General Troubleshooting

Windows 95/98/ME Game Performance FAQ

This document is intended to help you to improve the overall performance of our games on your system. Please also try any available troubleshooting tips for the specific product you are having trouble with.

First, check the system requirements for the game that you are playing. If your system does not meet the minimum requirements, it may not be able to play the game at normal speed, resulting in choppiness and skipping.

Next, inspect the underside of the game CD for scratches, smudges, etc. These may cause your CD-ROM drive to have trouble reading the CD. Then, check to see that your CD-ROM drive is optimized in the Windows 95 control panel.

Also, be sure to close down all other applications when running the game. Other applications may take away valuable system resources that the game needs to run smoothly. To be sure you have shut down ALL of your applications, follow these steps:

  1. Find your Windows 95/98/ME taskbar. This is the gray bar where your START button is located.
  2. For every button on the taskbar except for the start button, right-click once and then left-click on "Close".
  3. Do the same for each of the icons on the opposite side of the taskbar. If there is no option to Close or Exit the application, don't worry, we'll deal with that in a moment.
  4. Once you have closed down all of the applications that you can using this method, press <control> <alt> <delete> (only once!) to bring up the Windows 95/98/ME task manager. You will see a list of programs that are still running.
  5. The only 2 programs that need to be there are Explorer and Systray. For everything else, click once to highlight the program you wish to close, and then click on "End Task". The task manager will close too, so you will need to press <control> <alt> <delete> again if you need to terminate any other programs.
  6. Once you have closed down all of the applications on your system except Explorer and Systray, try running your game again.

How can I optimize my system for my CD-ROM drive?

Windows 95 needs to know certain information about the speed of your CD-ROM drive and the amount of memory you wish to devote to it for peak performance.

To adjust these settings:

  1. Click on Start, then on Settings, then on Control Panel.
  2. Double click on the System icon.
  3. Select the Performance tab, then click on the File system button, and finally select the CD-ROM tab.

The first setting you need to look at is "Supplemental cache size". If your computer has 8 megabytes of memory or less, this setting should be towards the left side of the slider bar. If your computer has 16 megabytes of memory or more, it should be all the way to the right. Next, change the "Optimize Access Pattern" setting to match your CD-ROM drive. If you have a 4 speed CD-ROM or faster, use the "Quad Speed or higher" setting.