Can't Play SPWAW

David Brown · Post by **David Brown** » Thu Feb 15, 2001 6:15 am

Hope someone can help. I've downloaded and nstalled SPWAW and all indications hsow a successful download and setup. When I click on the SPWAW icon I get the SSI screen, the crdits, and movie runs.....then when I hit enter to play, or hit the play "button"...everything blinks several times, goes blamk on occasion, then am booted back to windows. In other words.....it won't run. I operate a Compaq Presario, PII, with 48 meg of SDRAM, Win98 2nd Ed. upgrade, all porgrams shut down except for Explorer and Systray when I begin the SPWAW run, plenty of room on my HD (over 6 gig remaining), run DirectX 6+ (not sure...it may be 7 now), have no problems running SP3, or many other games. One note: I currently do not have my sound card up and running in this machine, and really do not want sound at this time. So, okay what gives? Why can't I run the game....or make it play. I mean....when I get the credits, and the opening movie, etc., you would think that it would run / play. HEELLLLLLPPP!!!!!!!

BlitzSS · Post by **BlitzSS** » Thu Feb 15, 2001 6:28 am

In SPWAW and all its predicessors is you need a sound card. Unless someone has found a way around this, you probably need the sound card and drivers.

BruceAZ_MatrixForum · Post by **BruceAZ_MatrixForum** » Thu Feb 15, 2001 6:39 am

After you click on the game icon, hit the escape key to go to the game. Also check the size of the game and make sure you downloaded all of its compaonents. It should be 360,712,066 in size and the update is 8,970,240. If this does not solve your problem then check your sound card.

Good luck. When you get it running you will find out how great it is!

Bruce
Semper Fi

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"The most important element in war is man. And there are no tougher men than my China Marines." Major Gen. Archer 'Archy' Vandegrift, 1st Marine Division

appunk · Post by **appunk** » Thu Feb 15, 2001 2:08 pm

I had this same problem after I downloaded SPWAW.
What worked for me, and what you may want to try, is to download the most recent driver for your video card. Just go to the site for the card manufacturer, and you should be able to find such a driver. Then download and install the driver, restart your computer, and try running the game again.

I hope it works!

Infanterie · Post by **Infanterie** » Thu Feb 15, 2001 3:38 pm

Definitely a sound card problem, I would say. If you don't have any available slots in your machine, I have no idea how to get around this...

Oh, and I've also found out that Compaq's (especially other than newest models) are notorious of not being the most compatible and stable platforms for gaming.

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"The bravery of being out of range..."

Infanterie · Post by **Infanterie** » Thu Feb 15, 2001 3:52 pm

Being a tad bit off-topic, I'd like to add that motherboard integrated parts (considering display adapter and sound card) and not always up-to-date driver support is a cancer in computer industry.

This is not a flame, by the way.

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"The bravery of being out of range..."

David Brown · Post by **David Brown** » Thu Feb 15, 2001 7:15 pm

Thanks for the responses. Several have stated that it is probably the sound card, I would imagine this to be the root cause of the malfunction. Especially since I have the latest vid driver, plus others, already loaded, and nothing else worked. Funny, I don't seem to recall any other game having this as such an integral function that you could not disable sound and play the game (too bad that they programmed it that way). And I have the sound card out as I have a LAN card installed instead for my high speed cable modem service.

I did check the downloaded files again and I'm not sure I got the entire game as both the donloaded .exe, and the game .exe seemed to be different from the file size posted. I've read some other comments on this BB about that. There is another computer available in my home office and I think that I'll do another download to that one and try the install again. It does have a sound card in it, but it's a little slower machine. Again, thanks to all who responded.

Mark Ezra · Post by **Mark Ezra** » Thu Feb 15, 2001 7:43 pm

Hi David: Welcome to the community. I hope you keep trying. There are a lot of guys here who can help you get up and running, so keep trying and keep posting. Let us all know when your up and running..

Good Luck

Mark Ezra

Cyric · Post by **Cyric** » Fri Feb 16, 2001 5:18 am

I had similar problem with my IBM Aptiva PS1
It was all because i didn't have my soundcard up and running. SKukko told me it was the fault.
SPWAW stared working just fine after i fixed my problems with soundcard.

MrPlow · Post by **MrPlow** » Sun Feb 18, 2001 9:49 am

This bug was introduced in the v4.5 update.
I've been running SPWaW v2 - v4.4 fine with 1997 vintage audio/video cards on a 200MHz/32MB machine. The v4.5 update to mech.exe caused the flashing graphics and bailout to Windows.

