Computer Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread

[aimeeandbeatles]

That's what I was guessing. It happens when I quickly change songs.

Weird question: Landlord's sad since we got my new computer, our power usage gone down. Nothing else changed, so it's the computer. How can a more powerful computer, ran 24/7 (no hibernation or standby), take less power?

 

[Turner]

If it's using the electricity more efficiently, it will use less power.

Perhaps you have newer, greener devices on board.

 

[LucyDuke]

SpybotS&D has a fairly decent startup editor. You can use it to disable stuff. Google will help you decide what's needed and not. There's no real easy answer, at least that I've found.

It's very unlikely that it's worth disabling any of these. Even if they are taking RAM, they're also paged, and the RAM gets released for services if it's needed for something else you're doing.

Okay. Everything chokes and I go to investigate and this is what I find... this machine only has 1GB stupid ram and having 70% used on startup is kind of insane.

I found a few things like "Tablet PC Input Service" and killed 'em. It probably won't make any significant difference but I feel like I at least tried.

As always, thanks guys.

 

[Flying Pig]

Who owns the internet?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Who owns the internet?

Everyone! (10chairs)

 

[lndm]

Okay. Everything chokes and I go to investigate and this is what I find... this machine only has 1GB stupid ram and having 70% used on startup is kind of insane.

Then it doesn't sound like your RAM is the issue.

I found a few things like "Tablet PC Input Service" and killed 'em. It probably won't make any significant difference but I feel like I at least tried.

As always, thanks guys.

This may be the place to work but the standard windows services won't reap much benefit. If you click on start-programs-startup, you should be OK to delete what you see there. There are a bunch of other locations in the registry accessible one way or another where you'll find parts of things you've installed. One simple way to remove just some of these is to uninstall as many programs as you can through control panel.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

Why is it that when I start up Google Earth, there's a big white doughnut covering the earth?



What can I do to fix it?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

lol looks like a graphics problem. try lowering any graphics settings there are.

also might want to try checking all the layers first, could be one missing

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

lol looks like a graphics problem. try lowering any graphics settings there are.

also might want to try checking all the layers first, could be one missing

The problem goes away when I enable the "clouds" layer under "weather"

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Question: I'd like to create a recovery partition including these:

-- Latest drivers for hardware
-- Windows updates
-- Mozilla Firefox
-- The "Vista Black" theme, which required a DLL hack

How exactly would I go about that? (For free.) There's already an empty 4-gig partition on my HDD (would expand if needed), where the recovery partition used to be before it deleted. Google brought up Norton Ghost and stuff.

Thanks.

P.S. Currently I'm unable to do a fresh install as there's no CD. So I'm not sure there.

P.P.S. I am willing to download boot disks, as long as they're credible.

 

[lndm]

When I run 16 bit apps, ntvdm crashes in kernel32.dll with a c0000005. I've always suspected it was because my Phenom has dropped real mode support. Is anyone familiar with this?

 

[Till]

Could you post the crash log, or at least the stacktrace? ( found in C:\Doc' and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Dr Watson)
If all 16 bit apps crash, your VDM might have been corrupted.

I doubt lack of real mode support has anything to do with it. The VDM runs in protected mode, surely. I don't think it is possible to switch to real mode without restarting (if it wasn't real mode applications could wrest control from the OS!).

 

[lndm]

Let me know if you need more

All 16 bit apps crash like this....same module, code and offset.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Just reinstalled Windows, haven't installed video card drivers yet.

When I first got to the desktop, I went to change the resolution to the highest. But when I did so, the monitor had a little box saying "Input not supported," which then floated to the top of the screen. I waited a few seconds and it reset itself.

What exactly happened here?

 

[Till]

Let me know if you need more

All 16 bit apps crash like this....same module, code and offset.

Thanks, but i'm afraid this left me clueless. I realize i should have written callstack instead of stacktrace earlier. Apparently Vista introduced a new way of saving crash information, so i don't know where to find it, but it should be available somewhere.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Another silly question:

Have an old game, SimFarm for Windows, am trying to install. However, I'd like to put it into "C:\PROGRAM FILES\MAXIS\SIMFARM." When I enter it in, it says the path is not valid. What's the suggestion here?

