Issues with running a lot of older games.

Until now I thought it was just a compatibility issue since a lot of the games are DOS based but I just tried to install IceWind Dale onto my computer and the autorun would kick on, I'd click install, the hourglass would appear for about 30 seconds then disappear - as if I did nothing.

I reinstalled Windows XP on this machine (using the restore from Dell w/ XP Home since I didn't want to reset the BIOS to put XP Pro on it). What is getting me is that I am 99% sure I had this game on the PC before (same XP Home OS).

As far as I know I have al the correct drivers (no ! or ? in the device manager) including the upgraded video card I opted for (Del can't track my order so I can't find exactly which one I got but the DM says "Vision Tek Radeon X1300 Series" (plus a secondary - driver date 10/28/2008 version 8.552.0.0 - is there a way to verify that this is the video card I actually have w/o opening up the case?).

Edit: According to tell it shipped with a "Module, Card, Graphic, MRMGA10, Capacitor" - I'm going to assume that is different than what the DM says... Too bad I can't track down that invoice on Dell's site?

If there is an issue - I'm thinking it's the video card since that is the only factor that has changed form the initial configuration (and different from the restore system).

Yes just download Everest.
http://majorgeeks.com/download4181.html
Any one of the 4 links will get it.
Install it and open it then look on the leftside.
If your driver for that video card is 10/28/2008 you are very out of date.
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownloa...7&lang=English

Now whether that will allow you to run these games is another story.

Thanx - that is a handy little tool, I think I'll download it to my work PC tomorrow. :)

It confirmed the card as being the X1300 - latest driver (directly from VisionTek) is dated 12-5-08 so it is not that out of date. ;)

(But I am downloading it now)

Edit: It seems that VisionTek doesn't have anything updated to what I had but your link had something newer (Feb 09ish). I downloaded that and the DM is confirming that it is updated. Now let's see if one of these older games will work now. :)

Edit: Still not installing. Hmmm
(And I do have more than enough space on the primary HDD - 120+ GB of space is free so that isn't an issue - 2GB of RAM..

This is odd...

Edit: (again) I see Setup.exe in the task manager (from the installer) but it stays at around 3,480K being used w/ 00% of the CPU. It seems to be running but not doing anything.

Edit: (Yet again): I looke dup some screenshots and yes, I was playing this game on this system before the reinstall. I have Civ 3 Conquests running fine on the machine, so it isn't all games. Maybe later on I'll try some other similar games (Black Isle - like Baulder's Gate 1 & 2) and see if it an issue with their games or not.

The ONLY difference I can think of is that I am now running on XP SP 3 - I might have been on SP 2 before.

Well I cannot imagine its SP3 that stops the install.
If it was me I would use msconfig and remove everything in there and do a clean boot then try the install.

As a side note, manufacturers seldom have the most updated drivers.
If its ATI based thats wheree I go and the same for Nvida.

Ah and yes Everest is a handy tool. Thats the old free version.
It stumbles on new stuff though.

I wanted to play Crystal Key and was messing around getting Nowhere in XP. Than hit a site said to ONLY make the setting to 640x480, no other changes and voila'.

Tried 640X480 and it set my screen to that resolution then gave the same exact results.

Even at Windows 90/ME compatibility mode.

Edit: As a test I grabbed the Fallout Trilogy (Fallout 1, 2, & Tactics) and it seems to be installing just fine so I'm seriously thinking it is a compatibility issue - chances are it's with SP3. :(

I've done some Googling and it seems that there is this issue, but its spotty - XP SP3 not allowing people to play older games. Looks like I'm going to have to dig to find some answers.