to install, or not to install...

[Ness]

ok...  in the middle of an OS upgrade here - I was finally convinced to ditch 98 and go XP...  after major dramas with graphics drivers, I've got a functional computer, but my graphics card isn't yet operational...

should I go ahead and install just so I don't go completely mad?  Or will I just have to reinstall ts2 when the graphics driver is sorted to get it to use the card?

*sigh*

Ness

[Motoki]

You shouldn't have to reinstall TS2 if you change video cards or drivers, but if your card isn't working right with XP and your are using default drivers or an old card then the game might not run so well if it at all.

[Dark Trepie]

It should at least try to run in Software Rendering Mode.  Which I could only imagine would look like a giant puddle of puke.

[Ness]

the processor is more than capable of running without the graphics card...

but, considering I only have a half-baked XP install right now, I got through the base game install and decided to see if it runs...  at which point in time the monitor went completely black...  turning on the second monitor (attached to the second, temporary graphics card that we could actually get to work - major dramas yesterday!) reveals some error message about a lack of direct X compatible hardware...  so I guess there shall be no more sims until my husband gets home - I'm through battling with this machine!

Ness

[Regina]

You shouldn't have to reinstall TS2 if you change video cards or...

I agree there's probably no reason for a re-install for new drivers, but with a new graphics card a re-install might be necessary.  When I 'upgraded' mine, my game simply would not run until after I re-installed it.

[Motoki]

LOL Well I said you shouldn't have to, but I've learned the hard way over the years that computers don't always do what they should do.

I know when I upgraded video cards the game still worked for me, but your milage may vary.

At any rate, you can always backup your game files and it's not too bad to reinstall if you absolutely have to.

[nothingbutsims]

Same here, I did not have to reinstall the game when I updated my video card.

[Ness]

well...  the game files are all safely backed up...  I'm hoping that one day I may actually be able to use them again...

the 18-month old computer that worked excellently under 98 is stubbornly refusing to function at all with XP when the drivers for the graphics card are installed - makes no difference whether we use the factory drivers on the CD that came with it, the most recent drivers downloaded from the compnay's web site, or the drivers that XP likes to use when it gets up to that particular update - every time the refresh rate goes bananas and we can see nothing but a blue and green garbled mess...

3 days!  and still no computer...

I think tonight we will be putting 98 back on that computer - despite the fact that almost every one (except the poor husband who needs to make it work!) would tell me I should upgrade to XP, I see nothing so wonderful in XP that I'm willing to sacrifice my computer for a week and jump through ridiculous hoops to get it to function...  nor am I willing to ditch ts2 for XP either...

so, unless someone can give me some sound, irrefutable good reason for persevering (read continue to beat head against brick wall until it's a bloody mess) with getting this install to work - I'm going back to 98!

Ness

[nothingbutsims]

Here's a really stupid question for you, and I'm only asking it because I did the same thing when I installed my new graphics card - do you have to plug your monitor into the new graphics card slot in the back of your computer?  I had to and didn't know this and thought my graphics card was defective.  Until I finally read the remainder of the directions  , I realized that my monitor had to get plugged into the new graphics card and that there was a slot that fit it perfectly.

[Hook]

Ness, you have discovered the reason I never upgrade major systems until forced.  And don't worry about all those people who say you should "upgrade" to XP... it's all caused by careful advertising and "mindset control" from Microsoft to sell more copies of the newest operating system.  It will happen when XP gets replaced, too.  I have predicted that when XP gets replaced, XP will become known as the buggiest Windows ever.

My professional advice:  if Win 98 works for you, stick with it.  When it no longer works, upgrade.

Hook

[Motoki]

I agree. If 98 works fine for you, then until and unless a piece of software comes out that does not support 98 and requires XP, then I wouldn't worry about it. If it ain't broke... and all that.