From the ReadMe file (it's a WRI file, opened in Notepad)

Spoiler :

SimFarm® for Windows Last Minute Information and Technical Help

This document will be easiest to read if you maximize it, and can be printed if you have a printer attached to your machine.


Last Minute Information
Windows Help
Edit Window
Livestock
Technical Help
Some Common Questions and Answers
System Conflicts
Sound or Music
Sound Card Drivers
A Special Note About Sound Blaster-16 Sound Cards:
Video Card Drivers
A Special Note About Video Cards:
Memory Issues
Installing or Running with Windows Shells other than Program Manager
How to Reach Maxis Technical Support
What You Should Do Before You Call Technical Support
What You Should Have With You When You Call
Where You Should Be When You Call
Let's Do the Numbers!
Introducing Maxis Technical Support...


Last Minute Information

Windows Help
Any time while playing SimFarm, you may press F1 for help. This will open a Windows Help file about SimFarm for Windows. You may also press Alt-F1 in any window to receive specific information about that Window.

Edit Window
For some users, the Edit Window may seem to scroll very slow when both the Edit and Map Windows are open at the same time. To speed up the scrolling of the Edit Window, try closing the Map Window.

Livestock
Some users have asked, "How can I tell when my livestock are about to reproduce?" You can find out by using the Examine tool in the Edit Window. Click on the livestock with the Examine tool. If you see a picture of the livestock with offspring, that livestock will reproduce soon.

Technical Help

If you're having trouble running SimFarm for Windows or are getting error messages (heaven forbid!), here are some tips concerning these issues. These tips were written by the Ninja Masters of Maxis Technical Support and contain enough information to make you an expert too. You may also be bored and want to make sure that we can actually spell and write documents with correct syntax. Read on, O' Seeker of Knowledge...

Some Common Questions and Answers

System Conflicts
Conflicts are rare but they do occur. If you are using other programs in Windows that load on startup, you may want to disable those programs to prevent potential conflicts and free up additional memory and system resources. The most common potential conflicts come from screen savers. If you are using a screen saver other than the default Windows screen saver, you may wish to disable it to prevent conflicts. Some virus protection programs may also conflict with SimFarm. If you experience trouble running SimFarm for Windows, try disabling virus protection programs.

The best way to determine if there is something else running in Windows is to press the {Ctrl} and {Esc} keys on your keyboard at the same time. This will bring up the Windows Task List:

[weird characters]

The only item shown in the Task List window should be Program Manager. If there are any other items shown, and you want to disable them, simply click on the item to highlight it and press the End Task button to shut the other programs off. If there are several programs running, hit {Ctrl}{Esc} again, and follow the previous steps. Do this until only Program Manager is active, then close the Task List window. Now run SimFarm for Windows.

Sound or Music
SimFarm for Windows supports all sound cards that are compatible with Windows 3.1. If you do not have a sound card, you will not hear sound effects or music.

If you do have a sound card, check the "Options" menu while playing SimFarm. There are two menu items in the "Options" menu called "Music" and "Sound." For music and sound effects to play, both menu items MUST be checked.

If you have a sound card and the "Music" and "Sound" menu items are checked, but you cannot hear sound or music while you're playing SimFarm, your sound card or its Windows drivers may not be installed correctly for Windows. To check if your sound card is installed properly, choose "Run" from the Program Manager's "File" menu. In the Command Line type "MPLAYER" as shown in the following picture:

[more weird characters]

"MPLAYER" is the command to run a Windows program called Media Player. Select the File option by clicking once with the mouse on the word File in the upper left of the Media Player window. Select Open and a list of available files will be displayed. Find the file called canyon.mid (in your Windows directory), click on it so that it is highlighted, then click on the OK button. You will now see the Media Player again, and the title bar will say "Media Player - CANYON.MID [stopped]." Click on the play arrow (the black triangle pointing to the right) to play the file. If you do not hear music, or if you get an error, your sound card is probably not installed properly. Please consult the documentation that came with your sound card or contact the manufacturer for assistance on correcting the problem, or see the next section about "Sound Card Drivers."

