buying computer with window xp in stores

does anybody know which stores not online that i can go to to buy that have window xp, because the patches do not work, half of my games do not play great on window 7.

You cannot buy computers with XP any more. Microsoft will be stopping support for this old operating system in about a year. You might be able to find old computers on some place like EBay, but I would be careful there.

What kind of problems are you having? Almost all of my games are playing perfectly on Windows 7 and even on Windows 8.

the black mirror won't play, crime stories won't play, natalie brooks 2, cannot push read, so phone will not ring, cannot play nancy drew stay tune for danger, secrets can kill, and the patch jenny gave me won't work, and dracula 3 to work.

The Black Mirror requires a NoCD patch. Crime Stories is a different animal, the graphics engine is incompatible with Windows 7.

Drac - if you have a copy of it, does Crime Stories play under Windows 8?

There are some games that use certain kinds of copy protection that won't play on Windows 7. I think Black Mirror is one of them. I'm pretty sure Dracula 3 played just fine for me, but I will load it up and double check.

Others have gotten all the Nancy Drew games to play just fine. Have your tried playing that one in compatibility mode for XP?

EDIT: I loaded Dracula 3 and am having some issues with the video, but it plays just fine. Danyboy and I did a review of this game for Mystery Manor in 2008. I played in on my old XP computer and Danyboy played it on his Vista computer and it played fine for both of us. What issues are you having with Dracula 3 on your computer?

Inland, I don't have Crime Stories or I would gladly check it out.

Any thoughts on why the video is "jittery" in Dracula 3? I said yes when asked to install DirectX 9.0c. Video card is a GTX 260.

The original Secrets Can Kill and Stay Tuned for Danger apparently do install and run for most if not all Windows 7 users, but unfortunately there is no sound. Playing the Secrets Can Kill Remastered version eliminates the problem, but there is no good fix that I know of for Stay Tuned for Danger.

So, it's just the very first Nancy Drew game (the original Secrets Can Kill) and Stay Tuned for Danger (#2) that are generally a no-go for Windows 7 users.

Her Interactive discusses the difficulties with Stay Tuned for Danger here.

Maybe you can find a workaround, Drac; we would be forever in your debt!

Stay Tuned has another problem due to a certain timed puzzle. The speed of the puzzle was dependent on the speed of the computer processor. They came up with a "patch" that gave you more time on the "newer computers" -- which worked in the early 2000's. But computers kept getting faster and faster and the patch doesn't work anymore because the puzzle is still dependent on computer speed.

The problem with the sound card could probably be circumvented by playing the game inside Virtual PC, which emulates an old Soundblaster 16 sound card. Of course you'd need a Windows 95 or 98 CD to install Windows inside Virtual PC. And there would still be the problem with the timed puzzle that's dependent on processor speed.


I'd guess it was a driver incompatibility. If you had XP or earlier, I'd suggest reducing video acceleration. But drivers for Vista, Win7, and Win8 don't usually allow you to reduce video acceleration. So you're left with trying a different, often older version of the drivers -- and that's not so good for Win8.

I'm on Windows 7 with the jittery video issue, but I had a similar issue with Dracula 3 on Windows 8. I can go into my Nvidia settings, but it's a wilderness there and of course, as you say, there's no simple video acceleration setting.

Family, I would still be interested in what your issues are with Dracula 3. I would like to know if my problem is my video card and maybe the game would play on lower end graphics.

if you click on the icon nothing, jenny gave me the nocd patch and i follow i cut nothing for the black mirror, natalie brooks 2 , i cannot click the read on the cellphone, crime stories video game is a black screen.

When you say click on the icon, are you talking about Dracula 3? If you double click on the play icon, it should launch. If it won't launch, then something else is wrong that has nothing to do with Windows 7.

yes i click on dracula 3 icon and nothing.

The NoCD patch was for Black Mirror, Draclvr.
But Family is having troubles with more than one game.

Family, is your video card an onboard card (built into the motherboard) or is it a separate card. If it's an onboard card, it probably has no video RAM of its own and that may be why some games won't play.

Yeah, I know... she has listed several games she is having trouble with. I was checking on Dracula 3 for her on my Windows 7. I knew Black Mirror needed the NoCD patch, wasn't sure about the Nancy Drew games, but was surprised about Dracula 3. I thought I had tested it on Windows 7, but obviously I hadn't!