[Ness]

yeah, that's pretty much what I was starting to think after the third attempt on the first day!

next time an alleged computer tech at school comes my way I shall firmlly block my ears and walk away so I don't have to hear the "you need XP" crap...

mr ness built the entire computer (twice, once when it was his, and then again when it got passed to me because I didn't like the giant blue light strips on his case) and can get 98 running with no glitches at all...  mr ness's faster and fancier new computer (the one he got when I inisted I needed to upgrade from the P2 350 I was using - I get his, and he gets something even better) is only running XP because when he was buying components to uild it, he missed the fact that his motherboard doesn't support 98...  and would have got a different motherboard if he had seen it!

the copy of XP I had was free, so the only thing I've wasted here is time, and sanity...  it was effectively thrown out by my father's place of work because they bought an entire system, with OS, to run software that only works with 98...  just like they throw away flat screen dell LCD monitors because they bought an entire system but want to keep the 19" CRT...  you've got to love the wastefulness of australian universities!

*take 2 at typing this reply, I started some time before Hook and the server died*

Ness

[Hook]

next time an alleged computer tech at school comes my way I shall firmlly block my ears and walk away so I don't have to hear the "you need XP" crap...

Computer techs make a lot of money reinstalling XP on computers for people.  Next time someone... suggests... you should "upgrade" to XP, ask them how often they reinstall the OS.  Not everyone will have to reinstall every week, but I've heard enough stories about people who have.  Some people might even never reinstall, and I'm sure I'll hear from each and every one of them on this thread.

Hey XP users!  I upgraded some of my hardware under Windows ME and I DIDN'T HAVE TO ASK MICROSOFT'S PERMISSION!! Top *that*!

Hook

[Ness]

it's actually kind of refreshing to find people here who think sticking with 98 wasn't actually insane...

I think the constant pestering from microsoft about updates would slowly drive me insane...  at least 98 isn't being messed with any more, so the only way it's going to mess up is if I do somethiing stupid...

in fact, now that I think about it, the only times my copmuter has crashed have been when I've been doing something stupid...  like leaving ts2 running, with about 5 different IE windows, sending an email and reading a pdf file - all at the same time!  And the big clue about the computer techs I work with - every time I need to be printing an exam in a hurry (because the deadline was last week and they sit the exam tomorrow!) the school network, without fail, will fall in a screaming heap!

mr ness (the stubborn old goat!) can have one more attempt when he gets home, and then 98 is going back on if that doesn't work!

Ness

[Dark Trepie]

The only reason I have XP (Profesional edition at that) is because I got it for free from a friend.  He used to work at a computer shop and they sent him some special version that had unlimited CD key activations.

I've been through four different OS'S on my computers and never actually paid for anyone of them.  Well, five technically.  I use Linux from time to time.  But that's free to download.

Out of all of them I'll agree that 98 is one of the more stable ones M$ ever made.  ME is a giant piece of crap though and shouldn't be used for anything unless you want to use the install disk frisbee or a coaster.

Can't wait to see what stupidity Longhorn brings us.  Though I'm hopeful that since Apple is using Intel chips now we'll soon see Mac OS X for PCs.

[Shivani]

I was originally one of those people who would have to be dragged kicking and screaming in order to install XP.  I was a diehard 98 fan, despite the fact that I could almost set my watch by how frequently my machine would spontaneously reboot or bluescreen.  I simply got used to it's multitude of quirks, restarted frequently on purpose, and went on with my life.

Then we got a laptop.  It came with ME.  The utter nightmare...blech.  My husband tried to install 98 on it and failed miserably every time.  Something about the lack of proper drivers for the onboard stuff.  On the other hand, it took to XP like a duck to water.  And surprise...the sucker actually ran decent.  It didn't reboot whenever the wind blew, or you looked at it crossways.  I suddenly became an XP fan.

So I run XP Pro on my machine and literally the only trouble I've ever had with it was when the hard drive was failing and I didn't realize it at first.  (Of course, that was shortly followed by the laptop exploding, then my desktop's motherboard and memory frying itself, but that's a whole 'nother story.)  A machine I used to have to reboot on a daily basis (sometimes more often), now runs for days or weeks without any problems, and that's playing high-end games frequently as well.

I be a convert.

[nothingbutsims]

... runs for days or weeks without any problems, and that's playing high-end games frequently as well.

