screensaver running very slow :(

[calimako]

Hi guys.. I just installed marine aq 2.0 time on my laptop here.. its is a dell latitude.. pent III 1.2 mhz w/ 521 mb of ram. running win2k.

The screen saver works, but the fish swim really really slow.. like the screensaver is in slow motion. This fish don't swim natural at all.. any ideas why? I ran my windows task manager while i previewed the screensaver and realize it makes my cpu usage go from 5% to 95%.. ouch.. do I need a faster processor?

Any way I can get this ss to work normally on my machine? Any advice would help.. thanks guys

cali

[calimako]

When I hit the s key while the ss is running to get the frame rate.. it is less than 3 fps.. very slow

but when the ss is running and i hit the f key to shrink the ss window, it runs smoothly at like 22-25 fps. but of course it runs in a little window...

hmmm any suggestions?

Thanks
cali

[Jav400]

Although the processor or takes a hit, there are ways to fix that. The main thing you need to run it is a good video card. If your laptop is very old it might not have the video card to run it. You can try updating your video card drivers, but you must get those from Dell. Next time its running hit the "S" key and tell us exactly what it says in the top left corner, also how old is this system and what video card does it have?

[feldon34]

Can you please tell us the model number of your Dell laptop and when you bought it?

[calimako]

thanks for the help guys..

when i hit s.. this is what appears
2.91 fps (1024x768x32) RGB emulation, VSyncOFF, 0525.2.0.126

my graphics adapter is
ATI Radeon Mobility M6(LY)
Internal DAC 350Mhz
Memory size: 16MB <-- could this be the problem?

It's my work dell laptop..
its a dell latitude

let me know what you guys think?

Thanks
cali

[feldon34]

Just so you know, "Dell Latitude" describes dozens of different laptops.

Since you have the ATI Radeon Mobility, that means you bought the laptop just a couple of years ago and should be able to get the Aquarium to run smoothly.

The 16MB is not very large so I would economize the Aquarium's memory usage, I would press the SPACE bar and go to Settings and under "Windows resolution and color depth:" I would choose 1024 x 768 x 16 and see if the Aquarium runs smoothly. If it does, try increasing to 1280 x 1024.

Make sure you are running Marine Aquarium 2.0.1 from SereneScreen.com but NOT the "MD" version (widescreen/dual) since that version requires even more video RAM (you have 16).

[Edgar]

Actually the problem sounds more like the 3D hardware is not enabled? Run DxDiag and see if Direct 3D is enabled. If it isn't enabled then a driver reinstall is needed.
Also try running the aquarium at 16bit mode and/or lower resolution.

[feldon34]

Yes, go to the Start menu and choose "Run...".

Type "dxdiag" and click OK.

After it loads up and does its diagnostics, in the window that appears, click the "Display" tab.

Down towards the bottom of this window, look for
DirectX Features
- DirectDraw Acceleration
- Direct3D Acceleration
- AGP Texture Acceleration

and then buttons on the right to Test DirectDraw and Test Direct3D.

Can you tell us whether any of those are "Disabled"?

[calimako]

DirectX Features
- DirectDraw Acceleration - not available
- Direct3D Acceleration- enabled
- AGP Texture Acceleration- not available

my laptop is a latitude c610

[calimako]

when I run dxdiag, it says that i have netmeeting running which can affect my direct3d hardware acc. But I have no instance of netmeeting running. hmmmm why would it think I have netmeeting running?

I also ran the 3d test.. the direct 3d 7 interface test fails- out of memory, but 8 & 9 work... do I need to update this driver?

Here are the notes from the display tab from dxdiag

NetMeeting is running. Direct3D hardware acceleration may not work until NetMeeting is shut down.
To test DirectDraw functionality, click the "Test DirectDraw" button above.
To test Direct3D functionality, click the "Test Direct3D" button above.

[calimako]

Hey guys.. first of all thanks for your help.. never knew about dxdiag..
well this netmeeting thing baffled me.. so I went ahead and launched netmeeting (something I have never used so far because it launched for the first time asking me setup information). well after netmeeting opened, i went into its options to make sure it is not starting up automatically, etc. then I made sure to shut down netmeeting and made sure no instances of it was running.. did dxdiag and all the 3d tests worked . I also went to dell's website and they had an updated driver for my laptop's video card.. i updated the driver.. restarted the machine and the aquarium saver runs grreat
51+ fps...

thanks you guys for you help and time

cali

[feldon34]

Microsoft Netmeeting clobbers the whole computer and prevents any DirectX applications from running. It also surruptiously turns on file sharing for all your hard drives without asking you.