Mad over Madden 2006, Football Sim Options

[Leadmagnet]

I can't make my program install. I ran the "whats your system got" tech program and it refuses to recognize my video card, (a Geforce 6600 GT) even with the most current drivers installed. what do i do? I contacted EA's technical support and they gave me a work around that transfers the files fro mthe cd to the computer, but even then the program still refuses to install.


Is there anyone out there who can help me, or at least set me on the right direction? I have never had a problem with installing any kind of game on my machine, until now, and it bites....



Thanks in advance,


Leadmagnet

[)--S@B0T-->]

Hey Lead,

Unfortunately, the days of loading a new video game before you perform a tune up are almost over, that is, unless you diligently keep your machine updated with the latest hardware and constantly keep drivers updated as well. Not to mention the routine maintenance, getting rid of temp. internet files and cookies, cleaning up the registry and running disk defrag on a regular basis, as well as, keeping your antivirus and firewall up to date along with Windows updates to ensure your machine always has the latest fixes/patches etc.*** If you are not comfortable updating drivers/installing hardware or software, you may not want to attempt any of what I have outlined here. Please keep in mind these are only suggestions and these are things I would try if it were me.***

Let's start with your chipset drivers. How old is your machine? If less than 6 months your chipset drivers are probably fine. If not, you will need to identify your chipset (via, nvidia, etc) and verify that your chipset drivers are up to date. You can identify the chipset by looking in the manual that came with your computer, or by contacting your computer manufacturer, usually on the web. I have run into issues where the chipset drivers were incompatible with the latest graphics card drivers.

Secondly, if you updated your video card drivers, you should always make sure your old drivers completely uninstall before you install the new ones. Some graphics drivers don't completely uninstall even after you run "add/remove programs" in windows. If your drivers came with a disk or uninstall utility- use that to remove them. *note: Sometimes the latest drivers are not the best for your particular situation. You should always read the "fixed in this release" of the driver you want to install, to see if a new driver addresses the issues you are encountering. New is not necessarily better, rather is it compatible? - that is the key.

Thirdly, you need to make sure your Direct X drivers are up to date, and Windows just updated it's Direct X files. Mostly security issues, but you wanna make sure it is the latest out there. You can update that here

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.mspx

If it were me, this is what I'd do. I would uninstall the game. Then I would run a cleaner to clean up dead file extensions, old shortcuts etc. I use a free utility off the web called "Crap Cleaner or CCleaner. You can get that here

http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

Once downloaded you will go thru the set up and I always uncheck the following; auto update, and add short cuts to the desktop, and definitely do not install the yahoo tool bar (unless you want it). Then run the cleaner and remove all of the cookies and temp internet files, then run the "scan for issues." This cleans up the registry and It will identify old file extensions, dead ends, etc. I always remove those too. Then reboot and run disk defrag. in windows. (start, all programs, accessories, system tools, disk defrag.)

Once that is done, find out about your chipset drivers, update if needed. At this time too, you could check on your audio drivers as well. Make sure they are up to date too. Usually new sound drivers will over write old drivers, but as a rule of thumb, it is best to uninstall and reinstall with new, if needed.

Then, if there are updated drivers for your video card, download them and save to your desktop. Then completely uninstall your old drivers, reboot, and run the cleaner again using the "scan for issues". Once that is complete, install your new graphics drivers, reboot and make sure all is well there. Here's a site that might help you with your graphics card issues as well.

http://www.tweakguides.com/NVFORCE_1.html

Now, install your game paying particular attention to any setup options along the way. With updated drivers, hard drives cleaned up and optimized you should have no problems installing your new game.

I'm quite certain that there is a quicker fix than going through all of this, but I am assuming that routine maintenance is not part of your daily/weekly program and I incorporate alot of maintenance procedures during software installation thereby eliminating them as potential problems down the road.





This post has been edited by )--S@B0T-->: 08/11/06 9:13am