Now, select the File option again. Select Open, and find the file tada.wav, and click on it so that it is highlighted, then click on the OK button. You will see Media Player again, but now the title bar will say "Media Player - TADA.WAV [stopped]." Again, click on the play arrow. If you do not hear a sound effect, or if you get an error, your sound card is probably not installed properly. Please consult the documentation that came with your sound card or contact the manufacturer for assistance on correcting the problem, or see the next section about "Sound Card Drivers."

Sound Card Drivers
Sound cards use drivers in Windows to play sounds. We take advantage of sound cards to play music and sounds via the Windows drivers that are installed for your sound card. If you are using a sound card and you experience lock-ups or General Protection Faults, your sound card drivers may be out of date and require a new version be installed. Below are some steps that you can take to determine if your sound card drivers need to be updated to the latest version.

1. Read ALL OF THE DIRECTIONS BELOW before you make any changes to your system.
2. Open the Main window located in the Program Manager.
3. Double-click on the Control Panel icon. (This will open the Control Panel window)
4. Double-click on the Drivers icon located within the Control Panel window.
5. Remove all drivers that make reference to MIDI and Wave. NOTE: Different sound cards have different names for their sound drivers. Most drivers do make reference to Wave or MIDI, though.
6. Restart Windows after your sound card drivers have been removed and run SimFarm for Windows.
7. If the problem is corrected, you will need to obtain the latest version of your sound card drivers from your sound card's manufacturer. Please consult the documentation that came with your sound card for information on this.
8. If the problem persists, please refer to the Video Card Drivers section of this document.
9. To re-install the sound card drivers, consult the documentation that came with your sound card.

A Special Note About Sound Blaster-16 Sound Cards:
If you have a Sound Blaster-16 sound card in your machine, you may experience lock-ups when placing a series of objects on your farm (like a row of fences or irrigation ditches). If you do experience problems with SimFarm for Windows, try the following:

1. Open File Manager (usually in your Main group).
2. Find your Windows directory.
3. In the Windows directory, we have installed a file called WSIMFARM.INI. Find this file, then double click on it. This will bring up the file in Notepad.
4. There will be a line in WSIMFARM.INI that says "Sound Playback=ASYNC". Change ASYNC to SYNC by highlighting the letter A, then pressing the Delete key.
5. Click on File, then click on Exit. You will be asked if you would like to save your changes. Click on Yes.
6. Exit the File Manager, and try running SimFarm for Windows.

Video Card Drivers
If SimFarm will not run at all, or if you have trouble seeing SimFarm on the screen, you may want to check the video card that your system is using. To do this, select another generic driver that comes with Windows via the steps listed below:

1. Read ALL OF THE DIRECTIONS BELOW before you make any changes to your system.
2. Open the Main group in the Program Manager.
3. Double-click on the Windows Setup icon.
4. Click on the Options menu with the mouse to open it.
5. Select the Change System Settings... option by clicking on it with the mouse.
6. This will open a window with various system settings that can be changed. IMPORTANT! Write down what Windows Setup says your display is set to BEFORE you change it, so you can change it back later if you want to.
7. Click the down arrow on the Display option and select VGA from the list of available display options. When Windows asks you if you'd like to use the current driver or install a new driver, choose Current.
8. Now click on the OK button which will bring up an option to Restart Windows.
9. Click on the Restart Windows button to make the changes take effect.
10. Now try to run the program and check if the problem has been corrected. If the problem is corrected, the video drivers for your video card need to be updated to the latest version. Please consult the documentation that came with your video card about obtaining updated video drivers or you may consult your dealer for information on obtaining the latest video drivers.
11. If the problem persists and you have a sound card installed in your system, please refer to the above section on Sound Card Drivers.
12. To reset your display to the original setting, simply follow steps 2 through 5 and on step number 6, select the display resolution type you were originally using (aren't you glad you remembered to write it down before?).

