LFS won`t work

[Crash888]

Hi guys

just trying to get running with LFS.

When i click on LFS exe it begins for about 10 seconds, then screen goes black and my monitor turns off. Can hear PC is still running, but only way to get monitor back is reboot.

I have no trouble with any other games, Viper Racing, Nascar Heat, RF etc.

Just can`t figure out what the drama is?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Cheers...:thumb:

[Tweaker]

Go into your LFS folder and open up the cfg.txt folder.

Where it says Screen Info you might see something like:

Screen Info 1 75 1024 768 (what mine looks like)

Set it to this:

Screen Info 1 60 800 600 (And save the config file)

The problem is probably because you set the refresh rate too high probably. Where the '60' is, that is your refresh rate. Make sure you do not set the refresh rate or resolution higher than your monitor can support. Or else the monitor will shut off for that exact reason.

Just use that setting to be safe, and you should be able to start up the game. Then go back into the game and try new resolution values.

[tristancliffe]

I think it's likely LFS is trying to use a resolution your monitor/card cannot display.

Go into your LFS folder, and open the cfg.txt in notepad. Scroll down about 1/3 of the way until you find a line starting with Screen Info.

Mine is: Screen Info 1 70 1280 1024

This means (I think, but please correct me if I am wrong) for:
1: Non-Square mode (usual for TFT's afaik)
70: The refresh rate in Hz you desire
1280 1024: The screen resolution you desire.

Make sure this is set to a resolution and frequency you know to work (check your windows display settings if you want to know what works). If that doesn't work, you can try forcing LFS into windowed mode by editing the second line of cfg.txt.

Hope this helps.

[Crash888]

Thanks for the quick response fella`s.

But the only thing inside cfg text document is this, "Start Windowed 0", perhaps this is the problem?

I take it from your posts that there should be a great deal more info in there.

I have`nt altered it in anyway, that`s all that was in there when i opened to have a look.



Cheers..:thumb:

[Tweaker]

No, that just means it starts full screen, and well hmmm the game hasn't actually started it seems, so nothing is written in the config possibly.

If not, set that Start Windowed 0 ---to--- Start Windowed 1

Then you should open the game up in windowed mode and I believe it uses your desktop settings (refresh rates). Should work right then and there.... then go into the display settings and set the resolution and Hz (refresh rate) at around 60.

EDIT: By the way, you might as well post your PC specs here just in case (CPU speed/brand/type, graphics card & memory it has, system memory, etc...)

[Crash888]

Ok, changed start window value to 1 and refresh rate to 60. Now when i click on exe same thing happens , but in a window. Then screen freezes.

PC specs;

MSI mainboard
AMD Athlon 64
3400+ ~ 2.4GHz
1.00GB of Ram
NVidia GeForce FX 5200 ~ 128mb

Cheers..:thumb:

[tristancliffe]

Weird... Okay, we'll try Generic Computer Program Fix :D

Please ensure all anti-virus-software, download tools, and other non-important stuff is shut down - you may need to use Ctrl-Alt-Del to do this, but only close down stuff you are sure is safe to do so.

Then, just to be on the safe side, re-extract the LFS.zip. You can overright if you want, but a better test is to start a nice new folder for this version.

Are you using a TFT Screen? Either way, I'd suggest going into the display control panel, and select a resolution you know to be safe - say 1024x768x16 at 60Hz. Nearly everything will work like this.

Now try running LFS (the new installation). Does it work now?

[Scawen]

Good idea trying to start it in a window.

What resolution and depth (how many colours) is your desktop set to?

Have you tried getting the latest drivers? Quite often the card manufacturer doesn't test the drivers on enough programs, to retain backward compatibility, and sometimes you need to install the latest. If you can say which version of the NVidia drivers you are using, you may find out that other people have suffered from the same problem with that version.

[Crash888]

NVidia driver version is 7.7.7.7

Monitor colour setting is medium(16 bit)

Resolution 1024 x 768

Cheers..:thumb:

[Crash888]

Weird... Okay, we'll try Generic Computer Program Fix :D

Please ensure all anti-virus-software, download tools, and other non-important stuff is shut down - you may need to use Ctrl-Alt-Del to do this, but only close down stuff you are sure is safe to do so.

