Can't get game to work

[maherwoman]

I need help...

Why does it take SO MUCH to play ONE game?

My husband and daughter bought me CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder for mybirthday. We installed it, and it wouldn't start.So, my husband uninstalled and reinstalled about six times, and finallywe came to terms with the fact that we may be missing something andneeded to just call UBI (the game's company) when they were open onMonday.

So, I called them...they went over the system requirements...and toldme that we didn't have the correct (read: recent enough) video card inthe computer. So, we go out the next day and buy one of thelisted required video cards. It's now installed (thankgoodness I have a fairly computer savvy husband), but for some reason,the computer froze upon restarting. So, he figured out thatwe needed to plug the monitor into the new video card. Startsup fine...but then the game STILL won't start. ARGH!!!!

ullhair:

Okay, so today I call the dang UBI place again, and this time I findout that yes, we now have the correct system requirements...BUT we haveto "disable the onboard graphics chipset" on the BIOS. Calledmy husband...he said he did that. Called Microsoft so theycould walk me through it...they said, Sure...for $59.WHAT?!

Okay, so now we're totallying at $30 for the game $70 for the videocard. I am NOT willing to pay another $60 to Microsoft forsomething they should just DO for their dang customers!!:growl:

So, I try to find out online how to "disable the onboard graphicschipset"...can't find a single site that has a guide to how to doit. I call my husband, he tries to walk me through it...butwe're now thoroughly confused, and he's going to try calling a morecomputer-savvy friend of his...that happens to be the flakiest personon earth, and probably won't get back to him for another week, becausehe's just like that.:sigh

So, we're kinda stuck. We've now spent about $100 for agame...and STILL cannot play it.:angryrant You have NO IDEAhow eager I am to play this game...to see how good I would be atsolving a murder mystery (even though it IS just a game...I'm stillVERY interested in seeing how good I would be in-game at this).

Argh...:banghead

So...if any of you know how to "disable the onboard graphics chipset,"please enlighten me...or if any of you know what could be wrong, pleaselet me know that as well. This is so frustrating...I almoststarted crying earlier at the stupidity of it all. We cannotreturn the game because the policy of the store we bought it at won'tlet you return an opened game...so we're stuck trying to figure out howto get the dang thing working...or possibly giving UBI heck until theygive our money back.

Hugs to all,

Frustrated Rosie* :grumpy

 

[TinysMom]

I'll ask Art and my son. Eric has the game - Art is a computer techie...

Peg

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

Hey Rosie! I am talking to my husbandright now and he says that Windows should have prompted you aboutinstalling new hardware. So, did that happen?Normally it should. Otherwise, you may have to go into theBios to change it, though, you alone don't want to do that.Let me know.

Sorry, I know what a pain it can be!

Crystal

 

[maherwoman]

I should let my husband answer you on that...he'll be home in a moment.

 

[HoneyPot]

Rosie - I honestly can't help you, but I just wanted to share your pain.

When I bought the Sims 2, I boughta 200GB hard drive (becausemy little 10G was already full and the game required 3Gigs just toinstall!). I also boughta new super duper fancyvideo card. Then I boughta new power supply becausethe video card was too powerful for the power supply in thecomputer. The I went and got 1G more of RAM because it wasrunning too slow.

I prefer not to think how much money the game cost me in the end... butI have had the most kick A** computer for the last 5 years.haha. Now I need a new processor because it's too slow forall the latest games and all the power I put in it.

__________
Nadia

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

Luckily for us, my BIL is a whiz at computers and is alsoA+ Certified.

Nadia, ours was just rebuilt last year. We now have aPentium 3 as a processor, which was new out when we got it and it'sgreat! We also have a new motherboard (Asus-alsoawesome) and these were ordered through ZipZoomFly.com andships pretty fast. Something to keep in mind in case anyoneof you ever need something new. Not sure if they ship outsidethe US, I don't see why not. We also have the fastest DSLthere is, we keep upgrading each time there is an upgrade to behad. Now I'm so spoiled that when the server is slow at work(it comes out of another city, our coporate office) I complain and it'ssoooo noticable, just a tad slower and I notice it rightaway. If that website isn't up in 2 mere seconds,notfast enough, hee hee.

Rosie, did you ever get it fixed?

 

[maherwoman]

Nope...not fixed yet, and we're kinda at the point of being stumped.