A Special Note About Video Cards:
If you are using a video card that is capable of extremely high resolution and high color display, you may experience some display problems and/or incorrect display of colors in SimFarm for Windows. You may want to try running Windows with a lower number of colors (256 colors or less) and see if that fixes your problem first.


Memory Issues
SimFarm for Windows requires that you run Windows in 386 Enhanced Mode (Microsoft calls it that whether you've got a 386, 486 or a Pentium). You can check to see if you are in Enhanced Mode by choosing Help in your Program Manager, then going to About Program Manager... If About Program Manager says you are in Standard Mode, exit Windows, then restart with the command WIN/3{Enter} instead of WIN. This will force Windows to start in Enhanced Mode. If you cannot run Windows in Enhanced Mode, please verify that your system meets or exceeds the minimum system requirements printed on the system requirements label on the box your copy of SimFarm for Windows came in.

If you don't have enough memory available to run SimFarm for Windows, first ensure that you close any other program that may be running to free up the necessary memory to run SimFarm for Windows. If this doesn't correct the problem, consult your Windows manual and refer to the section entitled MEMORY. There are several different options explained within this area, from editing your startup configuration files to using Virtual Memory. Virtual Memory actually uses your system's hard disk drive to temporarily store information that would normally be kept in the system RAM memory. You may run Virtual Memory by following these steps:
(DON'T USE VIRTUAL MEMORY IF YOU ARE USING DISK COMPRESSION! e.g. DoubleSpace/DriveSpace, Stacker, Super Stor, etc. Most of these programs will come with their own utilities to use virtual memory, so refer to the documentation that came with your compression program for more information.)

1. Open the Main window from within the Program Manager.
2. Double-click on the Control Panel icon. (This will open the Control Panel Window.)
3. Double-click on the Enhanced icon (the icon looks like a computer chip -- if it is not there, you are not running Windows in Enhanced Mode. See the instructions above on how to start Windows in Enhanced Mode).
4. Click on the Virtual Memory... button located on the right side of the window.
5. This will open the Virtual Memory window from which you can view the current virtual memory settings. You can increase the size by clicking on the Change button and increasing the size of virtual memory available on your system.
6. Please see your Windows manual for more information concerning virtual memory.

Finally, if you are using Sound and Music within SimFarm for Windows, you will need as much free conventional memory as possible. Conventional memory is memory below 640k. Please see your DOS manual for instructions on freeing conventional memory.

Installing or Running with Windows Shells other than Program Manager
Shell programs are third party replacement programs that you can use in place of the standard Windows Program Manager, such as HP Dashboard, the Norton Desktop, and XSoft's TabWorks (which comes installed on most Compaq computers). If you are having trouble installing or running SimFarm for Windows, try either turning off the shell you are using, or using that program's File - Run command to run Program Manager. The command line to run Program Manager is C:\WINDOWS\PROGMAN.EXE. Once you have installed SimFarm, you should be able to close Program Manager and run SimFarm through the shell program you usually run.

Some shell programs simply won't let you run SimFarm for Windows properly. This will depend on which shell you are running. Once you have successfully installed the program, if you find that SimFarm still won't run, try turning off the shell program you have been using.

A Special Note About TabWorks: If you are running TabWorks, you might be able to eliminate any conflicts you are having by going to the Options menu. Select File Tracking Options, and unselect (make sure there is no check mark) Track File Creation and Track File Modification. This will allow you to install SimFarm through TabWorks without having to run Program Manager.

[some stuff on registering and contacting technical support]

Edit: Perhaps let it go to the default folder (C:\SIMFARMW) and copy/paste into my folder?

 

[lndm]

How about these?

@aimee, you know how when you change resolution there's a box that asks 'Are you sure?' ? If you wait a few seconds without saying yes you'll revert to the old resolution. It's designed so you won't get stuck somewhere without a working screen, like you almost found out

WRT the game, either the path does not comply to DOS standard short file names or the space in Program Files is causing issues. Putting the game directory directly under c:\ would be the simplest solution.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Thank you.

 

[Turner]

Just reinstalled Windows, haven't installed video card drivers yet.

