Parky

Still have my Amiga and it 's software tucked away in a dust-proof, plastic storage tub........ Cheers, Parky

Wings??

Just a quick warning though. I have heard rumours that the OFF disc contains very powerful and mysterious properties that may get rid of your wife. Cheers, Parky

Hi Carrick, Not sure what you did wrong, but I am sure of one thing. Your Quick Combat problem has absolutely nothing to do with Windows 7. Sounds more like a patch order issue to me. I'd try the reinstall and pay very close attention to the 132/132G minipatch process and also be sure to appy the HitR update as well. Cheers, Parky

Hmmmm, This just occurred to me... Next time your "Massive Member" fails, try a bit of Viagra! Cheers, Parky

Javito, Great news!!!! By the way....that wife of your's is a keeper. DON'T let her out of your sight!! Cheers, Parky

Hi Lewie, Quite honestly, if your budget is limited to under $500, I wouldn't have a whole lot in the way of suggestions for you. You'll easily put something together for that kind of money, but I doubt you'd be very pleased with it. If you were saavy enough to do the build yourself, you could put together a reasonably robust tower for around the $700 mark. Something similar to this would do what you're attempting to accomplish. I realize it's substantially more than you were looking to spend, and it is in fact, probably overkill for most of your older games. I am pretty confident it would run OFF at very good frame-rates and image quality though. It would almost certainly do most modern games justice as well, which would give you very good bang for your buck. Your 32-Bit XP would run very, very efficiently on this hardware in addition, and you could always move to a 64-Bit OS somewhere down the road and take advantage of all four Gig of RAM. Can't really go wrong with the motherboard in this package. The GA-870A-UD3 has received excellent reviews from a number of reputable sites. The G.Skill memory included runs @ very tight timings for DDR3.... 7-8-7-24 if I'm not mistaken. Very nice indeed, and the Nvidia GTX 460 graphics card provides outstanding value for a mid-level GPU. I installed one in a tower for a friend of mine and was very impressed with the price vs performance ratio. As far as the CPU goes, you'll have people tell you that dual-core is better for OFF. I don't buy into that theory, and I've run the game on both dual and quad core systems. I'm not sure where the idea came from, but I've never seen any evidence to support it. The AMD Phenom here will do just fine. We all have our budget restraints, and I know how difficult it is to convince the local finance minister that this kind of expenditure is money well spent. Regardless, if I were you, I'd keep working on her. Hold off for a few months maybe, and get something you'll be happy with in the long run....(The tower I mean......not a new minister). Cheers, and best luck with whatever direction you decide to take. Parky

He asked a legitimate question, and I doubt he'll wan't to go "federal" with it based on my input, but he did deserve a "civil" response. I merely provided one for him. You also have to ask yourself this question: When have you ever known me to be anything less than verbose when answering a technical question? Not necessarily because I have such a wealth of that kind of information waiting to launch itself out of my cranium either. There's a whole bucketload of bulls**t and guesswork trapped in there too. Unlike some though, when I feel the need to purge myself of those kind of cerebral eruptions, I don't do it here when someone is genuinely seeking sound tech advice. Now....what was it we were talking about? Cheers, Parky

I wouldn't say you're "screwed", but upgrading the laptop you have there is probably not an option. There are laptops that are specifically designed with gaming in mind. Those units almost invariably come with a designated graphics card which resides in PCI-e slot on the laptop's motherboard and they also provide additional cooling to prevent overheating. They also typically come with a much better processor than the one you have there. Buying and installing a designated card in this instance probably really isn't an option. If the motherboard on your laptop had an available PCI-e slot, and the card would actually fit inside the enclosure, then you'd probably run into some serious thermal issues. I've replaced a couple of laptop cards that went bad (easy as pie), but never attempted to put one in a laptop that wasn't specifically designed for it. As far as swapping out the processor on your lappy for something faster, that wouldn't be a worthwhile project either. The socket design and BIOS CPU support on the existing board would seriously limit your options even if this was an option. It just wouldn't be a cost effective course of action. Trust me... Here's a perfect example of a laptop that is specifically built with gaming in mind. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834200049 Pay close attention to the pricetag and then the hardware specs that are listed at the bottom of that page. There are far more affordable options when it comes to laptops that you can run games on. Asus as well as even Acer make some decent "gaming" laptops that run quite a bit cheaper. I'm not recommending anyone go out and spend that kind of money on a laptop though. My advice would be to build yourself a tower for gaming. Simple as that. Far more cost effective, better functionality...and far more practical would be just a couple of reasons. As far as being "screwed" goes.....you're not. You're just extremely limited in terms of available and sensible options. I think that's what UncleAl probably "meant" to say....... On the bright side.....who knows? You may find you can run the game just fine on the system as it sits, but I wouldn't bet my paycheque on it. Let us know how things work out. Cheers, Parky