Then, just to be on the safe side, re-extract the LFS.zip. You can overright if you want, but a better test is to start a nice new folder for this version.

Are you using a TFT Screen? Either way, I'd suggest going into the display control panel, and select a resolution you know to be safe - say 1024x768x16 at 60Hz. Nearly everything will work like this.

Now try running LFS (the new installation). Does it work now?

Nope , still no joy. btw forgive my ignorance(old guy..lol), but what does TFT stand for?

Cheers...:thumb:

[huxorator]

Nope , still no joy. btw forgive my ignorance(old guy..lol), but what does TFT stand for?


TFT is a monitor type, also referred to as Flatpanel Displays or LCD.

[Scawen]

NVidia driver version is 7.7.7.7I'm not sure if that's the right number.

I see on this thread, some version numbers which are two 2-digit numbers :

http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=2320

Don't know if the comments on that thread may help - or if you have tried the latest drivers from the NVidia site? Your system looks good so i would have thought it would work as long as the drivers are correct.

[Tooby]

Hi! I don't know about your nividia driver, look at the site of nivida. I use a early version of "81.85_forceware_winxp2k_english_whql.exe" (78.xx something). Perhaps your card wont work with it... Run dxdiag from Start\run press save to save a text file with all data about your pc. Show the result in the thread and hopefully someone will come up with an idea. /Tooby

[Crash888]

TFT is a monitor type, also referred to as Flatpanel Displays or LCD.

ah, gotcha. Monitor is just a normal type 19#.

Cheers...:thumb:

[Crash888]

Hi! I don't know about your nividia driver, look at the site of nivida. I use a early version of "81.85_forceware_winxp2k_english_whql.exe" (78.xx something). Perhaps your card wont work with it... Run dxdiag from Start\run press save to save a text file with all data about your pc. Show the result in the thread and hopefully someone will come up with an idea. /Tooby

Here`s diagnostic thingy.

Cheers...:thumb:

[Tooby]

Hi!
Try to change driver. I'll think this will work:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_81.85.html

I had a quick glimps at the Release Notes (v81.85) (http://download.nvidia.com/Windows/81.85_whql/81.85_ForceWare_Release_Notes.pdf) page 39 and your card is there. BUT I realy don't know.

Be shure to back up things before you try.

/Tooby

[Crash888]

Have now changed to 81.85 driver. Result is still the same though..:(

When i click on exe, screen goes black,diff words appear in left hand bottom corner of screen, generating high, loading textures etc. But when it gets to "preloading", just seems to freeze.

I`ve re-downloaded LFS twice now, in case somehow i got a dodgy file. But nothing seems to help.

I appreciate everyones effort to help me out..:nod:

But maybe it`s a lost cause?..lol

Cheers...:thumb:

[Stellios]

You have a 19" monitor, so i presume it will do 1600x1200.

Try putting your resolution on 1600x1200 and your screen at 32bit colour and put your refresh rate as high as you can on that monitor. Try loading the game up with those settings and see if you get the same.

Sounds like the game is trying to run a resoltion/refresh rate your screen isnt capable of to me.

Go into the properties of your LFS.exe file and put "+menu 1 +fullscreen 1 +szx 640 +szy 480" at the end of the target file, remove the quotation marks, and see if that works. If not then delete the code again.

[Crash888]

Still no luck..:(

I transferred LFS to my sons PC, works fine on there. So nothing wrong with the files.

Maybe i need a new monitor? Just seems odd to me, have no trouble running rFactor or any other game for that matter.

Also, i did have LFS demo running through this monitor long ago when it first came out, but through a different mainboard & HDD(inferior to current specs).

Very frustrating....heard so much about LFS alpha 2, and even joined in a league that`s starting soon.

Anyways, enough grumbling...lol Thanks for all your help guys.

Cheers...:thumb:

[tristancliffe]

Isn't there a log file LFS generates when it loads Scawen? Would that help? I don't know which file it is, or what the contents of it mean (which is why I'm asking Scawen!).

[mrodgers]

deb.log or deb.cfg isn't it?

