Doomlord

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Has anyone got an easy solution for disabling the Windows key in CoH?

Nothing is more annoying when trying to use a tray power shortcut with alt and then tapping the windows key by accident.

To add insult to injury, I decided to take a chance on the sidewinder x6 keyboard, since I read in reviews that you can macro (nice) and disable keys (yay!).

Well, of course the alt key on the x6 is even smaller than the previous keyboard I had and I tap that @#$%% windows key more than I used to. I figure I'll get used to the new key size eventually, but I should hop into the Intellitype software to disable the windows key.

Well to make matters even worse, the Intellitype software has a handy key disable function which works fine in everything EXCEPT CoH... In other words, I can disable the windows key universally, but as soon as I switch to CoH it functions again. Which was really hilarious since as soon as I accidentally tapped the windows key to activate it, the key was disabled so I couldn't double tap it to get rid of it. Which is great on a strike force where you're taking an alpha strike.

So...to make a long story short...is there an easier way to disable the windows key for CoH, via the registry (free hack) or intellitype for the sidewinder x6? What am I doing wrong here?

PS. This is a vista 64 install if that makes any difference

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Heh, Microsoft hardware.

This has a "gaming" mode that disables the Windows key easily (my current keyboard):
http://saitek.com/uk/prod/cykeyv2.htm

That's what I use. Good alternative is a flat-head screwdriver.

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It is not as bad as the attempts at grammar in arena chat tonight.

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That must be it. Elkie is attempting to cause the universe to collapse by making the forums as utterly retarded as Arena chat.

It makes so much sense now.

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BMT is a fake channel. It doesn't really exist.

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Either that or it's in a existential quandary. How the hell I am managing to make this post after so many beers is beyond me...

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1) did it

2) will do, but oddly enough it works when I play other games like warhammer and pirates of the burning sea

3) I don't understand what a cohhelper is or a hijack this report....

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Take a look at the sticky in this forum.

Well, if you only need to control four fans, this should be fairly straightforward. Keep in mind that the fans will, with most of these controllers, have to be the 3-pin connector type that goes into your motherboard as opposed to the Molex-type plugs that go directly into your power supply.

Here's a few to take a look at:
AeroCool GW101
Sythe Kaze Master
Xion MTR001B

Post a CoH Helper and HijackThis report (instructions in the sticky).

Try running the game in safe mode (it's a check box in the updater). Your computer should be able to run City of Heroes, albeit not very well, as you're running on very low-end graphics hardware.

Run 245313.

Also, what case and how many fans do you want to control?

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Maybe the first link just changed, but if not..

9400 GT: Free shipping, after rebate price of 47.99
VS
9600 GT: After rebate price of 79.99 + 7.00 shipping = 86.99

Going with the first one is a no brainer.

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I want to do video encoding. A Core i7 costs almost $300, but I can snag a Pentium 4 off Ebay for $25. Is going with the P4 a no brainer? The OP bought his card at Best Buy for $70. I threw the Newegg link in for the sake of comparison.

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Looks to me like it has 1GB onboard and its equivalent to an 8500GT so its OK for the $$$ spent.

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I would disagree. Seventy bucks for this? I would look at a 9600GT for around that price, rather. It's an actual gaming card.

To answer the OP's question, video RAM works just like system RAM: once you have enough of it, adding more doesn't really help you any. In the case of City of Heroes, anything with 256MB or more will do fine at max settings, so no difference between 512MB and 1GB. What will make a difference is the horsepower that the card's GPU has, and the 9600GT is going to have a lot more horsepower than the 9400GT, which is designed more for desktop photo/video editing and DVD playback than anything else.

If you can still return that card, I would do so, because (sorry to say this) you got ripped off.

Everyone is. It's a known issue.

I had this exact same issue with my old 8800GTX. After replacing it, I stuck it in another machine to test it out. It generated graphics articles on the desktop. That card was dead, and I know it never got too hot, so it wasn't an overheating issue. Rather (this is my theory, mind you) the PCB on the card warped after I replaced the stock cooler - the aftermarket one didn't give any support to the rear of the card where the two PCI-E connectors were, due to my zealous cable management, pulling down on the card just a bit.

Don't rule out hardware even if the temperatures look fine.

I14 PvP still sucks, but the video was very well done.

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I recently started a new account to play with my girlfriend. I have a Radeon 4850x2 and so I expected some problems here and there after reading a bit in the forums about ATI cards. She has an Nvidia 9800 GTX+ and runs great.

When I load anything the loading screen is extremely white. My in game is very, very dark, and I can't change any graphics options but the resolution.

Here is where the main problem comes in. After a few days of playing I missed my old characters from way back in beta and the first year of COH. I remembered my username thanks to a friend, and reactivated that account. When I log in the old one and go to options I noticed I can change all of the graphical setting. I put them all on high and even fsaa just to see if it will work and it runs great for a while. I then log out and onto another character from my old account, random object skins start to cycle through other object skins.

