Processor Discrepancy with Games

[Guest]

I have a:

Dell Inspiron 9300 running XP Media Center 2005
Pentium M - 2Ghz
2 Gb RAM
nVidia GeForce Go 6800 256 Mb

Saturday, I downloaded Age of Empires III trial. After installing, I ran
the program and an error message popped up stating that I didn't have the
necessary processor speed to run the game. It said my processor was running
at around 500 Mhz (a high reading was just below 700 Mhz and a low reading
was just above 300 Mhz). I thought that because it was a trial, they hadn't
worked out the kinks. Yesterday, a friend lent me Star Wars Republic Comando
and I received the same message. I called Dell support and after running a
couple of tests, the gentleman I spoke to said, that I was running at my 2Ghz
and there was nothing he could do.

I've run several other games (Doom 3, Knights of the Old Republic, Far Cry)
with no problems.

What is it about AoE III and SW Republic Comando that is preventing me from
playing these games? Are there processes running in Media Edition that are
causing conflicts?

 

[Vanguard \(NPI\)]

I have a:

Dell Inspiron 9300 running XP Media Center 2005
Pentium M - 2Ghz
2 Gb RAM
nVidia GeForce Go 6800 256 Mb

Saturday, I downloaded Age of Empires III trial. After installing, I ran
the program and an error message popped up stating that I didn't have the
necessary processor speed to run the game. It said my processor was
running
at around 500 Mhz (a high reading was just below 700 Mhz and a low reading
was just above 300 Mhz). I thought that because it was a trial, they
hadn't
worked out the kinks. Yesterday, a friend lent me Star Wars Republic
Comando
and I received the same message. I called Dell support and after running
a
couple of tests, the gentleman I spoke to said, that I was running at my
2Ghz
and there was nothing he could do.

I've run several other games (Doom 3, Knights of the Old Republic, Far
Cry)
with no problems.

What is it about AoE III and SW Republic Comando that is preventing me
from
playing these games? Are there processes running in Media Edition that
are
causing conflicts?

Is it a hyperthreaded-enable processor? If so, you probably have to set
affinity in the shortcut for the game to have just ONE processor running
that game's processes. I don't have a hyperthreaded machine to look at
right now (mine are all AMD processor boxes). You might want to ask in a
games group on how to set affinity.

 

[Guest]

I checked the Intel site and it appears that I do not have a
hyperthreaded-enable processor. I did take your advice and posted the same
question on the games board.

Thanks for the response.

 

[S. Taylor]

Those programs maybe relying on how the processor is responding to
ID requests.
In my experience with AMD's, your processor may be identifying itself as a
lesser speed
processor because it's bus speed or clock may be set to a value that's less
then optimum for it.
Find what your bios settings should be for that processor and check your
bios settings.

 

[Guest]

Andrew,
Same problem with my Dell Inspiron 9300, 2.65Ghz. I suspect it was the
multi-processor causing the game to be confused. I acknowledged the message
to run it anyway and the game runs exceptionally well.

 

[bbcrock]

Unfortunately I tried this and got a blue screen. If anyone has any
more tips, I'm actively following this topic.

Don