[Scawen]

I don't think deb.log is going to help in this case (but maybe worth a look anyway). It can sometimes help on rare occasions, if LFS doesn't seem to start to load at all (a lot of logging in the initial couple of seconds of startup). But Crash888 gets quite far before something goes wrong.

Crash888, can you try putting these cfg files in your LFS folder before starting LFS. I've just tried to make them save some card memory. The cfg.txt will use half the texture resolution. The card_cfg.txt turns off HVS and turns on simple track - and that's bad because it will slow down the frame rate, but it's just a test to see if you can get any further.

[ORION]

I'm not sure if that's the right number.

I see on this thread, some version numbers which are two 2-digit numbers

nvidia sometimes displays the additional dots there, but dont ask me why...


btw.
You could also try to increase your AGP Aperture Size in the BIOS.
This is the amount of system memory, which the graphics card can use if it's vram isnt enough. Just an idea, even though you will likely not need this if you use Scawen's config :)

and try to disable fast writes, too.

But note: Changing stuff in the BIOS can destroy your hardware. So dont change anything if you are not bsolutely sure what you are doing.

[Crash888]

I don't think deb.log is going to help in this case (but maybe worth a look anyway). It can sometimes help on rare occasions, if LFS doesn't seem to start to load at all (a lot of logging in the initial couple of seconds of startup). But Crash888 gets quite far before something goes wrong.

Crash888, can you try putting these cfg files in your LFS folder before starting LFS. I've just tried to make them save some card memory. The cfg.txt will use half the texture resolution. The card_cfg.txt turns off HVS and turns on simple track - and that's bad because it will slow down the frame rate, but it's just a test to see if you can get any further.

yay..some success! Game runs in window, after using your file edits. Ran a few laps, very nice.

But if i try to maximise window or change anything in graphics section of game, it turns off monitor as before. But hey, at least it`s loading now..lol
Thanks!

Cheers...:thumb:

[Crash888]

nvidia sometimes displays the additional dots there, but dont ask me why...


btw.
You could also try to increase your AGP Aperture Size in the BIOS.
This is the amount of system memory, which the graphics card can use if it's vram isnt enough. Just an idea, even though you will likely not need this if you use Scawen's config :)

and try to disable fast writes, too.

But note: Changing stuff in the BIOS can destroy your hardware. So dont change anything if you are not bsolutely sure what you are doing.

Yeah if i stuffed around in BIOS i`d surely be doing some gardening or other jobs, because it would be a pretty safe bet PC would no longer function after my handiwork...hehe

Cheers..:thumb:

[Scawen]

OK - good that it works now.

But... just possibly the Half Tex Res fixed it by saving card memory.

So... to try and get your frame rate up to what it should be, you should try this :
In the card_cfg.txt, turn on HVS and turn off simple track, like this :

Use HVS 1
Simple Track 0

Then run again, if it works now then that's not a bad setup.
You should then try exiting again and set Start Windowed to 0 in the cfg.txt.

[Crash888]

OK - good that it works now.

But... just possibly the Half Tex Res fixed it by saving card memory.

So... to try and get your frame rate up to what it should be, you should try this :
In the card_cfg.txt, turn on HVS and turn off simple track, like this :

Use HVS 1
Simple Track 0

Then run again, if it works now then that's not a bad setup.
You should then try exiting again and set Start Windowed to 0 in the cfg.txt.

Ok, did that...changing card cfg text seemed to get me about 10fps better on average, mostly hovers around 50.

But when i try the start window at 0, it`s back to square 1..monitor shuts down.

Cheers..:thumb:

[Sneiter]

In my cfg.txt, there was only Start Windowed 0, nothing else.

[ORION]

Yes, LFS writes a couple of files when it runs the first time.
What is your point btw, do you have the same problem?

[Sneiter]

Yes, LFS writes a couple of files when it runs the first time.
What is your point btw, do you have the same problem?
Okay I copied does .txt files above and now it says:
"Could not set time period"

[hrtburnout]

You didn't need to, just download and run LFS.exe. LFS writes the cfg.txt when you run it ;)

[Sneiter]

Yes but now theres a text "Could not set time period"... What do I have to do now?