When I first got to the desktop, I went to change the resolution to the highest. But when I did so, the monitor had a little box saying "Input not supported," which then floated to the top of the screen. I waited a few seconds and it reset itself.

What exactly happened here?

Default video drivers don't support that resolution. Really, it's only good enough to allow you to see the screen to get your video drivers installed. Do that posthaste.

Another silly question:

Have an old game, SimFarm for Windows, am trying to install. However, I'd like to put it into "C:\PROGRAM FILES\MAXIS\SIMFARM." When I enter it in, it says the path is not valid. What's the suggestion here?

From the ReadMe file (it's a WRI file, opened in Notepad)

Spoiler :

SimFarm® for Windows Last Minute Information and Technical Help

This document will be easiest to read if you maximize it, and can be printed if you have a printer attached to your machine.


Last Minute Information
Windows Help
Edit Window
Livestock
Technical Help
Some Common Questions and Answers
System Conflicts
Sound or Music
Sound Card Drivers
A Special Note About Sound Blaster-16 Sound Cards:
Video Card Drivers
A Special Note About Video Cards:
Memory Issues
Installing or Running with Windows Shells other than Program Manager
How to Reach Maxis Technical Support
What You Should Do Before You Call Technical Support
What You Should Have With You When You Call
Where You Should Be When You Call
Let's Do the Numbers!
Introducing Maxis Technical Support...


Last Minute Information

Windows Help
Any time while playing SimFarm, you may press F1 for help. This will open a Windows Help file about SimFarm for Windows. You may also press Alt-F1 in any window to receive specific information about that Window.

Edit Window
For some users, the Edit Window may seem to scroll very slow when both the Edit and Map Windows are open at the same time. To speed up the scrolling of the Edit Window, try closing the Map Window.

Livestock
Some users have asked, "How can I tell when my livestock are about to reproduce?" You can find out by using the Examine tool in the Edit Window. Click on the livestock with the Examine tool. If you see a picture of the livestock with offspring, that livestock will reproduce soon.

Technical Help

If you're having trouble running SimFarm for Windows or are getting error messages (heaven forbid!), here are some tips concerning these issues. These tips were written by the Ninja Masters of Maxis Technical Support and contain enough information to make you an expert too. You may also be bored and want to make sure that we can actually spell and write documents with correct syntax. Read on, O' Seeker of Knowledge...

Some Common Questions and Answers

System Conflicts
Conflicts are rare but they do occur. If you are using other programs in Windows that load on startup, you may want to disable those programs to prevent potential conflicts and free up additional memory and system resources. The most common potential conflicts come from screen savers. If you are using a screen saver other than the default Windows screen saver, you may wish to disable it to prevent conflicts. Some virus protection programs may also conflict with SimFarm. If you experience trouble running SimFarm for Windows, try disabling virus protection programs.

The best way to determine if there is something else running in Windows is to press the {Ctrl} and {Esc} keys on your keyboard at the same time. This will bring up the Windows Task List:

[weird characters]

The only item shown in the Task List window should be Program Manager. If there are any other items shown, and you want to disable them, simply click on the item to highlight it and press the End Task button to shut the other programs off. If there are several programs running, hit {Ctrl}{Esc} again, and follow the previous steps. Do this until only Program Manager is active, then close the Task List window. Now run SimFarm for Windows.

Sound or Music
SimFarm for Windows supports all sound cards that are compatible with Windows 3.1. If you do not have a sound card, you will not hear sound effects or music.

If you do have a sound card, check the "Options" menu while playing SimFarm. There are two menu items in the "Options" menu called "Music" and "Sound." For music and sound effects to play, both menu items MUST be checked.