Example: I was in a small park like area between some buildings, the grass instead of grass was what looks to be a wall, then it changed to some sort of sign, then to what might have been a tree.
Every time I log out then back in it gets worse and worse until I quit to windows and start the game fresh.

At this point I am still happy just because the game doesn't look like garbage anymore so I log back into my new account and I still cannot change any of the graphical settings and it's still extremely dark in game and loading screens are very bright.
This is all on one computer so I'm kind of confused how just because they are different accounts they can act so differently on the same PC.

Also I have written customer support a few times and have not received anything from them except a customer satisfaction survey.

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Well, outside of stealthily switching video cards with your girlfriend, there's not going to be a total fix. ATI's OpenGL support just sucks.

However, I would try turning off bloom, turning the water effects to low, and disable FSAA. See if the problem stops - those three settings have, according to my somewhat dated knowledge (last ATI card was an X1600 Pro), been the ones that seem to give CoH problems. If you still want antialiasing, turning it on in the CCC instead of in-game - that's never given me issues.

Doing a clean driver install with Driver Sweeper might be a good idea as well, if that doesn't work.

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Vista claims the video drivers are failing and it auto-restarts them. Sometimes it claims it's a hardware problem. I haven't really taken those seriously since every diagnostic software ever made always blames hardware when it can't figure out the problem. Besides, it's also happening to my wife starting at about the same time. The coincidence seems incredible but I guess I've seen stranger things.

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Take a look at this thread.

Adjust the resolution that the game runs at? Post a CoH Helper report and we can know for sure.

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UPDATE:

My onboard video card (i.e. nVIDA) doesn't like ATI. That and the AGP slot might not take cards with a power source. So returning the card I have is a must, now I just need a video card that doesn't take a power source..

Any ideas?

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Uh, who's feeding you this [censored]? Neither the thing about ATI vs. NVIDIA nor the power source thing is true.

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Okay guys Thanks for all the great advice.
Along with what you all said plus the articles I have been reading
all over (Toms Hardware, Tech Spot ect) I have tweaked my build.

The verdict:

I am going quad. Why?

Well I am a gamer and that's what I do with my free time.
But I also record my own music. That was the biggest factor influencing my choice.

Granted I might not see a big improvement in gaming but I will make up for it when it comes to recording. so the money isn't wasted. As for the OS I will keep my 32 bit for now. I will get a 64 bit after I build my PC. I am also just going to go with a singe GPU.

So here is my updated parts list.

CPU: Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz
Mobo: ASUS P5N-D
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX
Ram: 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (X2 2GB for 4GB)
GPU: EVGA GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB
HDD: HITACHI 0A38016 1TB 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb
Case: XCLIO A380PLUS-BK

Grand total is $916.93 Not too bad.

Also I am going to buy the CPU and the MOBO at the same time
as mentioned above by Ironblade I need to at least get my CPU and Mobo at the same time.
Next month I will get my PSU and Ram. My Case and HDD will be bought last.

Thanks for your replies. I really appreciate you pointing stuff out to me! this is my #2 build for myself,
but I have built as least 14 in total. Although this is my first build involving either Dual or Quad CPU. Hence the thread.

Again Thanks!!

Xendoshi

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Going to a WD Caviar Black is another, what, $30? Seriously, do it.

Looks good other than that.

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Yes but the USB interface itself is a limiting factor (slower than HD) plus the higher CPU overhead.

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Exactly. USB 3 might change that, though.

Kinda surprised someone hasn't gone through the "hahaha get a real computer" trolling on this thread yet. What operating system are you running, for starters? OS X?

CoH Helper and HijackThis reports please. Instructions in the sticky in this forum.

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DirectX Diag version: 6.00.6001.18000 (32-bit version)


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Looks like you have 32 bit Vista, try installing the Catalyst drivers for 32 bit Vista.

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I am and it still dosnt work

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DirectX Diagnostic runs in 32-bit mode by default, regardless of your operating system.

I vaguely remembered having issues like this the last time I had an ATI card in one of my systems (and yes, it's one of the reasons that was the last time) and it wound up being an issue with the .NET framework. I would download the latest from Microsoft and reinstall that, then try your drivers again.

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I'm sorta surprised the card didn't come with an extender.

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I was too.

But it seems I have another problem. I had the guy extend the power source cable, plugged it up, and hooked the other wires up and watch the screen to animate annnnndddddd nothing. Monitor says "No Video" and goes to sleep.

*>,<* I'm going to kill it..

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Does your motherboard have onboard video?

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They are faster than hard drives if you plug into the usb 2.0

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Incorrect. A decent modern hard drive will beat out a USB flash drive rather thoroughly. A solid state disk is a different story.