I'm running Microsoft Train Simulator on a 350 megahertz HP Pavilion with 176 megs of ram and a Guillemot Voodoo pci2 3d accelerator with 12 megs ram.

It might run for a minute or an hour but eventually it always crashes, freezing the system and I have to reboot. Adjusting the graphics against performance makes no difference. As the latest drivers date from 1999, what 3d card [or tweaks] would you serious gamers recommend for this particular game - assuming money is no object?

Thanks for any suggestions.

All kindest regards, Peter.

Re: Train Simulator

Are you running the latest direct X ?

Re: Train Simulator

The fact that the game runs for a period of time indicates that your system may need additional cooling. I would suggest that you check the CPU and the graphic card temperature, these type of games are very demanding on the computation power of your PC, may require additional cooling.

Re: Train Simulator

Well if you are serious about money no object go for the latest Athlon equipped PC with a Geforce 3 ti or Geforce 4 graphics card. This will last you some time for games. If you really don't want to spend 4 or 5 grand on the latest powerhouse just upgrade the graphics card to a 32 meg geforce 2 mx 400 or tnt2. I don't know if your PC has an AGP slot so check this first and if it does not you will need a PCI version of the GF2mx400 or tnt2. Note decent PCI cards are getting a bit hard to find.

According to the MS website your pc does meet the minimum requirements, but personally I have found most game minimum requirements to be a bit of a joke. In reality the minimums are generally what are listed as the recommended requirements. If you want the game to run properly.

In the meantime try running in a lower resolution and colour depth.640x480 for res,16 bit or 256 colours for depth.Also make sure you have the latest drivers for your pc. Get them from the support page at http://www.hp.com/cposupport/software.html?cc=au.

Some other things to check are if your cooling fans are working properly and that non of the cooling vents are clogged. Also remove any dust from inside the case. NOTE, be carefull of static electricity, it can kill your pc. Ask someone who knows what they are doing (prefferable a proffessional rather than a techy mate) if you are unsure of how to do this.Also check MS to see if there are any updates or patches for the game.

Hope this gives you some ideas,

Regards, Alistair.

Re: Train Simulator

Ooops forgot, if you have 2 or more different sized sticks of RAM in your computer make sure the smallest size stick is in the first slot and so on up to the biggest. eg 16 meg in slot 1 32 meg in slot 2 and 128 meg in slot 3. The slots on the motherboard should be labelled but usually the slot closest to the cpu is slot one.

I had my ram the other way round ( ie biggest first )and my pc continually had random lockups till I discovered this trick thanks to the via forum. It is now stable, well as stable as windows ever gets!

Alistair

Re: Train Simulator

Have you downloaded the 7 meg update dated feb 2002. It resolves a number of problems.

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