XP Games Won't Run on Mac Pro

[GoldenRedux]

I did a search, but I haven't found anything that specifically speaks to my problem.

I have a Mac Pro 2.66GHz w/ ATI XT1900, Bluetooth, Airport, 6GB RAM (4 x 512MB and 4 x 1GB), 3 SATA HDDs: 1 x 250GB, 1 x 750GB, 1 x 500GB + external LaCie FW HD - 160GB.

None of the games I install under XP will run, they all keep quitting back to the desktop. The games are: Ubisoft's Rugby Challenge 2006, EA Sports Rugby 06, F.E.A.R., Star Wars Battlefront II, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

On the Mac side, I have OS X 10.4.7 with the latest firmware update and Boot Camp 1.1.1 beta. I created an NTFS partition for Windows XP Home Edition and installed XP. I then installed the Macintosh Drivers from the Boot Camp CD and proceeded to download and install all of the Windows security updates and Software updates, including .NET 2.0 and .NET 1.1.

After all of that I installed the ATI Catalyst control panel and driver for Windows XP. I installed all the games plus ran any available patches for each game. None of them will run. All of them start to launch, the screen goes black, and then they quit back to the desktop, except for Star Wars, which just gives an error message when I try to launch it.

I actually had Rugby Challenge 2006 briefly running yesterday, but I don't know why it ran. Once I quit and restarted XP, it wouldn't run again, even though I had not made any changes.

I am totally perplexed about the situation. Does anyone know what might be going on or what I may be doing wrong? Thanks for any help.

 

[amtctt]

did you get the 40-50 security patches for xp. i know i was having problems because when i installed xp sp2, and checked for software updates, it only listed 1 so i downloaded that and i had problems with several programs. then i checked again for updates to XP and there were about 40-50 security updates, about 34mbs, worth that don't show up until that first patch is installed. once i put those in everything ran pretty smooth. i have run Battlefield 2 and FEAR with no issues.

 

[topgunn]

You installed Windows XP Home? Was it SP2? It has to be a Windows installation problem of some sort. There are many Mac Pro users who are happily running games in XP on their new Mac Pros as I type.

 

[MacsRgr8]

Do any of these ATi Demos work (grab the EXE-files, not the movies)?

Are you sure you can simply download and install the latest Windows Catalyst Drivers?
I don't own a Mac Pro, but maybe you MUST use the Boot Camp-drivers, instead of ATi's own?

 

[Krevnik]

Do any of these ATi Demos work (grab the EXE-files, not the movies)?

Are you sure you can simply download and install the latest Windows Catalyst Drivers?
I don't own a Mac Pro, but maybe you MUST use the Boot Camp-drivers, instead of ATi's own?

Apple's Radeon drivers for the Mac Pro /are/ the ATi Catalyst drivers, they just don't install the control panel.

Although to add, while the only game I have been playing is EvE... it works flawlessly in XP, and I have been able to get it running in Vista as well (although Vista is a pain to get working with Games because of the new security model).

 

[damado]

Apple's Radeon drivers for the Mac Pro /are/ the ATi Catalyst drivers, they just don't install the control panel.

Although to add, while the only game I have been playing is EvE... it works flawlessly in XP, and I have been able to get it running in Vista as well (although Vista is a pain to get working with Games because of the new security model).

Eve seems like a cool game. A friend of mine quit after 3 years and gave me his account but I haven't really played it at all since I mainly play WoW. Nice graphics though.

 

[apfhex]

Wonder if it's a Home Edition problem? Or at least, make sure you have SP2. The Boot Camp drivers are all you need, you shouldn't have to download any others, except maybe WinACD if you have an ACD. Maybe it's a Direct3D issue??

It must be a Windows installation problem though. I've been playing Half-Life 2 flawlessly on mine.

 

[FFTT]

How would you describe the difference playing your favorite XP games on your MacPro.

How does it compare to the best P/C gaming rig you've played on?

Performance, image quality etc?

Also are you connecting only to known secure game servers or are you doing other
things that require the extra security patches and A/V software?

I would think that if you're only running offline or only connecting to known
high quality gaming sites that you wouldn't need all that extra stuff
dragging down your system.

Aren't the web sites for games like WOW or Everquest protected connections?

 

[djhspawn]

once i put those in everything ran pretty smooth. i have run Battlefield 2 and FEAR with no issues.

That is what I am talking about!! I will be doing the same thing come Sunday.

