Distant Worlds has stopped working

[Deto]

And not started at all. I was able to play distant worlds before quite a few months back, now I reinstalled, patched, got ROTS and so on. When I hit start from launcher or distantworlds exe file, the game crashes. Error is:

Description:
Stopped working

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: CLR20r3
Problem Signature 01: distantworlds.exe
Problem Signature 02: 1.5.0.0
Problem Signature 03: 4d07cec1
Problem Signature 04: System.Windows.Forms
Problem Signature 05: 2.0.0.0
Problem Signature 06: 4a275ebd
Problem Signature 07: 199c
Problem Signature 08: 2
Problem Signature 09: PSZQOADHX1U5ZAHBHOHGHLDGIY4QIXHX



I'm running Windows 7, 64bit. dotNet is installed along with directX. I have ATI FirePro V4800 if it means anything

edit: I have dotNet 4.0

edit2: Made sure I have .Net 3.5 + directx 9c. No difference :<

[Data]

I may be wrong here but could this be related to Windows signature mechanism? It can interffere with some programs, if you disable it does it still crash?

[Deto]

The driver signature one? If so, I'm not sure I wish to disable that

The annoyance that is UAC is disabled

[Data]

ya, I was refering to UAC as well....don't think driver signature will affect the game

[Deto]

dangit..

Tried without the Rots expansion. Now I'm getting a proper error:

[Bingeling]

I had a bumpy ride to get RotS up and running, instant crashes when I tried to launch the games.

What worked was to uninstall everything in a proper manner, install vanilla Distant Worlds from scratch, and install RotS on top of that. Afterwards I did the 1.504 beta patch. Then it launched with no issues.

[Deto]

Uninstalled everything and checked regedit to clean up whatever was left behind (didn't see anything though). Installed vanilla Distant Worlds (the newest version), installed ROTS and beta patch... ...crash :<

[Data]

when you unistall also make sure to delete the folder the game creates in the documents and settings folder as well.....that one keeps the saves and some settings for the game

[Deto]

Uninstalled and checked, couldn't find anything under users folder. Reinstalled, but same error still continues.. Imo doesn't seem the problem is with the gpu, but I can't remember nor think of anything else that has changed since the last time I played (other than several new version releases to dw)

[sbach2o]

Maybe a stupid question (but the "Class not registered" in your exception got me wondering), but have you possibly no Windows Media Player installed?

Unfortunately it doesn't tell which class isn't registered.

[Data]

ooo, really hoping is not that classical one...or the other with the IE not installed

[Deto]

Kill me now... ...yeah no media player, no ie. Wasted them both when I installed win 7 and forgot all about it ... Thanks for the aid, and don't shoot me!

[Data]

don't worry Deto, some requests were made not to have the game depend so much on win media player and IE. Atm, it does so we have to make sure we have them.

[Bingeling]

If they are required, the game should notice them not present, and spit out a good error window of the friendly kind.

[Empleyfire]

i seem to be haveing the same problem...
I got IE 8 and Media player 12 installed whould this have any thing to do whit it?

[Kayoz]

Depending on how ambitious you are - you should be able to sort out what's missing by watching RegMon from www.sysinternals.com - that should tell you what it's trying to access, and as such what's going bang.

[Empleyfire]

I could not find any app by the name of reg mon. but i downloaded the thing any way...
gona see what its about. got any tips let meg know.

[Data]

Process monitor and process explorer from sysinternals are good all around tools, you can even monitor the process call stack up to the point of failure.
As a blind test and if you are willing, you could also try with earlier versions for IE and WMP. I for example have also IE8 but WMP10, maybe 12 is too new for it?

[tjhkkr]

Seriously, those saved games are not easy to find... are you sure you nuked them...
I do not have the game in front of me, so I cannot locate the directory structure to point you to.

[Data]

You only need to save / load a game to allow the game to open your current location.