GPL - help!! Game just "stutters" and stops.

I don't know if anyone here has this problem... I'm driving for a while during training, and then I hear my hard disk spinning, like it's trying to read something, then the game "stutters" (I even get an "hourglass"), stops for a few seconds, and then I lose ALL sound. Pressing escape and enter gets me out of the***pit, and then I have sound again. Maybe it's just me, but the darn thing happens just when I start getting in my rythm... I don't have anything running in win98: I've deleted "findfast" from the start menu, as well as all the tasks in the task scheduler. Still happening. My system: PII 266 Asus P2L97 MB, 64MB SDRAM Hercules Thriller 3D 8MB, AGP SCSI HDD Running Win98 GPL is a full install, running at 600x800, most graphic options, except driver's arms, track and cars only in the mirrors. Anti-aliasing is on. FWIW, I'm getting consistent 36fps, 24 on the grid. Please help me, before I fdisk my drive and just install win98 and GPL - and the heck with everything else!! L.S.

Sounds like Windows is working on the swap file. Defrag your hard drive and make sure you've got at least 500MB of free space on it. I doubt FDISK or Win98 would help (any more than a defrag would). Losing the sound is probably a GPL bug, but if you can get rid of the hourglass then you'll probably be rid of the trigger for this as well. Worst case, set your own swap file of about 200-400MB (same size for min _and_ max), thereby disabling Windows automatic control of this. Also try disabling APM if nothing else helps. On Tue, 8 Dec 1998 22:20:17 -0500, "Luis and Maribel Soto"

Quoted text (25 lines)

>I don't know if anyone here has this problem... >I'm driving for a while during training, and then I hear my hard disk >spinning, like it's trying to read something, then the game "stutters" (I >even get an "hourglass"), stops for a few seconds, and then I lose ALL >sound. Pressing escape and enter gets me out of the***pit, and then I >have sound again. Maybe it's just me, but the darn thing happens just when >I start getting in my rythm... >I don't have anything running in win98: I've deleted "findfast" from the >start menu, as well as all the tasks in the task scheduler. Still happening. >My system: >PII 266 >Asus P2L97 MB, 64MB SDRAM >Hercules Thriller 3D 8MB, AGP >SCSI HDD >Running Win98 >GPL is a full install, running at 600x800, most graphic options, except >driver's arms, track and cars only in the mirrors. Anti-aliasing is on. >FWIW, I'm getting consistent 36fps, 24 on the grid. >Please help me, before I fdisk my drive and just install win98 and GPL - and >the heck with everything else!! >L.S.

Couple questions for Mark R: I have a fixed size swap file of 300 MB that *seems* to work OK for all of my applications and games( especially GPL). Why do you call a fixed swap file a "worst case"? Am I missing out on some benefit? Also: what is APM? Thanks David Erb

Quoted text (19 lines)

>Sounds like Windows is working on the swap file. Defrag your >hard drive and make sure you've got at least 500MB of free space >on it. I doubt FDISK or Win98 would help (any more than a defrag >would). Losing the sound is probably a GPL bug, but if you can >get rid of the hourglass then you'll probably be rid of the >trigger for this as well. Worst case, set your own swap file of >about 200-400MB (same size for min _and_ max), thereby disabling >Windows automatic control of this. Also try disabling APM if >nothing else helps. >On Tue, 8 Dec 1998 22:20:17 -0500, "Luis and Maribel Soto" >>I don't know if anyone here has this problem... >>I'm driving for a while during training, and then I hear my hard disk >>spinning, like it's trying to read something, then the game "stutters" (I >>even get an "hourglass"), stops for a few seconds, and then I lose ALL >>sound. Pressing escape and enter gets me out of the***pit, and then I >>have sound again. Maybe it's just me, but the darn thing happens just

when >>I start getting in my rythm... >>I don't have anything running in win98: I've deleted "findfast" from the >>start menu, as well as all the tasks in the task scheduler. Still happening.

Quoted text (11 lines)

>>My system: >>PII 266 >>Asus P2L97 MB, 64MB SDRAM >>Hercules Thriller 3D 8MB, AGP >>SCSI HDD >>Running Win98 >>GPL is a full install, running at 600x800, most graphic options, except >>driver's arms, track and cars only in the mirrors. Anti-aliasing is on. >>FWIW, I'm getting consistent 36fps, 24 on the grid. >>Please help me, before I fdisk my drive and just install win98 and GPL -

and >>the heck with everything else!! >>L.S.

