Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Memory, Cards, Roller Coasters, and a Kiss

MeIf you recall from a few days ago, I had bought Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 for Beth for her birthday. But darkness reigned o'er the land as it was revealed that great heaps of memory and fancy new video cards are needed to run the complex 3-D games of today. So it was off to Dell to order the above mentioned items. Dell was quick to deliver the memory but the video card was backordered. Not to worry, Beth, the box from the game says we can run the game with the pitiful old 32meg video card that you have in your computer. But it was not to be... the game complained that more and more was needed. And darkness once more descended upon the land.

So I cancelled the order from Dell and went to Best Buy where I got the required 128meg video card. Installing the hardware was easy. When I installed the memory, Windows XP recognized it instantly and started using it. But the video card was different. Installing the card was not too hard. Pop out the old one and slip in the new one. Plug everything back in and start it up. Insert the installation CD and install the drivers. reboot. Uh-oh! A blue screen of unhappiness has appeared on the monitor. Start it up again. OK, this time it starts and we get to windows but we start the game and again the blue screen appears. And there is much gnashing and wailing at the evil name of Gates in the Paul household.

Let's google ati3duag.dll which seems to be the offending program. Hits! Someone else had the same problem and they installed the updated drivers and all was well. Off to the ATI web site and download the new drivers. Uninstall the old, reboot, install the new, reboot. Looking good so far. Start the game and... rejoicing! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! Daddy is the hero!

Well was it all worth it? Beth came down and said, "Daddy, this game rocks!" and gave me a kiss. So, yes, it was well worth it!

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