Bad Lag

[ZeRoGravity]

Even in the menu screen at the beginning of the game. It takes awhile, probably more than 10s to load the Setting screen. Lets not talk about the in game performance. Ugh, my old processor Athlon 1800+ is better at running the game.

Theres gonna be something I didn't do yet, some help is appreciate.

[existenz]

Hi ZeRo,
1: Your sound drivers are a bit old as are your mouse and keyboard drivers - if you can find newer ones this may help
2: The Geforce FX 5200 may not be good enough. C4 was tested using the 6000 & 7000 series.
I have 6600GT and only by updating all drivers - sound,mouse,keyboard and graphics card could I play the game without flickers and too much lag. It still lags when I have built the city up but is playable. Don't know if this helps but Phil Walker, PhilL, Keith etc may be able to help you further. Good luck - I think it will be worth it!:)
Edit: I hope you saved C4 to your D drive - your C drive only has too little space I believe to play well

[PCDania]

I see you are using the 91.33 drivers, which I would never do. They may help some, but are not by nVidia but a private group and they are also not digitally signed.
Beta drivers means exactly what it says: Beta, and they are made by nVidia and not some private group (nzone.com belongs to nVidia). Beta drivers are just like a game that is beta. It also means 'use on your own risk' as there might be errors in the driver. As you I wouldn't use Beta drivers as one never knows what might happen.

Windows requires a minimum of 15% of the total capacity of your harddrive free and you have much less. 20% would even be better. Minimum you need is 12GB free and you only have 1.9GB free, so you're in a world of hurt the way it is. As I said 20% (16GB) free would even be better. Windows needs to refresh and swap files is why this is, so Windows cannot "breathe" and thus you'll have problems.
Windows XP needs about 6GB free space on the harddisk or partition where Windows is installed if the pagefile is there too. There is no need to free 12GB and much less 16GB for getting windows to behave. I don't know who has told you that story about 15% and 20% but you can tell the person that he is wrong.

ZeRoGravity do have too little free space on C: but if he can find between about 4GB then he's good to go what free space goes. Much of it can be gained by deleting the contents of all Temp folders.

Setting Internet Explorer to delete the contents of the Temporary Internet Files folder when it is closed will also help. For doing so open Internet Explorer, click Tools in the menu at the top and click Internetsettings. In the window that pops up go to the Advanced pane and scroll down to Security, here you check Delete the folder Temporary Internet Files when the webbrowser is closed (is likely worded a little different as I'm translating from Danish). If ZeRoGravity still needs more space he will have to see if there's some program on C: he can uninstall or maybe some music or video he can move to D:

[PCDania]

you CANNOT find them on the nVidia site anywhere which is where I look and they also are "unofficial" Of cause you can not find the Beta drivers on the official site even though they in rare cases links to them. If nVidia put their Beta drivers on their official site they would get a lot of requests for help from people who had installed a Beta driver without knowing what they did.

If you like to play with nVidias Beta drivers you go to nzone.com which is owned by nVidia. You can also download nVidias drivers from other sites who likes to offer them to their visitors, among them are guru3D (both Beta and WHQL) and majorgeeks (only WHQL as far as I remember), but there are other places as well.

As to the 15% and 20% I mention, you think they are wrong, eh? Microsoft?! Yes, that's where I got my information. Cheers!
Care to supply a link? The "Too little free space on harddisk" warning pops up the first time when there's 200MB free space left on the harddisk, it pops up again at 80MB every few hours and when there's only 50MB free space left it will pop up every 5 minutes or so, isn't that a bit strange if WinXP requires 12GB or more free space on the harddisk for running the best possible?

I guess what you are thinking at is that Microsoft recommends installing Windows XP on at least a 12GB and better yet 16GB harddisk because your other programs like Microsoft Office/OpenOffice/etc and documents also takes up space. This must not be confused with recommended free space on the harddisk AFTER WinXP has been installed.
If you play games, stores videos, music and graphics you will need an even bigger harddisk.

[PCDania]

In that case then either the person at MS has talked about something he doesn't know or you have misunderstood each other.

