In case this helps any, following is the order of what i did, happened and conclusions :

 

To save you reading all the way down, results 1st are :

 

=AMD Duron 1.3 cpu not overclocked.

=VIA mobo chipset ata 133+raid/usb 2.0 vucd v 2.1 standard settings.

=512 mb standard ram standard settings.

=Nvidia Gforce FX 5200-128 mb agp 4x drivers v4.34.20.42 set for best performance instead of default best appearance, left rest default.

=Nvidia Forceware version 77.30 (updated by BF2 demo)

=refresh rate 60hz

=mobo bios changed from default agp aperature 32mb to 128 mb.

=80 gb standard hd 50 gbs free.

 

Winxp changed from default best appearance setting to best performance.

 

BF2 demo Results : looks/runs great !! ;-) It auto set 800 res, low detail/sound.

 

Following is order i did things and what i may have learned as useful info :

 

I borrowed friend's xp 2 yrs ago to try out but must have done something wrong as it was sluggish and nis gave errors, etc. This time xp clearly runs faster, frees more ram faster itself, nis works, etc. I'm impressed. Guess I have to figure out how I can afford 2 of them since this same friend's xp and key unactivated for 30 day trial. I just wanted to find out if my hardware would run BF2 decently or not, which it did with demo atleast.

 

*** update 1 day later : using gamespy, got bf2 demo working online in 100 ping server with 11-11 = 22 total = flawless, no lag, lots of fun. I may like this more then FA, wow. But have to figure out my own xp cost times 2 pcs. Working on it.

 

1- I swapped in secondary pc, the master win98se boot drive with it's unconnected master backup.

 

2- Set bios to boot from cd.

3- reformatted hd.

4- installed winxp that came with sp1.

5- I had left cable internet connected. (which may be bad idea see below).

6- xp failed to recognize video card but but it's own high res vid drivers ok.

7- in control panel/system/device manger i found "other", determined it to be nvidia card with no driver installed. Loaded vid card driver cd and drivers. Fixed that.

8- Sound needed mobo sound drivers installed from mobo cd. Fixed.

9- Tested browser. Worked right away. Went only to default broswer home page. BUT AFTER ABOUT A MINUTE, XP POPUP SAID "SECURITY SHUTTING DOWN SYSTEM IN 60 SECONDS."

10- I wanted to test bf2 with no other software loaded. But this shutdown popup got me thinking. Was it a virus, net attack, MS detecting friend's key ? So I decided to disconnect net cable and try installing firewall and antivirus. As well as Spybot and Spyblaster.

11- Set NIS during install not to auto update. Wasn't ready to connect net cable. Ran full scan and it found about 9 viruses and fixed them all.

12- Ran Spybot scan which found about a dozen spy and adware culprits. Cleaned them all.

13- Now I was paranoid of what was in startup list. Using ctrl-alt-del I looked at what loaded and running. I ended process and removed from startup list with msconfig, any file i could determine was not surely needed. When in doubt, i searched hd for file and check properties. Took out a few. Sorry i did not write down what. anything that seemed related to net but not needed for connecting. was some ms stuff like i think msupdate or something. was some weird file names too. checked add/remove list. had to end task on "mousehs.exe" to delete it as nis said it was infected with "W32.Wallz". From add/remove take out "OIM" and "Network Revenue (something). Was a weird mix of leeters filename in process list that when removed came right back wit hdifferent weird mix of letters. That stopped after I add/removed OIM and Revenue things.

14- Now with all that cleaning I rebooted and connected net cable with nis this time and spyblaster and spybot for protection.

15- 60 sec shutdown popup never returned but it was connected to browser which i wasn't gonna run til nis updated.

16- i updated nis 1st as i've learned with it in win98se to not update windows untill nis fully updated 1st or you get nis errors. remember when you run nis liveupdate to check/accept only the top update on the list if it shows more then 1. we learned from trial and error taking more then 1 at once often leads to errors.

17- next was trying xp updates which i got a lot of including service pack 2 which includes xp firewall and possibly antivirus. it detected my nis and recommended not having more then 1 firewall or antivirus so did not enable xp protection.

18- i took all xp udates on list at once which worked fine. went back for more and more til it said no more needed.

19- then installed bf2 demo which looked/ran great except there was a doorway in one of the us side buildings that i moved strafed into that made much of the screen black. upon restarting mission and avoiding that spot we've played hrs on it with no probs. I DON'T REMEMBER IF BF2 INSTALLER OFFERED NVIDIA DRIVERS, I WOULD HAVE ACCEPTED. I ALSO MAY HAVE USED ONES FROM BFV CD NVIDIA FOLDER WHICH I LEARNED ARE NEEDED FOR BFV VIDEO TO WORK. JUDGE BY VIDEO DRIVER VERSION I SHOW AT TOP I GUESS.

20- now i dunno why but i re-enabled some startup items i guess just because spybot's advanced-tools-system startup list said they were microsoft things. so i figured i maybe didn't need them disabled after all.

