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-   Marine Aquarium 3 for Windows (https://www.feldoncentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=46)
-   -   Windows 7 & MA3? (https://www.feldoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5145)

justfinnin 01-26-2010 02:10 PM

With all of your help, I know enough to be dangerous. Now I know that I am referring to the WEI (Windows Experience Index) for W7, which is determined by the lowest sub score. In my case, that is 4.9 that is associated with my graphics, NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GT. I have just finished updating my display driver from the Device Manager, and my graphics card driver that I downloaded right from NVIDIA. However, my WEI is still 4.9. Microsoft says a score of 2 is typically sufficient for basic computer tasks like word processing or web browsing. A 3 or higher is frequently needed for graphics-intensive software. So, where does that leave me? Happy is the answer, now that you've helped me do what I could, without investing money in my system. Thanks, Don

JohnWho 01-26-2010 02:20 PM

There you go.

Also, then, as you note, if the 4.9 is associated with your graphic card then a newer card would raise your score.

I paid about $100 for a NVidie GeForce 9800GT that gives me a 6.9 for both graphics index numbers.

Doesn't mean your overall number will go up to 6.8, though. Most likely one or more of your other scores is under 6.8.

In any case - enjoy.

harris 01-26-2010 03:22 PM

Don,

As JohnWho stated "enjoy you computer", and as Feldon said "...Quit worrying about that 4.9 score!...".

As long as you are not a "Hardcore Gamer", and you said you weren't, you have no need to spend any more money to improve your "WEI" number.

Your system is even perfect for basic gaming, and any kind of desktop software you will use, e.g. word processsing, encyclopedias, music, videos, web surfing, picture editing, etc, etc. So enjoy your new hobby and welcome to the forum. ;)

feldon34 01-26-2010 07:43 PM

I should probably reboot:

Windows XP Professional
Service Pack 3
uptime - 7w 4d 4h 19m 17s

harris 01-26-2010 08:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by feldon33 (Post 118304)
I should probably reboot:

Windows XP Professional
Service Pack 3
uptime - 7w 4d 4h 19m 17s

???
Is this some kind of cryptic message? If you literally mean reboot do you also perform maintenance at the same time, if so, how many minutes of downtime does it require?

flip 01-27-2010 03:25 AM

Quote:

I have just installed W7 as a clean installation and I am wondering how it is working with W7.
I only asked this simple question and the answer was even simpler YES.

I only had one concern and that was using my own music and that was fixed quickly and that had nothing to do with the actual fish and reef.

The only other problem I have I would love to buy the CD but I can not get it in Aust or NZ for some reason.:confused::confused:

Flip. :):):)

feldon34 01-27-2010 06:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by harris (Post 118306)
???
Is this some kind of cryptic message? If you literally mean reboot do you also perform maintenance at the same time, if so, how many minutes of downtime does it require?

Meaning I have not rebooted my Windows XP computer in 7 weeks and 4 days. That's close to my Windows 2000 record.

Wizwad 01-27-2010 07:27 AM

I'm just amazed your system is even responding. I'd expect to see a frozen image on the screen if I left my XP3 machinery running for that long!

Jav400 01-27-2010 08:09 AM

Morgan - that is not close to your 2k record if I remember correctly. I let my 2k system run for ~5 months one time and the only reason I rebooted then was an update for the virus software. You were not far behind me at that time with your system.

feldon34 01-27-2010 08:56 AM

Alas, I tempted the fates. I visited a website in Firefox and somehow it spawned an IE window. As you all know, IE has a security vulnerability which has been exploited recently. Well, of course the website that got opened in IE had that exploit. So some fake "antivirus 2010" software installed itself.

Had to go ahead and install the 2 month queue of Windows Updates, installed Spybot 1.6.3, ran all the scans and updates, and rebooted.

Won't be long til I move this computer to Windows 7.

garybebee 02-04-2010 03:03 PM

the pc is new all sound functions work fine except for the ma3 simulation.

Dale 02-04-2010 06:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by garybebee (Post 118499)
the pc is new all sound functions work fine except for the ma3 simulation.

(Not helpful, but...) The sound in MA3 works fine on my two W7-64 systems and two W7-32 systems.