Yep, Outstanding indeed! Toying with the idea of printing that up and putting it in a picture frame. Where do I send the royalty cheque? Cheers, Parky

1) It used to be that you could disable Catalyst A.I. completely just using that specific slider. The problem was, if set to disabled in the past, it would also disable any crossfire array running on the user's system. It appears that AMD decided to more clearly define these options by moving crossfire control to "Crossfire Configuration" under the "Gaming" or "Performance" tabs. My recommendation would be to leave Catalyst A.I. on "Performance"....simply because you'll be using less filtering optimization and in all probability, realize better FPS in most games as a result. If you're not hurting for frames, by all means experiment and see if a higher setting improves image quality. 2) Surface Format Optimization allows for improved performance in games that use 16-bit floating point surfaces for HDR rendering. Might be useful in a number of games that were developed after about 2006 that provide support for it, but where OFF is concerned, don't worry about it. It doesn't apply. 3) Tesselation is a graphics rendering technique strictly for use with DirectX 11. As a concept, tessellation is fairly straight forward—you take a polygon and dice it into smaller pieces, which essentially makes for better smoothing of a given image. Rather than get into a long-winded explanation of it's application and usefulness, let it suffice to say it doesn't apply to OFF, as OFF runs strictly in a DX9 environment. I've been as accurate as I can with this info, and I'm pretty sure it's correct. I'm hoping BirdDogICT also glances at this thread. He's our resident ATI/AMD driver and settings expert, and has a much better understanding of this kind of thing than I do. Perhaps he can add shed a bit more light on things. HTH Parky

I don't mean to sound negative, but I think that hardware is going to really struggle with this sim. Intel onboard graphics have come a long way, but not quite far enough for this kind of thing. Kind of weak in the CPU department as well. Worth a try, but don't be too disappointed if you end up looking at a bit of a slideshow. Sincerely hope it works with playable settings for you. Cheers, Parky

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSdEkyj09sA&feature=related Cheers, Parky

Just this.......

As long as it works......that's the main thing. Glad you got it sorted. Cheers, Parky

Ok Uncle Al..........you're up.....but please be gentle........

Hi TSmoke, Widowmaker has offered up some good advice there. Allow me add a bit more hopefully "good" advice as well. I saw a similar situation to your's a while back on a brand new system. Turned out to be a bad memory stick. The OS install went flawlessly, so did the installation of a couple of "smaller" apps. Every time we tried installing a larger program, BOOM! Bluescreen. Because the system was new, I pulled two of the 3 RAM sticks out just to see what would happen. Sure enough, another blue screen while trying to install the same app. Swapped the single "suspect" RAM module out with one of the other two and the app installed without a hitch, which made it easy enough to figure out which stick was bad, although we did do further tests with the bad stick just to make sure. It occurred to me that perhaps the OS install and smaller apps weren't affected due to the system never really going into "high memory" use under those conditions. Bottom line is, it may be worth your while to start checking your RAM. Physical removal of two sticks and running on one would be the ticket. If the system craps out again, simply swap to one of the other two sticks, wash, rinse and repeat until you've eliminated RAM as the possible culprit. Also......looking at your DXDIAG, it appears that you have two optical drives present. Have you tried both of these devices as opposed to just the one? If not, might be an idea to give the other one a whirl. One other often overlooked detail.....make SURE you disable any and all anti-virus/spyware utilities when attempting the install. I doubt that has anything to do with the problem you're seeing, but it sure as heck won't hurt anything. If none of this helps, hopefully someone here is good at deciphering blue-screen error messages (because I'm certainly not). However, with any luck it won't be that nasty IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL stuff......which can literally be like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. BTW.....please try to be patient with Win7. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you've overcome some of it's minor annoyances, it's a rock solid, feature-rich, and very reliable OS. Just to clarify, you can ask anyone here and they'll tell you I'm the furthest thing from being a Mickeysoft fanboi. Cheers, Parky

