Need Help
 

hi
i recently bought spmbt and spww2 cds. everytime i try to play them i keep getting the following error message SAL error IpDD->CreateSurface ()failed.code 88760233 and SAL error Direct Draw could not be initialized! error code 88760233.
i am using win98se os.
do you have to play them with cd in a drive?
yours hopefully

Re: Need Help
 

No, you do not need to have the CD's in the drive to play the game but you do need direct X. Go to START then RUN and type in DXDIAG and check how direct X is working on your machine

Don

Re: Need Help
 

hi Don
thanks for the reply. i found i have directX 9b and it seems to be working. i also got a message saying winspmbt
caused an invalid page in module WINVFX8.DLL@ 018:10006410.
i have just reinstalled winspmbt but still get the error
messages.
hope you can help
yours hopefully

Re: Need Help
 

Those errors are internal errors from the WINVFX graphics engine DLL (3rd party).

Usual reasons for these errors include:
1) You do not have DirectX installed
2) You have tried to set the screen to a graphics mode your hardware does not support.
3) Sometimes - trying to run a flat panel monitor at a resolution the graphics card can handle but the LCD monitor cannot.
4) Trying to run a mode above "native" pixel resolution on an LCD monitor

We have eliminated 1, so - what exact graphics size are you trying to set up, and what mode ?. What are your machine specs? - it is nice to know what we are dealing with.

I suggest you use the game options programme to set the game up to say 800 by 600 wide windowed mode and see what happens. 800 by 600 should be supported by any modern machine. If the game now works then you are probably trying to drive it at some resolution and/or screen mode your graphics hardware cannot handle.

If you have a wide screen LCD monitor then these can have connuptions in full-screen mode if told to drive at any resolution above the native screen size (e.g. telling a 1280 by 800 LCD monitor to try 1280 by 1024 Microsoft Windows default resolution). Solution - use windowed mode set at a larger size than the desktop and the window will take the full screen area available, barring the windows task bar, which will remain visible.

See the "Tuning Your Machine" section of the Game Guide for more details. (You may need to set up the map scroll sensitivity to suit your taste for the new mode for example).

-
Cheers
Andy

Re: Need Help
 

hi Andy
since i last emailed i have been tinkering with the options
programme and found i can play both games in windowed mode
with screen sizes 1024x768 and all the way to 1600x1280. i still get error messages when i try this in full screen mode. my usual screen size is 1024x768.
my specs are as follows:- processor amd athlon xp 2600+
ram 1022 mbs,graphics nvidia geforce 5200 with 128 ram and
a gigabyte ga-7n400-L motherboard. my monitor is Belinea 19 inch tft.
i also noticed when trying spww2 active movie box in the task bar. i have never seen any movie with the game. i have
win media player9 installed

yours hopefully

Re: Need Help
 

Since your monitor is a TFT, then it may well have problems running any screen modes more than native resolution in full-screen Directx. So - what is the native resolution?. Is it a wide-screen TFT?.

A TFT monitor should be able to run in full screen directX mode at resolutions less than native - but will be subject to artefacts of course due to pixellation, unlike a CRT monitor.

cheers
Andy

Re: Need Help
 

hi Andy
my monitor is not a wide-screen TFT. i am quoting from the manual re the native resolution "ergonomic resolution 1280x1024 (60 Hz)" hope this is what your looking for.

your hopefully
Jim

Re: Need Help
 

1280 by 1024 is the natural resolution of my Dell LCD monitor, and it works fine at 1280x1024, 1152x768 (not too fuzzy), and 1024x800(a bit fuzzy from pixellation artefacts) in full-screen mode. That should be the case for yours as well.

You may want to check the Belinea drivers are correctly installed and the latest ones. Same goes for the video card.

Cheers
Andy

Re: Need Help
 

hi Andy
i look for the latest drivers for my monitor on Belinea site
but couldn't find any for win98se. i tried two or three site on the net but they ended up @ maxdata.com. i tried 1280x1024
in full screen mode again but ended up getting the error
messages. it looks like i'll have to play these games in windowed mode.
many thanks for all your efforts
Jim

Re: Need Help
 

We inclued both modes because we anticipated that there would be conflicts in one mode or the other on some machines. I can run the game in both modes but always run in Windowed mode.

Don