to run it in win95 compatible mode.
MASQUERAID,

 I just down loaded the lastest drivers but it is still doing the same thing. For examples, when I am playing the game and I try to go across the screen,the pointer freezes and on across and everywhere I point the screen now goes wildly to it. Also, if I try to set a group of ground forces to another area, only the pointer stalls for a time. I am at a lost of how to explain it and fix it.
So what's happening is that the image is OK on the screen but there's lag in moving stuff? (Mouse pointers etc)

Have you tried downgrading the nVidia drivers to 66.93?
I am downloading the nVidia drivers now. I guess choppy is not what is going on. I mean the movement of the game stops for about 4 or 5 seconds then continues for about 20 seconds, then stops again.
I have just downloaded the nVidia driver 66.93 but it is doing the same thing. Could there be a conflict with a program. How can I tell?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of ☠ MASQ ☠
☠ MASQ ☠

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hi Rockhound07,

Well my old system had all the similar specs as yours and it worked fine with even less memory only had 512MB ram and a RIVATNT2.

Have you tried the following:

1) Checking your memory settings in XP - right click my computer - click the advanced tab - click performance settings button - Advanced tab - The first 2 should be on programs and then the virtual memory should be on the system managed size. Why am i saking you to do this? You seem to have only one drive thats not an ideal choice however if your page settings in memory are the same as i mentioned it would not matter too much.

2) ok so u downloaded the new drivers fine but have you uninstalled the other drivers permanently from your system ? back up your old drivers on some cd and delete them permanently from your system so they are not linked in anyway.
Before installing new drivers make sure you uninstall all NVIDIA display drivers from the Windows Control Panel. Browse to the Start Menu > Windows Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs and search for "NVIDIA Windows Display Drivers" or "NVIDIA Display Drivers" and select remove.

3) One more thing just to try make your desktop 800x600 with only 16bit color and refresh rate 60. Try loading the game with these settings in your desktop and in generals u can put everything on full but 1024x768. Try the same if that does not work with the setting in gernerals as 800x600.

If these steps dont work...well lets not go there. Try these as dumb as they might sound they all have a reason behind them trust me.

Regards,
Ash
Thanks to all you took their time to help me on this. I tried everything but could not find the problem. I would not have ever guessed that the mouse would play a part in making the go slow.

MASQUERAID, sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I had to go and buy another mouse. Thank you.