The Washington Post Mensa Invitational once again invited readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are the winners: 1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time. 2. Ignoranus : A person who's both stupid and an asshole. 3. Intaxicaton : Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with. 4. Reintarnation : Coming back to life as a hillbilly. 5. Bozone ( n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future. 6. Foreploy : Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid. 7. Giraffiti : Vandalism spray-painted very, very high 8. Sarchasm : The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it. 9. Inoculatte : To take coffee intravenously when you are running late. 10. Osteopornosis : A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.) 11. Karmageddon : It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer. 12. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you. 13. Glibido : All talk and no action. 14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly. 15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web. 16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out. 17. Caterpallor ( n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating. The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. And the winners are: 1. Coffee, n.. The person upon whom one coughs. 2. Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained. 3. Abdicate, v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach. 4. Esplanade, v. To attempt an explanation while drunk. 5. Willy-nilly, adj. Impotent. 6. Negligent, adj. Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown. 7. Lymph, v.. To walk with a lisp. 8. Gargoyle, n. Olive-flavored mouthwash. 9. Flatulence, n. Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller. 10. Balderdash, n. A rapidly receding hairline. 11. Testicle, n. A humorous question on an exam. 12. Rectitude, n. The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists. 13. Pokemon, n. A Rastafarian proctologist. 14. Oyster, n. A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms. 15. Frisbeetarianism, n. The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there. 16. Circumvent, n. An opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men Cheers, Parky

That's a pretty bold statement, and from my experience, is quite simply untrue. A crash to desktop is usually the result of a buggy piece of software, or a bad interaction between more than one piece of software on the machine in question. Often, I find it can be traced to drivers not playing nicely with a specific piece of software. That's not to say we can rule hardware out as a possible cause. If, for instance, the subject is experiencing CTD's with a number of different apps (graphically demanding or not) then, and almost only then, do I start looking at hardware as the possible culprit. More often than not, a CTD will affect only a single program and is rarely related to some form of faulty hardware or hardware conflict. First thing I do invariably, is check to see if the program in question has any detail sliders that if moved to the left, will somehow magically solve all problems on the user's PC completely. Cheers, Parky

Just a guess, but I don't think your problem has anything to do with an overtaxed graphics card at all, strictly based on some info you posted earlier... "--Campaign: Returning from CFS3 and Setting Up !!Mission Replay encountered an error decoding: 2011/03/02 21:25:37 00000954 ;Periodic;1368.1250;0x04011018;Alb.D.III (160);N50*20'39.7841;E2*57'38.9380;1468;1416;2.2;-33.7;29.9;45.1;994;0;60.7;0;0 !!Mission Replay encountered an error decoding: 2011/03/02 21:25:37 00000954 ;Periodic;1368.1250;0x04011018;Alb.D.III (160);N50*20'39.7841;E2*57'38.9380;1468;1416;2.2;-33.7;29.9;45.1;994;0;60.7;0;0 I'm thinking it may be a problem with the way the damage mod interacts with that specific aircraft (Alb.D.III) under a specific set of conditions? Perhaps try going back to the original damage model files and see if the problem persists? Hope you get it sorted soon... Cheers, Parky

Nope, I think 15 hours, 22 minutes and 3 seconds is the current record. Cheers, Parky