If the game won't even launch from the gameplay icon, something else is wrong. Like Jenny says, if you have on-board video, that may be causing problems too. Dracula 3 needs a 64MB DirectX 9.0 3D Compatible Video Card and preferably a 128MB card. What do you have in your computer?

is that why i am having trouble with natalie brooks 2 and crime stories too., i will check, it saids a direct 11, when i did a dxdiag, and ran a dx diag and it said no problems.

If you really want XP, you can do what I did. Got newish computer, removed the current operating system and installed XP which I bought from ebay seller (legal, unused copy with all documentation) and had my computer guru friend install it. I'm happy with it. Be sure you aren't buying a used or illegal copy or there will be mega troubles. Microsoft is discontinuing the support of XP but I am happy with it on my old computer and now the newish one. Good luck.

thank you very much, i have a xp cd-rom, that i kept , which this one was xp, til the guy turn it into window 7, and now it saying the color scheme is the problem.

family, you've never told us what your video card is... What is saying you have a problem with your color scheme?

when i do the compatibily tab, and it is ati, i look it up.

What does dxdiag say?

Click the start button in the lower left corner of your screen, type
dxdiag
in the Search box and OK it.

When dxdiag appears, choose the Display tab.
What does it say for the Name: of the video card?

Here's an example of what you might see
http://www.windowsresource.net/cimages/dxdiag2.jpg

The top circled thing in the picture is the "Name:" and it should say something more specific than just ATI.

ati radeon hd 5450 is the name,memory 2801mb.

Is this a laptop?
If it's a brand name computer, what's the brand and model number?

Like Jenny said, it may be a drive issue. I seem to recall having a few jitters myself, and I used a GTX 460.

no it is a desktop, intel core,and powerspec.

Is Powerspec the brand of the computer? I've never heard of it.

intel(r) core(tm) is the processore.

No, we were asking what is the brand of your computer. We know you have an intel processor. What is powerspec?

the name of the computer., the tower, model number b810.

Examples of brand name and model number of computers:

Dell Inspiron 660

Dell XPS 8500

HP Pavilion p6-2400t

HP Envy-Phoenix h9-1440t

Gateway DX4370-UR10

eMachines EL1852G-52w

b810 seems to be a processor number.

Unless you computer is a homebuilt or custom built in a shop, it will have a brand name, like HP, Dell, eMachines, etc. -- and a model number, like XPS 8500. Do you see anything like that written on your computer case?

no only powerspec model number b810, i brought it from microcenter a long time ago.

OK I found this
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2352518,00.asp
so there is a Powerspec brand after all. But there's very little about the b810 on the Internet about it. There's a powerspec.com website, but unfortunately nothing about a model b810 at
http://www.powerspec.com/support/support_archive.phtml

So I guess we can't tell much about your computer from the model name and number. I was hoping we could look up whether the video card had discrete video memory or only "borrowed" memory. Dxdiag doesn't distinguish.

By the way, did the computer play all these games that aren't playing now before it was "upgraded" from XP to Windows 7? If so, maybe it's a driver issue.

yes only dracula 3 was the only one i had issue with.

According to Big Fish, all the Natalie Brooks games should work in Windows 7. I'm not sure which is the second one (was it "Treasures of the Lost Kingdom?"), but are you sure you've done everything you need to? Some games won't let you progress if you miss something.

yes that is the name, and i look at the chair, click on all the things in the list, turn the statue, cell phone lights up, click read, nothing. and dracula 3 work whrn i download driver master, from fixya.

So you got Dracula 3 working now? Great!
Sounds like all you needed was the right drivers.

For Natalie Brooks 2, you may need to restart the game. It's possible you found a bug.

no when i had window xp, i haven't download that yet, when i did it said i had 27 out of date drivers and want me to resigter, before it fix them, and i restarted natalie 2 and the same thing happen.

I think fixya just wants your money. You should be able to change your ATI drivers yourself. See if you can download them from the ATI site
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

I don't know what to tell you about Natalie 2. It's been so long since I played it that I forgot all the details. Are you near the beginning of the game? Did you follow the walkthrough step by step? I can try replaying it and see if the walkthrough left out a step.

Well, I just played it. Once the statue's belly opened up and I got the key, the phone popped up and I had no trouble clicking Read. So something is definitely wrong if you can't do that. You can try uninstalling and reinstalling the game and see if that helps.

Do you have the Big Fish version of the game? It's possible that an older, CD version might have a problem and need a patch.

natalie brook2 is from viva media play 101 games cd-rom.