quickie regarding nocd/back up cracks and stability issues

[coffin filler]

Hi all, and 4 those who know/remember me "im back "
Ok onto question. I seem to come up across the same problem every now and then. Here it is, I have two PCs and both meet all the required specs to play 3D games ect however one PC will run the games (Hitman 2, Battle field 1942, and now splinter cell) perfectly with nocd cracks for hitman 2 and 1942 and a backup crack for splinter cell but the other PC will NOT run hitman 2 when i use a crack, (i have used loads of different cracks for this game but the PC just dont want to know. It never gets past the loading screen and allways crashes back to desk top?. As for 1942 i can only get the game to run with a backup cd crack (cant remember witch one but the other PC runs it ok with a nocd and a backup crack) and splinter cell just wont run @ all with the backup cd crack that runs perfectly on the other PC. (confused yet ?).
ALL games run perfectly with out a crack and the original disks. Both PCs are running windows 98 second eddition. Its allmost as if some nocd/backup cracks work with one PC but not another. Also the PC that runs all the above mentioned games with the cracks wont run NOLF2 with the nocd crack but the other PC will . Is it the case if a crack works on one PC is not guarenteed to work on another PC? No smart remarks like " well use the PC that runs the games with the cracks" please.

@ RINCE. just to let you know the problems i was having with the driver updates for my geforce4 card are all sorted now, Thanks 4 all the help and info you supplied. The problem was my mother boards VIA chip set drivers it would seem. Once i Flashed the bios and updated the VIA drivers the stability/crashing/lock ups ect that allways happend when i updated my graphics card have stopped. No more 100s of E-mails from me to you and you to me Thanks again!

[ash2dust2]

I would swap hardware between the machines. Unless the 2 machines have the exact components.

Maybe the video cards use slightly different code (unless they are the exact same model), or maybe the sound cards use different drivers. Uninstall drivers, move hardware, install latest drivers and see if that changes anything.

Maybe something was added to Windows on one of the machines you dont know about (means times for clean installs). Etc, Etc.

[RincewindTheWiz]

Originally posted by coffin filler
@ RINCE. just to let you know the problems i was having with the driver updates for my geforce4 card are all sorted now, Thanks 4 all the help and info you supplied. The problem was my mother boards VIA chip set drivers it would seem. Once i Flashed the bios and updated the VIA drivers the stability/crashing/lock ups ect that allways happend when i updated my graphics card have stopped. No more 100s of E-mails from me to you and you to me Thanks again!

No problem. Glad to hear your gf4mx problem got fixed... And as for your new question : weird, you're SURE the original works on the bad pc too ? And they both use w98 ? I know of a very limited number of cracks that work on w95/w98/me and not on xp/2000 and vice versa, but that cannot be the problem here. Maybe you could try making an image with CloneCD and mount it with Daemon Tools. If that crashes too, the cracks are not the problem. Oh, and make sure your memory is working perfectly (with memtest86 like I told you). If you're not afraid of building pc's, maybe you could switch cases (and power supplies) and see if the problem goes with the power supply. Other than that, I'm fresh out of ideas. My last two ideas are good candidates for mysterious crashes, like the ones you have.

[coffin filler]

Hmmmm its a bugger aint it lol. @ash2dust2 No the hardware between the PCs is different ie Geforce4 440mx 64MB DDR in one and a Radeon 32MB DDR in another as well as different motherboards ect. It could well be that i need to reformat the BAD PC as you suggested but i was hopeing that wouldnt be the case as the game will run ok with the original disks ? (Its something 4 me to bare in mind )
@ RINCE Ive read what you posted (obviously ) and im wondering about

). If you're not afraid of building pc's, maybe you could switch cases (and power supplies) and see if the problem goes with the power supply.

