So a while back I download the demo of Far Cry - and never got the thing to run reasonably at all on my PC. I assumed it was some demo problem and didn't worry a whole lot about it. This weekend I downloaded the demo of Massive Assault and had the same "random freeze" problems. So I downloaded 3DMark 03, same freezes. Uh oh.

Long story short - my GeForce 4 has a fan that stopped spinning. It doesn't generate enough heat in 2D mode to care, or (oddly) when playing Deus Ex 1, which I'm trying to finish. But it can't handle a modern DX9 game. Sigh. Freakin' $5 part quits spinning and now a several hundred dollar video card is worthless.

So Sunday I bought an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, and a DVD recorder. (My CDR was also dying - and while you've got the case open . . . . ) Luckily earlier last week Karin asked what I wanted for my birthday - so I was able to say "new computer parts" and then go buy 'em. Happy early birthday to me! :-)

ATI's Catalyst drivers are weird. I never did get it to SAY they installed successfully, but XP eventually decided it had the drivers installed. I get 3D acceleration, so I guess it's all good. The driver install kept saying "Install the Standard VGA drivers and try again". If somebody knows how to get standard VGA drivers installed on XP please let me know. You can start it in VGA Mode, but it will still detect the Radeon and attempt to change the driver itself. No cancel button, no checking for confirmation. Have I mentioned I hate Windows?

BTW, I totally dig Massive Assault. Maybe I'll write more on that later.