SPWAW and WindowsXP

SSgtUSMC · Post by **SSgtUSMC** » Thu Jun 06, 2002 7:52 am

Hey Guys,
Anybody having problems with WinXP? Game will only run a max of 5-10 mins before it completely shuts the computer down, not just to the desktop..but powers it off.

I have been recalled back to Active Duty and until I get to put steel on target, or the wife tells me that I have her blessings to go forth and sin, this is one of few pleasures open to me.

I have checked and disabled all power off and hibernations setting etc... Still no luck.

Help!!

Semper Fi

Paul Vebber · Post by **Paul Vebber** » Thu Jun 06, 2002 4:20 pm

It usually runs fine under XP, if you give more specific details of your system someone may have an insight?

Supervisor · Post by **Supervisor** » Thu Jun 06, 2002 5:59 pm

Yes please more specs, I also am running in XP Pro (straight forward, not in compatiblity mode) without any issues.

SSgtUSMC · Post by **SSgtUSMC** » Fri Jun 07, 2002 8:08 am

Thanks for the replies I had also posted this in the generic SPWAW forum and got a few replies that no one was really having problems with XP.

More details..hmmmm...

I was running 5.3 and encountering this problem....upgraded to 7.1 with all appropriate patches and got it to run over 3 hours thi afternoon...then...Kapute..not much to describe except that the Comp just powered down. Subsequent tries once again netted no more than 10 mins each.

I have Reinstalled several times...(the 5.3 version) and even gone so far as to reformatt the comp back to factory specs. Wish I could provide more details

Below is my reply in the other forum....
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Thanks for the replies....seems that its not XP as many of you are running fine with it.

I posted the plea for help last night while I was downloading all the upgrades to get from 5.3 to 7.1. To my amazement this afternoon I was able to get the game to run for over 3 hours....then..kapute....it just died again. Not sure why. On subsequent tries I still got no more than 10 mins...

Drivers, Hardware Conflict, Partition's etc.....Hmmmm....When I found out that the wife was smarter than me I figured there was no use in learning eanything else about these amazing lil boxes we play with..she knows it all...I just concentrated on tactics....Ill have to get her to take a look at it when I get a chance to put it in her hands.

I am instaling the game off of a shipped Desert Fox Cd that I have had for a while...and have reinstalled several times...have even gone as far as reformatting back to factory specs. Probably is a bad copy ........anyway I will start the download of the new version tonight a\nd hope that it corrects the problem.

Once again thanks for the help.

Semper Fi
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Marc von Martial · Post by **Marc von Martial** » Fri Jun 07, 2002 7:14 pm

not much to describe except that the Comp just powered down

This sounds more like a not appropiate power device to me. I have had similiar problems once (after upgrading to a new way faster graphics card). Resulting into a flamed up PC cause the power device went up. Not to scare you but maybe you have to less power for all the stuff in the PC.

Do me a favor, list all the stuff you have, ammount of RAM, grpahic card (how much RAM on that), CD Roms, DVDs, everything down to the mouse and keyboard, then please have alook at your power supply. And post how much power it generates at maximum. sould be on a sticker on the device.

Power devices are a thing a lot of users understimate. It´s the last part you would spend extra cash on, untill the day you PC wents up and takes nearly everything with him

.

pwdood · Post by **pwdood** » Sun Jun 09, 2002 5:45 pm

Trying to run SPWaw7.1 freshly downloaded yesterday.

I'm using a Toshiba Satellite Laptop:

Celeron Processor 1.1Ghz, 256Meg RAM. XP Home. Trident Video Accelerator Cyberblade XP Ai1 ver 6.4.

It only appears to shut down when the game map screen is displayed; it never did it for me when the menu page was up.

This is the only software I run that behaves this way. I tried shutting down the soundtrack in SPWaw, and my .Net developer tools on my end, but the program still entirely shuts down the PC after 5-10 minutes. I've never gotten it to run for 3 hours like the Sgt., but have been able to successfully shut down SpWaw without it crashing XP.

I respectfully doubt that it is a power supply issue with both of our PCs.

I do hope a solution can be determined. It does seem like SPWaw runs as a DOS program underneath Windows; are the newer Matrix games natively developed under windows?

GO USA vs. South Korea tonight!

chief · Post by **chief** » Mon Jun 10, 2002 3:21 am

Do you have a sound card on laptop ?

