Dannik

Perhaps I'm misinterpreting, but the 8800GT being DirectX10 shouldn't be a concern. DirectX is backwards compatible, so a card that runs DX10 native also runs DX9 and older normally. It's going the other way that's an issue. Sure, you need Vista to take advantage of DirectX10, but the 8800 series is still a fantastic card under XP/DirectX9.

It may be a strange driver revision issue, then. I recall nVidia releasing a few ForceWare drivers a while back that made snowflakes in GR turn the size of dinner plates. They fixed it eventually, but this was out of the blue, and years after GR was released. Seeing how old NED is, they couldn't have been prepared for more recent hardware/drivers. Shame, though.

I personally appreciate the "keep these settings" dialogue that shows up now and then. I've almost blown a monitor due to an application forcing a resolution change, but not reverting when it was incompatible. It was amusing trying to change the resolution back to something safe with the monitor turned off.

I would hope that's tongue in cheek. Nothing worse than waiting for some ridiculously long loading time for a level, only to have it throw you into the fray once the game is ready, without giving you the chance to actually be ready to go. If load times were a few seconds, then it wouldn't matter, but when games can take several minutes to load, I don't want to sit there staring, just in case it finally loads, nor do I want to have to reload because I had the audacity to go get another beverage while waiting for the level to load.

Tools -> Internet Options -> Tabs/Settings -> "Warn me when closing multiple tabs" Stupid browsers, making it a simple option to toggle.

If you haven't cleaned the inside of your case recently, now would be a good time. Not that it's necessarily the cause of the freezing, but it's one of those things that may be a factor, and is really easy and cheap to do, and certainly less invasive than formatting and reinstalling the OS. Just make sure you get a can of compressed air designed for cleaning electronics, keep yourself grounded just like any work inside your case, and blow out all the fans, heatsinks, etc. I was having some freezing issues in a few games recently. I blew the dust out, and my CPU temp dropped ten degrees

Check your "My Games" tab in Steam. When installed, Minerva appears as it's own game entry.

Well, I didn't beat 100, but I got 100 on my first try.

Microsoft released alpha and beta builds of Vista (then still code named Longhorn) to thousands of people, over a course of a couple of years before release to manufacture. No, I'm serious. Heck, anyone could download a limited time running RC (release candidate) freely for I believe almost a full year before Vista hit retail.

A quick forum search also shows that there have been five posts by GRIN staff since this past Tuesday. Not bad, really, especially since those posts have pretty much all been talking about how they are working on bug fixes. Don't forget that GRIN are/have opened (I believe) two new studios of their own, and are almost certainly primarily working on their next title(s). They do, though, have at least a small team from the GRAW1/2 group still plugging away. I suspect they are too busy reading and coding to spend too much time chatting around here, is all.

GRIN Wiking has already stated that a new patch is in development, mentioning server bugs specifically, though not which bugs are on the list.

Yep, I know it's a really long shot, but if the system is basically hosed, it's worth the 5-10 minutes to take a chance. I mean, it's not like it's going to break something.

I found a fairly simple method of trying to fix it. All it requires is an MS-DOS boot floppy and possibly an XP CD. Otherwise, if you find you can't repair the damaged/missing HAL.dll, try to perform a Repair install before even thinking about a fresh format/install. A Repair install (not repair console) will fix the OS without touching anything else, like your MAX files.

A router won't help with outbound connections; as in, if your system gets something nasty, the router won't stop it, but it will prevent a lot of incidental inbound issues. As for a stately small footprint firewall, I recommend Sygate Free Personal Firewall. It will monitor inbound, outbound, per application and will warn if it detects application hijacks (like if app. X tries to open browser Y).

'nuff said right there. Glad you got it sorted. If you need options, let us know.

I'm assuming you, Para, use a wider variety of apps than your wife does. Sorry if that's incorrect, but working under that assumption, you may gain boot speed, at the cost of application load times, by wiping your prefetch folder. Details here. Basically, the prefetch folder loads parts of applications you commonly use during the boot sequence, so when you launch them, they take a bit less time. Over time, however, you'll end up with a system that prefetches way more stuff than you actually use. Clean out that folder, and boot time should decrease, at least nominally.

I've got the Sapphire Pro. Not sure about the other one, but it's a very decent card, Your mileage will vary.

Minor threadjack, but my brother enlisted in the RCAF years ago. Since he was a firefighter, he spent an awful time playing water volleyball in the water pit by the pumping house. It was "mandatory physical training". He later had a Homer Simpson, watching panel of blinky lights on fire control system a half mile below a NATO monitoring station under the Canadian Shield. Lots of coffee and feet up on the console.

I can't find amperage ratings, but one reviewer in the Newegg page claims to be running a Core2Duo with dual 8800GTS's in SLI, so it should be just fine. I'm running the same card you're asking about on a fairly inexpensive Thermaltake 430watt PSU, and though technically it's not powerful enough according to the card specs, it's been a rock for me.

From Wikipedia: A lot of methods of getting data from a PC onto the PS3.

Ok, why has nobody TOLD ME ABOUT THIS GUY BEFORE? I mean, really, folks. I don't care if he's "new". This is too good, and I hate you all. Well, except for those who posted here. Mostly.

In 1999, I purchase my first 3d card, a then high end Voodoo3 2000. I'm, um, still waiting on the mail-in rebate. >.<

[3.13] Political Discussions Topics relating to politics are not allowed, they lead to unneccesary problems ie. flaming and chest beating. All posts relating to politics will be deleted. Please, continue to keep it clean. You're all doing very well, but please, also keep the site rules in mind. Respect. Keep at it.

I like Housecall, personally, by Trend Micro.