|
|
Post by tomlory on Nov 14, 2020 17:44:21 GMT
The realities of limited leisure time and disposable income have me in a mindset of "if it ain't broken, don't fix it".
My gaming PC is still on Windows 7.
I'm considering an upgrade to Windows 10 because iRacing supposedly requires it but I recall at least one of us having problem after problem after he moved up.
I assume that all of the ESR regulars have overcome any and all issues but it would be helpful to know ahead of time if I should expect any.
|
|
|
|
Post by mikec1 on Nov 14, 2020 21:32:31 GMT
I hesitated a long time before biting the bullet. No problems whatsoever. Just take time after the install to remove or turn off all those silly apps that hog resources. Works like a charm Win 10 does.
|
|
|
|
Post by K Juliot on Nov 15, 2020 2:17:13 GMT
I've been on Windows 10 since they offered it for free, several years ago anyway. Yes at first there were things that frustrated me but you just adapt and learn how things work. I have one laptop that I can't upgrade because there is no Win10 video driver for it so it's stuck on Win7, I hardly ever use it and when I do I can't imagine going back to Win7 again. There is things about Win10 that are so much better. There is six laptops in my house all running Win10, plus my main game PC.
The one thing I highly recommend and it prevents most if not all issues with updates affecting your games and settings. Seperate you operating system/ root drive from you game stuff, either by physically different drives( like I do) or partition your drive. Just takes a little more paying attention when you install stuff.
|
|
|
|
Post by tomlory on Feb 23, 2021 20:14:23 GMT
Circumstances pushed me to upgrade my game PC from Win7 to Win10.
I backed up everything important and saved a full system image.
I used a download directly from Microsoft.
So far so good on evidently being free, hasn't asked for a key, I'm assuming that a key was somehow stored on my PC.
Everything seems to work except rF2.
iRacing fired right up and all of my controls were as I had them before the "upgrade".
rFactor 2 is broken, though.
It won't start. I get the rF2 logo after I initiate launch but that's it, like hitting the starter button, hearing it crank over but no combustion.
rF2 configuratiom (or whatever its name) EXE where you specify graphics card and screen resolution properly identifies my graphics card but the only screen size choice that I get is 1080 x 720. In Windows 10, it's properly set to 1920 x 1080 with many other resolutions available.
I removed Steam, downloaded and installed Steam for Win10 which downloaded all of my paid DLC and Workshop subscribed content to a Steam/.../.../Content folder (that I've seen and worked with on our remote server but wasn't aware of on my local PC) but they don't appear in the rF2 installed folder. They get downloaded but not installed.
I uninstalled and reinstalled rF2 from within Steam, probably at least twice.
I updated the Nvidia driver(s) to Win10 version(s).
I've unsubscribed, subscribed, manually installed one car and one track in the appropriate rF2 folders, deleted player and multiplayer JSONs, more, everything that I could think of, probably up to about 2 hours of actual labor over the course of 27 hours.
This morning, I ordered a new hard drive intending to revert to what I had 4 days ago from a system image, a bonus being that the new drive will have twice the capacity and double the data transfer speed. I'm a little concerned how a partition that gave me C and D drives will be handled with the new HDD being 2TB vs 1TB existing one but I figure that my worst case will be to instead revert on the existing 1TB drive and buy Win10 to install on the new 2TB drive.
The plan is to have both HDDs permanently installed, I expect that I will have to simply swap connectors depending on which HDD and OS I want to be active. For the time being, I only need Windows 10 for Turbo Tax, have been more than happy with Win7, rF2, iRacing and my Logitech G27 setup.
A new PC is not an option at this time but the possibility of a new one at the end of year does factor into decision making.
Anybody have a quick fix? I'd sure like to see rF2 work ahead of the new HDD.
|
|
|
|
Post by mikec1 on Feb 23, 2021 20:49:58 GMT
That's a weird one Tom. It worked no problems for me when I did the switch. Something worth a shot is do you have the option to start in dev mode? It would be interesting to see if it works there or not.
|
|
|
|
Post by K Juliot on Feb 23, 2021 21:45:31 GMT
That's very strange indeed. With everything on Steam now it should just work.
Just my opinion but I would dig deeper into getting RF2 working on Win10 then messing around reverting back to Win7 and swapping connectors on drives. You could also do a dual boot and just tell it which operating system you want to use. Windows 10 does a so much better job with letting you manipulate partition sizes when moving up to a bigger drive, I think in Win7 I had to use a 3rd party program called Partition Magic.
