Hi Steve,
Did you update your drivers on your XP installation?
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.
Before you update your 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
Here are the steps I recommend you use to update your driver:
1. To identify the make and model of your card, right click your
Desktop, choose Properties / Settings / Advanced / Adapter.
2. Download the latest video driver for your card online, using
http://www3.sympatico.ca/nibblesnbits/Video.html#drivers
to find the website to download from. I also have advanced
video driver and direct X troubleshooting steps on that page.
3. Save the .exe driver (or uncompress the zip file) to a folder
in My Documents named after the driver version number.
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 the driver is a (exe)program file, GO DIRECTLY TO step 10.
9. When Windows prompts you to install the video adapter, click
"Install from a list or specific location", click the "Browse" button,
browse to the My documents folder where you saved the driver,
and finally click on one of the driver files to begin installation.
Skip step 10 and go directly to step 11.
10. When Windows prompts you to install the video adapter, click
"Cancel" and Double click the driver program to begin installation.
11. After you reboot, go to Control Panel / Display / Settings and
choose 32 bit Color Quality, and 1024x768 Screen Resolution.
TROUBLESHOOTING:
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
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
Perhaps the old Nvidia drivers did not completely uninstall. If that's the
case, use this utility to completely uninstall the drivers and go to step 7:
http://content.guru3d.com/index.php?page=detonatorrip&menu=0
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,
Jimmy S.
Microsoft MVP Windows XP Shell/User:
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
Additional Support Resources: My Zone.com Helpsite:
http://nibblesnbits.tk
Game FAQ's:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
_________________________________________________________
| Does anyone know what's need to be done to correct the
| video problem with XP on older games? I have tried
| changing the compatibility mode to win98(which is the
| operating system I had before and they ran great on it.).
| If there is any ideas please let me know. The problem I am
| having is a distortion of color on the screen so bad that
| I have a hard time seeing the game. IE; Age of Empires 1 &
| 2, Total Annihilation, Starfleet Command 1,EOW & OP.
| Thanks for any help.
| Steve
