Another (groan) Crusader: No Regret Prob.

John Steele · Post by **John Steele** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 11:19 am

Okey, so I'm running No Regret in DOSbox 0.65, Windowed mode, on Windows XP, usually a couple of other programs running in background (Outlook and IE7), at 20000 cycles, since that seems to be optimum for my computer to play this game.

I see my mum (or dad) coming and there's a load of blood on the screen because I've just killed someone with the Microwave gun. I hit Ctrl-F9 to close DOSbox and scuttle away from the computer because I don't want my parents to say something derogatory. About now, the entire computer slows down, to the point where "At a Snail's pace" is too fast. "Traffic-in-London-during-rush-hour-on-a-Bank-Holiday pace" sounds about right.

Of course, my dad takes this the wrong way, and shouts "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY COMPUTER THIS TIME?" at me, and I reply "I was just-" before he resets the computer and goes on about some virus that I accidentally put on the computer when I was about 9.

Is there any way to circumvent this massive slowdown? I see that quitting properly, i.e. selecting Quit on the Main Menu and then typing exit in DOSbox doesn't cause the problem, but what if I'm in a hurry some time? What is my best option?

---

Additionally, sometimes I'll be surfing the Net and an actual error message will display "VSMON.EXE will now be terminated," and I click Ok. The massive slowdown comes into effect when I click the OK button. A couple of secs later ZoneAlarm asks me if I want the ActiveSynq Connection Manager to act as a server. I click YES. Massive Slowdown disappears. I have had this happen maybe three times in a single day, slowing down and speeding up only when ASCM turns on...?

Help would be much appreciated, and I understand, having been a posting member here for a week, that Dosraider/Wardrich are probably going to be that help. Thanks in advance, both of you.

Post by **dosraider** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 11:39 am

Could it be you play in fullscreen mode? If yes, try to first come to windowed mode before hitting Ctrl+F9.
And close your internet conn when playing, best is always to run dosbox as single program, the abrupt shutdown will heavily burden your CPU if you have more progs running (they all need CPU clicks).

And upgrade your dosbox to 0.72.(really, do so).
BTW: don't use your 0.65 config file in 0.72, if you altered some things in your conf file, do it again manually for 0.72.

Do you have p2p (peer2peer) progs? Or FTP installed/running on the background? ActiveSynq Connection Manager is one of the used programs by such apps (Others use that too).
One of the reasons I never use p2p progs.

Just some thoughts ......

*Edit
http://www.computing.net/security/wwwbo ... 11589.html

For those of you searching for answers to the vsmon.exe problem eating all your processor time.......

BTW: zonealarm isn't what I would use. I prefer Sygate.
http://www.tucows.com/preview/213160
But each his own.

John Steele · Post by **John Steele** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 3:15 pm

Downloaded 0.72, gonna try what you've said. As I said, I'm ALWAYS in Windowed mode as it runs at "Slower-than-A-Snail-based-Traffic-Warden-Directing-Traffic-in-the-London-Congestion-area-during-rush-hour-on-a-Bank-Holiday-Monday-in-the-middle-of-November pace" in Fullscreen mode. Yes, that IS STASBTWDTITLCADRHOABHMITMON.
I have no idea what a p2p program is so I imagine the answer is No. I also do not have FTP installed/running in the background.

You really are helpful, y'know. You should start up a Tech Support company.

Post by **dosraider** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 4:53 pm

John Steele wrote:...... You should start up a Tech Support company.

Yeah, gonna tell that my boss . Gonna laugh. LOLZ.

I think it's time for you to move a step further in real life, meaning getting a PC of your own.
A dated P3/800/256MB Ram W98SE/W2K is cheap but runs pretty swell you know.
Time to save some money.......
Begin to wash cars in your street

*Edit
Oh yeah, p2p or peer to peer progs are torrents, emule, kazaa, limeware, stay away from those.

Post by **Wally** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 7:58 pm

You might find one on the sidewalk

Post by **dosraider** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 12:55 am

We're talking about PCs, Wally, not about hookers.

Post by **Wally** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 1:19 am

Hmm

I have dosbox working fine with crusader no regret using .72

I copied the contents of the disk to C drive using windows 3.11
installed it from that directory
made dos think the Cd was mounted however instead of pointing to the disk i pointed to the directory on the computer with mount d /Volumes/cru.06 -t cdrom or something (the /Volumes/cru.06 will be D drive on a PC)
change the .cfg file so it points to the pretend CDrom drive.

Then it should work perfect