Pat is the king of multiple times redoing Win10 and getting RF2 working again, he may have some insight to your problem.
|
|
|
|
Post by tomlory on Feb 24, 2021 23:15:40 GMT
So the problem appears to be with Steam as American Truck Simulator won't launch, either, with the same behavior and forensics except that instead of just going away like rF2 does, ATS gave me a popup with some things to try (none of which fixed it, though).
I've uninstalled Steam multiple times, have deleted all Steam related that I found but am searching for more so that I might uninstall and delete everything Steam related. I appreciate that there could be some Registry items but I am not going there yet for fear of breaking something else.
|
|
|
|
Post by tomlory on Feb 24, 2021 23:41:42 GMT
I found instructions published by Steam to completely remove Steam including Registry entries, no Big Deal, done, re-installing Steam and rF2. If that fails then I am done, back to restoring with a System Image.
|
|
|
|
Post by tomlory on Feb 25, 2021 1:56:47 GMT
I'm baaaack, lol. New HDD hasn't been delivered yet...
Uninstalled rFactor 2, uninstalled Steam, deleted every single Steam, Valve and rFactor file, folder and Registry entry that I could find.
Installed Steam, installing rFactor 2 now.
|
|
|
|
Post by mikec1 on Feb 25, 2021 2:28:38 GMT
Waiting with bated breath...
|
|
|
|
Post by tomlory on Feb 25, 2021 3:40:19 GMT
Thanks, Mike. No joy.
|
|
|
|
Post by mikec1 on Feb 25, 2021 4:00:53 GMT
Wow. I'm stumped as it makes no sense if you removed everything. Or its a funky Win 10 thing which I & others haven't encountered.
|
|
|
|
Post by tomlory on Feb 25, 2021 6:38:43 GMT
New HDD, the PC booted up and Windows 10 installed from a thumb drive and was digitally activated by the key stored on BIOS, Steam and rF2 are installed and apparently working but downloading and installing all of my Workshop subscriptions despite unsubscribing from all at some point so I have seen the UI loaded but haven't been able to jump in a car.
What probably did me in was updating from Windows 7 rather than a fresh install.
I had to DL and install the Logitech driver(s). I forgot that there was a step related to that but I guess that I got lucky because there was something about not plugging the wheel in until after the drivers were installed that we came across with Coffey when he got his new Win10 PC and his G27 was unhappy; I didn't plug my wheel in when I connected more urgent stuff like the monitor and keyboard and that may have saved me. Drivers first, then plug in wheel is how it's supposed to be done IIRC. I saw "G27" somewhere instead "GT Driving Force" so hopefully I avoid the weird problems that Pat had.
The driver for GeForce GTX1650 automatically installed but I'll get the related software and check for an update.
It seems like data transfer is happening faster. The new HDD is twice as fast (same 7200 rpm) but was 3 gigabits per second (375 mB/s) really a bottleneck? Actually, maybe. USB 2.0 is supposedly 480 mB/s and the new HDD is 750 mB/s. There's probably more to it than that but it does support my seat of the pants impression.
It's looking good but I'm probably hours away from certainty, may have to sleep before it's finished.
|
|
|
|
Post by tomlory on Feb 26, 2021 2:00:51 GMT
It's possible that I'll find something that isn't quite right but I've got Win10 installed and all of my sim racing related applications seemingly back to normal.
Logitech ended up being problematic for whatever reason. I had to hunt down an old driver, disappointed with myself for not having that saved somewhere. It immediately recognized my wheel as being a G27 and I have the full range of adjustment available in Profiler.
If I had known that the Windows upgrade from 7 to 10 was going to certainly be free and I could do a clean install (not the upgrade) then I would have jumped straight to the new HDD solution which would have been $60 plus a couple hours of my time at the most.
I haven't noticed anything better about Win10 for my needs but I guess it's time to move on, happy that in 10 years I've spent less than $400 on upgrades to a $600 PC.
|
|
|
|
Post by mikec1 on Feb 26, 2021 3:35:57 GMT
Well done fixing it Tom. Win 10 is really stable. Just get rid of all the live tiles and you're good to go.
|
|
|
|
Post by K Juliot on Feb 26, 2021 14:32:03 GMT
Awesome great news Tom, glad you got it worked out.
|
|
|
|
Post by tomlory on Mar 20, 2021 19:10:48 GMT
After all that, I ended up with a screen freeze problem with rFactor 2 and Win10. Happened at every track with every car that I tried. The video (and I assume audio) would freeze for something less than a second, then resume with me in the exact same spot on the track but behind in game the same amount of time that had lapsed real time.
