Vista works, XP doesn't?

[ohhmyylantaa]

Well, I have two computers in my house. Mine runs Windows XP and the other runs Vista. Strangely, since I've heard Vista likes to crash this game, I can only play on the Vista. When I play on my XP I crash every time I sail. Fun..., right?

The XP (a two year old eMachines):

• 2.93 GHz processor
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500 graphics card
• and a normal Intel graphics card that came with it that I don't have active
• 512 MB of memory
• a buttload of free space on the hard drive
• hardwired high-speed conection

The Vista (a two month old Dell):

• some normal Intel graphics card it came with
• the same hardwided high-speed connection
• 1.60 GHz processor
• 1013 MB of ram
• tons of free space on the hard drive as well

Like I said, the Vista works wonderfully (well, except for lag ). The XP will always crash at sea. Sometimes I takes several tries of me trying to open Pirates before the login screen will actually show up as well. (Although I think I may have had that problem on the Vista when I first started playing on that as well.)
Now the curious thing is that the Vista used to do the same crash, but it stopped after several annoying tries and will now never do it.

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this? Any help? Because it's quite annoying to have to steal time on the other computer when mine sits neglected with its nice new flatscreen.

[Caleb Killagin]

Hmm. Maybe you are running on High on the XP and that is causing it to crash. Even running on Medium on the old eMachine will make it crash. Run it on LOW graphics.

[ohhmyylantaa]

I have it on the lowest graphics possible on both computers with aggressive memory conservation (or whatever that is).

[Caleb Killagin]

Well, with your eMachine only having 512MB (well thats what you had at the start, you probably dont even have 200-300MB by now..) then aggressive is really bad. Let your computer run at EASE. No aggressiveness.

[ohhmyylantaa]

I think I tried that.. and I don't think it makes a difference.
(I checked.. 488 MB now.)

[Chris]

thats still not a whole lot to run potco on O_o try logging on to potco with the emachine then look at you memory see what happens

[Swordsman761]

Originally Posted by ohhmyylantaa

The XP (a two year old eMachines):

• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500 graphics card
• and a normal Intel graphics card that came with it that I don't have active
  
• 512 MB of memory
• a buttload of free space on the hard drive
• 2.93 GHz processor
• hardwired high-speed conection

The Vista (a two month old Dell):

• some normal Intel graphics card it came with
• the same hardwided high-speed connection
  
• 1.60 GHz processor
• 1013 MB of ram
• tons of free space on the hard drive as well

I'm guessing the stuff I put in red is where the experience of POTC Online is most affected, with the GHz processor first, then the memory/ram, and finally the actual GB space. You want a good GHz processor, which your XP clearly beats on that... but its ram is horrible... just barely making the system requirements for the game. Space is also important, not because its sitting on your hard drive, but the more stuff you got on there the more CPU it will take up. Stuff running, EVEN IN THE BACKGROUND, is bad. FOR THE BEST PROFORMANCE, END ALL PROGRAMS RUNNING UNDER APPLICATIONS, AND ALL INSTANCES UNDER PROCESSES NOT NEEDED (I did all that fancy stuff to make a huge point).

Even if you got tons of free space, just one app could be using so much of your CPU that you don't even know. Task manager is easy to find/use on purpose- it's your friend.

Hope this helps,
-Swords

[livewire82]

Originally Posted by Swordsman761

I'm guessing the stuff I put in red is where the experience of POTC Online is most affected, with the GHz processor first, then the memory/ram, and finally the actual GB space. You want a good GHz processor, which your XP clearly beats on that... but its ram is horrible... just barely making the system requirements for the game. Space is also important, not because its sitting on your hard drive, but the more stuff you got on there the more CPU it will take up. Stuff running, EVEN IN THE BACKGROUND, is bad. FOR THE BEST PROFORMANCE, END ALL PROGRAMS RUNNING UNDER APPLICATIONS, AND ALL INSTANCES UNDER PROCESSES NOT NEEDED (I did all that fancy stuff to make a huge point).

Even if you got tons of free space, just one app could be using so much of your CPU that you don't even know. Task manager is easy to find/use on purpose- it's your friend.

Hope this helps,
-Swords

the space on the hard drive as long as it houses the game make no difference, potc online is based on the processor, video card and ram i know this because i've tested this in every way posible turning settings up and down and finally bought a new pc the ol 1.9 hp with a ati 9550 and 1gig of ram just couldn't run the game without constantly crashing. i now have a 3.4 hp with a nvidia 8500gt with 4gigs of ram game runs like water no lag no crashes, and as you can see the spec changes were only my processor, video card and ram..

[Swordsman761]

Originally Posted by livewire82

the space on the hard drive as long as it houses the game make no difference, potc online is based on the processor, video card and ram i know this because i've tested this in every way posible turning settings up and down and finally bought a new pc the ol 1.9 hp with a ati 9550 and 1gig of ram just couldn't run the game without constantly crashing. i now have a 3.4 hp with a nvidia 8500gt with 4gigs of ram game runs like water no lag no crashes, and as you can see the spec changes were only my processor, video card and ram..

Yeah, I know that, I'm talking about the stuff like AIM, iTunes, anti-virus software, spyware, and many other apps that run in the background even if you aren't currently running them. You can see the real deal behind the scenes work in the processes part of task manager.

Video cards only improves the graphical performance of the game, but what you said improves the game you are right about.

You are right, you just misunderstood what I was trying to say. RAM and GHz does help the game, but making sure your CPU is running smoothly is good too.

-Swords

[mrcharisma316]

cause youre processor and stuff in the new comp looks well slow
just cause u have vista doesnt mean ur computer is stronger

[ohhmyylantaa]

Oh, yeah, I know about shutting down everything. Nothing is running except for explorer.exe.

So do you think it just really is that I don't have enough RAM? Because I'm going to be so mad if we didn't take that extra memory out of my old computer...