Get the Singles: Flirt Up Your Life demo/trial off WP (415mb)
Part 1: Things You Should Know
Please read through the DirectX section of this document. This section has information that is vital to successfully running Singles: Flirt Up Your Life on your system.
1.1 DirectX
This game is optimized for Microsoft's DirectX 8.1. In order for you to play the game, you must have DirectX 8.1-compliant drivers for your video card and sound card. DirectX 8.1 is the minimum level of DirectX compliance that the game will run with. Please note that although you will be given the option to install DirectX9.0b with the game, your video and sound card drivers will not be upgraded to DirectX 9.0b drivers.
You will need to obtain the latest DirectX drivers for your video card and sound card from your card manufacturer or PC supplier. These drivers cannot be supplied by Eidos.
1.2 Memory and Performance
While the game will run fine in 256Mb of RAM, your playing experience will be smoother if you have at least 512 Mb.
Regardless of how much memory you have, you can maximize your available memory and increase the overall performance of the game engine by doing the
following:
- Closing any open windows
- Shutting down all other programs, including menu-bar programs like ICQ
- Defragmenting your hard drive
Eidos recommends that you have no other programs running at all while playing Singles: Flirt Up Your Life. Other programs, including virus checkers, system
utilities and screen savers can cause system degradation when playing games software and may conflict with the game for system resources, potentially resulting in instability and crashes.
Part 2: Technical Issues
2.1 Installation & Set-up
System Requirements
The minimum system requirements are as follows:
COMPUTER: IBM PC or 100% compatible
OPERATING SYSTEM: Microsoft® Windows 98SE/Me/2000/XP
CPU: Pentium ® 1Ghz or equivalent
RAM: 256 MB
GRAPHICS: 100% DirectX 8.1-compatible 32Mb 3D Accelerated Card
SOUND: 100% DirectX 8.1-compatible audio device
HARD DRIVE: 700Mb free disk space
INPUT DEVICE: Mouse and keyboard
The recommended system requirements are as follows:
CPU: Pentium® 1.5Ghz or equivalent
RAM: 512Mb
GRAPHICS: 64Mb 3D Card -100% DirectX 8.1-compatible
Preparing Your Hard Drive
To ensure that your installation is trouble free, you should check to see that your hard drive and file system are both tuned for optimum performance. Windows
comes with two utility programs that find and fix any errors and optimise your hard drive performance. The first of these programs is called scandisk. Scandisk will check your hard drive for problems and can fix any that it finds. You can run scandisk by clicking on the Start button from the Windows Taskbar, followed by Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools, and finally scandisk.
Once scandisk has finished running, you should next optimise your hard drive's performance by running a program called Disk Defragmenter.. You can run Disk
Defragmenter by clicking on the Start button from the Windows desktop, followed by Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools, and finally Disk
Defragmenter.
Installing Singles: Flirt Up Your Life
Installing Singles: Flirt Up Your Life is easy. After downloading the file to your Desktop (or other preferred location) simply double-click it to begin installation.
This program will guide you through the remaining process via onscreen prompts. If at any time you are instructed to restart your computer, do so.
You will be prompted to select the path and directory to which you wish to install the game on your hard drive. The default location on your hard drive is C:Program FilesSingles. You may change this if you wish to.
After the installation of the game is completed, you will be given the option to install the latest version of DirectX®, Microsoft DirectX® 9.0b. Please read the on-screen information before selecting an option. You may either choose to install or not install at this time. If your system currently has an active version of DirectX 9.0b, we encourage you to not reinstall DirectX. If your system does not have DirectX 8.1 or later, you must install it before you are able to play Singles: Flirt Up Your Life (please refer to the next section of this guide before proceeding).
Starting/Loading The Game
- Click on the Start button.
- Choose Programs from the pop-up menu.
- Drag your mouse to the right and click on Singles: Flirt Up Your Life from the list.
* Click on Singles: Flirt Up Your Life from the ensuing pop-up menu.
OR
* Double-click on the Singles desktop shortcut.
OR
* Double-click on the Singles icon in the Singles directory (default: C:Program FilesSingles).
Uninstalling Singles: Flirt Up Your Life
If you need to UNINSTALL Singles: Flirt Up Your Life, you may do any of the following things:
- Click on the Start button.
- Choose Programs from the pop-up menu.
- Drag your mouse to the right and click on Singles: Flirt Up Your Life from the list.
- Click on Uninstall Singles from the ensuing pop-up menu and follow the onscreen instructions.
OR
Go to the Control Panel and choose Add/Remove Programs. Click on Singles: Flirt Up Your Life from the pop-up panel to follow, select the Add/Remove button, and follow the onscreen prompts.
