XP 64 Pro, Help Please

[chaczar]

Business/work kept me away from PC Games for a few years
and of course Playstation replaced the need for PC games since I could play them
on my big plasma tv with my son
But I couldn't keep up with the controllers and worked the strategy side of games
while he did the actual playing......
well he's grown and moved on and we sent all the games & eq with him-
Now I have some free time and wanted a slower turn based PC strategy game

In looking around, Civ III, IV, & V look like the way to go.
The Games look awesome....right up my alley

When I built this system about 8 months ago, I built it as a gaming system since Gaming systems have always provided excess power in all areas for my work related software such as some forensic sound software I use. I started with Win 7 Pro 64 since I had more ram and I figured it was finally safe to move up from XP 64 Pro....
good gawd was I ever wrong

Program after program crash. I finally wiped the drive clean and installed XP pro 64 and haven't had a lick of problems since. Games, however, as we all know are a whole different can of worms.

SO, has anyone out there played any or all of these 3 games on a Win XP 64 Pro system?

I'm sick of card games, Risk, Sudoku, etc and want something more enjoyable
These games sound perfect and are right up my alley.

If anyone has, since I'm so rusty with PC games, I'd appreciate all the info one can spare
i.e. Direct x issues, installing in the 32 bit emulator, etc
btw, I opted out of raid on this system thanks to a nasty experience with it on my last one
and just went with fast SATA drives, 8 gb ram, ATI Radeon 4550 vid card with 1 gb, Phenom 9150e quad core, kept my Platinum Audigy soundblaster since I have the 64 bit drivers for it,
or I can use the sound on the mobo Asus M3A78pro,

this system crunches numbers like a race car faster than anything I ever built before
and does what I need for work no problem

just basically run me through what I need to do to get these games going so I can buy them with some confidence even though I'm rusty

TIA !

[Genocidicbunny]

I would figure out why Windows 7 was crashing, not how to get this stuff working on XP 64.

[chaczar]

too late,
over 3 weeks of my life wasted on Win7 64 pro
and once I got someone at Microsoft to admit it was the emulator
which myself and others had come to that conclusion as well
I went back to XP 64 pro

It's faster and dependable and has been working for quite a while
I'll wait for the next beta of their new forth coming OS to try something new
rumor has it they're going backwards to an emulator like the one in XP 64

I'll skip buying and playing the CIV games 1st rather than put up with Win 7 again
the games sound perfect like just what I want
but my business and the various software I have to have work with, comes first

I honestly was so ticked off, I tried to put most of Win7 out of my mind
I hated moving around in the OS to problem solve
I hated the available screens and especially that stupid logo in the middle of the screen
I hated the eye candy approach and trust big brother Billy Gates to have all the answers

I have a 32 bit XP system that boots in 21 or so sec even with all the firewall/antivirus etc loaded in...it originally booted in 17...when 1st built...
it blazes......and is a bulletproof system
I just don't like sitting at that desk to do anything

your response is like someone trying to talk me into a Ford
when I'm now strictly Chevy....
I puked too many Fords and couldn't kill the Chevys

and don't even get me started on the bailout of GM.........my blood pressure would hit 200/300

[chaczar]

Originally Posted by Genocidicbunny

Optimists learn English, Pessimists learn Chinese. Realists learn to assemble an AK-47

gotta say...I love this
but I might say own & assemble and install a recoil buffer and adjustable stock..........hehe

current favorite right now is my Ruger SSR 556.....
when I'm not shooting my Bravo 98 (.338 Lapua Mag) or my Windrunner (.50 BMG & .408 Cheytac)
just need a barrel & bolt kit for .416 Barrett for my Windrunner to make it complete

[MarineCorps]

Originally Posted by chaczar

your response is like someone trying to talk me into a Ford
when I'm now strictly Chevy....

Actually a better analogy would be trying to talk you into a mustang when your a strictly Model T guy.

A lot of games and stuff just won't work on XP 64. Especially older games.

[Genocidicbunny]

Originally Posted by MarineCorps

Actually a better analogy would be trying to talk you into a mustang when your a strictly Model T guy.

A lot of games and stuff just won't work on XP 64. Especially older games.

Naw, that's still a car preference thing. More like asking you whether you want to ride in the car, or you want the car to ride on you.

[Maniacal]

XP 64 is completely unsupported by Microsoft as they ditched it in favour of Vista (and now Windows 7 which is a pretty decent OS, for Windows anyways).

[GoodGame]

Might the Windows 7 crashes be caused by driver conflicts, or trying to use older parts with drivers that weren't designed for Windows 7?

Anyways, if you stick with XP, I think your best bet is to stick with 32bit.

[Speedo]

If you insist on sticking with XP x64, you'll end up pretty much on your own. It was never very popular or well-support, and basically everyone using 64 bit today in the windows world has moved on to Vista or 7.

