Hi Derrol,
The good news is that plenty of people have posted here
in the past and they can play GTA VC on XP perfectly,
so it's not a compatibility issue with the operating system.
What you could be experiencing however is a driver issue,
the trick of course it to resolve which driver is at fault.
Let's try reinstalling your chipset, video, and sound drivers,
but let's use the technique outlined below. Hope this helps!
Updating video card drivers can solve most gaming issues. Here's some
rules of thumb though to always keep in mind. Shut DL accelerators, fire-
walls and antivirus programs off while downloading or installing drivers and
updates. Also check the game's website (or Fileplanet.com) for patches.
Test your drivers using DXDiag: Click Start / Run / type: DXDIAG
Click the "Test" buttons in the Display, Sound, Music & Network Tabs;
If any of the Display options are Disabled and you cannot Enable them,
your most likely solution would be to update your Chipset Drivers as per
my website:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/nibblesnbits/Video.html#v11
Before you update video drivers, I recommend that you install DirectX 9.0b*:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/c/9/c/c9c8a1d4-7690-4c98-baf3-0c67e7f3751f/dx90b_redist.exe
I recommend you also look over the ATI article about their latest driver:
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/catalyst_39_release_notes.html#165629
and fixes:
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/catalyst_39_release_notes.html#165432
2. Download the Catalyst 3.9 driver for ATI Radeon or All in Wonder Card:
XP/2000:
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/wxp-w2k-7-95-031028m-011774c.exe
Win 98/Me:
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/wme-7-95-031028m-011774c.exe
3. Save the .exe driver in My Documents\My Drivers\ATI39
4. Restart the computer in Safe Mode by pressing the F8 key
about once every second as it's rebooting to pick Safe Mode.
5. Click Start / (settings) Control Panel / System / Hardware
Device Manager / expand +Display Adapters / right click on
the adapter, pick "Uninstall", and click No if asked to reboot.
6. Use Control Panel / Add-Remove programs to uninstall the
previous driver (exe)software which may have been installed.
7. Restart the computer in Safe Mode by pressing the F8 key
about once every second as it's rebooting to pick Safe Mode.
8. If Windows prompts you to install the adapter, click "Cancel".
9. Double click the ATI driver we saved to My Documents\
Drivers\Geforce folder in step 3 to install.it. If it complains about
Windows Logo Certification just click "Continue". This is normal.
10. After you reboot, go to Control Panel / Display / Settings and
choose 32 bit Color Quality, and 1024x768 Screen Resolution.
TROUBLESHOOTING:
Along with your Video card, Sound Cards, Motherboard Chipsets,
and Video Monitors may also require updated drivers. Even your
motherboard's BIOS may need to be updated for compatibility with
your Video card. These steps are listed at:
http://NibblesNbitsVideo.tk
The latest video drivers sometime don't work with a particular game.
(Check the Video suggestions in the readme.txt file in your game folder/CD)
If there's no suggestions, try an older (WHQL) driver, and/or if you still
experience problems try a Beta driver, or even an Omega driver instead:
BETA Drivers:
http://download.guru3d.com/
OMEGA Drivers:
http://www.omegacorner.com/
There you have it, if you have any questions feel free to post them!
--
Cheers, Windows XP MVP Shell / User
Jimmy S.
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
Game FAQs:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite:
http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call / Contact
MS Support at:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=sz;en-us;top
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
_________________________________________________________
| Can anyone tell me how to resolve the issue with graphics
| corruption while playing Vice City?
| I'm thinking it has to be a compatibility problem with
| Windows XP or something because when I had Windows 2000
| installed on my system I didn't have this problem. All
| hardware is the same, no changes. The only thing I've
| changed is the operating system. I tried the v1.1 game
| patch issued by Rockstar Games and that didn't help.
|
| Everything else is updated. WinXP is updated with SP1 and
| all critical and recommended updates up to the moment of
| this post. Vice City's been shelved for the last 3-4
| months since I got the game until I can somehow resolve
| this issue. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
|
| Specs:
| 866Mhz PIII
| WinXP Pro, SP1
| ATI Radeon 7500pci, v3.9 Catalyst drivers
| F.I.C. FR33e mainboard
| Asound ExpressII pci soundcard
| 256MB RAM
|
|