2.2 Crashes and Lock-Ups
When I start Singles: Flirt Up Your Life, my mouse cursor disappears and my computer locks-up.
Chances are your installed audio card drivers are not compatible with DirectX. The only solution is to get a DirectX 8.1-compatible driver from your audio
card manufacturer.
When I start Singles: Flirt Up Your Life, I receive the following error message:
"The application Singles: Flirt Up Your Life.exe referenced memory at address xxxx:xxxx that can't be read from."
Chances are your installed video card drivers are not compatible with DirectX. The only solution is to get a DirectX 8.1-compatible driver from your video
card manufacturer.
The Installer keeps stopping when a certain percentage is complete.
There are two likely causes:
- You may have run out of free space on your hard drive. Please remove unwanted programs to free up additional space for the game, and then reinstall Singles: Flirt Up Your Life.
- Files are possibly being copied to a corrupted area of your hard drive. If this is so, you'll need to run the scandisk program and make sure to use the Thorough option (see previous). After scandisk has finished running and has informed you that your drive is free of errors, try to re-install.
Singles: Flirt Up Your Life is crashing to the desktop with no error messages.
This problem can be caused by several different things. Here's a list of the most common culprits associated with these crashes:
- Make sure the game has been installed properly.
- Make sure DirectX 8.1 has been installed properly.
- Make sure you have the latest drivers for your video card and that they are DirectX 8.1-compatible.
- Make sure you have the latest drivers for your sound card and that they are DirectX 8.1-compatible.
- Make sure Virtual Memory is enabled on your system.
- Run Scandisk.
- Run Disk Defragmenter.
- Clean out old temp (.TMP) files from the C:WINDOWSTEMP or C:WINxTEMP directory on your hard drive (from Windows Explorer).
- Make sure you do not have any Anti-Virus utilities (like Norton's AntiVirus) running resident prior to playing Singles: Flirt Up Your Life.
- Make sure you do not have any third-party Windows memory management utilities (like QuarterDeck's QEMM) running resident prior to playing Singles: Flirt Up Your Life.
- Make sure you do not have any 3rd party Windows disk caching utilities running resident prior to playing Singles: Flirt Up Your Life.
- Make sure you do not have Norton's Crash Protector running resident prior to playing Singles: Flirt Up Your Life.
- Try uninstalling and then reinstalling the game.
- Try exiting the game, rebooting your machine, and re-entering the game.
Note: If your system crashes to the desktop while playing Singles: Flirt Up Your Life, you should probably reboot your computer before starting a new play session. Otherwise, DirectDraw or DirectSound may be in a locked state, and the game will be unable to use your sound or video hardware.
2.3 DirectX-Related Questions
DirectX has become the new standard in Windows application development. Nearly all high-performance software will be geared around this technology, so we do not normally recommend that customers attempt to alter its installation on their system
Can I Run Without DirectX?
I cannot use DirectX on my computer! Is there any other way to run Singles: Flirt Up Your Life?
If you do not have DirectX installed on your computer, you will not be able to run Singles: Flirt Up Your Life.
2.4 Technical Support
If you need further technical assistance after reading the Readme file please do not hesitate to contact us using any of the methods listed below.
When contacting us, please be sure to provide us with as much information as possible. Make sure to note the exact type of hardware that you are using in your system, including: your video card, your sound card, amount of RAM present, speed and manufacturer of your processor. Also, make sure to include the title and version of the game, and a detailed description of the problem.
It will also help if you prepare by creating a "DXDiag" diagnostic file in Windows before you call us. Simply follow these instructions:
- Click on Start
- Click on Run
- Type dxdiag
- Click on OK
- Click on the Save Information button and save the file to your computer.
When you call our Technical Support line either have this file open or have a printed copy. If you send an e-mail query you may attach the file to the
e-mail.
Technical Support Contact Details (United States of America)
Address Eidos Customer Services
651 Brannan Street
San Francisco
CA 94107
E-Mail www.eidos.com/support.html
Phone 415 615-6220
Fax 415 547-1201
Web www.eidos.com/support.html
Note: Hints and tips will not be given out over the Technical Support lines.
Alternatively, you may find help with hardware problems on one of the websites maintained by the supplier, some of which are listed below:
3D labs: www.3dlabs.com
ATI Technologies: www.ati.com
Creative Labs: www.creative.com/worldwide.asp
Matrox: www.matrox.com
nVIDIA: www.nvidia.com
Intel support.intel.com
Terratec: www.terratec.net
Eidos Interactive maintains a web page with links to all major video and audio card manufacturers, which is a good first stop if you are looking to upgrade
your drivers. You can reach this page at:
UK: www.eidos.co.uk/support/index.html
US: www.eidos.com/support.html
Further technical information and drivers for Windows-based PCs can also be found at http://www.windrivers.com/
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