Black Screen & Menu Fix and Emails to/from Tech Support

I Just wanted to pass on my experiences so far and hopefully help fix some Black Screen, wheel calibration and menu problems for someone.

Secondly to share with you something I got off my chest with Infogrames Tech Support. I hope they listen and take note ! Sorry it is a bit long...

Hi

I have fixed the problem with black screen at start then drop out to desktop without game ever being run so take this opportunity to pass on my experiences to hopefully help your Tech Support and hopefully other disgruntled customers.

You said in your reply (below) it was possibly a "Safedisc problem" but it seemed to go past this point in the startup process. So I tried the freely available unofficial GP4 v1.0 "decrypted no cd patch" but this still failed - proving the problem is NOT Safedisc related.

I tried reloading from CD-RW and new Ref Drivers as suggested. Also reloaded DirectX 8.1 and made win98 and game partitions bigger in case there was a "swapfile" problem AND to make enough space for FULL install. All the above failed to fix the problem.

I then uninstalled again for about the 6th time and this time did a FULL install rather than Minimal (without media files I presume ?)
Lo and behold I then got past this point for the first time.

I then got a whole host of other problems setting up graphics etc with black screens, menus "scrolling" out of control and mouse not being able to select the item required etc. and lockups requiring power off/on. Then after this the original startup black screen bug returned.

I figured the wheel was causing these probs as it only happened immediately after calibration. So I switched off wheel and uninstalled and reinstalled FULL again to get past black screen problem again (since found out using f1gstate.bak fixes this bug and saves a reload). Then I setup graphics and sound etc. exit and restart with wheel on and still got menu scrolling prob after calibration. I then got into Utilities\menu setup where there is a "greyed out" option to turn off joystick in menus. This could not be selected but after entering and exiting this menu the scrolling and flashing menu problem disappeared. I can now recalibrate at will without the problem returning.

I then played the game for 2 hours and came across another 3 or 4 gameplay bugs - PRETTY DAMN POOR experience overall so far I think you must agree.

There is MUCH bad feeling about this game on the Racing Sim forums. The bug list has already exceeded 100 different bugs on one Forum alone.

I CANNOT BELIEVE you shipped this game in this state ! If it isn't bug tested sufficiently you should delay release. I have bought ALL versions of GP since the beginning and this is the WORST by far. I think all gamers expect a few bugs but this was UNPLAYABLE for me and hundreds of others. We are the die hards who rush out and spend our cash on the first day games are released. We are the fans YOU SHOULD NOT TAKE FOR GRANTED.

I trust, though doubt, this will be passed to Mr Crammond and the bosses of Infogrames, Micropose and Simergy.

I hope that:

1) A patch to fix the bugs is imminently released

2) A game costing £34.99 is NEVER released again in an unloadable and very unplayable state such as GP4.

A few years ago Ubisoft had a VERY good sim called "F1 Racing Simulation", it was by far the most popular F1 sim at the time as it was far more advanced than GP2 and predated GP3. The second version, "Monaco Grand Prix Racing Sim 2" was Full of bugs just like GP4 is. MGPRS2 was fixed by several patches AND the talents of the army of SIM "remodellers" but the result was the F1 Sim punters left in their droves when GP3 arrived and F1 Racing Sim 2 and subsequently version 3 died a death.

BEWARE you don't go the same way with your Corporate milking of the GPx "Cash Cow". As an IBM Mainframe Engineer I know all about corporate milking of "Cash Cows" !!!

PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO THE PEOPLE THAT MAKE THESE DECISIONS - THE CORPORATE BOSSES INVOLVED.

PLEASE DON'T MAKE THE PATCH GP4 2002 SEASON UPDATE at £24.99 OR WORSE STILL CALL IT GP5 and charge another £39.99 !!


Steve Baines


*****************************************************************

Your reply:

Hello,


This is an issue we have encountered a few times already with the new release of Grand Prix 4. We suspect it may be related to the copy protection measures utilised on the game CD and the firmware drivers used on some makes of CD/DVD-Rom Drives.


We are currently working on a viable solution to the problem. We are gathering system information to pinpoint possible hardware conflicts with GP4, obviously the more information we receive the easier it will be to resolve problems.


With this in mind, If you could send us brief description of the issue and some PC specifications we will endeavour to provide the fix as quickly as possible



For the necessary PC info. please do the following:



Click Start
Click Run
Type "msinfo32" in the open section
When the System Information window opens click on File
Click Export
Choose to save the information to your Desktop
In File Name type "GP4msinfo"
Click Save


This will save a text file to your desk top. Please then attach this text document to this e-mail or forward it on to support@uk.infogrames.com



james muir
Infogrames UK Helpline
21 Castle Street
Castlefield
Manchester
M3 4SW

Tel: 0161 827 8060

for additional support try our website

PIII 1.0GHz Abit SA6-R MSI GEForce3 512MB SBLive5.1 Win98SE/XPPRO dual boot Mirrored IBM 7200rpm UDMA100 disks Guillemot Ferrari FF Wheel

G'day all....

Where exactly does ur email and ur thoughts and their emails start? A little distinction wouldn't hurt Or maybe i'm just tired