Supervisor · Post by **Supervisor** » Mon Jun 10, 2002 3:45 am

SPWAW is a TRUE Windows based game, not DOS, what resolution are you running the laptop in. SPWAW was designed to run at 800X600. Also make sure your video card drivers are up to date. Try running the game directly from the mech.exe this bypasses the autorun menu. Look in the MatrixGames\SPWAW\save folder and delete the steel.prf and holder.txt (if you have one) and restart SPWAW, when you adjust anything in the preference menu the steel.prf file will be recreated. Also try running SPWAW in compatibility mode Win 98 is the prefered OS to try. Make sure all other background programs are shut down before running SPWAW because of it's old game code SPWAW runs at 100% CPU usage. Run "dxdiag" and on the sound tab try turning down hardware acceleration for sound. If this helps slowly adjust it back up until the game becomes unstable again. Please let us know if any of this helps.

pwdood · Post by **pwdood** » Mon Jun 10, 2002 3:50 pm

The Toshiba laptop is using the Ali Audio Accelerator for sound.

I tried running Mech.exe in both Win95 and Win98 comp modes, but it still shut down after 5 minutes or so. Both times I noticed it happened after right-clicking to bring up a unit menu, or left clicking to select a unit.

I am going to now experiment with the audio acceleration setting.

Thanks for the ideas.

pwdood · Post by **pwdood** » Mon Jun 10, 2002 4:04 pm

Unfortunately it continues to shut the system down, both with the audio acceleration turned completely off, and with all the sound effects turned off.

I can recreate the problem by alternating right and left mouse clicks on various units. It will usually shut down after the third set of clicks.

chief · Post by **chief** » Mon Jun 10, 2002 8:29 pm

PWDOOD: Are you set for 800x600 ?

SSgtUSMC · Post by **SSgtUSMC** » Mon Jun 10, 2002 9:29 pm

Am at work right now so I cant give the particulars of my system...but....its a Toshiba Laptop also..just thought I would throw that in there..also last night experienced the excat same problem with "Operational Art of War" After Several hour.
Will submit System Specs later tonight.

chief · Post by **chief** » Mon Jun 10, 2002 9:37 pm

OK, I just tought I'd drop 2 cents worth, 1 step at a time for mankind. Sometimes simple things fix complex problems. Good Luck.

pwdood · Post by **pwdood** » Mon Jun 10, 2002 10:40 pm

Yes, I tried 800x600 resolution as part of what I was testing. It crashed then as well.

As far as the Toshiba angle, I haven't had any problems with any other older Windows games, including TAOW.

Thanks.

pwdood · Post by **pwdood** » Tue Jun 11, 2002 12:04 am

Found the following on Toshiba's website.

http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais ... ll.0&ct=SB

Essentially I need to try a BIOS upgrade and see if this fixes the problem.

I will post what I found out.

As an aside, can anyone direct me to anywhere I can find the Battleground Collection 2 CD set for sale? My internet searches haven't helped me.

pwdood · Post by **pwdood** » Tue Jun 11, 2002 1:10 am

It was definitely a BIOS problem with the Toshiba laptop, upgrading it to version 1.9 (it should be at least 1.8) fixed the problem with SPWaW.

Supervisor · Post by **Supervisor** » Tue Jun 11, 2002 1:34 am

Outstanding, never would have expected that but anyway I'm glad it is fixed. Did they say what was included in the latest BIOS update. Now I'm really curious. The only thing I could even imagine that could cause it would, power management or PCI addressing issues. After the BIOS update did XP reidentify and install anything again or new.

pwdood · Post by **pwdood** » Tue Jun 11, 2002 1:45 am

The fix listing for the 1.9 Bios upgrade doesn't mention the random shutdown problem. I found that problem described in another list and that's what referenced the BIOS upgrade.

Supervisor · Post by **Supervisor** » Tue Jun 11, 2002 1:52 am

Could you send me the link so I can try to follow-up on it, it would be appreciated.

pwdood · Post by **pwdood** » Tue Jun 11, 2002 5:07 am

The link is the same one from earlier in this thread.

http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/...fmfdgll.0&ct=SB

neither link appears to be working now, but the problem is listed on Toshiba's support site under the Toshiba Satellite Laptop.

SPWAW and WindowsXP

SPWAW and WindowsXP

I'm getting the exact same behavior on XP.

Maybe a Toshiba Bios problem?

Fixed it.