21- NEXT DAY WHEN I RAN XP UPDATE CHECK I GOT DIFFERENT SCREEN TELLING ME I DON'T HAVE RIGHT TO THEM AND ASKED ME TO ENTER EITHER MY CD KEY OR PRODUCT ID UNDER USERNAME IN SYSTEM PROPERTIES.

22- hmmmm. seems something i re-ennabled allows them to detect me as ligit or not .

23- o well, it's all updated anyway. I only wanted to test it to see if it runs well in my pc and if bf2 works ;-)

 

*** update : exactly 24 hrs later, nis popped up detecting "W32.Spybot.Worm" virus in c:\windows\system32\winupdatexp.exe" . This is 1 of the above that i disabled during paranoia but renabled after all was updated and working. Seems to be on 24 hr retry attack. Check your systems for this. NIS said unable to access file. so i checked ctrl-alt-del and saw it. i highlighted it and clicked "end process". short while later nis popped up again with same complaint but this time said it was able to delete the file as it was not fixable.

 

SO BE ADVISED, STAY SAFE, FRESH FORMAT/XP INSTALL, NOT CONNECTED TO NET UNTIL YOU GET FIREWALL/ANTIVIRUS IN AND AD/SPY BLOCK SOFTWARE IN 1ST, IN MY OPINION.

I finally got around to trying it with more people online. Ran amazingly well in...

 

"Seattle T3 ...." demo server, 40 players total(20-20), ping 100, my ping 90.

 

So I guess it'll run ok for us in bigger retail online maps, maybe not as many as 40 players though.

 

Too bad I have no idea when I may be able to afford it.

yeah, I saw a story on slashdot. Some study was done on spyware/viruses. They hooked a totally new install of XP (not update on the SP or anything) to the internet with no firewall, anti-virus, or spyware. It took the computer just under 12 minutes to becomed riddled with viruses and spyware.

So, remember kids, rubber is better than hair pulling frustration

Nice.

Your hlsw is running good? Mine don't ran anymore???

For this : BUT AFTER ABOUT A MINUTE, XP POPUP SAID "SECURITY SHUTTING DOWN SYSTEM IN 60 SECONDS."

You do to install this hotfix BEFORE to connect the internet cable(s): "WindowsXP-KB823980-x86-ENU.exe" for to kill the "60 seconds worm"...

Else disconnect the cable, there is that the worm shut down your system, and install the hotfix under "safe mode" and all will be alright...

Egidio.

In case this helps any, following is the order of what i did, happened and conclusions :

 

To save you reading all the way down, results 1st are :

 

=AMD Duron 1.3 cpu not overclocked.

 

=VIA mobo chipset ata 133+raid/usb 2.0 vucd v 2.1 standard settings.

 

=512 mb standard ram standard settings.

 

=Nvidia Gforce FX 5200-128 mb agp 4x drivers v4.34.20.42 set for best performance instead of default best appearance, left rest default.

 

=Nvidia Forceware version 77.30 (updated by BF2 demo)

 

=refresh rate 60hz

 

=mobo bios changed from default agp aperature 32mb to 128 mb.

 

=80 gb standard hd 50 gbs free.

 

Winxp changed from default best appearance setting to best performance.

 

BF2 demo Results : looks/runs great !! ;-) It auto set 800 res, low detail/sound.

 

Following is order i did things and what i may have learned as useful info :

 

I borrowed friend's xp 2 yrs ago to try out but must have done something wrong as it was sluggish and nis gave errors, etc. This time xp clearly runs faster, frees more ram faster itself, nis works, etc. I'm impressed. Guess I have to figure out how I can afford 2 of them since this same friend's xp and key unactivated for 30 day trial. I just wanted to find out if my hardware would run BF2 decently or not, which it did with demo atleast.

 

*** update 1 day later : using gamespy, got bf2 demo working online in 100 ping server with 11-11 = 22 total = flawless, no lag, lots of fun. I may like this more then FA, wow. But have to figure out my own xp cost times 2 pcs. Working on it.

 

1- I swapped in secondary pc, the master win98se boot drive with it's unconnected master backup.

 

2- Set bios to boot from cd.

 

3- reformatted hd.

 

4- installed winxp that came with sp1.

 

5- I had left cable internet connected. (which may be bad idea see below).

 

6- xp failed to recognize video card but but it's own high res vid drivers ok.

 

7- in control panel/system/device manger i found "other", determined it to be nvidia card with no driver installed. Loaded vid card driver cd and drivers. Fixed that.

 

8- Sound needed mobo sound drivers installed from mobo cd. Fixed.

 

9- Tested browser. Worked right away. Went only to default broswer home page. BUT AFTER ABOUT A MINUTE, XP POPUP SAID "SECURITY SHUTTING DOWN SYSTEM IN 60 SECONDS."

 

10- I wanted to test bf2 with no other software loaded. But this shutdown popup got me thinking. Was it a virus, net attack, MS detecting friend's key ? So I decided to disconnect net cable and try installing firewall and antivirus. As well as Spybot and Spyblaster.

 

11- Set NIS during install not to auto update. Wasn't ready to connect net cable. Ran full scan and it found about 9 viruses and fixed them all.

 

12- Ran Spybot scan which found about a dozen spy and adware culprits. Cleaned them all.