 

[GoldenRedux]

did you get the 40-50 security patches for xp. i know i was having problems because when i installed xp sp2, and checked for software updates, it only listed 1 so i downloaded that and i had problems with several programs. then i checked again for updates to XP and there were about 40-50 security updates, about 34mbs, worth that don't show up until that first patch is installed. once i put those in everything ran pretty smooth. i have run Battlefield 2 and FEAR with no issues.

I downloaded all the bazillions of Windows XP updates. The first set, and all kept showing up after previous updates were installed.

 

[GoldenRedux]

You installed Windows XP Home? Was it SP2? It has to be a Windows installation problem of some sort. There are many Mac Pro users who are happily running games in XP on their new Mac Pros as I type.

I installed XP Home edition w/ SP2.

 

[Eidorian]

XP Home and 2 CPU sockets?

 

[GoldenRedux]

Wonder if it's a Home Edition problem? Or at least, make sure you have SP2. The Boot Camp drivers are all you need, you shouldn't have to download any others, except maybe WinACD if you have an ACD. Maybe it's a Direct3D issue??

It must be a Windows installation problem though. I've been playing Half-Life 2 flawlessly on mine.

I'm sorry, but what's ACD?

 

[GoldenRedux]

XP Home and 2 CPU sockets?

XP Home Edition w/ Service Pack 2.

 

[GoldenRedux]

To clarify a bit, I have tried it with just the apple ATI drivers first and they didn't play. That's what lead me to try downloading the catalyst drivers.

One question, is there anyway to install the Apple drivers after all of the numerous updates? I tried this, but XP doesn't recognise the ethernet port before the Apple drivers are installed, therefore I can't get the updates from the internet.

I did try it with a 'slip-streamed' XP installation with all the latest XP updates and the SATA drivers as part of the installation, but the games still would not run.

A couple of other issues are that the eject key on my apple Bluetooth. keyboard does not work and XP cannot find my Airport wireless network.

 

[Eidorian]

XP Home Edition w/ Service Pack 2.

Oh I see.

 

[daveporter]

Quake III Arena runs very fast here on the Mac Pro under Windows XP. Frame rates are so high (with all video featurs turned on and 1024X768 resolution) that I had to relearn how to run and jump so that I would not run past opponents and get shot.

Dave

 

[Digidesign]

I'm sorry, but what's ACD?

Apple Cinema Display

 

[GoldenRedux]

Apple Cinema Display

Oh. No, actually I'm running it through a Samsung 720p DLP television over DVI. I wonder if that could be the problem? Everything works fine in OS X, but in XP the games just refuse to launch.

 

[Blogger]

XP Home does not support two processors. Only two cores.

 

[GoldenRedux]

XP Home does not support two processors. Only two cores.

So could that be causing the problems with the games not running? Which version of XP should I install?

 

[amtctt]

Originally Posted by GoldenRedux
So could that be causing the problems with the games not running? Which version of XP should I install?[/QUOTE]

No, that's not the issue. That just means that you won't use the computer's full potential, but don't stress about that. hardly any games are designed to utilize more than one processor. There is something else wrong because a ton of people have had no problems running games on their mac pros in XP, both home and pro. are you having any issues with any other programs you are running?

 

[GoldenRedux]

Originally Posted by GoldenRedux
So could that be causing the problems with the games not running? Which version of XP should I install?[/QUOTE]

No, that's not the issue. That just means that you won't use the computer's full potential, but don't stress about that. hardly any games are designed to utilize more than one processor. There is something else wrong because a ton of people have had no problems running games on their mac pros in XP, both home and pro. are you having any issues with any other programs you are running?

I haven't really run much of anything. I've basically just been trying to get the games running. I've downloaded FireFox and Thunderbird, and they run without issue. All the drivers and apps for my Epson scanner and Epson printer work fine. IE runs.

So which version of XP will utilise all four cores? I've seen some things about people getting XP 64-bit to run, do you think that would be a goof idea? Or should I just go for XP Pro 32-bit w/SP2?

 

[knome]

i'm runnign counterstrike and Halo on it with no problems what so ever. I'm actually recieving better frame rate than in OSX due to ati's OpenGL abilities.

 

[GoldenRedux]

i'm runnign counterstrike and Halo on it with no problems what so ever. I'm actually recieving better frame rate than in OSX due to ati's OpenGL abilities.

Which version of XP are you running?