Getting ready to reinstall UT2k4

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a nameless entity
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Getting ready to reinstall UT2k4

Post by a nameless entity » Wed Dec 05, 2012 10:45 pm

I am going to remove my original install of this game made in 2004 on drive C and re-install it to the second hard drive I put in this PC in 2005. It needs to be done. The game crashes during map change sometimes. And sometimes I sit and look at the loading screen for a map for up to 5 minutes or perhaps even longer, while my hard drive cranks away doing......something, and the "communicating with the web" LED on my modem flashes madly. Don't ask me why or what it's doing, it just does it. I have no idea, and I'm sick of it. I hope to correct these problems with a re-install.

I have the latest patch on the game which is 3369. Do I really need this patch to play Chaos UT? Or to play on the HOH Chaos UT2k4 server?
The reason I ask is: I really hate what this patch did to Onslaught. Go man a laser turret if you haven't since you put in patch 3369. Go look at the terrible view out of the cab. It's horrible. You can't see much of anything any more. Man, did they ever nerf those turrets. And this isn't the first time. I'm sure I recall that an earlier patch nerfed them a bit too, although the latest patch 3369 nerfing really messes up the view out the most.
I'd like to drop back at least one patch earlier, but don't recall which version number it is. Nor do I know if you can your hands on it anyhow. The availability of files for this old game is patchy at best. (And of course dropping back becomes moot if Chaos needs patch 3369.)

I have backed up my entire UT2k4 folder to drive D to make sure I don't lose any important files. But I am hoping that a re-install will not require too many system files from that back up folder, because the game is damaged somehow, somewhere, and I want to fix the issues it has with this re-installation.

What important re-installation pointers have I not touched on, if any? Any advice before I go ahead?
I'm a man........but I can change........if I have to........I guess

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Re: Getting ready to reinstall UT2k4

Post by Hermskii » Thu Dec 06, 2012 12:39 am

Hmmm? Great questions Nameless and I'm sorry I have taken so long to reply. Quickly here are a few things you need to know:

Yes, keep a full backup copy of your first original old install. That is fine but try not to use any of it. Go full new install only.

Move the old install away from it's current location and let the new install fall right in to that default location. You may even make sure there is no old folder still there in your C: drive before you start the new install.

Yes you must install that 3369 patch to play Chaos. Sorry.

There was setting in UT about loading all of the skins. It required tons of ram but was worth it. If your old PC only had 512 or so ram then all of that disk thrashing (your hard drive working and its light blinking like crazy from activity) would explain the delay. that happens when your PC runs out of ram and starts using memory from your hard drive instead as ram. It is way slower and bogs down everything. I have no opinion about the router lights blinking. That happens with me no matter what.

You need to give in to the force and let me remote in to your PC and make adjustments. You can watch as I do everything and I can explain it as I go if we are on the phone at the same time. The call will be on me and the remote session is free. You have nothing to lose. Let me know.
~Peace~

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Re: Getting ready to reinstall UT2k4

Post by a nameless entity » Thu Dec 06, 2012 4:38 pm

Ok thanks Herm. So now I have a clue as to what slows things down with the game. This Dell 8200 has 1 gig of PC 800 dual channel ram. I waited many years for the price to come down on that stuff, but it never really did. Dell gave me four 250Mb sticks, so to go up to the full 2 gig this thing could manage means buying 4x500Mb. I recently looked up the cost and it was about $200 or was it $500? Probably the latter, but still way out to lunch in either case, especially for a rig this old.

I will be putting the game onto drive D. This will free up 11.1 gig on my 80 gig hard drive C. It's exactly half full now, so there will be that much more virtual ram space available in the future.

I need to go see which map packs are available still. I am pretty sure the CBP and UCBP packs are still available, and I think I have one stored some place, but the official map packs I need to go find.
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Re: Getting ready to reinstall UT2k4

Post by Hermskii » Fri Dec 07, 2012 4:32 pm

That one gig should be plenty of ram. The next best guess as to why it ran slow would be rendering meaning I'd blame the video card. Was it any good? Please don't tell me you were using a built in video card.
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Re: Getting ready to reinstall UT2k4

Post by a nameless entity » Fri Dec 07, 2012 5:26 pm

It's an 8X AGP Radeon 1650 PRO. It has 512 Mb of on board RAM.
The mobo is 4x. The card was all I could get at the time. It's blazingly good for this rig. The fan and heat sink on it are huge, and considering that I probably don't work the card all that hard, might explain why it has lasted so long compared to the 9700 PRO that came with the PC, and the 9800 PRO that replaced it under warranty. Their fans were tiny in comparison, and they had no heat sink to speak of on them.
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Re: Getting ready to reinstall UT2k4

Post by Hermskii » Fri Dec 07, 2012 9:00 pm

It makes no sense. Everything about your rig is way over the top when it comes to UT2004. Your game should be blazing fast especially when you play practice rounds off the internet. So when do you want to bite the bullet and let me remote in. Actually I doubt there is much I could do. I don't know how to tweak UT2004 like UT99.

Have you done the standard Malwarebytes and ccleaner on it yet?
~Peace~

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Re: Getting ready to reinstall UT2k4

Post by a nameless entity » Fri Dec 07, 2012 11:53 pm

I haven't used ccleaner in a long time, but I scan with Malware bytes regularly. And my Antivirus too.

I suspect I have too much cr@p running in the background, but haven't been able to weed much out yet.
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Re: Getting ready to reinstall UT2k4

Post by EvilGrins » Sat Dec 08, 2012 9:46 pm

I don't have any patches, per se, for ut2004. the version I've got came with the Unreal anthology pack, which included Unreal1, Unreal2, ut99, and ut2004. Each of those games had all the characteristics of the most recent patches they each needed... and so far as I know no further patches were made after UA was released.

In a very roundabout way of saying, unless you've got the UA install, you might wanna go with that patch.

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