NFS 3 Problems!

[PhatAzz]

My system:
AMD K6-3 400mhz
128mb PC-100 SDRAM
AOpen AX59 Pro 512kb cache mother board
6.4gig quantum fireball hdd
Creative Riva TNT 16mb AGP
Creative Sound Blaster 16 PNP
Acer 24x CD-ROM
Windows 98 clean install with DirectX 6.1
Microsoft Force Feedback Pro Joystick

My problem:
When I finish a track (whether I won or not) about 50% of the time the game exits back
to the Windows desktop and gives me a dialogue box with an error message reading
'SNDpathinit - PATHFINDER MAP FILE ID IS INCORRECT' and I have the choice to click 'OK' or
'CANCEL'. Clicking either one of these buttons does nothing and returns me back to the desktop
and the autorun feature starts up on the Need For Speed CD. This is very frustrating as this
sometimes happens when I finally win a track I have been trying to win for a while.
Problem 2:
While playing Need For Speed 3 I will be driving along in a manual transmission car and very
frequently it will just shift up a gear or shift up two gears, what ever it feels like. Also,
sometimes it will just restart as if I have crashed or something and the car drops down for me
to get going again. This is very frustrating as this has resulted in me being caught by the
police many times both from the auto restarting and from the auto gear shifting.
I've downloaded all the latest drivers for my video card and everything, but it's still the same.

Can anyone help me?

[Bleeding Edge]

Just to be certain. When you say "everything", that includes the MS Sidewinder 3.02 software,the soundcard drivers..everything, right.

Have you tried reinstalling the program? Uninstall NFS first then reinstall it with minimum programs running at start up.

After uninstalling the game, go to Start/Run and type: msconfig
Select the Startup tab and uncheck everything except for the dxm6 reference.[note that you will be rechecking these boxes after reinstalling NFS]

Reboot and install NFS. You should have a clean install.

NOTE:
When playing the game unload the Sidewinder software from the Systray by the clock. Remap the joystick buttons from within the game.

[harddisk]

Maybe ur CD spoil, the drive cant read the file needed from ur CD, try FULL/MAXIMUM install.

About the auto-restarting/auto-gear-shifting, if u r playing on keyboard, make sure the configured keys are not pressed or have contact with the board (hope u know wat i mean, try it on a notepad).....
if it's joystick, maybe the buttons spoil (the spring that hold back the button from contact with the circuitry board)

[Bonehead]

Have you tried the "autopatcher" from the nfs site? It could fix some bugs.

[PhatAzz]

I have tried the auto patch program. Still no difference.

[BigMac]

It could be a case of dodgy IDE or internal power leads, or just good old fashion AMD compatibility problems.

[roycwho]

try disabling the direct 3d sound to mono


Roy