Having a swap file with a fixed size is the best thing you can do, but a) the swap file size should never be larger than twice the size of your RAM and b) if you have more than one HDD that swap file should be on the non-system drive. APM is the automatic power-management that sends your monitor and HDD's to sleep. This is a real HDD killer, I wouldn't recommend it except for notebooks. Mea***er ICQ 25198907 "Excuse me, is this spray good for mosquitoes?" -"No, I'm afraid, it kills them."

Worst case because it involves doing something Windows would prefer you not do. I worry about unknown repercussions in such situtations. If a Windows feature is not causing me any noticeable problems or performance hits, I prefer to leave it to it's 'big brother' ways <g>. APM I see already answered. My line of thot was that if the HDD had been powered down by the APM, should GPL (or Windows) decide to access it, the spin-up time might cause a pause in the sim. Rgds, Mark R. On Wed, 9 Dec 1998 08:23:38 -0500, "David Erb"

Quoted text (51 lines)

> Couple questions for Mark R: I have a fixed size swap file of 300 MB that >*seems* to work OK for all of my applications and games( especially GPL). >Why do you call a fixed swap file a "worst case"? Am I missing out on some >benefit? Also: what is APM? > Thanks >David Erb >>Sounds like Windows is working on the swap file. Defrag your >>hard drive and make sure you've got at least 500MB of free space >>on it. I doubt FDISK or Win98 would help (any more than a defrag >>would). Losing the sound is probably a GPL bug, but if you can >>get rid of the hourglass then you'll probably be rid of the >>trigger for this as well. Worst case, set your own swap file of >>about 200-400MB (same size for min _and_ max), thereby disabling >>Windows automatic control of this. Also try disabling APM if >>nothing else helps. >>On Tue, 8 Dec 1998 22:20:17 -0500, "Luis and Maribel Soto" >>>I don't know if anyone here has this problem... >>>I'm driving for a while during training, and then I hear my hard disk >>>spinning, like it's trying to read something, then the game "stutters" (I >>>even get an "hourglass"), stops for a few seconds, and then I lose ALL >>>sound. Pressing escape and enter gets me out of the***pit, and then I >>>have sound again. Maybe it's just me, but the darn thing happens just >when >>>I start getting in my rythm... >>>I don't have anything running in win98: I've deleted "findfast" from the >>>start menu, as well as all the tasks in the task scheduler. Still >happening. >>>My system: >>>PII 266 >>>Asus P2L97 MB, 64MB SDRAM >>>Hercules Thriller 3D 8MB, AGP >>>SCSI HDD >>>Running Win98 >>>GPL is a full install, running at 600x800, most graphic options, except >>>driver's arms, track and cars only in the mirrors. Anti-aliasing is on. >>>FWIW, I'm getting consistent 36fps, 24 on the grid. >>>Please help me, before I fdisk my drive and just install win98 and GPL - >and >>>the heck with everything else!! >>>L.S.

Just a shot in the dark, but do you have the screensaver enabled? Remco

Hi Dave, the only down side to a fixed swap file, is that it takes up permanent hard drive space. No problem at all if you have plenty of room on your hard drive. There are no other negative aspects of a fixed swap file, as long as you have it big enough, and you do! Regards the apm, that stands for automatic power management. Just check your apm settings, and make sure you havn't got things shutting down on you, eg: hard drive etc. that you might need on tap for GPL. Cheers, Ron

Mine used to do this. What a pain !! It turned out to be due to MS Office 97 putting a Fast Find file in the startup menu, ( as well as some other file too I think ). This Fast Find thing seems to go through your hard disks every now and then to index any file or documents that might be openable by Office. The cure is to delete these Office files from the startup menu. I don't care if Office takes a half second longer to open files but I do care if my sims run smoothly. Cheers Phillip McNelley.

Hi Luis, I had the same thing going on a while ago, and it was caused by one of a couple of things. First was ICQ...do you run it? If so, you should set yourself to DND or NA, and disable all incoming sound events. If Alt-Tab restores your sound, then it's likely a "sound event" that caused the problem. The other is that you should have the System Agent (SAGE on your task list), otherwise known as the scheduler, disabled or off. It will often try to start running defrags or disk checks while you're doing other things. Good luck! -- Neil Yeatman Ajax, Ontario, CANADA