Windows 7 Pro and Nvidea GT250

[Rix001]

I'm ready to "Fish or Cut Bait!" Anyone out there with any answers? My membership is up in 8 days, I have been unable to play Links for months, ever since I upgraded to Win 7. Do I sell my XFX GT250 card and UPGRADE to an XFX HD577AZNFC Radeon HD 5770 Video Card - 1GB GDDR5, will it work - - - it's a $180 gamble 'cause I don't think anyone can say yes or know. Do I wait for Nvidea to write a "backwards compatible" driver to support a game that is no longer supported by any company? A deeper question I have is, what is the near and long term viability of LINKS in general? I assume that someone got permission from MS to modify the software to add the much more realistic green speeds and wind conditions. Does this "someone" also have the permission to, the ability to, or the desire to, re-write the entire program or at least the "video rendering" part of it to allow it full functionality to operate in a Windows Seven environment or whatever the next "Leap" in video technology turns out to be? As much as I liked Astroids Version 1, I don't have that old Tandy Corp 486 Turbo with the 5 inch floppy disk drive and the 30MB harddrive just sitting there so I can still play the game. I guess what I'd like to know is Links "Alive and Well" or "Dying a Slow Death?" I love the game and miss it as it's the ONLY computer game I play, however, it's certainly NOT the single reason I have a computer. Things have slowed down considerably in the last years as far as Hardware pushing the capabilities of Software but it has not stopped!

[Jasonanne]

Links is far from dead! look at the New and exciting HD course that are coming up !the simple answer would be to have a dual boot with Crapstar 7 and Xp so links can be run from xp.
or Linke me I am about to replace my PC and am actually going to have an ati card installed. I have at the mo and 8600GT 1gig and it works a treat on XP even with AA running flat stick.

Cheers Jason

[terrell]

it's a $180 gamble 'cause I don't think anyone can say yes or know...

sorry, rix, i wasn't able to struggle through your entire ramble, but i'll give you what we got.

it's possible, but very unlikely, nvidia will come up with a driver anytime soon that will work with links/windows 7. personally, i bought a hd4650 from a friend for $50/us, which works great with windows 7 x64. but lou, or michael jensen, or someone (my extreme apologies, not in doing peeps' searches for info this morning for some reason), has posted recently they are using an hd5770/windows 7 xxx with the catalyst 10.2, and playing links successfully.

edit: or, you could dual boot, as jason suggests. (8

[FixAmer1st]

I love the game and miss it as it's the ONLY computer game I play, however, it's certainly NOT the single reason I have a computer. Things have slowed down considerably in the last years as far as Hardware pushing the capabilities of Software but it has not stopped!

Sorry Rix001, this just does not compute to me. If Links WAS the only game I played (and it is) I would certainly consider keeping an older computer to play it (and again I do).
To me it all depends on my priorities.

BTW - I am not raking you, just expressing my thoughts to your comments.
Jerry

[lstucz]

Although I have been keeping up on what works and does not, that was MJ who is running the HD5770 with CAT 10.2 under W7 and no longer experiencing problems. Here is his thread:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=5399

He also reported in another thread, that he is no longer experiencing crashes.

Yes, I woudl whole-heartedly suggest dumping your power hungry nVidia card and buying an ATI card of any type if you want to continue playing Links. The 5000 series was iffy with the first couple of drivers, but, seems to be doing OK, now. It should only get better with the next generations of drivers from ATI.

Maybe email nVidia support after you are running ATI and thank them for forcing the switch.

[Tahoma]

Sorry too be the bearer of more bad news for Win 7 Nvidia users........but

I went too the Nvidia driver download page this AM....too check for any updates......
The message about problems with the 196.75 drivers was still there.....but they have posted a new Win 7 64 bit driver as a
beta.......197.13 dated 2 days ago.....3/15/10....

I installed the new drivers.....and tried Banff 2003...which always failed reliably....grrr....it still does fail....

Went too event log....and sure enough, it reports the app failure in LinksMMII...as an OC5 error...same as before...

I didnt reload Links all over again....not feeling that ambitious...but simply using the new drivers changed nothing as far
as I can see....

On the other hand.....nothing else in my graphics system got worse either......

[Rix001]

I ordered the new card and it will be in Friday. I'll install it and run the latest drivers and report back my success or failure, At least we will know one way of the other. I still would like to know who the person or persons are that control the Links software and got permission to modify the program from MS as I assume they still own it. It was a huge improvement in the game to add the difficult green conditions and better weather (wind), I just wonder if they have any plans on further improvements.

[Rix001]

Report: Installed the new "XFX|HD-577A-ZNFC HD5770 RT" ATI card in the #1 Slot (runs 23"main monitor & TV) moved the Nvidea GTS250 to the #2 Slot (runs two 15" flat panel monitors). Installed the basic drivers ATI 9/18/2009 #8.660.0.0 as seen from the Device Manager screen.

System Information; Quad Core Q6700 @ 2.67GHz, 4GB Ram DDR2, Windows Seven Professional.

