Possible cure for some game issues caused by nvidia drivers.

[LT.Homer Simpson]

Possible cure for some game issues.

Today when I was experimenting with various nvidia drivers I came across a problem. After trying one of the drivers I suddenly couldn't load several of my games. Warcraft couldn't find the disc or it would give me the eror--Couldn't open the Game.dll---
Also Counter Strike would give me the error --My vid card doesn't use this opengl mode, plus a few other games give some small issues. Even when I tried removing the nvidia drivers and all there registry setting and files, then reinstalling, I got the same errors. I knew that the drivers where causing the problem, but how. I also notice, when doing some checking threw various programs I was occasionally getting the error-- Couldn't open DCMAN32.dll .
Could this error and the game.dll eror be related. After checking I discovered that the dcman32.dll, is a file used in the running of avi's. Hmmm, Since I was running Win98se, I decided to use my File checker tool and 98 disc, to see if I had any corrupted files. Behold my dcman32.dll and some associated files where corrupted. The file checker restored them. Upon the restore now everything is working fine.
Conclusion: Its apparent the nvidia drivers under certain instances can cause certain file corruptions. And using file checker seems to cure the problem.
Its is possible that people using nvidia cards and drivers and who are expericencing problems should try using the file checker tool to see if this can correct the issue. (Note: First try running the file checker with a backup log. If you run into a file that the file checker cannot make a copy of it --then hit ignore--continue and rerun file checker with out a log next time.-sometimes windows cannot backup a corrupted file)

 

[LT.Homer Simpson]

Added note: I haven't determined if the drivers caused this error or something else--Just that it occured at the same time. But I have determined that these corrupted files (dcman32.dll and a few others I didn't catch) where the problem. It is possible these files can be corrupted and not show up until you try using or installing a game that uses them. I notice a few games weren't affect by them. So its possible these error could affect other vid cards as well, since this is a corruption of win files not the drivers themselves.

 

[LT.Homer Simpson]

Here is a outline on the correct way to use System File Checker:

To run this application go to START, RUN, Type " SFC" (without the quotes), press ENTER

Click the SETTINGS button.
Set the options to:

* Always back up before restoring
* Append to existing log
* Check for changed files
* Check for deleted files

In the SEARCH CRITERIA tab, make sure you have the following:

FOLDERS SUBFOLDERS
C:\Program Files No
C:\Program Files\Accessories Yes
C:\Program Files\Common Files Yes
C:\Windows No
C:\Windows\Command No
C:\Windows\System Yes
C:\Windows\System32 Yes

The file types MUST be:
*.386
*.ax
*.com
*.dll
*.drv
*.exe
*.mpd
*.ocx
*.scr
*.sys
*.vxd

If any of this is missing just ad it to the list, if there are more probably they are not necessary, these are the most important ones.

Now, in the ADVANCED tab just make sure the program is pointing to " C:\Windows\Default.sfc" file, this is the database that holds the original Windows file installation information, and after the first scan, the one that will hold ALL your files data.

Press OK to exit and save the settings.

Now press START.
If this is the first time you run this utility you will be asked a LOT about each file in your system, hope you have some time to spare...

When the questions start to come up you must check the files mentioned in this priority order:
1- Date
2- Version
3- Size
(PS: In some cases the windows will not backup a corrupted file. If this happens just hit ignore and continue. Then rerun checker again but this time with no backup activated.)
The most important thing in every file is the date, if the file is older than 4/23/99 (Windows 98 SE) then the file MUST be replaced with a newer version.
The second thing is the version number, just remember, a higher version number DOESN'T NECESARILY means that the file is newer, unless is correctly matched with a newer date.
The third is size, not too important, but when the files are from two different sizes, specially a BIG difference, you must consider the first two points mentioned above before replacing the file or leaving it as is.

You will be given 4 options to choose from when a file comes up, UPDATE, RESTORE, IGNORE, UPDATE ALL. They are well explained in the application so no need to mention what they do here (right click each option and select "What's this?" for further explanations), but one thing, the last option, UPDATE ALL, should NEVER be used, unless you did a file scan before an installation, installed the desired application and then run the scan again, but you have to be SURE that all the files installed by the application are in fact NEWER than the ones you had in your system, but that's very unlikely since many application use different DLL versions, even newer app sometimes us old DLLs.
You must select the option you want to use and press OK, if it was UPDATE then the file scan will continue with the next file, if it is RESTORE you will be asked where to restore this file from, normally it will be from the Win98 cabs (in the Win98 folder inside the CD or in the "C:\Windows\Options\Cabs" folder inside your hard disk), if the file is NOT found in the Windows CABS that means that the file is NOT from the Windows Operating System, and thus, from another 3rd party application, if you know which application and need to restore a deleted file or replace a corrupt one you should re-install the application.

Just be aware, if you are using IE 5.01 or higher the program will report at least 4 or 5 corrupted files that belong to Internet Explorer, the fact is that this is not true, the files are correct, but they are encrypted in a way that even SFC won't recognize. What I normally do to solve this problem is, replace the "corrupted" files with the original ones from the Windows CD, just in case the file is truly corrupted, and when the scan finishes I restart Windows, install Internet Explorer 5.5, restart, and run SFC again, but this time, when the first file comes up I select the option UPDATE ALL (since I already run it before IE5.5 installation and I know the the IE5.5 files WILL be newer than the ones I already have in my computer) to skip the process of inspecting each file individually, if any corrupted files show I just tell the program to UPDATE the database with the new file.

One more thing, if you cancel the process at ANY time, even in the last file, all the changes you made during the current file scan will be gone and you'll have to restart all over again.

After you have finished you may restart your computer for the changes to take effect.