Fix for Links crash at exit error.

[lstucz]

It's an expensive fix, but it seems to be working great.

I upgraded my monitor to a new Samsung 225BW 22" widescreen LCD. The graphics are sweet as can be, sharp and clear. The thing runs at a native resolution of 1680 x 1050. That lets you play Links on a window the size of a 19" monitor at 1280 x 1024. Since I am only closing a window, instead of exiting from full screen, I have not suffered the dreaded crash all week. Another caveat has been the ability to chat with my messenger service at the same time, without Alt/Tabbing to exit to my desktop.

On a side note, you have to have a strong enough graphics card to drive the monitor at 1680 x 1050. The Nvidia FX5200 that was in the machine I am currently using was not powerful enough. Fortunately, I had a 6200 in another computer that is about to get upgraded to a 7600, so I took it out and installed in this computer and upgraded the driver. Works awesome, now.

Sorry to get your hopes up. But, I just had to brag about losing that [censored] error. That alone was almost worth the investment in the new monitor.

[terrell]

always a pleasure reading about new stuff, erie. i never have the latest and greatest of anything personally, as i pride myself on duct taping rigs together and making them work when everyone else says they won't. everyone needs a hobby.

my point is, your solution was probably as simple as installing new monitor and graphics card drivers. the biggest problem with graphics cards is legacy drivers left behind when peeps upgrade. and the fx5200 has been well documented as being a problem child here as well as at links corner. your directx directplay software actually governs how you talk to game servers, i doubt seriously the upgraded hardware had much to do with it.

but congratulations on the new stuff, and enjoy.

[lstucz]

Actually terrell, the 6200 graphics card was doing the same thing, with the other computer, even with a clean install and the same driver, using my old Samsung 710N 17" monitor.

I wasn't claiming that the monitor itself eliminated the problem. I think what really eliminated this for me was being able to play in a window, instead of full screen and still play on the same size area as previously. Even with my current set-up, I still get that dang error upon exit, if I go full-screen.

[terrell]

Actually terrell, the 6200 graphics card was doing the same thing, with the other computer, even with a clean install and the same driver, using my old Samsung 710N 17" monitor.

which makes me think the problem is actually old drivers left over from previous installations and/or a corrupted directx installation. sometime when you get a moment, goto:

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=67799

forums.guru3d.com for properly uninstalling/installing graphics drivers. and it would cost nothing to uninstall/reinstall directx9.

i recently replaced an mx4000 with a 6200 on a vista x86 machine. the mx4000 was losing a lot of graphics objects running links, however, the 6200 runs links flawlessly. and while vista is still doggy on a p4 1.8, the aero glass feature looks good. (8

I think what really eliminated this for me was being able to play in a window, instead of full screen and still play on the same size area as previously.

that is very surprising since it takes more system resources, notably memory, to run programs within a window versus full screen. but i s'pose anything's possible.

Even with my current set-up, I still get that dang error upon exit, if I go full-screen.

now that's a crapper. there's a vicious rumor mark thinks one of his dll's has caused that problem, but color me skeptical. i think it's related to corrupted directx files on the local machine. that's my theory and i'm sticking to it.

[lstucz]

Actually terrell, the 6200 graphics card was doing the same thing, with the other computer, even with a clean install and the same driver, using my old Samsung 710N 17" monitor.

which makes me think the problem is actually old drivers left over from previous installations and/or a corrupted directx installation. sometime when you get a moment, goto:

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=67799

forums.guru3d.com for properly uninstalling/installing graphics drivers. and it would cost nothing to uninstall/reinstall directx9.

I've seen you post a lot about the Guru forums and I will check it out. However, what you missed in the part that you quoted is the fact that this was doing it with a clean install. In other words, reformatted hard drive and the only driver used was the best one from Nvidia, for the card, downloaded from the site and installed fresh.

i recently replaced an mx4000 with a 6200 on a vista x86 machine. the mx4000 was losing a lot of graphics objects running links, however, the 6200 runs links flawlessly. and while vista is still doggy on a p4 1.8, the aero glass feature looks good. (8

The machine I am posting from is an AMD 1700 with 1gig of RAM with XP. My 6200 seems to work great, even pushing this huge monitor.

I won't make the move up to Vista, yet. Microsoft hasn't put out a new OS that was not full of bugs to be exploited. Even though I am a registered system builder with them, I still don't trust them. No Windows Live for my security, either, until they can prove themselves worthy.

there's a vicious rumor mark thinks one of his dll's has caused that problem, but color me skeptical. i think it's related to corrupted directx files on the local machine. that's my theory and i'm sticking to it.

Maybe neither is far from the truth. Could be one of the dlls causing a conflift with DirectX

[lstucz]

Well, it serves me right for bragging. It's back.

[terrell]

I've seen you post a lot about the Guru forums and I will check it out. However, what you missed in the part that you quoted is the fact that this was doing it with a clean install. In other words, reformatted hard drive and the only driver used was the best one from Nvidia, for the card, downloaded from the site and installed fresh.

oops. my bad. i did miss that part. though one caveat is trusting nvidia to provide the best driver for your card. nvidia's objective is to provide the most stable driver. however, most times, modded drivers provide greater performance and quality while maintaining a modicum of stability (i've had a few problems, but not many). one way to tweak your drivers for better performance/quality is to use utilities, e.g. rivatuner. another is to use (just so happens what i'm using now for my 6200):

http://tweaksrus.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&Itemid=1&gid=127&orderby=dmdate_published&ascdesc=DESC

from tweaksrus (banned by guru3d.com, but it's a personal thing).

I won't make the move up to Vista, yet. Microsoft hasn't put out a new OS that was not full of bugs to be exploited. Even though I am a registered system builder with them, I still don't trust them. No Windows Live for my security, either, until they can prove themselves worthy.

ouch. i've already preordered vista home premium from amazon. so if you guys don't see me for awhile, you'll know what happened. my zonealarm security suite is compatible with vista, so i'm not too worried about that. but you're right, vista will be a fresh challenge for hackers for awhile.

i've been running vista since the first public beta, and i must agree i'm not overwhelmed. in another thread i asked for suggestions in cutting out some of the extraneous stuff that was going on in the background. but it's an interesting hobby. i'm not too overly protective with the home pc's, except for the 35,000 family pictures i've accumulated as a result of a new found interest in photography. but those are safely tucked away on an external usb drive, so i generally throw caution to the wind.