Please Look At Screenshots Of Zootycoon 2... Wife'

[digitalduck]

Long story short.. its my wife's birthday today (seriously) and I bought her Zoo Tycoon 2 yesterday because I know she loves zoo animals and would love a game like that. I dl the demo a few days ago and it worked fine.

Then I installed the full game telling her that it would most likely come with a tutorial, which it did thankfully, and she played it for about 2 hours and loved it. Then we went out to dinner and when we came back she wanted to make a chance to something and she loaded it again and all of a sudden there were problems. Ive posted images, but I dont understand it. I hadnt made any changes to my system at all since the install hours earlier and the demo was uninstalled and it had worked perfectly. I did everything including updating my driver to the latest version but i am still all of a sudden getting these screen tearings and then the system will hang and then monitor will go "out of scan range" and will turn black.

After restarting the pc I am left with having to try other ideas only to come up empty again. The game worked fine when I installed it for a few hours and I have done everything including the following:

1. update drivers to 6.3
2. change color depth from 32 to 16 and back
3. Turn hardware excelleration down a few notchces
4. mess with basic resolution settings
5. change refresh rate
6. Tried official update from site
7. Tried installing game to default directory i.e. program files instead of my
games folder.......who knows.

Image 1
Image 2
Image 3


but so far I am still left with this wierd tearing and snow all over the screen (see pic) all of a sudden for a bout a minute then the screen goes black and monitor light goes orange..

Does anyone have any other ideas? She really loves this game and was just getting into it...I just cant figure it out and its really bugging me...



 Abit NF7 v2.0
Athlon Mobile 2500 @1.89
1 gig Corsair 3200 DDR
Radeon 9800 pro retail
160 Gig 7200 Seagate HD

[Bielski]

Sorry but we can't see the images. Maybe you should try via an imagehoster (e.g. Imageshack)

[brownwolf]

I can't see the pictures, either. Try hosting them on Photobucket.

[digitalduck]

Images fixed..sorry, thanks for the quick replies though

[Yellowrose]

Is this a desktop PC or a Laptop you are using?

There are issues with ZT 2 and some graphics cards. I'll find the link for the list and edit this post with with it.

Have you changed the ingame graphics settings to low, medium and high to see if that makes a difference.

The out of scan range messege tells me it could be with the monitor setting itself. If all else fails I would talk to a computer tech about the out of scan range messege and see what ithey say it could be caused by.

[csleesburg]

Okay, there's two things to know. First, ZT2 doesn't run well when you're multi-tasking, because it quickly sucks up your RAM. Restarting should take care of that one. Second, adjust not your computer graphics settings, but the game settings. I have my computer at 32 bits, but have to set SOME of my game settings at Medium to avoid lag. It's fine to 'play' with your game settings - it won't hurt anything. If they're set at Medium (usual when installed), try High. If that doesn't work, try Low. If THAT doesn't work, try Custom and 'tweak' them until you get one that's right for your computer setup. With a gig in both places, you shouldn't have any trouble.

Let us know if that works. :happy

EDIT: Good point, Yellowrose. I was (maybe wrongly) assuming you're on a desktop

[Yellowrose]

Here is the link I found at the MS site for known graphics issues with Zoo Tycoon 2. Hopefully this helps a little.

The tpoic is found HERE

[digitalduck]

Unfortunatelly ive looked at all the articles on the microsoft website for ZT2 and messed around with the ingame graphics but nothings worked yet. So far if I stay in the game for longer then a minute the monitor goes black and light changes to orange which makes me think "out of scan range" Any other ideas Ive also tried removing DirectX and reinstalling wiht no luck... wierd, this just came out of no where, because it worked for a few hours..

Also, yeah, im on a desktop and was playing it on high with everything at max.

[csleesburg]

Well then, the only other thing I can think of is to CALL MS (they do have a number on the box or booklet). My sister had to do that. And, they actually DID help her with her problem. Hopefully, they can help you with yours, too. Maybe someone else can come up with another solution...? :huh

[digitalduck]

I have a possible idea...my video card fan isnt working at all..how much will that heat up my card and slow affect my performance down? The fan on my Radeon 9800 Pro simply isnt spinning at all..shoot...now what..send it in to ATI I guess..

[csleesburg]

Oh my GOODNESS yes, that sure will mess up your graphics! But, before sending it in, simply take the back off your computer and see if the vent isn't full of dust/fluff on the inside of the fan. That happens frequently. One (everyone) should clean them regularly. Carpet dust and dust bunnies get in there. :whistle Try that and see if it helps.

[digitalduck]

Sorry, forgot to mention I did that..unfortunatelly after a thurough dusting, inspection and using a different power supply hookup and inspecting the fan hookup its still wont power up.. the card works apparently, but the fan wont spin.. it was rather clogged with dust too. I try to clean my PC regularly, but something like that can go overlooked... however..now what.. the card is old so what are my options..

[csleesburg]

Well, I'm (and probably you, too) am at the end of my theoretical cord! :sad Hate to say this, but I'm thinking new graphics card/fan. I just don't know what else to suggest. I'm terribly sorry for you, DigitalDuck. :crying BUT - look at the postive side! What a GREAT game your wife will have after you get the new one!  :wtg And tell her we're sorry about her now-belated birthday gift, but  :hbday1 to her anyway. :happy

[Yellowrose]

I have to agree. with a fan that will not work and an older card ....might be time to upgrade the card to a newer version and something with minimum 128 megs of ram on the card or if possible 256. that will help to take some of the duties off the system ram.

Prices are coming down and if you look around you can get deals on cards. I just picked up an Nvidia Gforce 6200oc with 256 megs of ram priced at $229.00 Canadian. It had a $50 instant rebate and an additional $50 Mail in rebate so I saved $100 dollars and the card only cost me $129 in the end.

Shop around and see what you can find and treat yourself and your wife to a new card so you can both enjoy better graphics rendering for graphics programs and games.