New Member Needs Help!

Good day, Lords and Ladies. Dr. Viktor Arkavil here, and I find myself in a bit of a sticky situation. I received that glorious game, Arcanum: OF Steamworks & Magick Obscura, for Christmas, but am having some trouble with it.

I installed the game on my siste's computer while home for the Holidays, and it worked absolutely fine. Played for many hours, enjoyed it thoroughly.

Then I came back to my apartment, installed it on my computer (which is a few months newer than my sister's), and got ready to play. Started it up, got the Sierra screen, then the Troika screen, then the briefest flash of the "Game Loading" screen (the one with the train)...

... and then the game shut off.

I uninstalled the game, defragged my comp (just in case), and reinstalled the game. Same results.

I downloaded the latest patch from the Sierra website. No change.

I've tried everything listed at the Sierra Support Site. No change.

Before I call their Tech Support number (a long distance call for me), I thought I might impose upon you all for some recommendations, in case you've faced the same problem. I found this site while looking for info on Arcanum, and definitely like what I see, by the way.

My comp has a Pentium 3 Processor, 127.0 MB of RAM, over 15 Gigabytes of free memory on the hard drive, and is running Microsoft Windows Me 4.90.3000. The comp itself is a Hewlett-Packard Pavilion xt953. Far as I can tell, there's no video card (I can't find one listed anywhere in the Control Panel or System Properties), but I'm able to run games like Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale and Diablo II and Planescape: Torment just fine. I don't know what my sister's comp has, and I've not been able to contact her to ask.

I'm hoping it's something simple like needing a new video card, since I'd used some of my Christmas cash to get a new video card (an NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440-SE), so I could play games like Morrowind and Neverwinter Nights. I've no idea how to install it, though, but I do have 2 old college friends who are very good with computer stuff, and should be able to help me.

However, in case it isn't the video card, does anyone here have any suggestions as to what else the problem may be?

 

Welcome! *waves*

Good taste.

Now, I don't know if anything I'm going to say will be of any help to you, but I'm going to say it anyway, but I make no guarantee as to your satisfaction.

1) Did you say 127 Mb of RAM? That really isn't much, especially for Arcanum. This game, though wonderful, beautiful, entrancing.... *sigh*.... Well it consumes far more RAM and video memory than you'd think it should. I bought the bloody thing over a year ago but couldn't play it on my old computer mostly (I think) because of its low RAM capacity. Now I've got it on a comp with 512 Mb DDR, and I'm very happy with the performance, despite my allegedly crappy Trident video card.

2) I've heard a couple of things about WinMe: updating Windows Installer can sometimes solve these issues, and so can reinstalling your DirectX drivers. I don't recall the specifics, but I suppose I could look it up for you if you insist.

3) Did you try running Arcanum in Safe Mode? Safe Mode can be your friend. Should find the Safe Mode shortcut in your Sierra\Arcanum folder in your Start menu.

Ah.... all I can think of off the top of my head. I'm certain someone else will be along shortly to give you the Final and Authoritative Solution.

 

Thanks for the welcome, Canis!

I tried running it in Safe Mode, same results.

Yes, 127 MB of RAM. Which I believe is more than what my sister has, and as I said it worked fine on hers...

I'll try the Windows Installer update, let you know how it works out.

Thanks again!

 

EXACT same thing happened to me at first!

I installed it and restarted after it had finished installing the "other" required program (DirectX?). I stupidly didn't notice the bold words that said "DONT RESTART AFTER INSTALLING DIRECTX!!!!" on the installer. Try un-installing it and re-installing it WITHOUT restarting after DirectX finishes installing.

Getting Win 98/XP/etc. doesn't help if you computer is "Made for Windows ME". It will preform badly with games no matter what version of Windows you use. Found that out with my bro and mine's computers. Mine is made for Windows 98, but I installed Windows ME and everything works just fine. His is made for Windows ME, but he has 98 installed and most games operate with the problematic performance of ME. If that is the case, then you are out of luck, unless you can fix it by calling the company that made your computer and asking them specifically how to change it (if you can).

If you made it yourself, then changing to Windows 98/XP/etc. should help as well. Try the first suggestion first, though.

BTW, welcome to the forums!!! :wavey:

 

[quote="Dr. Viktor ArkavilMy comp has a Pentium 3 Processor, 127.0 MB of RAM, over 15 Gigabytes of free memory on the hard drive, and is running Microsoft Windows Me 4.90.3000. The comp itself is a Hewlett-Packard Pavilion xt953[/quote]

The HP versions of windows are ALL suspect. Are you running the OS that came with your system? Or have you upgraded? Your basic specs are good enough.

This is a video memory intensive game. Your new card is a good one & if that is your problem, it will be cured. As the game needs hardware acceleration, no card is a big problem, & an on board chip with not enough viedo memory leads to horrid lags.

There is a tech help forum on the offical board. Try it. http://community.sierra.com/WebX?13@96. ... 0@.ef2d7fa

[/quote]

 

ZAA!!! Got my new video card installed, it works fine, and now so does Arcanum!!!

*goes off to re-create Bwah Ogrunson, his Half-Ogre*

 

Hey, Im new here too can I also get some help??? [/i][/b]

 

heh. long time no see skie88

 

heh. long time no see skie88

 

heh. long time no see skie88

 

We got it the first time.

 

It's just a triple post. You don't need to rub it in DarkWalker - it happens when you've got a slow connection. I've had it happen to me a few times.

I'm just interested on how you got 127Mb rather than 128Mb which is the proper division since it works in multiples of 2; 32, 64, 128, 256, 512 etc.. Did you get short changed by 1Mb or have you just worked it out wrong? Don't forget that there are 1024 bytes per Mb rather than the normal 1000, since like I said earlier, it works in factors of 2.

 

It's fun to "rub it" and he could have deleted it if he was trying to avoid ridicule.


Did I mention the super bowl was here in San Diego, it's total madness, one can't even get downtown due to the crowds.

 

hehe, don't worry about it, i know gamenut wont mind the ridicule either, well last time im posting here, triple post was normal..lol .. Anyway, good to know, i still know a lot of you guys here.So, how's Jinxed as a moderator, I hope he's not giving you guys grief?

 

Err...

Naw, he's a good mod!

Nice to meet you, skie88!

 

I'm guessing integrated video which snoops away part of the regular RAM. 1 meg of video mem... yuck.

 

Hmm... they still exist?