I renamed mechv44.exe back to mech.exe, kept all the other v4.5 OOB/pic/icon updates, and was able to load SPWaW again. I think it's a memory problem. Hope Matrix pays attention and cleans up v4.6/v5.0.

Who needs all the fancy graphics, anyway? Maybe a Half-Life fanatic, but not anybody who's still playing WIR under DOS after all these years.

David Heath · Post by **David Heath** » Sun Feb 18, 2001 11:44 am

Can you give me a little more detail on when and were it sends you when the game fails.

David Brown · Post by **David Brown** » Sun Feb 18, 2001 11:53 am

I am booted back to my desktop, with the SPWAW start up window showing. It that enough to go on. Also, why was the game designed to only run if a sound card is installed. This seems an odd thing to do, if indeed it is true.

David Heath · Post by **David Heath** » Sun Feb 18, 2001 9:19 pm

Do you get a chance to select anything in the game. Also what type of PC do you have and available Ram and free HD Space.

David Brown · Post by **David Brown** » Sun Feb 18, 2001 11:00 pm

There is no chance to do any kind of settings, to do anything at all period. Nor from the opening / start SPAWW window does it show any type of Options, or Preferences, section otherwise I would have gone there first. As stated, when I hit play the SSI logo comes up in full screen, the credits, and background movie run, then hitting enter (someone earlier had suggested hitting esc. but that did not do anything) I go back (after the screen flashes several times) to my Windows desktop. No time for anything else, nothing to set (from what I can tell), etc.

David Heath · Post by **David Heath** » Mon Feb 19, 2001 12:55 am

David run just the MECH.EXE file and let me know what happens. Also what is your PC, Ram, and Free Hard Drive space.

David Brown · Post by **David Brown** » Mon Feb 19, 2001 1:10 am

David,

I've covered the hardware, OS, RAM, and HD capacity issues in my first post. If that info is unclear then please let me know (I'll also share any other pertinent info on system if needed). I have cleared the game from my HD in anticipation of doing another download of it.......wanted to do this to see what would happen. I will download this afternoon, reinstall, and try the mech.exe (I did try running the SPAWW.exe and the same problem occurred). If you would like to do a direct email exchange for further correspondence my email is drbrown@satx.rr.com. Or, we can continue on the BB. We're still on topic, but it seems to be getting more in depth than what the rest of the BB covers. If we find a solution, and there is anyone else who has a similar problem, we can always respond appropriately to those fine people. I'm open. I'll let you know later today what happens. Thanks, and lets hope we get this show on the proverbial road.

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David Brown · Post by **David Brown** » Mon Feb 19, 2001 4:10 am

Okay David. I completed the new download. Installed again. Went to my C drive and opened to MatrixGames folder. Found mech.exe and cliked on it....screen went dark, white cursor appeared, then screen went blank, and bingo...back at Windows Desktop. And that's how that one goes. I noticed a few minutes ago that someone else has posted almost the exact problem, as of today, on this BB.

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David Heath · Post by **David Heath** » Mon Feb 19, 2001 4:44 am

Hi David

I need to look into this.... Mt Mom has a Compaq and going to try it on her machine.

MrPlow · Post by **MrPlow** » Mon Feb 19, 2001 9:04 am

Dell Dimension XPS M200s
Intel 430VX chipset
Pentium MMX 200MHz
32MB 66MHz SDRAM
Matrox Millenium II 4MB & Matrox m3D
Creative Sound Blaster 16 (integrated)
Windows 95 v4.00.1212 B
MS-DOS v7.10 A
DirectX v7.0
~500MB HD freespace

SPWAW v4.4 all copacetic

now install v4.5 update

invoke SPWAW.exe (either directly or shortcut, fullscreen or window)
shows logos & rolling credits
ESC
this invokes mech.exe which immediately ABENDs and exits to windows

invoke autorun.exe (either directly or shortcut, fullscreen or window)
shows main menu
select Play SPWAW
this invokes SPWAW.exe
shows logos & rolling credits
ESC
this invokes mech.exe which immediately ABENDs and exits to main menu (thus looping back to main menu each time)

invoke mech.exe (either directly or shortcut, full screen or window)
immediately ABENDs and exits to windows

rename mechv44.exe back to mech.exe - all OK

v4.5 mech.exe doesn't work for certain user configurattions. So what was changed besides game elements? Does the VCR feature
now require updated audio/video cards/drivers? DirectX v8? ??

David Brown · Post by **David Brown** » Mon Feb 19, 2001 9:11 am

Mr.Plow,

Where can I find version 4.4? It does not seem to be in the downloads secion on the Matrix site. Or am I missing something?

DB