 

13- Now I was paranoid of what was in startup list. Using ctrl-alt-del I looked at what loaded and running. I ended process and removed from startup list with msconfig, any file i could determine was not surely needed. When in doubt, i searched hd for file and check properties. Took out a few. Sorry i did not write down what. anything that seemed related to net but not needed for connecting. was some ms stuff like i think msupdate or something. was some weird file names too. checked add/remove list. had to end task on "mousehs.exe" to delete it as nis said it was infected with "W32.Wallz". From add/remove take out "OIM" and "Network Revenue (something). Was a weird mix of leeters filename in process list that when removed came right back wit hdifferent weird mix of letters. That stopped after I add/removed OIM and Revenue things.

 

14- Now with all that cleaning I rebooted and connected net cable with nis this time and spyblaster and spybot for protection.

 

15- 60 sec shutdown popup never returned but it was connected to browser which i wasn't gonna run til nis updated.

 

16- i updated nis 1st as i've learned with it in win98se to not update windows untill nis fully updated 1st or you get nis errors. remember when you run nis liveupdate to check/accept only the top update on the list if it shows more then 1. we learned from trial and error taking more then 1 at once often leads to errors.

 

17- next was trying xp updates which i got a lot of including service pack 2 which includes xp firewall and possibly antivirus. it detected my nis and recommended not having more then 1 firewall or antivirus so did not enable xp protection.

 

18- i took all xp udates on list at once which worked fine. went back for more and more til it said no more needed.

 

19- then installed bf2 demo which looked/ran great except there was a doorway in one of the us side buildings that i moved strafed into that made much of the screen black. upon restarting mission and avoiding that spot we've played hrs on it with no probs. I DON'T REMEMBER IF BF2 INSTALLER OFFERED NVIDIA DRIVERS, I WOULD HAVE ACCEPTED. I ALSO MAY HAVE USED ONES FROM BFV CD NVIDIA FOLDER WHICH I LEARNED ARE NEEDED FOR BFV VIDEO TO WORK. JUDGE BY VIDEO DRIVER VERSION I SHOW AT TOP I GUESS.

 

20- now i dunno why but i re-enabled some startup items i guess just because spybot's advanced-tools-system startup list said they were microsoft things. so i figured i maybe didn't need them disabled after all.

 

21- NEXT DAY WHEN I RAN XP UPDATE CHECK I GOT DIFFERENT SCREEN TELLING ME I DON'T HAVE RIGHT TO THEM AND ASKED ME TO ENTER EITHER MY CD KEY OR PRODUCT ID UNDER USERNAME IN SYSTEM PROPERTIES.

 

22- hmmmm. seems something i re-ennabled allows them to detect me as ligit or not .

 

23- o well, it's all updated anyway. I only wanted to test it to see if it runs well in my pc and if bf2 works ;-)

 

*** update : exactly 24 hrs later, nis popped up detecting "W32.Spybot.Worm" virus in c:\windows\system32\winupdatexp.exe" . This is 1 of the above that i disabled during paranoia but renabled after all was updated and working. Seems to be on 24 hr retry attack. Check your systems for this. NIS said unable to access file. so i checked ctrl-alt-del and saw it. i highlighted it and clicked "end process". short while later nis popped up again with same complaint but this time said it was able to delete the file as it was not fixable.

 

SO BE ADVISED, STAY SAFE, FRESH FORMAT/XP INSTALL, NOT CONNECTED TO NET UNTIL YOU GET FIREWALL/ANTIVIRUS IN AND AD/SPY BLOCK SOFTWARE IN 1ST, IN MY OPINION.

ok i'm not gonna read all that would someone like to break it down for me

ok i'm not gonna read all that would someone like to break it down for me

Our 2 identical pc systems same as details at top, that according to BF2 minimum requirements are not okay, actually run it fine.

Nice.

 

Your hlsw is running good? Mine don't ran anymore???

 

For this : BUT AFTER ABOUT A MINUTE, XP POPUP SAID "SECURITY SHUTTING DOWN SYSTEM IN 60 SECONDS."

 

You do to install this hotfix BEFORE to connect the internet cable(s): "WindowsXP-KB823980-x86-ENU.exe" for to kill the "60 seconds worm"...

 

Else disconnect the cable, there is that the worm shut down your system, and install the hotfix under "safe mode" and all will be alright...

 

Egidio.

If I understand your wording correctly ...

 

1- Yes, our HLSW runs good. Latest version you posted download for in one pc and previous version in other pc for now. OOPS, EDIT : As test I just ran installer overtop previous version REMAINING FOLDER AND FEW FILES AFTER UNINSTALLING V43 AND REBBOTING. All's fine with previous server and gid AND RCON PASS still there.

 

2-Are you saying your hlsw is not running anymore ?

 

3-Yes. Have internet not connected when you reformat hd and install winxp. Install other Firewall/antivirus software. Connect net and get all other security software updates. Then update winxp.

 

4-One would have to risk net for that hotfix file unless they could get it through other protected system and copied to floppy or cd.

 

Thanks.

Our 2 identical pc systems idnetified at top, that according to BF2 minimum requirements are not okay, actually run it fine.

thx pail