A. Just checking - do you have the sound (bubbles and music) turned on in the program settings, and the volume turned up in those settings?

B. Perhaps there is some "sound control panel" setting that would help? (in Control Panel). You've probably tried that, but it's the only suggestion I have.

garybebee 02-23-2010 09:33 PM

hi folks, new to this type of communication. the only program the sound fails on is MA3. the pc is new. intel I7 processor, win7 home premium, 9GB ram, 1TB hdd, nvidia 260gtx video card. i did go back and re-install ma 2.6 and the sound worked fine. i then uninstalled 2.6 and re-installed ma3 got the same result as before...great video of ma3 but still no sound. went into device mgr and checked sound ..no issues. i figured i should just wait for the finished version for sound.:)

Dale 02-23-2010 10:45 PM

Repeating:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dale (Post 118503)
(Not helpful, but...) The sound in MA3 works fine on my two W7-64 systems and two W7-32 systems.

A. Just checking - do you have the sound (bubbles and music) turned on in the program settings, and the volume turned up in those settings?

With MA3 running, press the space bar.
Click on "Program Settings", and verify that you have sound checked (bottom of the panel) and volume turned up. Click OK.
Click on "Music Playlist", and verify that there is something listed to play. Click OK.

Perhaps you already did that, and just didn't say so. If that's the case, sorry for the repetition.

Please come back and tell us - but if all of that is OK, I'm totally out of ideas.

garybebee 02-24-2010 03:01 PM

yes, i tried all that numerous times. thanks for the suggestion though. i have used jim's sofware for many years and i won't give up. i am just going to wait now for the non-beta version.lol. i didn't want to say final as jim seems to dislike that designation.

Dale 02-24-2010 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by garybebee (Post 118961)
yes, i tried all that numerous times. thanks for the suggestion though. i have used jim's sofware for many years and i won't give up. i am just going to wait now for the non-beta version.lol. i didn't want to say final as jim seems to dislike that designation.

OK, well I did have one other idea that you might try.

Try adding your own music selection, and removing the CanonGuitar.sgt in the playlist.

From another thread, there are differences in the way MA3 handles things, so do it this way:

Get MA3 running (however you wish).
Press the space bar.
Click on the Music button, add your music track, remove the CanonGuitar.sgt track. Click OK.
Click on the Program Settings button, verify that you have the Music setting checked. Click OK,
Click OK
Listen to your music.

That's from https://www.feldoncentral.com/forums...ead.php?t=5164

Of course, maybe you've already tried that, too.

Oh - just checking. I'm assuming you are running the latest version of MA3?

[And I'm quite doubtful that removing "beta" from the name, will fix your problem]

garybebee 02-24-2010 05:47 PM

doesn't appear to like metallica either. lol. thanks for your persevearance. just downloaded this one today. one thing i do notice. whenever i download ma3 anew, it never asks me for my keycode it seems to be autofilling when i click on register. is that the way it should work? i even tried to download ma3 after uninstalling microsoft security essentials as you cannot turn it off.

Jim Sachs 02-24-2010 08:21 PM

garybebee -

You are correct that the Key Code only needs to be entered once. Any downloads of MA3 will recognize the existing Key Code.

Sorry, but I don't have a clue why the sound isn't working on your machine. No one else has been able to duplicate the problem (I don't personally have Windows 7).

Dale is right - removing "Beta" from the name will not fix your sound.

Regarding Microsoft Security Essentials - You needn't bother uninstalling it. Our instructions say to turn off Anti-virus software, but only because all software instructions say that. I've never heard of a case where it was actually necessary.

Dale 02-24-2010 09:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by garybebee (Post 118965)
doesn't appear to like metallica either. lol. thanks for your persevearance. just downloaded this one today. one thing i do notice. whenever i download ma3 anew, it never asks me for my keycode it seems to be autofilling when i click on register. is that the way it should work? i even tried to download ma3 after uninstalling microsoft security essentials as you cannot turn it off.

As Jim said, you don't need to uninstall MSE. Also, until you see an announcement in this forum, downloading again isn't helpful - 10d is the latest.

A fair number of folks here are running MA3 on various flavors of Windows 7.

