Need For Speed V Porsche Unleashed

How to make Need For Speed V Porsche Unleashed work on Windows XP ??


My Hardware
Processor : AMD Turion 64 Mobile
Processor Speed : 1.8 GHz
RAM : 896 MB
Display Adapter : ATI Mobility Radeon Xpress 200
Screen Resolution: 1280x800
Windows XP Home 32 bit Version 2002 Service Pack 2
Direct X 9.0

I got a new laptop with lots of RAM, good graphics and great configuration which I could also use for gaming apart from work. So I wanted to get my favorite racing game "Porsche Unleashed" working . I had to follow the following simple steps to get it working. But it seems simple now. I had to do lot of hit and Trial before I found the following patches and got them all to work.
These are the steps that I followed.

1. Install NFS Porsche Unleashed from CD or whatever.

2. Install the "NFS Porsche patch v. 3.5" from http://www.nfsunlimited.net/porsche/utils/
This file patches NFS PU to the latest version (3.5). The filename is "nfspu_v35.zip" and can also be found at http://www.edgefiles.com/files/3071.html

3. Install the "Porsche Unleashed 1st Enhanced Version 3.5.2004031"
(for Windows 2000/XP support and MORE.) from http://www.nfsunlimited.net/porsche/utils/
The filename is "NFS5-3.5.20040310.ZIP" and can be found at http://www.edgefiles.com/files/12820.html

4. This is very important. Right click on the file Porsche.exe in the game forlder or the shortcut to the game in Start Menu and open Properties. In the Compatibility Tab, Uncheck all the options. Make sure that "Run this program in Compatibility mode" is Unchecked.
Also, "Run in 256 Colors" is unchecked and "Run in 640x480 screen resolution" is unchecked.
If the above options are checked then the game Runs at a very slow speed like may be 1 Frame per second, in my case.

After doing all of the above I could turn on all the graphic settings in the game and it now runs at 1280x800 screen resolution.

I also tried to upgrade my Graphic Driver from the Factory installed driver to the newer ATI Catalyst driver but it did not help in any form. It may work for you though. For me it worked on the factory default ATI Driver.

Next, I wanna try to make this work on Windows XP 64-bit version.

Check this page for some great utilities for Porsche Unleashed:
http://www.nfsunlimited.net/porsche/utils/