Can't start Return of Shakturi without crash

[riposte]

Hi there,

I've installed both Distant Worlds and the Return of Shakturi expansion. Each time it goes through the load sequence only to crash after the Feeding Giant Kaltors text. I have uninstalled and reinstalled twice. I used the clean-up tool on .Net 3.5. I have Windows Media Player installed. I upgraded it to version 11 to see if that made any difference, since I understand it is called by the program.

However I continue to get a Windows crash dialogue box with following (partial) description:

event type: clr20r3
P1: distant worlds.exe
P9: system.typeinitialization

I've attached the DxDiag.

Hope the problem can be figured out...

Regards

[ehsumrell1]

Hello Riposte,
Welcome to the forum!
Sorry to hear you're having difficulty. I looked at your DXDiag file and I have
a couple of suggestions.

1. Upgrade your Win XP OS to Service Pack 3 using Windows Update. I see that
you have an integrated video card which I assume shares Ram with your OS. I
have WinXP also and when I upgraded to SP3 it increased performance. Also
I think that you might be having Direct Draw issues between the .NET framework
and your video ram, which was addressed in Service Pack 3. Just a guess though
because you didn't run the Direct Draw diagnostic test according to your file.

2. Uninstall everything once more and ALSO delete ALL the related directories
involved with Distant Worlds. Include deleting the "Code Force" subdirectory
under "Your Drive Letter/Documents and Settings/Your User Name/Application Data"

3. Finally, defragment your entire drive then when finished reboot, then reinstall
Distant Worlds 1.0.6.0 then install the ROTS expansion.

If that doesn't work, try to upload info on any error you get to the Tech Support
forum. Hope this helps! [:)]

[elliotg]

Hi riposte

Are there any related messages in the windows event log? (Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer)

Do you ever hear any music or see any intro movies? If not, I strongly suspect that a faulty installation of windows media player is the problem. Try reinstalling media player.

Thanks
Elliot

[riposte]

Hi there,

I've followed both ehsumrell1's and elliotg's advice and still have serious problems.

I decided to try to install and play the base game first without adding the expansion. A different error this time, but still at the time in the loading where the text "Feeding the Giant Kaltors" shows.

My video card is separate, not integrated, and with its own ram, but in any case I did upgrade to SP3, defragmented and uninstalled and reinstalled several times. There are no obvious Direct Draw problems (I ran all the tests in DxDiag eventually with success.)

I also moved from WMP 9 to 11 and back again with the same error each time.

I've attached a screen shot of the extensive unhandled exception error page that comes up each time in hopes that the problem can be more easily determined. There must be some kind of compatibility problem.

[riposte]

In the interest of providing a complete picture, here is the updated DxDiag...

[riposte]

Hi there,

I did check the event viewer for applications and found the below error noted. How can I correct this?

[ehsumrell1]

That makes it look like it is a .NET Framework problem. Which .NET Framework
version are you running 3.0, 3.5 or 4.0? I know that there is a free software
that repairs .NET Framework installations. There was a post previously in
the tech support forum sometime ago concerning this if you wish to look it
up. Elliot also may have a comment soon as well after he reads your response.

[riposte]

Hi ehsumrell1,

I must be running 3.5, since that seems to be what the game installs and requires...

I will try the cleanup tool again today and see if that helps, but I tried it when I was trying to install the expansion and the base game, and it didn't help then.

Regards

[SykoFused]

Hi riposte,

You chould try uninstalling then reinstalling DW and ROTS in another directory such as C:\DW\Distant worlds. This has worked for a few others including me.

[riposte]

I used an utility to check which versions of dotnet I have on the system. Curiously, it doesn't show 3.5 which is what the Distant World install program says it is checking for on one's system and goes through a long process to do so. ?

I haven't uninstalled yet the latest Distant World install that's giving me these headaches... or made any attempt to uninstall 3.5...

[riposte]

Hi SykoFused,

Thanks for the idea... I will try that today.

Regards

[riposte]

Just uninstalled DW and .Net 3.5, used cleanup tool as well.

Then reinstalled everything including DW to a different directory just to see.

Same problem and unhandled exception error message!

Looking at that message, it says quite a number of files can't be found... that seems strange.

Help....

Regards

[riposte]

Success, I'm happy to report, in case anyone has the same problem.

It was a recent post in the Gamers Tech Forum (and not this one) reporting the very same problem that made me realize that I had to uninstall every version of .Net, and not just 3.5, and then apply the cleanup tool to all versions, and not just to 3.5. That person mentioned the same kind of error message, and success with the cleanup.

I'm disappointed in the tech support in this forum. No problem solving attitude from whomever is in charge after the usual general prescriptions... If it can't be instantly diagnosed from the DxDiag there seems to be limited or no interest.

Regards

[Erik Rutins]

Hi Riposte,

I just wanted to offer my apologies. A combination of thinking that you had already tried the .NET fix which seemed like the solution and the fact that Elliot was investigating kept me from jumping in more fully. Elliot is also very busy at the moment working on the next update.

Regards,

- Erik

[Data]

"next update" the magic words were spoken [&o]