[I'm assuming that you tried metallica from some music file on your computer, rather than from a CD - but we've learned here to make sure our assumptions are as clearly identified as possible] [I'm assuming that you hear nothing from your speakers when MA3 is running]

1. Just for grins, instead of metallica, try one of the music samples that install with Windows - normally in C:\Users\Public\Music\Sample Music (which should show up in your "Music Library").

2. Have you ever uninstalled MA3, rebooted, and then reinstalled MA3?

3. Can you successfully change other features in MA3? For instance, can you turn off/on the bubble column, start mode, pan setting, fish settings, etc.? [other things that are stored in the registry]

4. Grasping at straws - in your Personalization\Screen Saver Settings\Screen Saver pulldown list, are there perhaps more than one Marine Aquarium 3 entries?

feldon34 02-25-2010 07:59 AM

How odd. I could understand if just the built-in sound didn't work, as it's essentially a MIDI File and you may have MIDI turned down in your sound settings. But you say you also tried mp3 files and those didn't work, but mp3s play fine in other programs on the same computer.

Just as a test, can you run MA3 as Administrator to see if that's an issue? Sometimes programs which are not in the "foreground" are not allowed to play sound unless they have requested the necessary privileges. I have to run Ventrilo as Administrator for example.

garybebee 02-25-2010 11:09 AM

i think there must be something weird going on. ma3 desktop shortcut is the only one that does not give me an option to run as admin. when i right click it?????

garybebee 02-25-2010 11:12 AM

sample music tracks also no joy. i tried right clicking shortcut and the option to "run as administrator is missing???

garybebee 02-25-2010 11:14 AM

all other featyres not associated with sound work fine.

Dale 02-25-2010 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by garybebee (Post 118980)
all other featyres not associated with sound work fine.

OK, one last shot in the dark:

Delete the following file:

C:\Users\Your Account Name\AppData\Roaming\Marine Aquarium 3\MA3Playlist.lst

Also, if there is a CanonGuitar.sgt file in that same folder, delete it.

Refresh to make absolutely sure that those files are gone.

Now try MA3.

feldon34 02-25-2010 11:58 AM

Try renaming the file to MarineAquarium3.exe. I don't think Screen Savers are allowed to run as Admin.

garybebee 02-25-2010 12:04 PM

i got the music to work from the sample list that came with win7, but still no bubble sound. i am currently trying to find a loop of bubble sound effects to add as mp3 or wav file which i will then add to the music selection. you don't happen to know what sound source jim used do you? that would be the best source. thanks again. gary

Dale 02-25-2010 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by garybebee (Post 118984)
i got the music to work from the sample list that came with win7, but still no bubble sound. i am currently trying to find a loop of bubble sound effects to add as mp3 or wav file which i will then add to the music selection. you don't happen to know what sound source jim used do you? that would be the best source. thanks again. gary

Aha! Well, "assumptions" (and reluctance to insult people) got me again. I "assumed" that you had added metallica from some reasonable file format. And didn't insist on saying "tell us exactly, step by step, ...".

OK, what is the file name of the sample that plays properly in MA3?

The problem is fairly clearly something that's unique to your computer/software combination - probably something that was introduced by some application software that you are running, that hijacked something.

Perhaps you could share with us, what other applications you are running.

The following says it can find out and fix some things about .sgt files - I haven't tried it, and of course it could be a virus or something, so ...

http://www.filetypeshelp.com/types/S...FRHyDAod6j9SeQ

garybebee 02-25-2010 06:11 PM

the sound file that is working is in the music folder under win7 sample\sleep away mp3. i went through and removed some older programs i don't use often and have the disks for, but that did not seem to catch the problem. i don't run any what you would consider exotic programs. no cad or music editing or movie editing types of things. the filetype link you recommend won't load on a 64bit system for some reason. pop-up says only x86. i went back and tried another from the sample list and it too works. seems like mp3 are okay for some reason. i searched the internet for bubble sound loops to add into the music list as a substitute but didn't find anything appropriate.

Jim Sachs 02-25-2010 09:27 PM

Make sure your MIDI drivers are installed and working. Use DXDIAG to check the Sound and Music sections. Under Music, tell us what it says about MIDI.