If you have a sound card and the "Music" and "Sound" menu items are checked, but you cannot hear sound or music while you're playing SimFarm, your sound card or its Windows drivers may not be installed correctly for Windows. To check if your sound card is installed properly, choose "Run" from the Program Manager's "File" menu. In the Command Line type "MPLAYER" as shown in the following picture:

[more weird characters]

"MPLAYER" is the command to run a Windows program called Media Player. Select the File option by clicking once with the mouse on the word File in the upper left of the Media Player window. Select Open and a list of available files will be displayed. Find the file called canyon.mid (in your Windows directory), click on it so that it is highlighted, then click on the OK button. You will now see the Media Player again, and the title bar will say "Media Player - CANYON.MID [stopped]." Click on the play arrow (the black triangle pointing to the right) to play the file. If you do not hear music, or if you get an error, your sound card is probably not installed properly. Please consult the documentation that came with your sound card or contact the manufacturer for assistance on correcting the problem, or see the next section about "Sound Card Drivers."

Now, select the File option again. Select Open, and find the file tada.wav, and click on it so that it is highlighted, then click on the OK button. You will see Media Player again, but now the title bar will say "Media Player - TADA.WAV [stopped]." Again, click on the play arrow. If you do not hear a sound effect, or if you get an error, your sound card is probably not installed properly. Please consult the documentation that came with your sound card or contact the manufacturer for assistance on correcting the problem, or see the next section about "Sound Card Drivers."

Sound Card Drivers
Sound cards use drivers in Windows to play sounds. We take advantage of sound cards to play music and sounds via the Windows drivers that are installed for your sound card. If you are using a sound card and you experience lock-ups or General Protection Faults, your sound card drivers may be out of date and require a new version be installed. Below are some steps that you can take to determine if your sound card drivers need to be updated to the latest version.

1. Read ALL OF THE DIRECTIONS BELOW before you make any changes to your system.
2. Open the Main window located in the Program Manager.
3. Double-click on the Control Panel icon. (This will open the Control Panel window)
4. Double-click on the Drivers icon located within the Control Panel window.
5. Remove all drivers that make reference to MIDI and Wave. NOTE: Different sound cards have different names for their sound drivers. Most drivers do make reference to Wave or MIDI, though.
6. Restart Windows after your sound card drivers have been removed and run SimFarm for Windows.
7. If the problem is corrected, you will need to obtain the latest version of your sound card drivers from your sound card's manufacturer. Please consult the documentation that came with your sound card for information on this.
8. If the problem persists, please refer to the Video Card Drivers section of this document.
9. To re-install the sound card drivers, consult the documentation that came with your sound card.

A Special Note About Sound Blaster-16 Sound Cards:
If you have a Sound Blaster-16 sound card in your machine, you may experience lock-ups when placing a series of objects on your farm (like a row of fences or irrigation ditches). If you do experience problems with SimFarm for Windows, try the following:

1. Open File Manager (usually in your Main group).
2. Find your Windows directory.
3. In the Windows directory, we have installed a file called WSIMFARM.INI. Find this file, then double click on it. This will bring up the file in Notepad.
4. There will be a line in WSIMFARM.INI that says "Sound Playback=ASYNC". Change ASYNC to SYNC by highlighting the letter A, then pressing the Delete key.
5. Click on File, then click on Exit. You will be asked if you would like to save your changes. Click on Yes.
6. Exit the File Manager, and try running SimFarm for Windows.

Video Card Drivers
If SimFarm will not run at all, or if you have trouble seeing SimFarm on the screen, you may want to check the video card that your system is using. To do this, select another generic driver that comes with Windows via the steps listed below:

1. Read ALL OF THE DIRECTIONS BELOW before you make any changes to your system.
2. Open the Main group in the Program Manager.
3. Double-click on the Windows Setup icon.
4. Click on the Options menu with the mouse to open it.
5. Select the Change System Settings... option by clicking on it with the mouse.
6. This will open a window with various system settings that can be changed. IMPORTANT! Write down what Windows Setup says your display is set to BEFORE you change it, so you can change it back later if you want to.
7. Click the down arrow on the Display option and select VGA from the list of available display options. When Windows asks you if you'd like to use the current driver or install a new driver, choose Current.
8. Now click on the OK button which will bring up an option to Restart Windows.
9. Click on the Restart Windows button to make the changes take effect.
10. Now try to run the program and check if the problem has been corrected. If the problem is corrected, the video drivers for your video card need to be updated to the latest version. Please consult the documentation that came with your video card about obtaining updated video drivers or you may consult your dealer for information on obtaining the latest video drivers.
11. If the problem persists and you have a sound card installed in your system, please refer to the above section on Sound Card Drivers.
12. To reset your display to the original setting, simply follow steps 2 through 5 and on step number 6, select the display resolution type you were originally using (aren't you glad you remembered to write it down before?).

