Relic

Have you tried pulling your RAM, one stick at a time? If a stick of RAM gets wonky, that could be the prob.

Ummmm, I would imagine he has a decent vidcard, he's running Vista, and that's not the prob, it's "compatability", I don't think Vista is going to play well with a game from 2001. Dunno if there's a "compatability mode" like XP has, in Vista, but if there, try running the game in Win'95 or Win'98 mode.

Considering you're running SP3, why not download IE7 and see if that solves the problem?

You could also just set the BIOS to "default" or "safe default" settings, select save changes(usually the F10 or F11 key), and reboot. If all she did was screw up the BIOS, there will be no damage to your HDD, as in the files on your HDD. As for the same OS, nope, Windoze is Windoze when it comes to this.

Pull all your RAM and then reseat it. If that doesn't help, pull one stick at a time.

Have you tried reinstalling XP with a repair installation? Boot of your XP CD, and the SECOND time it asks you to do a repair install(the "R" option), click yes. You won't lose any files, and it will fix any(most) corruption of the registry. If that fails, back up what you want to keep to a CD/DVD, then format and do a full install of XP. After that, be VERY careful about what you download, clicking "Okay" is not always a good thing.

Did you run Driver Cleaner Pro after uninstalling your old drivers? If not, scoop it here: Driver Cleaner Pro. After you uninstall your old drivers, reboot in safe mode, run DCP, then reboot normally. When Windows tells you that it has found new hardware and asks if it's okay to install the drivers for it, click "CANCEL". Install the drivers yourself using the setup.exe that came with them. Reboot and see if the prob is fixed.

Possibly SP3 is making your system wonky... try this, go to "My Computer/C:(your HDD)/Programs/Internet Explorer", then right click the Explorer.exe and send it to the desktop as a shortcut. I'm still running IE6 on XP, SP3 here, no probs at all.

Have you ran an anti-virus program on your system lately?

Well, considering "your buddy's dad", NOT YOU, has been surfing pR0n for the last year and a half, I'd suggest a format, no matter what AVP he uses, his registry is probably hopelessly corrupted, and an AVP WILL NOT solve all his problems. Tell him to bite the bullet, he's going to lose all his pR0n pics, such is life. BTW, time for him to move on to a REAL woman, all that virtual crap is BS.

Been a while since I installed an older game, but have you tried inserting the CD, hunting down the install.exe file on the CD, then right-clicking said file and checking off the option to run it in Win95 mode? S'cuse me older and somewhat muddled mind, but I'm sure this worked for me before, if my memory serves me correctly.

80GB SATA drive? That's old. Other SATA drive boots no probs? I'd be willing to bet a C-Note your HDD is pooched or has a virus.

Originally Posted By: jmmijo Nice, so nVidia has updated the drivers to allow frame buffer size differences, well, that would only mean that it must ignore the extra memory on the card with more so they match up properly in SLI mode Yes, you can mix the memory, but nVidia DOES NOT recommend doing so: " Can I mix and match graphics cards with different sizes of memory? While it is not recommended, NVIDIA does offer this flexibility using Coolbits. When purchasing a second graphics card, you should try to match the memory size so that you are ensured full value and performance from your purchase. For example, if your first card is a GeForce 6600 GT with 128MB of memory, you should purchase a second GeForce 6600 GT with 128MB of memory. However, using Coolbits (value set to 18), you can force both of the cards to use the lower of the two memory sizes and operate together in SLI mode. When dissimilar memory sizes are enabled to work together using Coolbits, the effective memory size for each card becomes the smaller of the two memory sizes. Instructions to enable this feature can be found here. " Instructions are here: mixed memory instructions If you're mixing an OC'ed card with a slower card, I'd try OC'ing the slower card as far as possible, and see if it can do the OC'ed card's speed(s) and still be stable. If it does, and most will, you can re-write the BIOS for the slower card using NiBiTor to match the faster card's speed, and run them both OC'ed. BTW, the guide for NiBiTor is here: NiBior Guide

In a word: no.

I have no idea what your vidcard is, but I'd suggest dwnlding the newest driver for it, from the manufacturer's website. You have SP2, with the latest version of DX9, you probably need the latest version of the vidcard driver. Posting full system specs when asking a question is also very helpful, it gives us an idea of what we're dealing with, makes it much easier to narrow down the possible problem(s).