The default MA3 music is an SGT (segment) file, which is a stripped-down MIDI file. All the fancy proprietary stuff is removed, so it should be very simple for the DirectX drivers to play. The sound card doesn't even need any built-in sounds, since I provide them in the file. The Microsoft DirectMusic Producer tool saves its output as SGT files.

Dale 02-25-2010 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by garybebee (Post 119000)
the sound file that is working is in the music folder under win7 sample\sleep away mp3. ...
... i went back and tried another from the sample list and it too works. seems like mp3 are okay for some reason..

I suggest that you find a midi (.mid or .midi extension) somewhere and try it as a diagnostic. I probably won't play - which would confirm the problem.

The good news is that we've finally identified the problem; it's not a bug in MA3.

The bad news is that there is now very little we can do to help you find and fix the reason that your computer won't play those files.

garybebee 02-26-2010 06:14 AM

i typed midi samples in my search engine and then listened to "sabre dance , quite entertaining. i'm not sure how to interpret the dxdiag file i ran. what should i look for?

feldon34 02-26-2010 06:38 AM

You can actually copy and paste the dxdiag file here.

garybebee 02-26-2010 07:26 AM

Description: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0888&SUBSYS_103C2A86&REV_1002
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Type: WDM
Driver Name: RTKVHD64.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.5910 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: n/a
Date and Size: 8/4/2009 09:50:58, 1973792 bytes
Other Files:
Driver Provider: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
HW Accel Level: Basic
Cap Flags: 0x0
Min/Max Sample Rate: 0, 0
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 0, 0
Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0
HW Memory: 0
Voice Management: No
EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No
I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): No
Description: Realtek HDMI Output (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Default Sound Playback: No
Default Voice Playback: No
Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0888&SUBSYS_103C2A86&REV_1002
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Type: WDM
Driver Name: RTKVHD64.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.5910 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: n/a
Date and Size: 8/4/2009 09:50:58, 1973792 bytes
Other Files:
Driver Provider: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
HW Accel Level: Basic
Cap Flags: 0x0
Min/Max Sample Rate: 0, 0
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 0, 0
Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0
HW Memory: 0
Voice Management: No
EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No
I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: No, No hope you can make something out of all this. looks like greek to me i'm afraid.

Dale 02-26-2010 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by garybebee (Post 119014)
i typed midi samples in my search engine and then listened to "sabre dance , quite entertaining.

To be complete, was this file extension .mid or .midi? And please find and try the "other" extension to see if it is handled differently. There is not supposed to be any difference, but.....

OK, so to summarize (if I'm reading this stuff correctly):

Your system plays .mp3 files OK.
Your system plays .mid files OK.
Your system does not play sound that is in .sgt format.

Please confirm that last statement by clicking on the file:

C:\Users\Your Account Name\AppData\Roaming\Marine Aquarium 3\CanonGuitar.sgt

and reporting the results here. (That file usually exists, but may not in some cases).

I have no depth of expertise in how sound stuff works, so I'm just trying to clearly isolate the symptoms so that other folks can help.

Vinz Clortho 02-26-2010 10:48 AM

I agree with Dale. Probably some other piece of software has altered the file association setting for .sgt files. Uninstalling the software doesn't necessarily reset those settings, and I've not been able to find a fix online. There is a way to do it through the folder options in Windows explorer, but I have no idea how.

Jav400 02-26-2010 10:49 AM

Not to be presumptuous, I haven't had time to go back and read through all this, but did you ever try Morgan's suggestion and change to an .exe file and make sure it wasn't just a permissions problem?

garybebee 02-26-2010 12:59 PM

i did rename it .exe but it didn't help.

garybebee 02-26-2010 01:04 PM

i never got the .sgt file to play. the canon guitar it was called i think.

Dale 02-26-2010 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by garybebee (Post 119029)
i did rename it .exe but it didn't help.

The suggestion was to rename it .exe, and then right-click it and run as administrator. Just for completeness, did you do that?

[My guess is that it wouldn't change anything, but I'm trying to make sure we dot all the i's and cross all the t's]

Dale 02-26-2010 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by garybebee (Post 119030)
i never got the .sgt file to play. the canon guitar it was called i think.

Did you try it directly, by clicking on the file?


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