choppy cinematics depending upon the game

[scourge]

Following system:
FIC 503+ /w K6-2 350 @(75x5.5=412)
(2) 16 meg 60ns EDO RAM
C/L SB 16 circa 1995 (picked out of junk bin for $5)
WD 5.1 gig UDMA hdd
USR 14.4
Digital Research Technologies 24x cdrom (CompUSA special)

Here's the problem. I have perfectly smooth fluid video for games such as Wing Commander: Prophecy, Privateer 2, etc. during the cinematics. However, Star Trek: StarFleet Academy screws up. A cinematic will start and the cdrom will spin off into infinity, then slows down, play a second or two of video, then spins off into infinity again. This repeats forever. Other games such as Dragon's Lair also has similar problems.

I've run the cdrom as a master on it's own channel and as a slave off the hdd. No difference. It's always been like this. I had this 24x in a Cyrix 5x86-120 sytem with Win95, now I have it in this system with Win98 and it still does the same thing. Any ideas on what's going on?

[Bonehead]

Looks like your problem is a poor copied/damaged cd. If other cd-games plays ok and others not than the above might be your problem. Look if you see a whole bunch of scratches or filth like dust on your cd, clean it. Your cdrom has difficulty reading the (bad) cd on a high speed, that's why its spinnig down and up.

[scourge]

Well, the cd looks pretty good, but I'll go ahead and clean it anyway. What should I use to clean it and is there a special way to wipe it. One friend of mine told me to start in the center and drag straight out across the cd. If worse comes to worse, I'll get a coworker to burn me a new one. If that doesn't fix the problem, then at least I'll know it's not the cd and most likely the cdrom. Thanks for your input, Bonehead.

[buitenb]

He dude what are you doing with 16 megs EDO ?
you should get a descent ram i got 96 mb pc 100 then the amd k6 wil run fine not with 16 mb edo ! damned !

[Carlos Kerr]

Hey guys. I was able to run "Half-Life" with no problem on the following set-up: Packard-Bell[ok ok ok !]with a 150mhz pentium, 48mb edo, creative PCI Banshee card, and a Creative AWE64 sound card, so maybe EDO not so bad with right video board? Just a thought. Carlos

[This message has been edited by Carlos Kerr (edited 06-07-99).]

[AuraEdge]

Oh yea?
My firned got HL workin on his Packard Bell P133 16MB EDO RAM 1mb 2d built-into-mobo 2d video and a V1 which he couldnt run the res high enuf on HL to support (only gave him up to 512x400, V1 supports only 640x480) 14 inch screen. He got pissed, uninstalled it and sold it to me.
Been enjoying it with my P2 350 w/ TNT ever since. And boy, It doesnt even deserved to be played unless its on a comp that can run it on 1024x846 at least!
I liked it on my PMMX 200 w/ 32 ram, 1mb onboard video at 320x200. Now I LOVE it. Ditto for Q2 in some cases...(love the look of that castle RA2 stage on my TNT, saw it for the first time on Saterday and it looks awesome!

[DavidX]

Carlos
Two things . . .

a) There's no such thing as "fast-page edo". It's either Fast Page Mode or EDO. It can't be both!

b) It's not the fact that it's only EDO memory that is the problem, it's the amount of memory. Scourge has got only 32Mb (2 x 16Mb). He definitely needs more! With 48Mb you had half as much again.

Scourge
I doubt that the problem is caused by either the CD-ROM drive or how clean the CD-ROM is. The problem is more likely to be that you simply have too little memory.

You've got a nice system there. Don't spoil it by skimping on the RAM

[This message has been edited by DavidX (edited 06-06-99).]

[Carlos Kerr]

DavidX-I guess my diaper's showing! Thanks for the correction on that fast-page-edo! I needed that. Anyway...where can I get some fast-page pc100 sgram or is scram? oh bother.....

[DavidX]

Carlos
LOL!
Get some Ultra-Fast-Page PC166 EDO SCRAM at CAS1.5 with ECC, twin carbs and dual exhaust made by Munchkin at www.youmustbejoking.com. Then you'll really fly!

[This message has been edited by DavidX (edited 06-09-99).]

[Carlos Kerr]

Dear David, glad you "got it". Please forgive my lack of tech. knoweledge as I have only 3mo. in the game. I do appreciate you're correction, sincerely. I doubt I'll make the mistake twice! My original thought was just that with a faster video card, you may get by. The reason I bought the Banshee in the first place was because my m.b. only had 1mb on-board video. The original config. had 24mb of "edo" memory. I was able to get Half-Life to run, but I make no claims as to how good or bad it looked. I only know it would'nt run smooth and the sound was ****. I installed the C.L. Banshee and I had sound and reasonably smooth video. I honestly don't know what resolution it was at. It was my first gaming experience on a computer [at all really] and to me it was pretty cool. The system I am running now has an AMD k6-2 350 with 64mb of pc100 sdram, along with the Banshee card and a SB Live! Value card. Trust me my intention is not to impress anyone here but rather to share as best I can, things I have experienced 1st hand. Thanks-Carlos

[Hurt_Me_Not]

One other thing you can try is reducing the size of the cashe.This stops the cdrom from slowing down to much.I had to this with my new 40x. Bit faster but worth a try.

More ram will give you're system a real kick in the guts.I considor 32 bare minimum nowdays but 64's better.