Video Problems...?

[Jick]

This might be a shot in the dark here, but since I have tried just about everywhere else I figured it wouldn't hurt to try. After all, out of the thousands of people that visit these forums there must be someone who knows what I'm talking about... right? :(

Ok, I recently got Quake III Arena because I heard it was a good game. Allot of the games I like are based off the Quake engine so I figure if all these other companies wanna use their engine then their game must be pretty good.

I have it on my hard drive now but I'm having some problems trying to play it. Whenever I double-click on the Quake icon this dialog box with a Blue background comes up and this big log file is generated inside. After it gets to a certain point the screen goes to a Grey color and then to Black and then back to the desktop and then to Black again and finally back to the desktop where then the log file has a line at the end that says "Q_strncpyz: NULL src". At some point along the way something goes wrong. I then just have to close the window because nothing else happens.

I'm not sure what is causing this but it has me really confused. I've been searching Google and a ton of other places. I read somewhere that it may be the graphics card. It said that I should get the latest version of my graphic card's driver. I'm having some trouble finding it though. I have looked many places.

Is this what is wrong? Is it my graphics card? Or is it something else? I'm really confused right now.

My graphics card is a "Trident Video Accelerator Blade 3D/MVP4" and my computer is a "Compaq Presario 7360".

If someone could shine some light, any light, on whats up here I would GREATLY appreciate it. :D

P.S. I've attached the full log file so you guys can see the exact error. :)

[PeOfEo]

Well... your video card really does suck. But quake is not a super demanding game. I never have dropped a frame or artifacted in it. Its engine runs pretty lean. Ill look more into it tomorrow, but I would say reinstall the game first off. Then try the new driver if it still does not work.

[Jick]

Originally posted by PeOfEo
Well... your video card really does suck.Yeah, if I had the money that would not be the case. I got this computer for free from a friend and I had nothing before that so I got a pretty good deal for the price.Originally posted by PeOfEo
Ill look more into it tomorrow, but I would say reinstall the game first off. Then try the new driver if it still does not work.Ok, thanks for any help you can provide. :D

Also I just tried reinstalling the game and now I'm getting an error with that all of a sudden. I removed it and then tried installing it again but now I get through a couple of the steps until it comes time to start copying files and then I get an error message. :(

Error message attached!

[hercules550]

I have same machine as you - Compaq 7360 w/Trident Video Accelerator Blade 3D/MVP4. This is NOT a video card, but rather, an "integrated video solution" (chip on motherboard). In order to obtain the most recent drivers for this chipset, visit Via Technology's website or ViaArena and get the most recent "4 in 1" driver version available. Then follow installation instructions. You might consider updating the BIOS for your machine before doing so; find BIOS update at HP/Compaq's website - be SURE to follow directions exactly! After performing BIOS update and most current driver installation, you are as current as you can be with onboard video solution. This still may be insufficient and you will surely benefit by installing a PCI Video card of as little as 32 or 64Mb, as your current chip on board is, I believe, only 8 Mb of video memory. These cards are easy to install and are as cheap as $20.00. I noticed a tremendous difference in video performance upon installing a 32 Mb card, and have since upgraded again to 128 Mb. Good Luck!