Another Complaint About CTD in 7.1

[rbrunsman]

Every time I fire a certain MG squad the game crashes in PBEM. Crashing has happened to me periodically for as long as I've been playing (i.e. years), but not enough to make me mad. But today it has happened about 12 times in a row.

I've deleted the steel.prf file, I've turned off all other programs that are running and it just dumps me to the desktop like clockwork.

I have a PIII, ~800MHz, 128 MB Ram running Windows Me. I don't know what version of DirectX I have (how do you determine that?) but it is probably a recent version. I'm using v7.1 loaded from MCLV plus all the patches available at Matrix Download site. I have a Creative SB Live! Value soundcard and an NVIDIA GeForce 256 video card.

Any suggestions.

[VikingNo2]

You could just surrender to me now and we can start another one

LOL..........

I know its frustrating, I was hoping a little comic relief would help:rolleyes:

[G_X]

Is it doing the crash-when-calcing routine? If so, have you tried running from the mech.exe? I know that's been said 100 times, but that and deleting the steel.prf file are all I can think of, have you tried power-cycling the computer? It's possible the comp may have gotten stuck on a random number that the game doesn't like and it keeps feeding it, I dunno.

[rbrunsman]

After seeing the number of airdrops and gliders that went by, my men had to take a break to go change their lederhosen! But, no, they are not ready to surrender just yet. You aren't getting into the Fatherland's "backdoor" that easily. --- Wait a minute, I don't think that came out right.

Anyway, I think I solved the problem. It could be just coincidence but I turned off the screen saver like someone suggested and I seemed to finally get by the difficult MG problem. Perhaps others could try the same thing and see if their CTDs stop happening.

[rbrunsman]

Thanks G_X, we posted at the same time so I didn't see your reply. I've been running from the mech.exe for as long as I can remember and I restarted the computer several times. That's why I had the symbol. But all is well and the German's will be kicking some Allied *** now that I'm in charge instead of VikingNo2.

[G_X]

Allrighty then.

I don't have a screen saver running, (now) but I've also never had a CTD, I run off the Autorun usually and it's only crashed one time (User Error, alt-tabbed out and tried to start Winamp, only to have winamp give me 40 errors or so...it was late, I forgot WaW required the use of my sound card!)

So hmm, I feel it's kinda strange, but I have, actually, a very stable system. It's served me well for a pretty long time, so I don't guess I can complain about the fact that it's a PII 300mhz with 64megs of PC100 RAM...

I'm not saying I don't complain anyways heh.

Glad you got your problem fixed rb

[Supervisor]

The bad thing about SPWAW is that it's a CPU hog, requiring almost 100% CPU resources, which is why when crashes occur the first thing to do is disable everything else when trying to play SPWAW.

[rbrunsman]

gmenfan, I don't have the best system by far, but it should be enough to play this game. This PBEM is huge, so do you think that has a direct effect on whether a system will crash? My other games were about 3 to 4 MB in the save game files. This one that kept crashing is at least twice as big.

Does a screen saver really hog up that many system resources? I have mine cycle through photos when it is active, but why should that effect SPWAW, since obviously, the screen saver is not actually doing anything while you are using the computer.

I did notice that my system resources were down to 60% while I was trying to fix the problem. That's bad isn't it? Do you have any system resource freeing tips?

Thanks

Bob

[Supervisor]

Screen savers are large memory hogs, especially when they containg actual photos. If your running ME, tell windows that your system is a network server becuase of it's expected anticipation of alot of file swapping it is much more conservative. Right click on My Computer then select file system at choose network server. Check you virtual memory setting under the performance tab and make sure let windows manage my swap file is selected. Defrag your system allows it to run faster and smoother. There are alot of third party memory optimizing programs out there that can help stabilize your system. Before I built my new system this spring I was running a AMD K6 400mhz, basic 2mb video card with 80mb of system ram. I have yet to have any stability problems with SPWAW even on that older system. Sure it ran slower but perfectly playable. There is a great 3rd party free memory program that I used to use but I forgot its name, many gamers in here use it, once I remember what it was I pass it along.

[rbrunsman]

Thanks for the tip. When I get home I will give it a try and report back on my success.

[Supervisor]

Found it, it seems to have worked wonders for many. Cacheman 5.11

[rich12545]

I have a k62-400 and have never experienced a ctd with spwaw. There is a difference of opinion regarding the swap file. With win98 at least most expert opinions I've read recommend setting it manually at a large amount. Mine is 800 meg. Letting the computer handle it the swap file is way smaller. Maybe this is one reason I've never had a problem. :p

[G_X]

I've been told (By windows no less) That if I change my swap file size to Automatic I may not be able to restart my computer...!...Of course I don't want this to happen, so I leave it at Automatic...

But uhh...can anyone tell me if Windows is just being dumb or if it's being serious...?

[Supervisor]

The expert recommended setting if you set it up manually is 2.5 times the amount of RAM. So I think you have it well covered, permanent swaps files are great because windows doesn't have to create it on the fly, which saves time and adds performance. It's still recommended to let Windows handle it unless your having problems.

[Supervisor]

The warning about not starting is if you disable the swap file not for running it in automatic, this is what windows prefers. The only reason you would disable it is if you wanted to set up a manual setting and you wanted to defrag the entire HD, this in actuality lets you actually defrag your swap file before it is created.

[VikingNo2]

You guys should open a computer store or something:rolleyes:




P.S. Thanks for all the help so far:D

[G_X]

If they do I want a free HD.

And some RAM.

[john g]

Originally posted by rbrunsman
Every time I fire a certain MG squad the game crashes in PBEM. Crashing has happened to me periodically for as long as I've been playing (i.e. years), but not enough to make me mad. But today it has happened about 12 times in a row.

Is this with a canned scenario, generated battle, megacampaign, what?

Some early scenarios have known problems like "The Real Thing -41", they just need to be fixed.

What size battles do you play, the game is a lot less stable when the approx 400 unit limit is approached.

More information please?
thanks, John.

[G_X]

Is the 400 unit limit for each side, or both sides?

Just so I know.

[rbrunsman]

john g, the battle is very big, the largest I have played. It is the Market Garden scenario by M4 Jess. And the crash occured every time I fired a certain MG at one of VikingNo2's infantry squads.

I made the suggested change that gmenfan said and it seemed to be working well and then, more crashes. Then I remembered that I had turned the graphic acceleration (I think. I'm writing from work right now.) back to normal after making the change ( I had turned it off hoping that that was the problem ). So if I turn off the graphics acceleration, the system doesn't crash anymore. No one has mentioned this as a possible problem/solution, but it seems to work for me.

I'll try Cacheman and see what happens. Although, I really don't notice any difference in my system with graphics acceleration turned off since I don't play any arcade style games. The computer says to only turn it off for troubleshooting purposes. Any reason I shouldn't leave it off?

Thanks for all the help guys.