I have built both of the PCs i own" but i am by no means a cleaver geek who needs no help " If i change the power supplies over is this intended to see if the problem is "not enough power being sent to different components" and resulting in the problems i have mentioned ?. If thats the case then i would be wondering why both PCs play the games from the original disks or am i missing the point ? (i know its hard to belive but its possible). My first point of call is to make a image through clone and mount it with daemon tools i think. I cant belive i diddnt think of that myself expecialy when ive told countless others to do exactly that. If i still have the probs with PC number 2 and nocd/backup cd cracks then mabey it will pay to reformat my hard drive. Is it poss that i could of picked something up that would stop "SOME" cracks working even though i use virus protection?
Thanks ppl for the info

[RincewindTheWiz]

Originally posted by coffin filler
I have built both of the PCs i own" but i am by no means a cleaver geek who needs no help "

If you built your own pc's, you're already half way to being a geek

If i change the power supplies over is this intended to see if the problem is "not enough power being sent to different components" and resulting in the problems i have mentioned ?. If thats the case then i would be wondering why both PCs play the games from the original disks or am i missing the point ? (i know its hard to belive but its possible).

That's what I wanted to test, yes. Yeah, well, I'm grasping at straws here too. As far as I know, both bad memory and an insufficient power supply can cause random problems. If your original always works and the crack never on the bad pc, then that's not really random of course, so have you tried it several times with the original to make sure that it's stable and not temporary ?

My first point of call is to make a image through clone and mount it with daemon tools i think. I cant belive i diddnt think of that myself expecialy when ive told countless others to do exactly that. If i still have the probs with PC number 2 and nocd/backup cd cracks then mabey it will pay to reformat my hard drive. Is it poss that i could of picked something up that would stop "SOME" cracks working even though i use virus protection?

Difficult to say, I can't really think of something. When the crack doesn't work and the original does, it's a crack problem. But you've got another PC with the same OS where it does work. So the mystery remains. All I can suggest is testing the memory, the power supply, updating all drivers (don't forget the mb drivers) and of course see if Daemon Tools helps.

One last thing : I know that badly written programs in the W95/W98/WMe range of OS'ses can get away with a whole lot more than under the NT OS'ses (like XP). This means that a badly written crack may work at random on a W98 system while this likely wouldn't be the case on for example XP. This is getting really hypothetical, but it's all I can think of. Even if the crack was badly made, it still is pretty weird that it works on one system and not the other. If all else fails, wait until some other cracks come out and try those.

You really are a vat full of mysterious PC problems, aren't you ? Ouch my poor head

[ash2dust2]

PSU and case would be the last thing I would try, but I've been there before.

Since the games run fine off the original CD's I would assume some form of code (windows, addons, drivers, etc) is not playing nice with the No-CD cracks. Moving video card and sound card would rule out those driver interactions as those 2 tend to be the biggest reason games crash.

Also, are the 2 machines at the same level of Windows update?

Good to hear you're up to date with the VIA drivers as they did/still do have issues. I'd have to say intel chipsets have been way more reliable.

[coffin filler]

Ok problem sorted,or so it would seem .
@ ash2dust2. It would seem you were right about

Also, are the 2 machines at the same level of Windows update?

Hmmm i wouldnt of belived it if the evidence diddnt speak for its self. (or in this case play for its self). I was unsure if both machines were @ the same levle of update with windows so instead of checking i just updated both machines as far as they would go and hey persto the games ran with the cracks on bad PC . Whilst i do use windows update i have found in the past that some updates fix one problem but cause another so i try to update windows as a last resort. Im very greatfull to both of you for the info/help you provided but more so is my oldest child who can now play the mentioned games on his PC. (I dont let him use mine ever since he killed the last one ).
@ RINCE just a quickie

If you built your own pc's, you're already half way to being a geek

Whilst i belive this is true dose that mean that you are a fully fledged Geek . (seeing as you seem to know more about PCs than me ).
Thanks again ppl

[ash2dust2]

Very good to know that some cracks on Win98SE boxes are dependent on Windows being updated.