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thinking about eq please answer a few questionsFollow

#1 Mar 29 2006 at 7:44 PM Rating: Default
ok i want to start playing EQ for pc. I played EQOA (Everquest online adventures)for about 2 years and i finally stopped playing about 4 months ago. Now i am begging to play EQ again, but i dont really want to play it on ps2 anymore, anyway i sold my ps2. I want to try it for PC. But first i need to ask some questions and get them answered. I am probably going to buy a new PC , just a cheap one.. cheapest one that is good that i can find to play EQ on. Can someone help me pick out a pretty cheap computer for that? I already have another moniter so i dont need that, but is the Grahpix card in the moniter because its an old moniter from years ago. Second of all how much space do you need to play EQ? Also will i need to buy a new video or graphics card to play? I have a dell deminsion 2400 computer with windows xp. Thank you and someone please help!

thanks
#2 Mar 29 2006 at 11:08 PM Rating: Decent
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3,212 posts
I would suggest you look and post on the tec forum here to ask about a cheap machine.
#3 Mar 29 2006 at 11:24 PM Rating: Decent
If you're just starting out and are going classic EQ I believe it will run on Atari. Seriously though, Jonwin's advice is prudent.
#4 Mar 30 2006 at 10:37 AM Rating: Decent
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218 posts
You have to have a seperate video card to run EQ on PC, even just the classic version. Onboard video of older computers like the one you speak of will not work. Its not a matter of performance issues, EQ simply won't load. You will get this error message "EQ Cannot Detect a 3D hardware device".

I can't speak to a brand new top of the line PC because all of mine have video cards, so a newer one might work, but definetly not the old ones.

Good luck, and grats on stomaching EQOA for 2 years.



**Edit** I installed EQ Classic on my brand new dell with onboard video (at work desktop). It does not work. I get the above error message.***


**Edit #2** I must be feeling really helpful today, or fishing for a better karma rating. I looked up the specs of your system here http://docs.us.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim2400/en/index.htm
and you only have an onboard video driver. You would need to go buy a video card. The good news is that they are pretty cheap and very easy to install. If you buy the Everquest: Titanium edition (which I recommend) buy a video card with at least 128mb of ram on it. Also might want to pick up an extra stick or two of ram for your system.

Hope this helps you some.


Edited, Thu Mar 30 10:38:49 2006 by ZatxWoopyoax

Edited, Thu Mar 30 10:49:35 2006 by ZatxWoopyoax
#5 Mar 30 2006 at 11:33 AM Rating: Decent
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439 posts
Also bear in mind that one gig of mem is almost the stantard now.
#6 Mar 30 2006 at 1:03 PM Rating: Decent
Where is the tec forum? must be missing it.
#7 Mar 30 2006 at 3:30 PM Rating: Decent
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317 posts
Zatx said:
Quote:
**Edit** I installed EQ Classic on my brand new dell with onboard video (at work desktop). It does not work. I get the above error message.***

**Edit #2** I looked up the specs of your system here http://docs.us.dell.com/support/ed...n/index.htm and you only have an onboard video driver. You would need to go buy a video card.


This is not true. I have been running EQ on 2 different PC's for the last 3 years. The first one I played on had 850MHz AMD processor, 768MB RAM, and the motherboard had an onboard 64MB video processor. The Dell I am playing on now has a 3.0GHz Intel P4, 768MB RAM (swapped RAM, hehe), with onboard 128MB Intel Extreme Graphics 2. And if you really want to go low-tech...7 years ago when EQ was pre-Kunark, I played on a Compaq with 350MHz processor, 64MB RAM (not upgradeable), and 16MB 3Dfx Voodoo2 card.

All of these had separate video cards, except the Compaq which was using the video card ALONG with the onboard video...but is 16MB really anything to be writing home about? The key to playing on all of these machines was the allocation of the computer's RAM to be used as video RAM.

You can't change this from inside the Windows program (whichever version you run). It needs to be changed in the system BIOS setup of your computer. When your computer is booting up it will have a screen of some sort (usually black background) with some text and numbers on it and scrolling, or a loading bar, or something similar. And on this scren somewhere there will be a line of text that says something like "FOR BIOS SETUP PRESS <F12>". (It may be another key, but usually a function key or the delete key). You need to press this button before Windows loads up.

When you press this button it loads up the System BIOS setup utility for your computer. If you son't know what BIOS is, don't mess with ANY of the settings in here EXCEPT for the one that you need to for your video. Doing so can cause an irreversible error or permanent coruption of your hard drive.

Navigation thru the menus are self-explanatory, but there is a key at the bottom of the screen for reference. Since I am on my computer now, it is hard for me to say exactly which options you will be looking at, and which order they appear, so at this point you need to navigate thru your menus until you come across the option for allocating RAM to onboard video.

This will have a few options, and will be limited by the amount of RAM you have in your machine, and by the maximum amount the onboard video will handle. PUT IT TO THE MAX. Even if you have 128MB of onboard video (usually the max for onboard) and only 256MB of RAM, that leaves you 128MB of working RAM for the computer to run Windows and EQ. You might want to ease up on a few of the Luclin models for smoother gameplay, but it will work.

So after you have allocated the RAM to the video, exit and SAVE the settings you just changed and restart your computer. Congratulations you can now play EQ!

OK maybe not yet...you still have to make sure your drivers are compatible, you may need to download DirectX files, you may need to repatch EQ or do a complete file chack again. But the point I was trying to make is that you don't HAVE to go out and buy a new graphics card to play EQ.

Good luck to you welcome to the game (when you can play, of course).
#8 Mar 30 2006 at 8:30 PM Rating: Default
i dont mean i want to play classic EQ i meant i want to start playing EQ 2 lol

will i need any new vid cards or anything for Everquest 2?

Edited, Thu Mar 30 20:52:02 2006 by ironcloudmvp
#9 Mar 30 2006 at 8:54 PM Rating: Decent
shouldnt you be asking people in an everquest 2 forum?
#10 Mar 30 2006 at 8:58 PM Rating: Default
Forums...
Search Forums...
EverQuest Forum...
Quest Forum...
Class Forums...
Out of Topic Forum...
The Asylum...
Allakhazam IRC Chat...


i dont see a EQ2 forum ...
#11 Mar 30 2006 at 9:12 PM Rating: Decent
try the everquest 2 website, or just look on an EQ2 box where the comp specs are
#12 Mar 30 2006 at 11:31 PM Rating: Decent
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1,207 posts
uh? try looking under EQ2??
#13 Mar 31 2006 at 2:41 PM Rating: Decent
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218 posts
LOL Forget everything I said if this is about EQ2.

You'll need a screaming system with a minimum gig or ram and a kick **** video card.

Good luck in your new endeavor.



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