Games quits after loading

[Spechtmeise]

I hadn't played FoF for a while. When I started it up recently the game would go through the loading process and right before finishing it quit. I deleted FoF from my system and re-installed - same error. Any hints what I could do to narrow down the problem? DxDiag file is attached.
Thanks
Tom

[Gil R.]

Ericbabe is out of town until tonight, so unless Erik Rutins solves the matter by looking at the DxDiag file it will be at least a few hours before we're able to respond. I'll let Eric know to look for your post.

[ericbabe]

Based on the time of the crash, it sounds as though it may be a problem with the Flash/Shockwave drivers.  Try updating both of those to the newest versions.

Here's a discussion thread pertinent to the Flash/Shockwave components:  tm.asp?m=1656664&mpage=1&key=flash&#1658052

You can also edit the ForgeOfFreedom.ini file and add the line "NOFLASH=1" to shut off the intro Flash sequence.

[Spechtmeise]

Tried updating the flash and shockwave drivers. Still FoF wouldn't start. Adding the noflash line to the .ini file didn't do the trick either. What happens is I get the FoF splash screen with the version number in the upper right corner. Then, when the loading bar has almost reached the end the screen disappears, briefly pops up again, and finito. Any more suggestions what I could do?
Thanks
Tom

[ericbabe]

Are you hearing music properly during the load?  (On one of our machines, when the audio drivers aren't up-to-date it causes a crash at the same place you are describing.)

Have you tried shutting down all other applications that might be running in the background?

As I recall, your system does have plenty of memory.  Would you mind trying it with the LOWANIM=1 line added to the ForgeOfFreedom.ini file never-the-less?  It might rule out some hypotheses depending on the results.

[Spechtmeise]

I am hearing the music properly. The only other application running that might cause problems is the virus scanner which I turned off. I added the LOWANIM line to no effect.
FoF didn't give me any problems until some time ago. The only thing I did in the meantime apart from some system clean up procedures was installing Windows XP service pack 3. Hm, I'm really clueless. Where else can I look?

[ericbabe]

Does it give an error message when it quits?  When it quits, does it terminate the process or does the application freeze?

[Spechtmeise]

The application just terminates. No error messages, no freezing.

[Spechtmeise]

I deleted FoF, let some cleansing utilites remove whatever does not belong to the system anymore, and did a clean install. Unfortunately, nothing has changed. The application won't start.
I guess, I just can't play FoF on this computer anymore.

[Frido1207]

Hi,
i have i quite similar problem.
After the initial loading process, the game isn´t able to jump to the start screen. (where you choose to start a local game, or PBEM etc)
Instead it quits / freezes. This happens in 9 out of 10 tries to start the game.
Got some weird display issues.

Edit: as a pc illiterate i might ask, where to find the "Forgeoffreedom ini file"? I just looked into several folders, but wasn´t able to find it.
thx in advance.

[ericbabe]

The ForgeOfFreedom.ini file is probably in the Windows\ directory.

It does seem that Windows XP Service Pack 3 does have some problems with registry corruption: http://www.pcworld.com/article/146228/s ... ption.html

I wonder if it's possible that the "Forge of Freedom" registry entry was corrupted. Would you mind using regedit and checking HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Matrix Games/Forge of Freedom and seeing whether this contains a value for "authorized"?

[Frido1207]

Hi Eric,

thx for your reply.
Here is the regedit:




I also added "noflash" & "lowanim" in the ini.file, but have still the same problems.

[Frido1207]

Here is what I normally get, when the loading process is finished:

[Spechtmeise]

If FoF is giving me trouble, how about CoG II? I was going to buy that as soon as it comes out as I really like CoG, but I'd like to see a solution to this problem first.

[ericbabe]

ORIGINAL: Stratocruiser
If FoF is giving me trouble, how about CoG II? I was going to buy that as soon as it comes out as I really like CoG, but I'd like to see a solution to this problem first.

The problem is still idiopathic, so it's hard to say whether COG:II has the problem. Since only 1 or maybe 2 people out of thousands of people running the game are reporting this sort of crash-on-load problem, and since it worked fine for you too until you ran some system cleaning tools and installed XP SP3, my hypothesis is that the problem is idiosyncratic to your system, perhaps involving a corrupted registry or similar. Is there anything else you can think of that changed on your system that might be preventing FOF from running properly?

[ericbabe]

ORIGINAL: th1207
Here is what I normally get, when the loading process is finished:

Thanks for the screen shot. It looks like it's failing to create the main display buffer, and the only reason I can think for this is that it has failed to allocate the proper amount of memory. The fact that you say it only crashes 9 times out of 10 also makes me think it's a low-memory problem, since memory use by other applications is one of the few things that can cause problems variably.

Have you tried shutting off all other applications, increasing the size of your virtual RAM? You have 1GB, and that should be enough, but it may be that other applications are allocating a large portion of this.

[ericbabe]

Here is what I normally get, when the loading process is finished:

Thanks for the snap shot.

It looks as though the game is failing to allocate memory for the main drawing buffer.  The most likely cause of this is low-memory.  Since you say the game fails to run only 9 times out of 10, that is another clue to me that low-memory may also be an issue, since available memory is one of the few causes of problems that varies from time to time on a system.

Now you have 1GB of system RAM, and that should be enough to run the game, more than enough on LOWANIM mode, so if this is the problem, then it may be you are running other applications in the background that are using a large portion of your memory.  Have you tried shutting down all other applications before running FOF?  Or perhaps increasing the size of the virtual RAM?