Computer Gaming Troubles

[Etoh*the*Greato]

MSP, you and I were having a discussion about my choice of console over computer gaming. I think I now know why I don't touch my computer any more - I feel disgusted every time I log in. Every installation has been an ordeal since I installed Vista.

Latest instance: City of Heroes
Here is the skinny. I've installed and reinstalled the game five times now in the last forty eight hours. Each time I have the same problem. I've tried every solution on the CoH forums and support staff, and called Tech Support. Frankly, they were baffled. See what's happening is that it stops at the loading screen after the updater. It's not the drivers because they're updated, it's not the ports because I tried connecting straight through the modem. If it's windwos defender I don't know what to do about it because I can't seem to get CoH on the approved list.

Computer gaming is a great and beautiful thing when it works, but it seems that so often for me it doesn't. It's why I switched to console and why I switched to mac. Individual results may vary. I know a lot of people have great luck with this stuff, but I never have seemed to.

Edit: I should clarify. I'm wondering if anyone has thought of anything that neither I nor Tech Support has.

[Kenshin17]

And people have the nerve to tell me I should love Vista because I like Mac.

"They look so much alike!"

Yeah I know, I have the real thing, not a copy.

I hear ya, when I get the money I am going console, save for those few games I really want to play on PC. I have windows on my mac for two reasons:

1) Games
2) Access

Windows is good for little but gaming, I use OS X for everything, and fortunately Blizzard likes us Mac gamers.

And I have poked around in Vista, its like a bad Microsoft joke....

Computer gaming could be so great, and some companies have made it so, look at Starcraft, Warcraft, Unreal, Gears of War, Max Payne....

[Etoh*the*Greato]

A lesson for the rest of you: The addage do not count your eggs before they hatch. CoH had always worked before Vista so I figured it would this time. I mean, seriously, no reason it shouldn't. I already had my account paid for before installation and now I've just wasted fifteen bucks. Eggs. Hatching. Don't count.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Vista has generated tons of problems for gamers. I really couldn't be able to help ya. I don't use Vista at all. D:

[Saj]

Vista is a bad joke from microsoft. xp and linux ftw! (or a hackintosh)

[Jingo Jaden]

Hmmmm, I remember once long ago that I had to re-install a game like 20 times and it eventualy worked. May I ask what hardware you got? *Has not happend to me in my time with Vista Ultimate*

[Kenshin17]

I think everyone here knows that you have had no problems with Vista Jaden XD

I don't think hardware is his problem if he is gaming on the machine, my guess is that Vista doesn't agree with his hardware, or that it doesn't agree with CoH.

I say get a good copy of XP and use the Vista disk as a frisbee. After all MS puts some nice holos on their disks no?

You have patched everything right? Drivers, game, Vista?

[Etoh*the*Greato]

Everything is in working order... All my other games work, and many of them are online connective games. Why it disagrees with CoH is confoozing. If I had the money, I'd just scrap it at this point and by a new comp. The hardware is, admittedly, old. Not prone to fuzzing out, just old.

[Kenshin17]

It does meet the ridiculous min specs for Vista though?

That could be the problem, Vista is not good with older hardware.

[Jingo Jaden]

Well, one thing I have noticed is that when the hardware is not up to recomended par, or sometimes just at the level where the recomended par is set, trouble might very easily occur. The Vista functional or whatever the stamp is called that so easily gets slapped on every new computer that is beeing developed under the sun for MS so often ignores that functional is one thing, while optimal performance is another. The low end/old laptops being the prime suspect. As useual I will post what I would recomend in terms of hardware, if every one of these are as good or better, then it might be that the OS will not work with the hardware properly or a bug/glitch. Worst case would be that it won't work with CoH.

For what I would consider strong and enjoyable performance in terms of Vista.

- 2,2 GHZ dual core. *Intel or AMD*
- 2GB ram. *Recomend 4gb for optimal performance, but I have seen Vista Ultimate work well on 2GB, still ram is not that expensive these day either*. 667 mhz.
- A capable hard disk.
- 8600 GTS graphic card. *If it is a laptop then 8600GT* Not really tried much under this performance bar or seen Vista work good/bad on lesser computers, but I can't see the 8600gts being too weak compared to the 8800gts.
- Solid anti-virus that updates regulary. *High demand anti-virus programs could slow down your computer, I experiensed the same with a laptop that had Norton Anti-virus, but it is very old as well*.
- Newest drivers/patches downloaded.

If you switch to XP, then try to get your hands on SP3. Apparently makes it alot faster than SP2. If the performance bar is below what I listed above then switching to XP might be the right solution.

*Edit: Vista service pack 1 is said to remove most of the bugs with the OS, so if you can find that, then it might be worth a try*

[Kenshin17]

You just proved my point.

Dude, get XP, it works.

[Jingo Jaden]

Yeah, still seeing the hardware specs would defidently help. I would recomend XP SP3 for low end computers/laptops, while Vista to my experiense is enjoyable for higher end computers. This computer I am running is useing Vista Ultimate and functioning better than the previous OS which was XP SP2 in nearly every way.

Oh, and what version of Vista. *Vista basic is defidently not recomended on my part, Home premium is the closest to the low end versions of Vista that I would recomend*.

[mechana2015]

Price comparison. All prices are lowest price found through reliable source in a quick search.

Assuming you don't have the XP disc.

Win XP - $60
Total cost - $60

Assuming mother board supports all this and has 1 Gig of RAM, and supports a dual core processor.

2.2 GHz Dual Core - $170
Geforce 8600 - $200
Gig of Ram - $40
Payed Anti Virus (Norton All in One)- $80

Total cost (minimum) - $490

[Mr. SmartyPants]

I'm going to agree with the general consensus and just switch back to XP.

[Etoh*the*Greato]

Are they still having that thing where I can trade in Vista for the XP downgrade for free? I wonder what I'd need to do that since my Vista was an OEM from Ebay.

[Kenshin17]

Must not be from Microsoft, they charge extra for XP now, never heard of anything like that, but whoever did it was a genius.

[Omega Amen]

I want to chime in on the video card. Go for the 8800GT instead of the 8600GTS. It is slightly more expensive ($50 to $80), but the increase in performance is bordering on absolutely ridiculous (more than twice the framerate on 1280x1024 on high end DirectX 9 games and can make Crysis playable above 30fps on high settings at that res). It practically makes the 8600GTS obsolete, and the best video card deal out in the market... in a long time.

As for Vista... my general rule of thumb is to not adopt the latest Windows OS until it has gone through at least one service pack/revision. The problems people are experiencing with the first version of Vista are very similar to the first version of 95, 98, and XP. Furthermore, programmers need time to create new optimized versions of their software/drivers specifically for Vista and that does not happen quickly.

Now is not the time to upgrade your Windows OS... all the parties involved are simply not ready yet.

[Etoh*the*Greato]

Eh, I upgraded because my last OS died and it was a pirated copy. I wanted to go legal. As for the card thing, I'm not sure I can afford it. The videocard I have now is only a few years old and works great (considering I worked with one that had a failing heatsink for well over four years prior) so at this point I can't justify replacing it. For the OS I'd like to go back to XP, and the only other thing I could even think of replacing is the processor, but I'm not sure they even still make them for my Mobo. Not that I even remember what model much less make it is.