A Special Note About Video Cards:
If you are using a video card that is capable of extremely high resolution and high color display, you may experience some display problems and/or incorrect display of colors in SimFarm for Windows. You may want to try running Windows with a lower number of colors (256 colors or less) and see if that fixes your problem first.


Memory Issues
SimFarm for Windows requires that you run Windows in 386 Enhanced Mode (Microsoft calls it that whether you've got a 386, 486 or a Pentium). You can check to see if you are in Enhanced Mode by choosing Help in your Program Manager, then going to About Program Manager... If About Program Manager says you are in Standard Mode, exit Windows, then restart with the command WIN/3{Enter} instead of WIN. This will force Windows to start in Enhanced Mode. If you cannot run Windows in Enhanced Mode, please verify that your system meets or exceeds the minimum system requirements printed on the system requirements label on the box your copy of SimFarm for Windows came in.

If you don't have enough memory available to run SimFarm for Windows, first ensure that you close any other program that may be running to free up the necessary memory to run SimFarm for Windows. If this doesn't correct the problem, consult your Windows manual and refer to the section entitled MEMORY. There are several different options explained within this area, from editing your startup configuration files to using Virtual Memory. Virtual Memory actually uses your system's hard disk drive to temporarily store information that would normally be kept in the system RAM memory. You may run Virtual Memory by following these steps:
(DON'T USE VIRTUAL MEMORY IF YOU ARE USING DISK COMPRESSION! e.g. DoubleSpace/DriveSpace, Stacker, Super Stor, etc. Most of these programs will come with their own utilities to use virtual memory, so refer to the documentation that came with your compression program for more information.)

1. Open the Main window from within the Program Manager.
2. Double-click on the Control Panel icon. (This will open the Control Panel Window.)
3. Double-click on the Enhanced icon (the icon looks like a computer chip -- if it is not there, you are not running Windows in Enhanced Mode. See the instructions above on how to start Windows in Enhanced Mode).
4. Click on the Virtual Memory... button located on the right side of the window.
5. This will open the Virtual Memory window from which you can view the current virtual memory settings. You can increase the size by clicking on the Change button and increasing the size of virtual memory available on your system.
6. Please see your Windows manual for more information concerning virtual memory.

Finally, if you are using Sound and Music within SimFarm for Windows, you will need as much free conventional memory as possible. Conventional memory is memory below 640k. Please see your DOS manual for instructions on freeing conventional memory.

Installing or Running with Windows Shells other than Program Manager
Shell programs are third party replacement programs that you can use in place of the standard Windows Program Manager, such as HP Dashboard, the Norton Desktop, and XSoft's TabWorks (which comes installed on most Compaq computers). If you are having trouble installing or running SimFarm for Windows, try either turning off the shell you are using, or using that program's File - Run command to run Program Manager. The command line to run Program Manager is C:\WINDOWS\PROGMAN.EXE. Once you have installed SimFarm, you should be able to close Program Manager and run SimFarm through the shell program you usually run.

Some shell programs simply won't let you run SimFarm for Windows properly. This will depend on which shell you are running. Once you have successfully installed the program, if you find that SimFarm still won't run, try turning off the shell program you have been using.

A Special Note About TabWorks: If you are running TabWorks, you might be able to eliminate any conflicts you are having by going to the Options menu. Select File Tracking Options, and unselect (make sure there is no check mark) Track File Creation and Track File Modification. This will allow you to install SimFarm through TabWorks without having to run Program Manager.

[some stuff on registering and contacting technical support]

Edit: Perhaps let it go to the default folder (C:\SIMFARMW) and copy/paste into my folder?

Try C:\PROGRA~1\MAXIS\SIMFARM.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Thank you I know some older programs use those little squiggly things (tildes?) wasn't sure where to put it.