suedenim Posted May 5, 2008 I'm with wev on this - games cause more trouble than apps with a resintall. I've learnt the hard way. 1) make sure you know which patch version your game is on. 2) make sure you have essential mods/hacks whatever on hand 3) backup profiles/ save games plus stuff from #2 4) After os install do a complete game reinstall 5) patch game to your last update version 6) copy across saves/profile 7) try running game with your saves 8a) saves are good so apply stuff from #3 8b) saves don't work so apply stuff from #3 and retry game 8bi) Bugger - post to forums for someone else's save games You might want to consider your security software as a possible problem as it could be silently denying your game exe/process access to folders, registry keys, etc... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wevsspot Posted May 6, 2008 GS, I understand that all of your games were already installed on "I" drive. But when you formatted your primary drive all of your registry values for every game that you had installed were wiped clean. Now I'm no game programmer, nor am I a Microsoft code wizard, so I won't even claim to know how or even if registry entries (or the lack thereof) can cause games to act weird. The only thing I know for sure is that EVERY time I've tried the same exact thing you are trying, it hasn't given me anything but trouble. Now I may be completely misunderstanding what you've done, but here is what I'm hearing. A) You have all of your games installed on a different drive than the OS (that's not a bad thing) B) You formatted your primary drive and reinstalled Windows C) You HAVE NOT reinstalled all of the games but are using the installations that were already installed on your "I" drive If I'm unclear on any of this please explain. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
General Septem Posted May 6, 2008 Now I may be completely misunderstanding what you've done, but here is what I'm hearing. A) You have all of your games installed on a different drive than the OS (that's not a bad thing) B) You formatted your primary drive and reinstalled Windows C) You HAVE NOT reinstalled all of the games but are using the installations that were already installed on your "I" drive If I'm unclear on any of this please explain. No, I HAVE reinstalled them because they weren't working and I thought the same thing you did. It did not help. Furthermore one of the games that doesn't work I installed fresh after formatting. I also installed a game on another drive that didn't seem to have too much trouble. I played it for a bit and didn't notice anything. However reformatting did not fix the problem in KOTOR. I'm going to try a few more games on the other drive and ultimately install KOTOR on that drive and see if it works. If it does I may be in the market for a new hard drive. :/ Nobody answered my other question though; are there any other hard drive diagnostic tools out there? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
red930 Posted May 6, 2008 Here's a shot in the dark... 1. Memtest86+ 2. Dual Prime95 / the favorite CPU/memory beating of your choice 3. IRQ conflicts? 4. Anything showing up in event viewer? 5. Have you had to install the dual core fix? Before? Now? 6. OC'ed? Does it do the same at stock? I have EVERY driver saved that I've used. If you install EXACTLY the same way you've installed before (and had perfect results), I'd look at hardware. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wevsspot Posted May 6, 2008 Any other disk diagnostic tools I should know about? As a general rule of thumb you can find disk diagnostic utilities provided by the mfg or your hard drive. UBCD has a pretty nice set of included disk utilities for everything from wipe disk to disk diagnostics. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
suedenim Posted May 6, 2008 Speedfan has a HDD diagnostic with a curious bar that shows how long it has to live. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
General Septem Posted May 7, 2008 Here's a shot in the dark... 1. Memtest86+ I have that, I'll try it next time I reboot. 2. Dual Prime95 / the favorite CPU/memory beating of your choice Running that now. 3. IRQ conflicts? How would I determine that? 4. Anything showing up in event viewer? Not that I can find. 5. Have you had to install the dual core fix? Before? Now? Good call, that could be it. I had it installed but I never reinstalled it. Where can I get it again? 6. OC'ed? Does it do the same at stock? It's stock, and has been for a while. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wevsspot Posted May 7, 2008 The AMD Dual Core Optimizer can be found here; http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/Techni...1_13118,00.html The Microsoft Dual Core Hotfix can be found here; http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896256 Every Microsoft OS since Windows 2000 Professional does an excellent job of managing IRQ's. I seriously doubt that is an issue because about 99.9% of every computer running a Windows OS has hardware that shares at least one IRQ. But if you want to see your IRQ assignments...... Right click "my computer" >Properties >Hardware >Device Manager >View >Resources by Connection >Interrupt Request (IRQ) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
red930 Posted May 7, 2008 Heh. IRQ was just a wild butt guess. You might have noticed it if BSOD'd and got a IRQ related message. I gandered a guess from the sound card. But, I think people were having trouble with the xfi's and graphics cards, not audigy 2's or 4's. But, I digress... Hope everything's working out well. You sure it isn't your video drivers? It's mighty odd that all your games go bonkers...even after reinstalling all of them. Tried an install on your OS harddrive? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