AngelnSnuffy wrote:

Rosie, did you ever get it fixed?

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

Has Danny gone into the bios at all?Not sure I can help, this weekend I can call my BIL and see if he canhelp you though. Only thing is, hewill have abunch of questions...

 

[maherwoman]

Yep, he's even tried uploading the BIOS.

What time would that be that he could help us? If we canfigure out a timeframe, I could have my husband and him PM'ing back andforth, or something.

That would be SO wonderful...

AngelnSnuffy wrote:

Has Danny gone intothe bios at all? Not sure I can help, this weekend I can callmy BIL and see if he can help you though. Only thing is,hewill have a bunch of questions...

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

Rosie, my hub is saying that with the new games,you need "a hell of a system to run em". That doesn't soundgood, but he'll be home in a minute and maybe he'll send some info ifhe has any beyond this point of now.

 

[maherwoman]

Okay, cool beans! Thank you!

Edited to add: I'll have my husband at the computer to answer any and all questions.

Do you have any sort of Messenger service where the two of them can talk more in real-time about it?

We have Yahoo, MSN, and AIM...and I think also ICQ.

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

Sorry, I had to get my bootie to bed last night:imsorry:.

I did bring it up this morning again to him. Do you know howmuch RAM you have? You may need lots more to run the game,like Nadia said. You'll want to check that and what kind ofprocessor you have. It may just be that some stuff needsupdating. I hope this helps a bit.

We have Yahoo. So, if need be, we can chat that way.

 

[HoneyPot]

Rosie - what happens when you try to start thegame - do you get an error message or nothing happens? Do you see thecomputer try to start the game then fail, or when you click the iconnothing at all happens. Does it start up and then crash?

What do the recommended specifications on the box for the game say (exactly).

What type of video card did you guys get, how much RAM do you have, what's the speed of your computer... details...

__________
Nadia

 

[maherwoman]

Okay, guys...I'll have my husband answer the specs questions...

But I can tell you this:

We click on the game icon itself and it gives us the busy icon(hourglass) for a couple seconds like it's trying, and nothing else(and it even comes up in the task list, but then vanishes).No warnings, not much else other than it looking like it'll open andthen it just doesn't.

Another thing...the CD brings up the menu, but when we click "play", same thing as above.

So, my husband will be out shortly and will tell me what to tell you guys about the specs.

 

[missyscove]

when you compare the game requirements (usuallylisted on the box) to your computer, is there anything else thatdoesn't match up?

 

[maherwoman]

Requirements on game:
Windows 2000/WP (only)
Processer: 1GHz processor or better
RAM: 256 MB (512 MB recommended)
Video Card: 64 MB DirectX 8.1 Compliant video card
On list for acceptable video cards:
- ATI Radeon 7500/8500/9000/X series
- NVDIA GeForce 3/4/FX/6/7 series
- NVDIA Quadro 2/4 series
Sound Card: DirectX 8.1 compliant sound device
DirectX Version: 8.1 or higher
Hard Drive Space: 1.4 GB
Peripherals: Windows keyboard & mouse

What we have:
Windows XP Home Edition
Processor: 2.0 GHz Celeron
RAM: 384 MB
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9250
Sound Card: Soundmax integrated (onboard - compliant with DirectX Version specified)
DirectX Version: 9.0
Hard Drive Space: Total: 80 GB, Free: 15.3 GB
Peripherals: Windows keyboard & mouse

So, in looking at all that, we have what we need, by far. I just don't get why it still won't work. I'mquestioning now if we should take the Video Card back for anotherone...it was out of its original packaging a bit when we bought it, soI'm thinking maybe we should trade it in for one that's not.It literally could be as simple as that. What we run upagainst at this point, is the companies for these things (UBI for thegame, ATI for the video card, etc.) closing at times like 5:30pmEastern time (which for us is 2:30pm...and almost impossible to catch).

So, there ya go...my husband is quite computer-savvy, and we're BOTH stumped at this point.

HoneyPot wrote:

Rosie - what happenswhen you try to start the game - do you get an error message or nothinghappens? Do you see the computer try to start the game then fail, orwhen you click the icon nothing at all happens. Does it startup and then crash?

What do the recommended specifications on the box for the game say (exactly).

What type of video card did you guys get, how much RAM do you have, what's the speed of your computer... details...

__________
Nadia