Ugh. Reminder note to self:
1. Computer problems, like s**t, happen as a fact of life.
2. There's no point running around the house screaming repeatedly "there's a problem with my sh3!". SWMBO will simply call in the little men in white uniforms to take me away. From previous experience, the food at the asylum is not as good, and they don't have Guinness.
3. Be calm and think things through, it may take time, but there's probably a solution.
4. With any luck, it may be possible to identify the problem before hell freezes over.
5. See the whole thing as a learning experience.
Right.
So here's my troubleshooting plan (including what I've looked at so far) in case anyone can suggest (and knowing not a heck of a lot about monitor/display stuff, would sure appreciate) that something is pointless to check or maybe it's more efficient in another sequence:
1. Running on a P4 2.5 GHz with 1Meg RAM and ATI Radeon x1650Pro vid card (512M), while not at all high-end, the game has always run pretty smoothly. However, could be a memory issue. RAM is maxed out on 1G. Thought occurred to check page file size, it was set at default from recent re-install, so I upped page file to 4096 from default 1500, but no effect.
2. What did I change since things were last ok a couple of days ago? I was fiddling with some of the monitor settings on this new Samsung 223BW lcd. So I checked and reset as far as I could remember to previous settings, but no effect.
3. Wondering if it's some sort of lag with the visual sighting, one thing I'm scratching my head about is that I'm not sure if this is the first time I've come into visual contact with a target since I got the new monitor. 'Cause it did occur immediately after I acquired visual on this new contact. Thing is I'm not sure, because I was on TC, believe 64 or 128, when the ship was spotted. So it was on automatically dropping to 1x with the sighting and hitting F4 that the problem was there. Racking my brain, I think I've had earlier visual contacts using this monitor. So I'm not sure that it's actually linked to the visual sighting. Is it linked to the sunset?
4. I have the res fix on, so checked that res setting matches res setting in d3d9 cfg file. yes.
5. Have to try another res or two to see if still have the problem. In particular, try 1280x960 which I'd been playing on recently. One change I did make sometime last week was to change to 1280x1024. Although even if another res is ok, that doesn't id the problem and the 1280x1024 res is real nice.
6. A monitor driver problem? Would be surprised since it's been fine up to now, but could try this. There is a more recently dated driver, so suck it up and try it at some point, hoping it doesn't cause problems that aren't there now. Chances are that the monitor will not blow up and that I'll be able to roll back the driver if necessary. Being optimistic is good.
7. Monitor refresh rate. On 1280x1024, the default refresh is showing 60Hz, but seems it can go to 75Hz. Can try adjusting this. SH3 synchronize setting is on, so don't see that the game "refresh" would be faster than the monitor's though. Is it possible that the monitor is too fast on refresh for the game? Wouldn't think so.
8. Installed the monitor with the digital cable rather than the analog. Does this make a difference somehow?
9. Oh, right. Yes, checked the monitor manual troubleshooting section. Nothing there that helps id problem.
10. Scratching head a bit about the res fix d3d9cfg file which reads:
;
; DX9res Settings
; by Kegetys <
kegetys@dnainternet.net>
;
; Note that this config is reloaded on device reset, so you can task switch out
; of the game, change settings from this file and then return
;
[config]
; ResX: Horizontal resolution setting
; ResY: Vertical resolution setting
; useFiltering: Use linear filtering for UI elements
; enableScreenshots: Hook printscreen keypress to save TGA screenshot
resX=1280
resY=1024
useFiltering=1
enableScreenshots=1
screenshotPath=.
[gamma]
; setGamma: Override gamma ramp
; gammaRed: Red channel gamma (1.0 = normal, decrease to add brightess, increase to darken)
; gammaGreen: Green channel gamma (1.0 = normal, decrease to add brightess, increase to darken)
; gammaBlue: Blue channel gamma (1.0 = normal, decrease to add brightess, increase to darken)
setGamma=0
gammaRed=1.0
gammaGreen=1.0
gammaBlue=1.0
...don't know what the heck the usefiltering=1 setting is or if this might somehow be conflicting with monitor settings? Likewise the setGamma=0 setting?
11. Bump up post for help. A bit presumptuous since just posted yesterday, but a necessary evil perhaps as otherwise could risk the little men in white coats scenario. Maybe just maybe someone on the forum will have an idea what the problem is and save the day.
12. Go get a Guinness.
13. Move #12 to #1 in sequence.
Sorry for the long post.