I stand by my knowledge that WinXP does not need at least 12GB free space on the harddisk but that it is the recommended minimum size for the harddisk or partition WinXP is to be installed on including your wordprocessing, mail program and other commonly used programs. Sorry but if it was so it would say so in the books when you take a MCP or MCSA or any of the other Microsoft Certificates you can pay your money and sweat for as that would be important knowledge for System Administrators.

It is common good sound knowledge and practise that if you keep about 6GB free space on the harddisk or partition where Windows XP is installed you should not get any problems at all related to free space. The 4GB out of the 6GB is the max size for a single pagefile and the 2GB extra is just in case. It would be a rare case where you have to use all 4GB of the pagefile together with the 2GB extra when installing something. Microsoft has even been so thoughtfull that for those who can't do with 4GB of pagefile they can create furter pagefiles on separate partitions or harddisks. Windows XP will then use them as need be.

Personally I make sure I allways have about 3-4GB free space on my OS partition but I have a special setup with a dedicated partition for the pagefile so it doesn't get fragmented. I play a lot of games on my computer and I have never had any space related troubles or any other problems that couldn't be fixed by updating a driver. I have only had to update my graphics driver a couble times because a new game required it for running.

I also know that a file is not deleted even if you format the harddisk, or even low-level format it. There are compagnies specialized in rescuing data from damaged computers like ones that have been submerged in water for several months or been in a fire. I can't do it on that level myself but I have software that can rescue data from a formatted disk and that is all I need.
-----------------
This has nothing to do with contests about what gaming site is best:

I'm not the type that use to brag but actually I'm a MCSA and I have paid for it with my sweat. I have close to two years professional experience in building and testing computers and troubleshoot them. Privately I help people online both with troubleshooting and building computers and also does so in RealLife™ for friends and friends friends.

Sorry for telling above but I'm tired of this trumphing game or what ever it is. I've read some of the threads in here and there's a lot of good help but sometimes there are also less good advice that in some cases could lead to other problems or even make it impossible to start a computer. No, I can't provide links but some of the techy people in here will know what I mean when they see it.

Troubleshooting is about focusing on the problem trying out one thing at a time and not about using a shotgun in the hope of getting the correct answer. The fewer people who posts in a thread the better as that leads to lesser risk of confusion. If someone needs help make a new thread, do not use an existing thread as your problem could easily be something totally different. If you are unsure or don't know the answer the don't post, your reply might make things worse or add to the confusion. Remember, no-one can see the posts you never posted. Troubleshooting is not a contest about helping the most people but about giving the best possible help.

And last but not least the most important rule: if it works don't fix it!

I hope no-one take this as me patronizing anyone as that is not my intention in any way. I post this because it hurts my PC-nerd heart reading some of the posts in here related to troubleshooting computers.

Keep up the good work.

*Steps down from soap box*

Regards
PCDania

[PCDania]

Yet, I did my maintenance and the degragmenter would not allow me to run it and gave the msessage I had to have a minumum of 15%, so this is why I say and said what I do
The buildin defragmenter in WinXP will not automatically defragment the harddisk when you run it unless the harddisk is at least 15% fragmented (it has nothing with free space to do). The solution to this when getting the 'less than 15% fragmented" message is to press the Defragment button at the bottom of the window. Besides that the Defragmenter in WinXP (and Win2000) are not exactly the best programs in the world for doing the task. Personally I use O&O Defrag which both checks the disk(s) for errors before starting the task and also does a much better job and many times faster.

[PCDania]

*sigh*
So you are not able to defragment your harddisk if you have less than 15% free space and I can defragment my harddisk if I have less than 15% free space.

For getting back to the point with this thread I fail to see what a problem with defragmenting the harddisk if there is less than 15% free space has to do with ZeRoGravity making sure he has about 6GB free space on his C: drive for minimizing the amount of lag he experience when playing the Caesar IV demo.

[PCDania]

I would be a bit carefull with those registry cleaners, in the very worst case when something goes really wrong they can cribble the computer so it can't start again. If you accidentally have manually deleted a program from your harddisk and can't recover it from the recycle bin and you have no knowledge about getting around in the registry, you could try run a registry cleaner after making sure you have a backup of all your important documents and so.

