monster jam video game is out.

Disposable · Post by **Disposable** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 12:51 pm

Slayer: You will notice that I said "Struggling" not "Failing".

Slayer · Post by **Slayer** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 1:22 pm

struggling is ok?

Disposable · Post by **Disposable** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 5:21 pm

Struggling is OK, but it will shorten the life of the PSU, and will probably fail if it ever gets over taxed!
My present PSU in my main computer is an 800 watt modular.
I run 2 printers, 2 monitors, a midi keyboard, 3 hard drives, a video card and a graphics card (High end), extra USB card, a sound card, a PDA link, Video recorder, 2 DVD RW, floppy drive, several USB devices.
And my PSU does not even get warm!

Drive2Survive · Post by **Drive2Survive** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 11:55 pm

Slayer wrote:but the wattage between the wall and PSU should be 110 or 220 depending on what its set at shouldnt it (The switch on the back of the PSU)

Disposable wrote:The 100/220 figures you mention are the Voltage specs not the Wattage specs.

Yes, that's the voltage of the electricity that is delivered to your home by the power company. Depending on what country you live in determines whether you get served electricity at 100/110V or 220/240/250V. That switch is for changing the PSU between different regions (on older PSUs, most new ones nowadays have circuitry that does it automatically, so they no longer have a switch).

BTW, that switch is sometimes known as the self-destruct switch because if you set it to 110V when your electricity supply is 240V, for example, it will blow up the PSU.

Watts (power) = Volts (electric potential) * Amps (electric current)

The PSU's job is to convert the voltage from your wall socket to levels of 12V, 5V and 3.3V that the PC components actually run off. I mentioned before that the sticker on your PSU will list the amperage it delivers for each of the different voltages. If it does for example 20A for 12V, then it is capable of delivering 12 * 20 = 240W to the components that run off the 12V electricity. The total wattage value of the PSU is usually given as the sum of these wattages, however, because it is cheaper and more economical to share the circuitry that does this (as opposed to having independent circuitry), the load on one line will actually affect the output of the others (this is another grey area in PSU ratings).

Slayer · Post by **Slayer** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 9:39 am

So i could be over working my PSU and not know it?

Disposable · Post by **Disposable** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 12:29 pm

Almost every shop bought ready made computer will have a very basic PSU. And once you start adding components that use power from the PSU, you will very soon reach the limit of it's capacity.
This is when games start causing problems for the Graphics card, the more features you enable on your graphics card the more wattage is consumed, and your PSU will get hotter trying to supply it's need.
When you see the need to change your Graphics card for an all singing and dancing one to support the latest game, the PSU may well not be able to cope and waves a white flag and surrenders!

Slayer · Post by **Slayer** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 12:42 pm

does the PSU do something if its got too much of a draw?

Disposable · Post by **Disposable** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 3:49 pm

Sorry, don't understand the question? [(-:]

Mat-Allum · Post by **Mat-Allum** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 7:57 pm

Slayer wrote:does the PSU do something if its got too much of a draw?

In other words, what does the PSU do (does it give any warning?) if you try to push it beyond its limit?

Disposable · Post by **Disposable** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 10:44 pm

Only in the ways already mentioned, eg: Programs crashing back to start up, especially graphics intensive games or music sequencers running multiple VST instruments.
In other words programs that put the PSU under load.
And a hot PSU is a good indicator of heavy load.

Drive2Survive · Post by **Drive2Survive** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 3:39 am

Slayer wrote:does the PSU do something if its got too much of a draw?

As you load up a PSU, it may struggle to deliver power 'cleanly', as in with minimal fluctuations in voltage and current. Good quality PSUs will handle this better than poor ones.

If you massively overload a PSU beyond its capacity, you can expect one of two things to happen:

If it is a halfway decent one, it will have a cut-out to prevent damage (hopefully) by powering off the system.

If however it is a very cheap and nasty one, it will probably fail catastrophically, either by the circuitry burning out, or the capacitors exploding with a BANG. Needless to say, this could take your other components (by power surge or kinetic force) and possibly you with it! Such PSUs are banned in many regions though as a safety hazard, so you probably wouldn't have one.

OLD_Jammer · Post by **OLD_Jammer** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 5:05 pm

Ok....... drifted off topic, but that happens.

I have the Monster Jam game in-hand finally.

On the box it says Split Screen Multiplayer. So I will install it Sunday and give it a look-see..

20 Monster Trucks
9 Stadium racing tracks
9 Stadium freestyle events
12 outdoor circuit tracks (Yes!)
Split Screen Multiplayer (we shall see)

OLD_Jammer · Post by **OLD_Jammer** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 3:08 pm

Update........
I installed Monster Jam (it is a DVD, by the way). The program doesn't even start!!
There are no entries in the system event log either.
I have Pentium 4, 3.40gHz processor, with a good PCI-Express graphics card with 128MB RAM onboard, and DirectX reports 256MB of AGP available, so I don't know.
I've been toying with the idea of upgrading my video card to one of the newer SLI-ready DirectX 10 cards, so maybe some time in 2008 I'll upgrade. Not in a hurry cuz this one works fine.

Destroyerfan · Post by **Destroyerfan** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 8:53 pm

Same thing happened to me when i first installed mine, and a more powerful video card did allow it to load up and play, so i bet thats all it is.

Edit: BTW, could anyone tell me where the rear steering is, or if the PC version even has it?

Disposable · Post by **Disposable** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 9:58 pm

These are the specs for this game according to another member:
"Windows 9x/2000/ME/XP ;Processor: Pentium II 450 MHz or Higher ;Video Card: 16 MB 3D Video Card ;Hard Drive: 1 GB HD CD-ROM: 4x or Faster ;RAM: 128 MB RAM"

So your video card is NOT the problem!

Slayer · Post by **Slayer** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 11:15 pm

im gonna remention the current nVidia driver issue. About how its extremely buggy

SkeletonKing · Post by **SkeletonKing** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 1:10 am

AvengerFan wrote: Edit: BTW, could anyone tell me where the rear steering is, or if the PC version even has it?

left shift key

Drive2Survive · Post by **Drive2Survive** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:52 am

Disposable wrote:These are the specs for this game according to another member:
"Windows 9x/2000/ME/XP ;Processor: Pentium II 450 MHz or Higher ;Video Card: 16 MB 3D Video Card ;Hard Drive: 1 GB HD CD-ROM: 4x or Faster ;RAM: 128 MB RAM"

I thought those specs looked extremely unlikely. This title is on Xbox 360, folks! Those look like the requirements for the old (2002) Monster Jam: Maximum Destruction game (ref).

I've been searching for about five minutes and I absolutely cannot find the requirements for the 2007 game on PC. What's it say on the box?

N8 · Post by N8 » Mon Dec 17, 2007 7:20 am

N8 wrote: Runs fine on the lower resolutions on my laptop - AMD TK-53 (1.7ghz), 1GB memory, 256MB ATI X1150.

emphummies · Post by **emphummies** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:35 am

I decided to give this game a try. The game is fun but incredible too hard and often very frustrating. And I am talking mostly about freestyle which is lame and way too difficult. I can't place third or better on two freestyle tracks. My average score is probably around 28 and I am doing everything I can to run the **** out of the truck with combos and moves but I don't understand how to pull off the stunts!!!! HELP!!!!! Donuts don't work well after combos and neither do wheelies which can be pulled off only with luck. The controls are a quarter second delayed on my computer so that might be having something to do with it plus the truck is too hard to control anyway. The most fun I get right now is gingerly driving the truck around cross country and looking at the awesome graphics. I think the game is fun and it does require some practice. If anyone has tips for freestyle let me know. Thanks!