Parky

12oclock, I have a sneaking suspicion your problem has nothing to do with the Cool 'n Quiet feature, but it doesn't hurt to disable it. I think your problem is you have the C1E and EIST functions in your BIOS enabled (they are by default I believe). Disable both of them, save your settings, boot to Windows and see if that does the trick. If it doesn't, go back in and set your multiplier to 16X manually, save the settings, boot to Windows and check your core speeds to see if it's sorted out. If that doesn't do it, you may be looking at a BIOS update after all. Cheers, Parky

I don't mean to sound like an idiot, but you're absolutely certain you're running the 64-bit graphics drivers for that card and your DirectX version is up to date, right?? It's an easy mistake to click the wrong link on the download sites. Just a thought......can't hurt to check.....and no, I'm not trying to be condescending. On that rig, you should be seeing some decent performance. Cheers, Parky

Is that a weak attempt at "veiled" sarcasm, or is it merely intended to be obnoxious? If the latter is true, then you've succeeded with flying colours. Well done...

Well, I was ahead of somebody for a change. My first WWI flight"sim" was this one, way back in 1990: Closely followed of course by this WWII gem: Not sure how either one of them would compare to Rise of Flight because I don't own it, and therefore my opinion would be worthless..... I do know I had a great deal of fun with both of them though..... Cheers, Parky

To both of you chaps, Thanks for the quick response. Much appreciated! I remember Polovski mentioning something about being able to conduct online campaigns using this method. I'll assume all that needs to be done in terms of editing is making the AI craft flyable? Sounds simple enough, but I'll bet it can be a royal PITA if you're not real familiar with the MB to begin with. I did manage to put together a couple of simple missions back when I was running Phase II. That was with a great deal of help from both the Master Mission Maker himself (Pilotsden) as well as Gandi...who also has the patience of a saint I might add. Would be a fabulous idea to make these Campaigns available for download by the less patient and talented among us....namely ME....lol. I may just try my hand at creating one from scratch when time permits, but don't be surprised if you get a desperate, sobbing cry for help. Thanks a ton for the info! Cheers, Parky

I assume these campaign missions are user-made and "scripted"? I'm not sure how else you'd go about running an online "campaign". Just curious is all... Cheers, Parky

And.....as an afterthought, go into your BIOS and try enabling USB Legacy support, or at the very least, set it to "auto". I've seen situations where if it's disabled, it can cause problems.

I'd be taking a hard look at your power management settings. Disable the power-saving features. Dunno if it'll help, but in terms of those settings saving you any money (particularly where USB devices are concerned) it's all smoke and mirrors. All frequently used devices powered up all the time is a good policy. Could also be you've just got wonky USB ports. Which specific motherboard and OS are we talking about here?

The 5970 hasn't been around long enough to see any real driver refinements. Your problem has nothing to do with Windows 7 and everything to do with ATI's driver development and the way their drivers interact with that specific OS and certain games. Although I've never been a big fan of any kind of dual-gpu graphics solutions wether it be via crossfire, SLI, or two chips on the same PCB, I'm confident you'll see improved driver support and subsequent perfomance improvements in Win7 with OFF once ATI gets their collective thumb out of their ass. Btw....I'm not sure what you mean by "Vista with it's longer shelf life and service packs". Longer as opposed to what exactly?? Windows Millenium?? As far as I'm concerned, with the release of Windows 7, Vista is dead in the water....as it pretty much has been since it's sadly misguided initial release. It's a bloated, overpriced, annoying and piss-poor attempt at a user-friendly, functional and streamlined operating system, period. It was a blatant money-grab, perpetrated against a poorly informed and unsuspecting consumer. Nothing more and nothing less. If I were to tell you how many times over the past year and a half I've removed Vista from people's laptops and replaced it with XPSP3, it would leave your head spinning. Not to tell you something you already know, but your G940 issues can't be blamed on Windows 7 either. Logitech needs to move into the present and develop a decent driver for it....simple as that. Look at it this way, as soon as the aforementioned driver development teams get off their duffs, you'll be able to fill up that primary drive with something far less expensive and far more useful than Vista. A bunch of pictures of Microsoft's accountants adding up profits from a failed attempt at an operating system come to mind.... Cheers, Parky

