ialmrnt5 and the Dreaded BSOD

[cyrus_zuo]

I hate people not being able to enjoy the game.
Let me know if anything else you try gets you something that works, I'm really sorry for all of this.

[CCV]

Well, just seeing how it goes for the moment... but:

The driver I got from Acer must be fairly 'ancient' - it doesn't support DirectX 9.
The game was running poorly, kinda jerky and slow, but at least the cursor is stable now - always on top; not flickering and disappearing (well, not so far anyhow).
Also I notice that now the slider positions for sfx and music levels are where I set them instead of at default position as they always appeared using other drivers.

Managed to find a DirectX 9 uninstaller and rolled back to version 8.1.
Still slow to load (and some weird black vertical lines creeping across the b'ground in Main Menu). The game seems to play a little better, but not well enough for Kathy's comfort - sluggish and sometimes unresponsive to mouse clicks...

Renderer was still set to "OpenGl", so I don't really know why the DirectX version should make any difference tho it seemed. I set it back to "Default" and restored acceleration but it makes no difference.
I still have a couple more .zip driver installers to try...................

I just find it interesting that this driver does fix some things but, then, causes other problems. I haven't tested it long enough to be sure, but it doesn't seem to be quite so ready to crash.
Maybe I should ask Acer to update their driver. Hey?

Anyways..
If it comes to it and if posible, I might be quite prepared to get my graphics card changed for something other than Intel.
From the searching I did, that is one suggested solution; the problem being endemic to Intel graphics cards - but, generally, it seems, to models other than the one I have.

[cyrus_zuo]

UGH!

I've really appreciated your efforts, though it doesn't sound like it is going to end well.

[CCV]

Yeah, and I'm sorry to be boring you all to death with this saga.
I just thought, maybe, someone might be able spot some clue in amongst it.

I have just now reinstalled the latest driver from Intel - but, using the .zip file.
It's too early to say much except that the game is running at a good speed and what does look promising at this stage is that the cursor is still stable and the Sound fx and Music sliders are displaying properly in the correct positions.
Only time will tell if it's gonna crash again...

I ran Microsoft's dxwebsetup thingy (twice) which, by all appearances, should download and install DirectX 9, but my version still displays as 8.1.
Anyone got any clues about that?

[CCV]

OK, well..

Seems the best advice on offer, which I saw a few places, is to downoad the driver in .zip format - the one they (Intel) say is 'intended for developers' - and install from that instead of using the .exe installer.

I wouldn't say it's 100% fixed, but we haven't had a crash under normal playing conditions for a couple of days at least.
So, that's fixed enough I would say and just hoping it stays that way.

I can get it to crash by leaving it on the level select screen for an extended period, but that's not the kind of thing which one normally would do.
The first time was a bit strange - I was talking on the phone so didn't see quite what happened - I heard a sound like Windows shutting down and looked up and the game had disappeared off screen and the computer was still running normally .
The second time it was the usual 'driver has stopped working normally' and need to reboot message.

It doesn't tend to crash while game Paused now either.
It did crash once after I had it sitting Paused for hours, then Resumed play. It didn't last out the level and sat frozen for a good minute or so before actually crashing. That's not what I would call 'normal' playing conditions tho, and easily avoided in any case.

That's all for now folks, so I thank you all for your kind assistance, patience and understanding and say farewell - until next time I can find something to whinge about.

[shaz]

whew! Glad it seems to be looking up for you. Reading this thread was starting to hurt