Same here.  I've been running XP for at least 3 years now and I rarely turn off my computer.  I totally love the OS.  You can set up your screen to function just like 98 so there's no trying to find your control panel or any of that.  And, I haven't had any problems at all with it.

[Ness]

*firmly blocks ears and refuses to listen to how wonderful XP is*

XP may be all well and good, and I'm told that its file system gets much less fragmented than FAT32...  but, if it is going to take this much insanity, I'm going back to the one that worked!

and my 98 computer stayed on 24/7 without falling over at all - I rarely got BSoDs, and only locked it up by doing stupid things...  sure, I had to defrag every day or so when running sims games, but I can cope with that...

especially considering my last computer was way below specs for all sims 1 eps, yet handled them all quite admirably!  (350, as opposed to the required 450) - which is more than can be said for some XP machines that were over specs and still wouldn't run them!

Ness

[nothingbutsims]

Will you be able to play NL on it?

Edit:  I don't have the game specs. in front of me.

[BeckerCheez]

We almost had to upgrade our old computer to XP from 98 because it was not running very well.  That should be the only reason why you should upgrade.  Otherwise, our other copies came with our new computers.   

[Ness]

that was my old computer...  the one we are madly attempting to upgrade to XP was running nightlife beautifully before the upgrade...

the only thing that cheesed me off is that with the base game and uni all my settings were at the highest available...  adding NL dropped me down to medium everything and turned my reflections off in the default settings!

I've since turned reflections back on, and I'm leaving the graphics options at medium - the game runs faster and I get less odd graphics corruption - every so often I would get weird spikes coming off my sims and leaving odd trails over the screen - it's not listed as one of the known issues with my graphics card and would go away when I saved the game - haven't seen it at all since installing nightlife...

I think "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" sum up the situation quite beautifully... 

Ness

[Ness]

and there's a thought...

the uncooperative graphics card in question is an ATI Radeon 9600 with 128M DDR - anyone got one working under XP?

Note:  I don't know a great deal about computer hardware (my husband is the techy in the family, I leave it to him!), I'm just reading from the box, and I'm fully aware of the fact that I may have left out some vital piece of information there...  just let me know and I'll read that off too!

Ness

[Motoki]

the only thing that cheesed me off is that with the base game and uni all my settings were at the highest available...  adding NL dropped me down to medium everything and turned my reflections off in the default settings!

NL has done that to pretty much everyone I've come across, including people with really new and recent video cards. I think it's a bug in the way it identifies what card you have. I don't think it's any reflection on your video card and a 9600 should be just fine. It's a Directx 9 capable card and it definitely can do the reflections.

[witch]

I've been on winxp pro for about 18 months now, I also had to be dragged kicking and screaming from win98, though I spent about 12 months on win2k on the way. My b/f is a tech and told me that winME is the worst MS OS for gaming, so I never went there.

I miss win98 for the games I cannot run on winxp, even under the supposed win98 compatibility mode, most 98 era games don't work for me. I was going to partition my hard drive and install win98 as well, but apparently win98 will go nuts if you have over 768Mb RAM, necessitating hacking the OS to make it believe there is less RAM. I'll get round to it one day. 

I like winxp and find it is very stable, no problems there. It is definitely bloatware and chews up more system resources than win98, but I like all the extra modern compatibility with hardware drivers etc. Though I turn off a lot of the pretty, resource-hungry stuff like menu animations etc.

If you go back to win98, you might like to try win98lite, written by an Australian bloke I think, takes IE out of the core of the OS (where MS stuck it to make IE essential), win98 runs much leaner and meaner, I had a lot of success with win98lite and improved performance.

[Hook]

My b/f is a tech and told me that winME is the worst MS OS for gaming, so I never went there.

I miss win98 for the games I cannot run on winxp, even under the supposed win98 compatibility mode, most 98 era games don't work for me.

Two sentences, right next to each other, and people *still* don't notice.  The irony is amazing.

Witch, your win98 games will run with no problems under WinME.  I'm not suggesting you get WinME, but I *am* suggesting that there's a worse MS OS for gaming. 

There's nothing wrong with your boyfriend beyond being unduly influenced by Ziff-Davis.

Hook