Win98/ME Testers Please

Community Forums/Showcase/Win98/ME Testers Please

Gabriel(Posted 2005) [#1]
I've rebuilt TriviaNet Challenge to include Tim's fix for all the blending/color problems with BMax. It hasn't caused any problems with XP, which is a good start, but I'd like to know if it's fixed the graphical errors that Win98 and WinME users would have been getting.

I don't have a Win98 or WinME box, so I'm not 100% sure what the problem would have looked like, but it would have been obviously messed up graphics, wrong blend modes, wrong colors, etc.

Anyway, it's just a five meg download so I'd appreciate a few testers. I think I forgot to increase the version number so if you've tried it on your Win98/ME box before and used up all the trial time, it may not reset the trial time for you. If you have any trial time left, it'll be fine.

http://www.animebowlingbabes.com/testing/trivianetsetup.exe


big10p(Posted 2005) [#2]
Win98SE user here.

Bad news. After I installed and ran the game, it completely hung windows - mouse cursor went and I was just left with a frozen view of my desktop. ctrl+alt+del didn't even work.

After re-booting I ran again and got an error message about "module user.exe". Again, windows was trollied and I had to re-boot.

Minor point: The menu screen that pops up when you run appears with horizontal and vertical scrollbars which doesn't look too nice. I do have to run my desktop at 800x600, though.


Gabriel(Posted 2005) [#3]
Thanks for testing. Sorry for the bad experiences. I wouldn't have put it up for testing if I thought there was any possibility of that happening. I don't think it's related to the game itself, as I don't do anything to interfere with User.exe.

I think Software Passport uses the IE rendering engine to render my try/buy windows. Are you running a fully updated version of IE? I seem to recall there being some General Protection Fault stuff in 98se being caused by IE which were resolved with an update.


big10p(Posted 2005) [#4]
Hey, no need to appologize, Sybixsus. How else would you find out there are problems. :)

What is user.exe, exactly. Is it part of Software Passport?

I'm using the latest version of IE that works on win98 (v6), btw.


Gabriel(Posted 2005) [#5]
user.exe is a Windows 98 system file.

The only things I know of which can trigger an error with it off the top of my head are :

SpeedKey ( so this isn't the problem here )

IE ( could be the problem, since Software Passport is using it for the windows )

Video/Monitor Modes and Drivers ( could be the problem, but isn't really something I can control. )

I also found this quote :

In general User.exe errors can be blamed to video related problems. In some cases its due to drivers not being up to date. Other times it is caused from having a video mode of more than 256 colors. If you get a lot of user.exe errors try changing the video mode for number of colors to 256 or some other value. The 32-bit mode or true-color mode can cause this problem.

Now I do use 32bit color if it's available, but I'm sure you must have run a lot of 32bit programs around here. I don't use it unless you have it, so unless your drivers are reporting that 32bit color is available when it's not, I can't do much about that either.

Out of interest, what videocard do you have? Does it do 32 bit? Are the drivers up to date?


big10p(Posted 2005) [#6]
I have a GeForce 2 GTS 32MB and it does 32bit fine, normally. I did look for an update recently but I think they stopped doing driver updates for it some time ago.


big10p(Posted 2005) [#7]
dp


Gabriel(Posted 2005) [#8]
Yep, I can only think it's an IE issue then, in which case the old version wouldn't have worked either.

Anyone else got a Win98/ME machine to test on? There's no point me releasing an update unless I know it works.


Bolo_Loco(Posted 2005) [#9]
Win/ME :

no problems with the graphic - but there is no sound
( exept when i'm returning to windows)


Gabriel(Posted 2005) [#10]
Thanks man, I guess that's good news. Do you generally have any problems with BMax programs and sound? I don't do much with sounds really.


TartanTangerine (was Indiepath)(Posted 2005) [#11]
Win98SE2 DX9 Matrox G400Max

No idea about the sound (makes note to install a card).

Software passport has instructed me to reboot the machine (how odd) - Back soon.

OKay - I'm back.

Someone put the purchase button where I would expect the play button to be! :D

The game loads okay but I don't get any menu, well I do but when I go to click on one of the buttons the background goes black and I am left with a nice blue gui background on the screen. Also I can't CRTL+ALT+DEL (the blue background for the GUI is there all the time; even before the menu disappears - it obscures your title text).

Then it just hangs.... :(

Not sure why this is happening Phil, I managed to get Caboodle and cBubble and iGlass working perfectly.

Basically I'm having exactly the same problems as I had before you rebuilt.


Gabriel(Posted 2005) [#12]
Thanks Tim, somehow I suspected this would be the case. Some get no sound. Some get no graphics. Some get no start. Some get a system hang. Boy am I glad I went with BlitzMax X-D

Ah well, on the plus side, Windows 98 is less than 5% of my visitors, so could be worse.