LOL......very subtle indeed. I WAS kind of wondering what the "two offers" from our "great community" consisted of. Strictly in terms of them offering to solve the Panther's "no disk" issues of course. I'm keen to find out how one might go about helping someone who had that particular problem. Puzzling is what I'd call it.... Btw.....Merry Christmas

Runs wonderfully on Win7 Ultimate 32-Bit at my end. Not sure why, but it seems to run smoother and better than it ever did for me with XP. Can't say enough good things about Billy's new OS in general. The boys from Redmond really did get something right for a change. Now all they have to do is pay the Toronto based software company, i4i Inc. $290,000,000 and figure out how they're gonna' remarket Microsoft Word after they pay up.....lol. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091222/ap_on_bi_ge/us_microsoft_patent By the way.....Merry Christmas to All!!! Parky

Phase VIII.................... (A synopsis of events) OBD enlist the services of Paul Lowengrin, and get a "dynamic" co-op or adverse campaign mode going, and we watch as sales go through the freakin' ROOF!! Hate to sound like a broken record, but a feature like that would be invaluable......trust me...........you know you want to.....lol. And yeah.....I've had a couple of wobbly-pops......but I do believe it's possible to do that.....particularly with regard to the existing code. Fantastic Sim........best I've ever flown! Best, Parky

What on Earth are you talking about???

We don't need Aces to finish anything. You and your team it would seem, have saved them the trouble.... Cheers, Parky

Fair enough. I'll also candidly admit that I've benefited more than once from some of the info you've posted in the Tips and Cheats section. Your familiarity with the GUI, controls section of the game, and some of the more subtle hidden items is second to none. It is indeed, as mentioned previously, your area of expertise. By the way.....it may sometimes seem like I'm just busting your balls. I'm not. It's important though, if you're going to be handing out advice (specifically hardware related) that your information is accurate and up to snuff. If it isn't, the potential for it costing someone their hard-earned cash for little or no gain is a very real possibility. I find the best approach to providing information we're not absolutely certain of is simply this: "If in doubt....leave it out". Cheers Mate, Parky

Al, I do understand you're trying to be helpful, however..... ATI cards work just fine on an Intel platform, not just on AMD....the same as Nvidia will work fine on either platform. It all comes down to the end user's ability to set things up properly.....period. Glad to see you mentioned at least something about core affinity in general, because I thought that's what his question was about. As far as dedicated soundcards increasing performance......this used to be true, particularly where older hardware (specifically CPU's) came into play. The onboard sound chips would eat a certain amount of CPU cycles (and still do). This scenario doesn't really apply any more with newer technology. If he was running a 5 year old processor, it might be a useful bit of info. Although I'm not a big fan of the Vista OS (far from it), I have two friends who are both running BHH just fine with that operating system. Neither of them has experienced the doomsday scenario your theory paints here, so I'm not sure just what exactly you're basing this on. I'm also unsure just exactly what the rest of your post has to do with core affinity. It would probably be best copied and pasted into the tips and tricks section, which is, I might add, where your strongsuit lies. Cheers, Parky

Well it's about time you got back in the saddle, you old fart. I wonder if the Combat Ace community realizes the benefit of having the OFF mission-making master back on board. Judging by the description, this one looks like it took a lot of time and effort. Cheers, Parky

Good point, and definitely worth the time it takes to investigate when it may just save you a few bucks. I keep forgetting that not everyone in here is independently wealthy like you and I are. Yeah.....we wish. Thanks Mate, Parky

That PSU comes in about 4 different variations (see here: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/550 ) The good news is it probably does have the required 6pin connector. The not-so-good news is I'd hazard a guess you're cutting it a bit close in terms of reasonable (and safe) maximum power overhead. I'm sure it would work, but an upgrade to something closer to the 600w range is probably advisable. Cheers, Parky

