AWD Executable error.

[NutMan]

Hey, I recently got myself a copy of World at war: A world divided from a friend(He didnt like it), and I was eager to play it, but after installing it I tried to play the game and something strange happened.

I get a black screen except for the start bar and Windows freezes for 1-3min(i tried it a few times) then I get an error message that says "AWD executable has encountered an error and needs to close". I tried patches and they didnt help at all. Any idea what the problem is?

I included the dxdiag thing so hopefully that will help.

[WanderingHead]

So it never went to the main menu at all?

Did you see the intro videos?

I am afraid I have no ideas right now, the usual cuplrit (Morgan Stream Switcher) does not appear in your diag.

[NutMan]

No, nothing happens. I try to start the game and the screen goes black and windows freezes. The game never starts and I get the AWD executable error. 

[NutMan]

Well I guess no one has any idea why its doing this?


That sucks. Thanks for trying to help though.

[WanderingHead]

I'm sorry, I truly have no idea why it does this.

Although I have contributed some code to AWD patches, I don't know anything about the graphics and the interaction with the Windows operating system. And I think that your problem must lie somewhere in that area.

There is one thing I can suggest that you try. There is a directory under the main AWD installation directory: "dat\video". Try just renaming the video directory, e.g. to "dat\removed_video". If you do this then the game will not be able to find any of the videos, and it will skip playing them.

Then try launching the game again. Usually, the first thing it does is launch a couple of videos. Nothing you'll miss. Maybe if you have a problem with the video player then this will help.

Let me know if it helps or not. If not, I can ping the professionals.

BTW - I was just on vacation. I was monitoring the forum, but when I didn't think I had anything helpful to say to you I just stayed quiet until I got home today.

[Joel Billings]

Renaming the Video folder is a very good idea. You also might try to increase the size of your Page File (virtual RAM). It's currently around 1200MB and you could increase that to 1500MB or more. That's probably not the problem, but it will help your system since you're at 510MB of RAM. Usually the biggest cause of loading lock ups is 3rd party codecs (specifically Morgan Stream Switcher, but I think there have been others that have caused problems as well) and old graphics or sound drivers. You're drivers look reasonably new, but you should check to see if there are newer drivers available.

[NutMan]

Alright awesome! The game works now! Thank you so much.
However there is still one thing thats bothering me. I took a screenshot.

Link

Any idea why it is doing that? By that I mean that its not maximized all the way. I can still see the start bar and stuff.
Also, now that I know the videos were the problem is there any way to fix it? Its not that big of a deal im just happy that I can finally play the game, but having the videos would be cool.

[rjh1971]

Are you refering to the windows bottom taskbar?
If that's the case, it shows because you're playing in windowed mode as I think everybody does, to solve the problem right click in the taskbar and select properties, then deselect "always show taskbar" or something similar, my windows is in Spanish. Then adjust the game screen so there is always a little margin at the bottom for you to point the cursor there and make the taskbar appear without minimazing.
This is the way I have it.

Hope it helps.