IMarshal

Create a process dump of the msdtc.exe process and post it somewhere public. Someone with a knowledge of debuggers can take a look and perhaps pinpoint the problem.

Just right click on the computer management shortcut in the start menu or control panel and select properties. Look for the Target text field under the Shortcut tab. You'll see something like "%SystemRoot%\system32\compmgmt.msc /s". Just replace this text with the new text as described above. Click okay and launch the shortcut.

Change the MMC shortcuts to use /a instead of /s. E.g., for computer management: %SystemRoot%\system32\compmgmt.msc /a When you close the MMC after launching it in this way, it'll prompt you to save settings. Note that if you don't have the rights to write to the .msc file, the save wil probably fail. HTH

NT4 will upgrade to XP. However, none of the Workstation/Pro SKUs will upgrade to the XP Home edition. Win95 is indeed unsupported for upgrades, probably because Win95 is soon to be unsupported in general. I guess that if you're still running Win95, Microsoft would recommend that you buy a new PC.

A non-drastic solution: Remove the 'LowerFilters' and 'UpperFilters' values from the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Cl***\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

Fifa 2000 works for me. I suspect it all has to do with what's in your %systemroot%\apppatch directory. I'll be happy to zip up and post the contents of my apppatch directory to anyone who wants it. (Note that my patch file is dated 5/24 and is from app.exe, which contains things that the latest apcompat patches don't have.)

If you can't access your cdroms because of Adaptec, the trick is to delete the "filter" related values in: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

I don't know what to tell you, then. I wish I knew what exactly I did to get it to work. I used to have the same problem you have (access violation and exit).

Ah, yes. Forgot about that. :-) I thought everyone knew it: Goto http://www.gamecopyworld.com/ and grab their no-cd crack. FWIW, This one worked for me: http://www.maxtarget.com/cgi-bin/dl.cgi?fifa20001!zip [This message has been edited by IMarshal (edited 30 July 2000).]

That sucks. Did 3dsetup detect your card properly? Do you have the same video card / soundcard / drivers that I do?

On a whim, I re-ran Fifa 2000 on my Win2K Pro system after a long hiatus and, to my astonishment, it worked. I have a BX board with a TNT2 and an SBLive!. 5.32 Detonator drivers. Live!Ware 3. Vanilla Win2K Pro with all the Windows Update patches, no SP1. Nothing special otherwise. So I ran 3dsetup.exe, selected the TNT2 option, then set the resolution to 1024x768, and fired up the game. It worked beautifully, first try. This is after six months of crashing on startup with an access violation. I don't know what exactly I did to make the game work; it just... worked. [This message has been edited by IMarshal (edited 30 July 2000).]

Okay, I can confirm that the midi test still hangs in Duke3D, but the game actually works if I save and exit setup without testing. ROTT does in fact hang initializing the midi card. And everything else is the same with LW3.

Hmm. I'll give it another try when I get home tonight, Vlad. But I'm pretty sure I had SB emulation off when the midi tests hung. I did just finish installing LW3 for Win2K, so I guess a retry of the previously broken stuff wouldn't hurt.

I tried again with Vlad's updated DLL. It fixed the problems I was having with MIDI, but there are still some SB emulation issues. Here's what I tried: Descent Setup - autodetects SB16, no PCM in test, MIDI works in test Descent - no PCM, MIDI works Extreme Pinball - no PCM Tennis Elbow Setup - autodetects SB16, no PCM in test, MIDI works in test Sensible Soccer - both MIDI and PCM work, but PCM is jerky and some sounds don't play right (ref's whistle) Hexx - PCM works Crazy Cars III - select SoundBlaster, no PCM Doom - Plays MIDI (GM), but hangs on startup if I configure PCM Doom II - same as Doom Duke Nukem 3D Setup - can't get SB PCM to work (invalid 16 bit DMA channel), test MIDI (GM) hangs Blood - same as Duke Nukem 3D Rise of the Triad setup - same as Duke Nukem 3D

I have managed to get several games' PCM support working with VDMSound (Hexx, for example), but most don't work. Descent, Extreme Pinball, Wolfenstein 3D, Epic Pinball, Sensible Soccer... None of these produce any sound, even though their sound utilities detect the emulated sound card just fine. I've tried MT and GM modes for just about all the games I have that support them, and none work. So I've managed to generate PCM sound in some cases, but never midi sound. Any ideas? Paths and environment variables are all set properly. This is on a Win2K box with an SB Live! running LiveWare2. The output of drv /v is: VDMSound DOS loader ver. 1.00 (Jul 04 2000) Copyright © Vlad ROMASCANU 2000. All rights reserved. Loading C:\Progra~1\Window~1\VDMSnd\VDMSound.dll... VDMSound VDD module ver. 1.00 (Jul 4 2000) Review version Copyright c Vlad ROMASCANU 2000. All rights reserved. Loaded (hVDD = 0x01) -- Settings used ----------------------- VDD/port=0e0 VDD/ID=NTVDMSound control, hVDD 1 renderers/PCM/devID=-1 renderers/midi/player/devID=-1 renderers/midi/isMT32=0 MPU401/port=330 MPU401/IRQ=2 MPU401/isMT32=1 SB16/port=220 SB16/IRQ=7 SB16/DMA=1 ---------------------------------------- Success