old games don't start, help needed...

I've got this problem for a couple of months already, I install a game, and when i try to play it, it freezes right after the openning movie and gets stuck on the main manu when it moves really slow and i can't do anything...
I tried several games (WC3, DS1,AOE3 and a few more) and only two games worked (SC and HoM&M 4), the problem happened with both legit games and non-legit games, even some games that used to work on my other computers.
I also tried updating drivers and stuff.

computer: 2.4GHZ, GEforce 400MX.

edit: see later post 13.6.2008
edit2: see later post, 16.7.2008

try setting the compatibilty of the game to 95,98 or 2000.
.exe ( or shortcut ) right click --> proporties --> compatibility.

Must be something else. WC3 doesn't need any special compatibility modes.

Though I have no suggestions. The fact it runs slowly instead of not running at all is peculiar. It might be worth it to alt+tab to windows while the game is running and check Task Manager to see if some strange process is eating the CPU time instead of the game.

I tried playing around a bit, seems that by taking the screen resolution down to the minimum, i can reach a state where i can enter sub-manus by pressing the hot keys, not enough to get into the real game. So i think it's something about the settings, but god knows i have no idea which one it could be.

by the way, i'm using XP pro.

Well, at least you could check your anti-aliasing is set to application (or whatever it's in the English driver settings), and you might opt to set the quality/performance to performance, seeing how your video card isn't... very close to the top of the line.

However, I think it's worth noting that the more or less static menu screens of games generally don't require quite as much out of the system as the game itself, so the problem could be more fundamental than some simple setting. You might even consider downgrading your video card drivers to check the current driver is not the actual problem. After all, with nvidia and ati battling for the place on top of the hill, every driver version has tweaks to any possible direction to gain the upper hand and it's a proven fact this might affect especially older cards in an arbitrary manner. At least with nvidia drivers. I've always used their products, so I can't really speak for ati.

well, years pass, and problem still remains.
but things are serious.
the computer is now used more for games, and I can't even know which games work before getting them.

everything is still the same,
intel pentium 4 2.4, 256 RAM
Geforce MX 400, XP sp2.

problem remains (recently tried Dungeon Siege 1: legends of arana), I start the game, the op moveis pass, but when i reach the main screen, the graphics stagger and everything slows down, to the point I can't properly move the mouse pointer.

I tried updating the Geforece driver, but nothing. what other drivers exist that I might be missing?

Can't you get more RAM? 256 is hardly enough for XP alone, and you are trying to run a game?

First I'd check the ram.
I had one of my corsair ram that had multiple errors. XP would boot, but there were major slow downs for no reason.
Memtest is the way to go (usually with a bootable CD)

Then I'd check the harddrive: Scandisk and Smart utiliy. When the harddrive is
to be dead, before so, it sometimes enters PIO mode which makes the PC extremely slow.

Then I'd check if no spyware and the like is buggin your machine... I'd check
the taskmanager when the bug arises and so on.
Maybe try a clean install too. To be sure it doesn't come from a corrupted XP...

If none of the above applies, for less than US$100 (ebay?) I'm sure you can upgrade your ram and videocard to something a tad better.


Have fun

I think the main issue is the RAM.

Hmm I had the same problem a long time ago, in which I had to reformat my computer. Well that did not help, I even ran the ol check disk/f in the console. Basically I had to get a new gfx card and 256 ram is not going to cut it. Just get an extra 256.

RAM is so cheap these days, might as well load up to 2GB if your mobo supports it. Also, a nice videocard upgrade will make games much more enjoyable, but only if your mobo supports PCI-E. Either way, you'll be spending money on outdated components, which surprisingly often cost more than newer tech components, given their limited availability.

Yeah. Memory older than DDR2 can be actually pretty damn expensive these days.

RAM and/or hard disk are probably fucked up...

the same did happen when my hard disk was about to give up... everything slowed down (extremely) and after 4-5 times it gave up completely and I had to buy a new one.

however since some games do work, it seems like your RAM is either not enough or not working properly... I suggest that it is simply not enough.. 256 is pretty much nothing, I'm not even sure if most games you mentioned would work with 256 RAM anyway

I wouldn't upgrade my graphic card however (at least not more than one of the GF 6 series) because it isn't worth it

you can get a ,new really good, PC for like 600€ (2,4 dual - 4gig ram -500gig hard disk -GF 8800/Radeon *blabla* [i'm not good with radeon cards^^])

well, I finally gave in. or more like, my computer caved in.
somehow (probably has nothing to do with the fact that I opened it up and started playing with it's insides) the mother board burned out, and the entire thing is usless.
after many complaints from my brother, we got a new one:

AMD 3800= 64 bit dc (S-AM2) Gigabyre m61pme-s2
amd athlon X2
neforce 430.
ddr II kingstone 800 1ghz


and so on. I'm not really hardware literate, but it came cheap (around 330 US$) and fast (five days since we made the order and it's here).

so my problem is, can someone tell of any known issues with this computer? are there any know compatbility problems. any must-have updates\drivers?
what should i get for it first, in terms of security?