I second the motion to figure out your problems with Win7. It's a fantastic OS, far better than XP. Your problems are almost certainly going to be due to driver issues or specific programs that have conflicts with 7. It shouldn't be that hard to diagnose and fix.

[deanej]

It's probably his emulator, as MS said. Why on Earth are you using an emulator? 32-bit programs will run natively on Windows 7 x64. No emulator required.

[Genocidicbunny]

Doesnt Windowx x64 run 32-bit programs in emulation automatically?

[MarineCorps]

Originally Posted by Genocidicbunny

Doesnt Windowx x64 run 32-bit programs in emulation automatically?

Yes. It runs them the same way as win7 and vista as far as I noticed

[Genocidicbunny]

Well I meant for any 64-bit Windows OS, not XP x64 specifically. In fact, if anything the Vista and subsequently the Win 7 ones should be better than the XP x64 one.

[Speedo]

WoW64 is included in all 64 bit versions of windows going back at least to Win2k.

[chaczar]

Originally Posted by deanej

It's probably his emulator, as MS said. Why on Earth are you using an emulator? 32-bit programs will run natively on Windows 7 x64. No emulator required.

no they don't....Win 7 64 pro uses an emulator...unless you're saying the big head geeks at Microsoft don't know what they're talking about

It's a 64 bit OS system and uses an emulator to run 32 bit programs

[Speedo]

Originally Posted by chaczar

no they don't....Win 7 64 pro uses an emulator...unless you're saying the big head geeks at Microsoft don't know what they're talking about

It's a 64 bit OS system and uses an emulator to run 32 bit programs

No. An emulator would mean that there was full 32 bit Windows environment running within Win64 where 32 bit processes executed. There's no such thing. WoW64 is simply a compatibility layer which translates system calls, pointer manipulations, etc by a 32 bit process into the native 64 bit commands.

[chaczar]

Originally Posted by Speedo

If you insist on sticking with XP x64, you'll end up pretty much on your own. It was never very popular or well-support, and basically everyone using 64 bit today in the windows world has moved on to Vista or 7.

I second the motion to figure out your problems with Win7. It's a fantastic OS, far better than XP. Your problems are almost certainly going to be due to driver issues or specific programs that have conflicts with 7. It shouldn't be that hard to diagnose and fix.

actually it has more support than you may be aware of....
I'm not moving to Win7 64 pro...been there, done that.......hated it.
Lousy OS imo...I call it Vista SE

Say your accountant uses Win7 64 pro...and uses Peachtree or Quickbooks Pro for their clients
I can guarantee you that BOTH companies will tell your accountant that they don't guarantee their software support for it or Vista....been there done that
They did the same with Vista...
However... Win XP or Win XP 64 pro...not a problem

and from experience, we tried it...and it was a nightmare complete with system crashes

so if my choices are to switch to Win7 64 pro....or forget playing this game
I'll pass on it and forget buying and playing Civ 3,4, or 5

I do say thanks for the responses
I wanted to at least try Civ III & IV and play them if someone else was doing it
and knew what work arounds, problem solving, etc I might need to do

but to be told switch to an OS I can't stand......forget it.
thanks again for the responses

[chaczar]

Last, some other games have a 64 bit mode and will automatically download what you need for them to work according to what I read elsewhere and the builders ran XP 64 and absolutely loved it
I ran across one builder who built his XP 64 system just for playing CIV IV, but haven't been able to get a response from him on that other forum....he seemed pleased as punch but did mention he had to make a few tweaks....my system is a lot more powerful than what he built and all my drivers are good and I didn't expect a problem there...

I was just interested in buying it, installing it, and playing without headaches with that I'm using
I don't have the time or inclinations for headaches with a game at this stage in life

[Speedo]

I'm not moving to Win7 64 pro...been there, done that.......hated it.
Lousy OS imo...I call it Vista SE

What exactly is "lousy" about it? If you don't like Aero, turn it off. Other than that, under the hood, it's better in essentially every way compared to XP.

Say your accountant uses Win7 64 pro...and uses Peachtree or Quickbooks Pro for their clients
I can guarantee you that BOTH companies will tell your accountant that they don't guarantee their software support for it or Vista....been there done that
They did the same with Vista...
However... Win XP or Win XP 64 pro...not a problem

Nothing really surprising there. Both of those are the types of companies that want to force you to upgrade every year or two, so if you want to use an old version too bad. 2 minutes with google shows that both Peachtree and Quickbooks officially say that the 2008 and 2009 versions of their software are supported on Win7, but you might have some problems that they can't fix due to compatibility issues. FOr both, the 2010 and 2011 versions are fully compatible with Win7.

[deanej]

Originally Posted by Speedo

What exactly is "lousy" about it? If you don't like Aero, turn it off. Other than that, under the hood, it's better in essentially every way compared to XP.

Even Aero is way better than XP, if you have a good graphics card. Aero is rendered by the graphics card rather than software (which renders every other view style).