Hi Tbolin, Don't mean to jump on your question if it's intended strictly for Wodin, but here's my 2 cents worth. Your Sidewinder should work fine. Logitech seems to be the most common affordable alternative...and they make a couple of sticks that are quite functional and within your price range I'm sure. Uncle Al has one (or more than one?)....not sure which model, but he's done his homework when it comes to the Logitech line. Hopefully he'll jump in with some additional input. As for me.....I still like my Microsoft Force Feeback 2. Some guys complain about the vibration or kick from the machine guns being overstated, but there are ways around that. Welcome to the forum. Cheers, Parky

The kitty you're asking about is in fact a Siamese "variant" often referred to as "Balinese". The Balinese started out as a mutation that affected one kitten from a Siamese litter some years ago, but through subsequent selective breeding, the Balinese is now a recognized breed of it's own. The main difference between the Siamese and Balinese is the longer fur and plume-like tail that is associated with the Balinese or Siamese variant. The longer fur isn't really evident in her picture as the hair on the body lays flat, and her fluffy tail isn't really visible. The other differences worthy of note are the much softer voice and calmer demeanor of the Balinese. I'm sure you've heard the wail of a true Siamese. It can sound very much like a baby crying (LOUDLY).....and fortunately that trait is not evident with our cat....lol. The Balinese are quite vocal nonetheless. As a matter of fact, Sasha will carry on quite a lengthy conversation with me when she's in the mood, and just like a typical female, always has to have the last meow. She's the first purebred cat we've ever owned. No.....strike that silly idea. She's the first purebred cat who's ever owned US! She's extremely clever, demands almost constant attention, and is almost dog-like in her behavior. Pretty much like a little shadow, she follows me everywhere. She's absolutely adorable and we love her to death. Oh.....and she's a Sealpoint as far as I know, and 2 and a half years old Speaking of "dog-like" behavior in cats, the grey Tomcat in the picture has a habit of going upstairs and retreiving my wife's slippers on a regular basis. Not just slippers, but socks, T-shirts and basically anything else we're careless enough to leave laying around on the floor. We have to be careful to close the bedroom and laundry room doors when we have company over...lol. I expect the behavior is the equivilent of cats who have been known to present their loved ones with gifts in the form of a recently captured bird or mouse. Whatever the motivation behind it, it's damned funny to watch and most endearing. Cheers Mate, Parky

Welcome back, Pawgy. We're extremely pleased to hear you took the time to give OFF another look. I do know one thing for sure.....you won't regret it. This is by far, the best forum I've ever had the privilege of being associated with. Congratulations on having just found yourself a second home, complete with an extended family. I'm not hard to please at all.....whatever is on tap will do just fine Cheers, Parky

Widowmaker, Just so you know, we ran into a similar situation with my daughter's cat about 3 years ago, when she was about 4 years of age (the cat....not the daugher). She suffers from a condition which sounds very much like the one you're describing. It's called Hypertrophic Cardiac Myopia. It's a thickening of the heart muscle which makes it difficult for the organ to pump blood effectively. Typically, it's a condition that exists due to a faulty gene. More common in certain breeds of dogs than in cats, but still common nonetheless. One minute the cat was fine, the next minute she looked close to death. Rushed her into the local Vet. They told us she had suffered congestive heart failure as a result of the fluid build up around her heart and lungs. That diagnosis and a referral to a nearby kitty-cat cardiologist ran me just shy of a thousand bucks. The subsequent visit to the cardiologist, which resulted in removal of some of the fluid build-up, and a prescription for no less than 3 different medications (Beta-blockers, diuretics and that sort of thing) resulted in a bill that weighed in at another 1500 bucks. I know what some of you are thinking. You're thinking I'm certifiably nuts. Perhaps so, but one thing I do know. The Vet assured me that with proper maintenance, the cat could potentially live to a ripe old age and have a very good quality of life. The cat is alive and well 3 years later, happy as a lark, and my daughter treats every moment with her as if it were her last. The expression of happiness on my daughter's face when she interacts with this feline, money can't buy. Was it worth it to spend that kind of money on a fur-lined mousetrap? You bet your ass it was, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Well done, Simon. May you and your faithful companion, Max, continue to enjoy eachother's company for many years to come. The outlook looks very positive indeed. Here's a picture of my other two children...on high alert. Cheers, Parky