New to Windows Me... how to tweak it for games!?!

[daisaison_x]

hi, i just downgraded from WinXP (to strong for my PC).
here are my sytem specs:

633MHz Celeron
384MB RAM(256+128... i case u were wondering how i got 384 like i wondered how it was 384 when i bought it... LoL!)
GeForce2 MX200
SB Live! 24-Bit
Cable Internet
Windows ME(fresh install)

everything is much faster since the downgrade from WinXP such as opening Apps(Internet Explorer, Netscape, Media Player, startup & shutdown, etc, etc...) And even the games themselves load up faster. But gameplay is what is my concern, i expected them to be a tad bit faster. just a tad. but instead, they are exactly the same, and about 5 minutes into the game it gets even worse, as if my cpu or harddrive or RAM or all 3 are trying to do something or something. XP had constant performance(about 15 FPS in Enemy Territory/10 FPS in combat). but in my fresh install of ME, it is just a such until 5 or less minutes into the game, combat FPS drop to like 1 or 2 FPS... LITERALLY!!!!!!!. i am dead serious. why did everything else improve or stay stable besides my games? tip or tweaks out there from anyone desiring to help? i'd appreciate any help at all no matter how feeble of an attemp, i miss ET). thx!!!!!

 

[Arcanum]

First of all, Win98SE is faster than WinME, and uses less resources, and there are customization packs to make it look like ME or XP with all of their abilities.

Second, Win98/ME drivers aren't even being properly worked on, I wouldn't be surprised to see WinXP running games faster than WinMe even on your PC.

WinXP can be tweaked so much it can have the speed of a Win98SE with no problems - I really recommend switching back to XP and then tweaking that, my commit charge in XP is only 68MB with all drivers - and the thing screams on my Athlon TB 1.2GHz, I know your Celeron is slower, but it should run pretty fast too.

I really urge you to switch back, and if you need, I'll give you a list of links to make your XP every bit as fast as WinME (and faster in games).

 

[daisaison_x]

ola!

i appreciate your response, and i agree totally. but, on the flip side of things, windows ME is being all wierd to me now... i was wondering if you could help me with my new 2 problems...

yesterday, i was playing Enemy Territory, and all of a sudden, it got super slow, im talking like 4 to 8 frames per second slow. and it wouldnt go away. i was getting about 15-20 constant. so i exited Enemy Territory. after exiting- first thing i did was right-click on "My Computer" and as soon as i did- i heard the power up noise reminiscent of a computer coming out of standby. this happens everytime now. when i play ET for about 5 minutes it slows down to a chop, then upon clicking on My Computer, that power up noise occurs.
is my hard-drive going into some sort of sleep/hibernation when i play ET? all of my Power options in Control Panel are set to "off."

second problem: when using windows internet explorer, i can search browse the web for maybe 2-5 minutes. somewhere in that time period my internet stops working. no error messages or anything. it just says that good ol' text we all know and love= "Cannot Display Page... da da de da blah blah de blee boo" and so on and so forth.
i have cable and everything run quick and normal up until this happens. i have to restart my computer everytime to get internet working again.
i do not know if it is IE or Windows concerning this problem of mine.

i'd appreciate a little help, or direction to forums concerning these types of problems.... anyone up for this? heh, i can already tell these are hard questions and probably becuz the problems are occuring on WinME.

p.s.- i just tried to post this message but it won't let me. take a wild guess someone.... LoL!!!! yep, you guessed it. it won't work because i took to long to type this. now my internet doesnt work.
i will restart and post it. LoL!
someone please please help. this is so wierd. i've never heard of this happening ever on any OS!

 

[Arcanum]

It's probably a driver problem or something to do with ACPI.

The driver problem you could solve by updating to latest drivers, but I think you already have them...
The ACPI can be completely solved only by a reinstall (well, there's a way from Windows in which you disable ACPI).

I used WinME for only a very short period, the shortest of all Windows version - 1 month, I haven't come to any problems, but Win98SE is better so I went back to it.

You could try to crack your head open and spend hours to solve this, or reinstall XP in 1-2h and tweak it to Win98SE speed, I would choose latter.

Sorry, but I really don't have any ideas, it's been so long since I last used Win98 or WinME, I'm on a dual boot XP now, not even 98 and XP - no need to when you can tweak XP so much and it's more stable.

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Sounds more like the hard disk drive is failing.

 

[daisaison_x]

thx

thanks for ur helps and stuff.
i went ahead and bought the upgrade to WinXP today. it is installed and i am on it. internet is fast and lasts now. WolfET still has problems. it is still dropping to extremely low framerates when other people are on the screen. if i am in an open area(lets say, both outer sides of the mountain of Fuel Depot), things drop to an incredibaly low 5 or less FPS.
inside the mountain, things are semi okay, but not really.
whenever no one is on screen, i get like 30+ constant, but as soon as someone show up... im down to Super Mario Bros. 1 with too many enemies on the scr... scr... r.... e.... ee.... n... type framerate (screen). LoL@!

so... what are those XP tweaks anyways... ...

