G-Force 3.5 problems on Windows XP SP2

[azilo]

Greetings -

I've just tried insalling G-Force 3.5 Platinum on my Windowx XP SP2 PC.

G-Force shows up within iTunes and works OK there. G-Force Standalone also seems to be OK, as does the G-Force Toolbar.

However neither the V-Bar nor the screensaver work: the former puts up its window but it remains steadfastly blank/black (even though the Toobar reports controlling it and shows the waveforms etc changing); the latter also gives a blank/black screen.

Any thoughts, please?

Mike

[andy55]

Greetings -

I've just tried insalling G-Force 3.5 Platinum on my Windowx XP SP2 PC.

G-Force shows up within iTunes and works OK there. G-Force Standalone also seems to be OK, as does the G-Force Toolbar.

However neither the V-Bar nor the screensaver work: the former puts up its window but it remains steadfastly blank/black (even though the Toobar reports controlling it and shows the waveforms etc changing); the latter also gives a blank/black screen.

Any thoughts, please?

Mike

There was a fix early this morning to the screen savers, so re-download the screen saver and you should be good to go (v 1.1.1).

As for your blank V-Bar, my best guess is that you don't have any sound activity going to the V-Bar. As a test, right-click (or control click) on the V-Bar, select the "High Energy" sound generator as the audio input source, and you should see visual activity.

Let us all know how things go..

Thanks,
Andy

[azilo]

There was a fix early this morning to the screen savers, so re-download the screen saver and you should be good to go (v 1.1.1).

The screen saver update does indeed seem to have worked: it now Previews and automatically kicks in just fine. Thanks for that!

As for your blank V-Bar, my best guess is that you don't have any sound activity going to the V-Bar. As a test, right-click (or control click) on the V-Bar, select the "High Energy" sound generator as the audio input source, and you should see visual activity.

Unfortunately I'd already been through all the various sound generator options (and had left it on "Chill" when I first wrote). I've switched it over to "High Energy" again but it still remains obstinately blank.

I've also tried reinstalling G-Force in the hope that might help, but it didn't. However this was using my original download: I assume you didn't update that as well as the screen saver earlier?

So any further suggestions about the V-bar would be nice although, for me, it's not too critical as I won't be using it much (small screen). However if it will help debug the problem/help prevent someone else having the difficulty do let me know if there's anything else I can try.

By the way, the PC itself has a standard install of XP (thoroughly patched), Office, iTunes, Ad-Aware and Spybot -- little else on it to interact badly. I'll try disabling the resident monitoring of Spybot just to see if that makes a difference.

Cheers,
Mike

[andy55]

There was a fix early this morning to the screen savers, so re-download the screen saver and you should be good to go (v 1.1.1).

The screen saver update does indeed seem to have worked: it now Previews and automatically kicks in just fine. Thanks for that!

As for your blank V-Bar, my best guess is that you don't have any sound activity going to the V-Bar. As a test, right-click (or control click) on the V-Bar, select the "High Energy" sound generator as the audio input source, and you should see visual activity.

Unfortunately I'd already been through all the various sound generator options (and had left it on "Chill" when I first wrote). I've switched it over to "High Energy" again but it still remains obstinately blank.

I've also tried reinstalling G-Force in the hope that might help, but it didn't. However this was using my original download: I assume you didn't update that as well as the screen saver earlier?

So any further suggestions about the V-bar would be nice although, for me, it's not too critical as I won't be using it much (small screen). However if it will help debug the problem/help prevent someone else having the difficulty do let me know if there's anything else I can try.

By the way, the PC itself has a standard install of XP (thoroughly patched), Office, iTunes, Ad-Aware and Spybot -- little else on it to interact badly. I'll try disabling the resident monitoring of Spybot just to see if that makes a difference.

Cheers,
Mike

I'm thinking more, and I bet it's because that machine doesn't have OpenGL (or even basic graphics hardware). What year, model, and make is it? With 3.5, the V-Bar now requires OpenGL.

Andy

[azilo]

I;m not sure about the date of the machine: it was re-deployed to me by a colleague who got a shiny new machine.

Mine's a Viglen Genie (I don't know which flavour) with a P4 1.8GHz processor and 256MB RAM. The "System" Control Panel says its display adapter is an "nVidia Riva TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro" (if that means more to you than it does to me? -- I'm really a Mac user at heart, and so know little about Windows and PCs).

I wiped its hard disk and put XP back onto it when I got it, which was a couple of months back. If it needs OpenGL downloading/adding separately then I certainly haven't done that. If there's some way of finding out more certainly someone will need to tell me how/where to look!

By the way, although the G-Force visualiser is working OK within iTunes when I play a CD there are still a few of other problems (which may be related?):

• The screen saver kicks in and displays, but the pattern it displays suggests it is not being modified by any audio. (I understand from the FAQ it should by default be using one of your own generators.)
• The Toolbar *ISN'T* seeing the V-Bar: it doesn't show up in the "Toolbar Preferences" pane's pop-up menu. However running Standalone shows this up OK: just not the V-bar.
• As with the screen saver, I'm not at all convinced that Standalone is actually being modified by audio, even though its audio in is set to use High Energy. (I've tried switching to this using both the Toolbar and Shift-A within Standalone.)

What I mean by the above is that the patterns aren't "wiggly enough": they swirl etc but aren't wriggling like they normally do.

If it's looking like it's the PC please don't worry: I'll simply put G-Force back onto my Mac instead. (I'd only wanted the screen saver running on the PC in the corner as a distraction whilst I do my real work on the Mac, so it won't be a huge problem for me.)

Cheers,
Mike

[azilo]

The driver that was installed when I put Windows XP on my PC was version 5.6.7.3 and dated 7/4/2004.

Because I'm a stubborn so-and-so and you [Andy] mentioned drivers I deicded to start trying different versions fro the nVidia web site.

If you use their clever form to select the RIVA TNT and Windows XP it suggests version 8.4.2.1 ... which fails to install saying that it's NOT compatible, and to use a 7-series driver instead.

So I worked my way down through 78.0.1, 7.7.7.7, 7.7.7.2, 7.1.8.9 and 7.1.8.4 ... most of which said in the blurb on the web page they supported the adapter, but their installer refused saying no compatible adapters were found.

But when I tried 6.6.9.3 this not only went in but the V-bar now displays! Furthermore both the V-bar, Standalone on the Screensaver all now 'wiggle' when used with a G-Force built-in sound generator (Chill/High Energy/Fluid). YAY!

Interestingly the 5.6.7.3 driver that came with Windows XP:

• Didn't work with V-bar etc,
• Isn't listed in nVidia's driver archive
• Didn't find anything later when I tried its 'Update' option

YAY!

Cheers,
Mike