If you're pulling off mid twenties (sliders on 3) with your current card, the 9600GT might be a good fit for you. Bear in mind that the card requires a 6pin PCIe connector which I doubt is present on your existing PSU. The use of a 4pin molex to 6pin PCIe adapter is feasible, but I personally don't recommend it due to the potential for unstable power delivery via that type of connection. In terms of PSU overhead.....it's a bit of a grey area, but my rule of thumb would be to get something with a good couple of hundred watts over and above what the system will use under full load. Remember that a good, efficient 450w supply will probably be more stable and reliable than a crappy 650w. In other words, pay attention to efficiency ratings, not just total wattage. Go with a brand name that has a good reputation ie: PC Power and Cooling, Corsair, or OCZ (which I believe is now owned by PC Power and Cooling). Not too familiar with Innovision. I usually go with EVGA, XFX or BFG, which all have excellent reputations as well as industry leading warranty coverage on a number of their products. Also remember that interior case dimensions can come into play once you start getting into cards with a dual slot design. The 8800GTS and dual slot 4850's are almost 10 inches in length. Make sure if you go that route that the card will clear the HD bays at the front of your tower. There's an extremely valuable article here: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3234 You'd do well to take the time to read it. Pay close attention to the power consumption charts and remember that they list total system usage. Also pay close attention to the performance differences between the 8600 and 9600. The difference is substantial and will give you a pretty good idea of the kind of performance increase you'll see over your current card. Best of luck with whatever you decide. Cheers, Parky

So....based on this, if I have any CPU running at 3 Ghz or faster, an unbalanced amount of RAM running in single channel with XP, and any graphics card with 512 meg of RAM, I should get pretty amazing performance, right?? Yep.....here's a card that's got you covered for sure: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814139038 I figure you could have a processor running @ 4 Ghz, 3.5 Gig of Kingston Value RAM running @ 400 Mhz on a crappy mainboard with this card and you'd be getting an average of about 4 FPS with your sliders set on 2. Got any more good advice?? Cheers, Parky

Brilliant!!! Just tested it out on Win7-32. Works like a charm. Dunno how someone whittled it down to the DLL, but very nice bit of troubleshooting whoever it was. Might be a good idea to either just rename the file or keep a copy of it some place safe.....just in case some side effect pops up. Haven't encountered any problems at my end though. This definitely deserves a sticky..... Well done chaps!!!! Cheers, Parky

Passive heatsinks on graphics cards had nothing to do with power consumption. It was more about noise levels and catered to those who wanted something a bit quieter. Btw Al, those fans use next to NO wattage at all. It isn't an issue. Also, I'll admit that more memory on the card is beneficial, but it's nowhere near as important as the integrity of the GPU that's sittin' on that PCB board. A s**tty GPU combined with even a gig of memory on the card isn't a winning formula......trust me. The 8600, regardless of the accompanying memory is a pile of junk when it comes to a gaming environment. It's more geared towards HTPC use. By the way.....I'm not sure what you're basing your opinion that he's gonna' need to upgrade his PSU on. Unless I missed something, we don't even know what his current power supply is. A bit premature in your appraisal aren't you?? Not to mention, the 8800GT isn't exactly the powerpig you're assuming it is. I'll bet you a beer he could run that card on his current setup. Make that a Heineken in a frosty glass..... Thanks.....and Cheers, Parky

Upgrading from the 8500 to the 8600 would be a complete waste of time and money. The performance difference between the two cards isn't significant enough to go that route....regardless of the increase in onboard RAM. The jump to an 8800GT (at the very least, and if you can find one) would be my suggestion. Either that or a suitable ATI (4000 series) card that has similar to, or better performance than that of the aforementioned card. Cheers and best of luck with your upgrade. Parky

I stumbled on a post in here from Polovski (Thanks Pol) mentioning Mediadis.com as a possible source of the UBIsoft DVD version of CFS3. Although they're completely sold out of the English version, you can still order the French-Dutch version. I ordered one which cost me 20 dollars Canadian, including shipping which took exactly one week. Used the DVD during the installation of OFF onto Windows 7 Ultimate 32Bit. Works like a charm if all you're looking to do is pull the necessary files off it during an install of BHAH and get around having to have a disk in the optical drive during gameplay. I think you may just have to learn how to speak some foreign languages if you wanna' use it for some of the other CFS3 mods.......dunno for sure. Just figured I'd throw out a heads-up. Link to the product below.... http://www.mediadis.com/games/detail.asp?id=177272 Cheers, Parky