Usually the biggest speedgain people see after running a registry cleaner is something psychological(SP?) as they have run the program so it must also have an effect. Unfortunately the compagnies making the registry cleaners advertise them as almost being the holy grail in getting the most stable and fast responding system. In a way I can't blame them, after all they live from making those programs but wouldn't mind if they would ask their marketing department to cool it a little bit.

I have tried a few of those programs in the hope they worked as advertised and never seen any difference except they now and then managed to delete something that should not be deleted. Of cause if you have a very dirty registy after installing and uninstalling many different kinds of programs you might see the computer start a little bit faster or programs loading a little bit faster, but it's still something one have to weigh up against the risk of a corrupted registry because something went terribly wrong.

[PCDania]

I hope you are aware that in the worst case when using a registry cleaner you are not able to use the backup it makes? If it goes wrong and your 'customer' needs to pay for getting the computer fixed, will you then reimburse him or her?

Of course one has to be cautious, as just as one can fry components if they are not grounded losing or removing one wrong file or program can do the same thing. I don't understand above. Losing or removing one wrong file can not fry components in your computer.

I just advise and it's up to the user whether they do it or not as I also give warnigs much of the time as well. When you advise people, do they know it is advise (they can follow it or leave it, it's their choice) or do they just follow it more or less blindly? When advising do you remember to tell people if there is a risk (if any) at what you advise them to do? If you don't tell about the risk (if any) and what to do to prevent damage, or how to recover if something goes wrong then it's not really an advise but something you tell people to do. Again: are you prepared to reimburse people if they have to get professional help correcting something you have advised but it went wrong?

It would also help if you tried slowly reading your posts and correct any errors before you submit them as it's sometimes difficult to understand what you are meaning like below quote from your former post. When writing longer posts I usually re-reads them a couble times before submitting them and even then I sometimes have to edit and correct what I wrote so it is understandable, this is simply because that I'm not an native English speaker and because I have a bad habbit of believing people knows what I'm thinking or can read between the lines. You have a problem with your eye sight, so you must have at least the same need of double or trible checking before submitting a post.

Most people I know do much installing and uninstalling and never knew of the consequences, so why I suggest a cleaner as one I helped over the phone gained 13% of her free space by dioing my instructions I just noted and it was over 3GB of "crap" on the system.
You write "so why I suggest" things like this is difficult to read for many non-english native people and they will easily take it as an order and not as an advise. Above can also easily be understood as running a registry cleaner gained the woman 13% free space and that it consisted of 3GB of crab in the registry when it actually was 3GB deleted from Temp folders, recycle bin and maybe temporary internet files.

Unless the registry cleaner is able to remove the empty lines in the registry, not one single byte of those 3GB is from the registry and if it is able to remove the empty lines then only maybe 5MB or so might originate from the registry, but the person reading your sentense can not see that.

As noted I do mine manually and do know how to recover "mistakes". However most don't and why I never suggest anybody attempt it as I've noted in many threads. If you have that experience, why then mention registry cleaners at all? The more potentially un-necessary information in a post the higher the risk of confusion and errors.

[OldFan]

Phil, "legaly blind" is horible. But you know how computer works!!! and BZW we all have our problems, belive me.:cool:

[PCDania]

Don't know if I like to give you my ruined back that hurts 24/7 and take your bad eyes instead... at least it would give me better sleep. Like you I use a lot of time trying to help people. What I wrote is not an attack on you or anything like that. I just ask you to try be a bit more carefull proofreading what you write as it's sometimes difficult to understand what you mean and when repairing computers it's important with as few misunderstandings as possible. Some people are afraid to ask for clarification from people who knows more than they do and this makes it even more important to proofread.

It's good you know how to fix or undo if things go wrong but that doesn't help much if the registry cleaner damages the registry so the computer can not start thereby hindering people in going online so you can help them undo the changes.

[OldFan]

Be cool!!!

[OldFan]

PCDania, you are right. :rolleyes: I'm the one who some times afraid to ask to much. But the forum still help. Belive me.