 

[Arcanum]

Glad you got the XP installed.
First we're gonna tweak Wolf ET a little (they are for Q3 but 90% of them work on Wolf ET):
a) performance tweaks: http://ucguides.savagehelp.com/Quake3/FPS_visuals.html
b) connection tweaks: http://ucguides.savagehelp.com/Quake3/connection.html

Anyway, you have to have in mind that you have a 633MHz C e l e r o n AND a GF2 MX, now that ain't exactly the newest available hardware so I hope you aren't running above 1024x768 or on high details or whatever. Try starting at 640x480 at lowest details then work up from there.


OK, now that we got Wolf ET covered, time to do some XP tweaking :
You can start by skimming through all of the Techspot XP guides, they're really great to begin with.

Now continue to TweakHounds Super XP guide, and do everything that wasn't mentioned in Techspot's guides:
http://www.tweakhound.com/xp/xptweaks/supertweaks1.htm

And a little more connection tweaking:
http://www.speedguide.net/ - check out their XP guide/tweaks

Last but not least (actually the most important), Black Viper's service guide:
http://inside.bard.edu/~winig/BlackViper.doc (a nice download, so you will always have it ready)
You should start by adjusting all the services to 'safe' settings as suggested in the blkviper's guide, then going to power user settings, as you should try to save as much RAM as you can.

If you have any trouble doing any of this, just post here

 

[daisaison_x]

igd

i got done looking over them all. i will start applying them maybe tomorrow. im kinda tired from installing and stuff and installing all old application etc, etc... heh.

btw, which Quake III console commands to you think i should use in ET for my system?
worst settings? i was gonna try that. worst visual quality should give me a boost. and like you said... work up from there...

btw... i have always tried everything at low res and everything off, from no gun draw to no compasss to no blood splash, etc, etc.

this is why i get the funny feeling this computer is (expletive) forever.
but at the very least, i wanna get it as most playable for now. it'll take me at least a year to save up the cash for a new alienware.
maybe when i got that alienware we can play sometime? i'd be too embarassed fightin someone i know right now, all things considering.

take it easy, and thx for ur help. ill post again after i try tweaks tomorrow or sunday.

 

[Arcanum]

Well start with the worst settings, yeah they're pretty ugly, but hopefully you'll be able to raise them from that

I have 1.2GHz Athlon T-Bird, TNT2 Ultra and 256MB RAM, and ET is going pretty smooth (800x600, most of it medium, some of it low), you've got a slow CPU (though it's more than 2x slower in performance) but faster videocard and more RAM so I think you should be on par with my performance (+-5% in fps).

Btw, what ForceWare you got installed?

 

[daisaison_x]

ih

i have latest forceware. 81.76 i believe it is.
i have always seemed to have gotten about 20 fps non combat, 15 or less during combat.

it probably is my processor. i think it is corrupt somehow.
it is supposed to be 633MHz but every utility that checks what frequency it is running at says 631MHz. i am pondering and upgrade to 1.13GHz(max for this sys.). im hoping the processor is to fault. i cannot even run Max Payne, Mafia, Tribes 2 or even Half-Life 1 at a decent fps, although i meet or exceed the requirements. (about 10-20 fps for all above listed titles just like ET).
I believe my computer is disentegrating before my eyes, slowly but surely.

think i should upgrade processor or just buy a barebones computer and add my soundcard and graphics card to it?

 

[Arcanum]

Wait wait wait, I can believe Max Payne and such, but HL1?! No way!
Why?
Because I played it on a 333MHz Celeron, TNT2 Ultra, 256MB RAM at 1024x768 highest details with no probs (ultra-smoothness).

If you have problems with that videocard and that CPU with HL1 then somethings really really wrong.

Try some of the drivers from Forceware 7x.xx series, also try setting to high performance in nvidia CP.

Wolf ET should really be going smooth at 640x480 at lowest details... even with that Celeron.
You really sure you tweaked it by that guide for max performance and lowest quality?

CPU is fine, the reported frequency very often differs from the advertised one by a few MHz.

 

[fiddler]

Wow, I agree with Arcanum.......something must really be amiss...I play hl1 and get a constant 100fps ! Ok so my system is a little faster than yours , but 10-15 fps?.....something's wrong.
As for buying a barebones system, and using your graphics card, thats going to be a bottleneck slowing the new sys down.
Thats my pennyworth for now.....all the best :giddy:

 

[Blakhart]

Hi

1. That system would be better served with xp than me. It has more than enough reources.
2. Me has things you can disable such as system restore to help out in resource management and reliability. I would not run it when I had better = xp.
3. You really really really need a better vid card. As well, I would use no other driver than the 43xx series drivers for your specific vid card.
4. There are services to disable in xp that can recover resources/cpu cycles and one should always make sure that, for best fps and latency, absolutely nothing else is running while you are gaming. If you have an HT or dual core system, gaming with other apps running concurrently will be less of a performance hit.

Just some thoughts for you.