I can't tell if it's a driver problem or a hack conflict I downloaded the new nVidia drivers yesterday and some hacks from MTS2. Now I can play almost a sim-day, and then the my monitor goes off, almost like it's going into sleep mode. I have to turn the computer completely off and restart to get the monitor back on. I uninstalled and re-installed the drivers, and I removed all the hacks I downloaded yesterday, but still having the same problem. Hubby tried to do a system restore with XP with no luck. The entire computer seems to perform slower, but as you can see I can get around okay. I can't figure out what would cause it! Dell Dimension 8250 Windows XP 60G hard drive: has 7.89 gigs free nVidida GeForce 6600 Turbo Pentium 4 2.40 gz 1.0 gig of RAM Anyone got any ideas?
Try going back to the old drivers and see if that takes care of the problem. Although if you did a system restore (without the drivers and hacks being put back in) and there are still problems, it may be that there's something else going on. (Then we'd have to wait for MJ or one of the other major techies to get back.)
Thanks Kat. I'll have Hubby try the drivers that came with the graphics card when he comes home from work. (I can't find the box, expert hider that he is! LOL) Yep, there's never a techie around when you can't play your game!
Kristal, don't turn off your computer if you can help it. You should be able to re-awaken the monitor by pressing the Windows key (between Ctrl + Alt) ... wait a short while then try powering up the monitor with the power button if it hasn't woken up itself. Did you get a NVIDIA desktop manager when you ugraded your drivers (a little pus-green icon in the sys tray next to the clock) If so right click it and open it and double check your settings regarding refresh rate ... it should be 60Hertz. Is your monitor a LCD? Is it widescreen format? If it is you may actually be better off playing in Windowed mode -- sized to a narrower aspect ratio than the full width of the screen -- because a widescreen has 33% more pixels than a conventional 4:3 screen and so it uses up 33% more video memory per screenful ... it's like having a graphics card downgrade
It's not a fancy monitor, just the plain old, run-of-the-mill monitor. It's set to 60 hertz refresh rate too. (sigh) Hubby tried another driver, I'm going to try it and try what you suggested Mirelly, about the windows key, and I'll let you know if I get through more than 1 sim-day before it goes off again. Thanks guys.
Okay, problem is resolved. It was the drivers. Hubby re-downloaded the old drivers and the game plays just fine.
I'm glad that took care of it! I remember back when on the SimCity4 site and people were putting in the new drivers for the FX5200 and they were messing things up similar to what you described. They found that rolling back the drivers fixed things. It could be that the new drivers are meant mostly for people who *do* have the fancydancy new monitors. In the past it was the other way around: people with flat screens instead of conventional monitors got problems with the drivers. At any rate, I'm glad that you found a way to fix the problem!