Related or not, rF config didn't work. I could select 1920 x 1080 but it would revert to something else. In-game, I certainly had 1920 x 1080.
iRacing, Google Chrome, the standard Win10 utilities, WinRar, Adobe Reader, Grid Edit, Crew Chief, Turbo Tax, everything that I regularly use worked fine. One exception is probablyTeamspeak. Coffey complained that my transmissions were faint and had a lot of noise / static.
IIRC, MSI Afterburner wouldn't install for some reason.
I spent hours on possible fixes. DirectX, drivers.
I gave up yesterday ahead of a race at Phoenix with HORL and Toyota AE86 Round 2 for us this Sunday. The new guy or admin time travelling to end up inside someone else's car and ruin his race wasn't an acceptable risk. I got away with it at Kyalami when I was just beginning to understand that I had a persistent problem but I am expecting closer racing at Barbagallo and now I knew that I had a problem. Not the same as running Round 1.
Restoring from the system image didn't work. "No suitable drive to restore image to (or something like that)" even though the to and from drives and ISO image were listed by Windows. Senior microsoft tech on internet says (paraphrase), "yeah, system image is buggy, Microsoft will probably drop it from future release".
Restoring from the system image was supposed to be my safety net, magic bullet, close air support, vaccine. At that point, I was facing having turned a perfectly good gaming computer into one that was useless for rF2 for 12+ hours effort and $60.
Thankfully, I was able to roll back to Windows 7 even though that option was supposedly (displayed on screen) only good for 10 days after upgrading. I had completely removed Steam and rF2 due to the primary initial problem but that's easy to restore. rF2 base content is evidently pretty big now, with the GT3 Pack, Nordschleife, BMW M2 and Porsche 911 Cup, it took an hour (if not longer) to reinstall everything.
My best guess is that I was having a driver issue with Win 10, probably the Realtek integrated audio. Strangely, I could replicate the freeze but unplugging my headset and there was the poor microphone issue with Teamspeak. There was no Win10 driver available. Maybe a stand-alone sound card would fix it. Another maybe...
I ran the 150 lap race with HORL with no issues so I assume that I am back to normal.
I didn't mind Win10 once I got used to it. There was nothing better about it for my use and I am now reminded about the annoying reminders to do set this or that up and the fact that you can't turn off updates. I'll miss the faster and larger hard drive but that's it.
Recap:
Upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10, rFactor 2 and American Truck Simulator (all of my Steam games) wouldn't launch. All other applications okay.
Performed a fresh installation of Win10 on a new HDD. rFactor 2 screen freezes, microphone issues, rF Config didn't work, MSI Afterburner wouldn't install. All other applications okay.
Restore from System Image failed.
Rolled back to Win7 on the original HDD, all is apparently good.
|
|
|
|
Post by K Juliot on Mar 21, 2021 14:34:49 GMT
Sad that it didn't work out for you Tom but glad you can get back to working system. The issues you were having were strange. The screen freeze thing has happened to me also in the last 4 months, not all the time like you. I've had Win 10 for years so this is something new and suspect some Win10 update may be causing it.
|
|
|
|
Post by tomlory on Apr 17, 2021 16:56:51 GMT
I had to go back to Win10 for a few days. iRacing seems to be working perfectly.
|
|
|
|
Post by mikec1 on Apr 17, 2021 20:24:23 GMT
Great to hear. How is rF2 now?
|
|
|
|
Post by tomlory on Apr 18, 2021 6:11:55 GMT
I'll have to switch back to the other hard drive with Win7 for rF2 and Teamspeak. Only takes a few minutes. A permanent switch to Win10 will only happen when (if) I buy a new PC for which there is no pressing need at the moment.
|
|
|
|
Post by mikec1 on Apr 18, 2021 20:11:57 GMT
I hear ya on the pc upgrade. With graphic cards way overpriced, I'm holding off too. A &500 card a year or so ago is now selling for $1000-$1500. Outrageous.
|
|