So far Links is behaving completely normally - I have played about 30 different courses since the install and have not experienced one crash. Happy and SILENT, once again!

[grim_x]

I put in a Powercolor HD5870 LCS edition last weekend, can finally play links again on my main computer. Haven't had a single crash using the 10.2 drivers, though I've only played four rounds.

[Michael Jensen]

Happy and SILENT, once again!

As mentioned I also have the 5770 and I love how silent the card is. My old nvidia sounded like a jet engine if it got pushed a little.

35 rounds in without crashing with Catalyst 10.2
Catalyst 10.3a also works fine sofar with perhaps 10 rounds in... I didn't even have to reboot after installing the driver

Looks like the rocky days are over now, with grim (Terry, right?) also running crash free with his steroid card

[grim_x]

Bet you my 5870 is quieter at full load. Of course, being watercooled does tend to cut down on noise.
Only played one four rounder, and started a second, it's been great. Stayed with the 10.2 drivers, one of
those "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" kind of things.

Yep, you got the name right, good memory, been a long time eh.

[DennisHarris]

When Mark made the Nvidia/win 7 crash fix patch, I re-installed my old 8500 GT Nvidia Graphics card to get away from the integrated graphic on my motherboard. No crash problems once I applied Mark's patch. Give Mark's crash fix a shot.

I originally removed the 8500 gT way before Win 7 was released because some courses would crash before the first hole with this card in my Vista machine. (This proved to be an bad omen for the future) By me going back to the onboard integrated graphics my crash problem was solved until I went to Win 7. Then boom the crash was back even with my integrated video. I was blankety blank blank.

I made a decision to switch my long time preference of Nvidia Graphics to ATI because of the recent Nvidia Driver problems.
A certified driver released by Nvidia actually caused some graphics cards to burn up. Thats right, burn up. Nvidia even admitted the error and pulled that driver from distribution immediately. Nvidia has real issues.

I have yet to buy an ATI graphics card but I will after I get my Plus 80 750W Corsair PSU purchased and installed. I'll let the new Power supply break in for a month then buy and install my ATI 5000 series card. I'm thinking of a 5670. It is the higher end of the media type 5000 series cards.

[grim_x]

That's a beauty of a power supply, 60 amps on a single +12v. rail. I've got two of them, though my main computer has the TX850 in it. The 750 will very comfortably run any video card out there, and silently too! Don't need any sort of break in period though, most people put in a new card at the same time as a new psu, that's often the reason for the power upgrade. Links will run on just about anything, think the lowest card I've ever ran 2003 on was a GeForce 3 Ti200, and by today's standards, that isn't much of a card, more like a museum piece eh. Depends on what other needs you have, but might want to go somewhere in the HD5xxx series for dx11. Took a fast look at newegg, you can get up to an HD5670 for under a hundred bucks, it's a decent all around card, also suitable for light gaming. I like racing games, so I went all out with the 5870 so I can play just about anything at the highest settings.

[IBHackin]

Just wanted to post this because I just finished building my new PC (my 1st build from the ground up). The build is:

Asus M4A785TD-V EVO mobo with 4g DDR3 memory
MSI nVidia GT250 with 1gb
AMD 955x2 with the 3rd CPU opened up and overclocked to 3.35MHz each
Running Windows 7 Home Ultimate 64bit

After loading Links, applying the 1.07 patch then the 1.08 Final I attempted to play Augusta 2008 which is being used by the Harbour Town Club. Got to the 4th hole, everything was going really smooth, then after I teed off Links Crashed. I couldn't resume so re-qualified and tried again boom, crash at the exact same spot. So I reinstalled the 1.08 patch again and have played 6-8 rounds with no problems. I even played Latrobe 2000 which I had expected to crash, but no it played it as smooth as silk. So I think the patch over all is pretty good. I'll post back after a week or so of playing to update my status with the new PC. One thing I can say "What a Screamer it is". I can now play a round in about 20 minutes.

Steve

[Obelix]

Just wanted to post this because I just finished building my new PC (my 1st build from the ground up). The build is:

Asus M4A785TD-V EVO mobo with 4g DDR3 memory
MSI nVidia GT250 with 1gb
AMD 955x2 with the 3rd CPU opened up and overclocked to 3.35MHz each
Running Windows 7 Home Ultimate 64bit

After loading Links, applying the 1.07 patch then the 1.08 Final I attempted to play Augusta 2008 which is being used by the Harbour Town Club. Got to the 4th hole, everything was going really smooth, then after I teed off Links Crashed. I couldn't resume so re-qualified and tried again boom, crash at the exact same spot. So I reinstalled the 1.08 patch again and have played 6-8 rounds with no problems. I even played Latrobe 2000 which I had expected to crash, but no it played it as smooth as silk. So I think the patch over all is pretty good. I'll post back after a week or so of playing to update my status with the new PC. One thing I can say "What a Screamer it is". I can now play a round in about 20 minutes.

Steve

You must mean the fix Mark just put out for the NVDIA cards.
I do beleive patch 1.08 is not out yet...... or is it

Robert