Distant Worlds: Universe not starting

[Erik Rutins]

Thanks Raap - well spotted. That is worth a try.

We are investigating these issues - they are rare, as the game works well on the vast majority of systems but it's clear that there are some system configurations we haven't run into before where it does not work. We have an update coming out today that may help, but we will work with each customer who has an issue to get the game running to the best of our ability.

Please note that as these are system-specific issues, it's almost impossible for us to work out what's going on in your system without your help.

I'd like to especially thank Cliffo for going through the checklist, that helps us rule a lot of things out.

Regards,

- Erik

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: Thrgor
Here you go.

Thanks for that Thrgor.

Looking at that debug log I'm pretty sure this is some kind of security issue, i.e. some component is not starting due to insufficient security permissions.

Near the middle of the log there's a call to RaiseException in KERNEL32.DLL, right after a series of security-related calls into ADVAPI32.DLL, so it looks like there's some security issue that causes an error. Unfortunately we're not getting any visibility on exactly what the error is

I think the remainder of the log is cleanup to try and extract error information, but that appears to ultimately fail.

Have you tried running as Administrator?

Have you checked your Windows Event log for any messages related to this? (Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer)

Thanks
Elliot

[zakblood]

Thrgor, try the beta patch and see if that helps any, good luck

tm.asp?m=3620645

[Cliffo]

Hi Raap,

Thanks for the offer to assist! It is appreciated. The errors that I encountered using Dependency Walker were not faults due to the software reportedly doing the checking without having been upgraded for some time and could not recognize the files.

I am now keeping all updates of where I am at on my post in the previous page to this thread so that it is all in one place.

We will get there eventually....

XX Snapshot deleted XX


Cheers,

Cliffo

[zakblood]

6 missing dll's, 3 core ones ie windows system, 1 from IE internet explorer etc

running sfc /scannow will or could fix the missing o/s ones (google command line and info on it)

installing Visual Studio runtime executables will or should fix another 2 (again google is your friend here also)

leaving one, so reinstalling/repairing all, plus net etc should sort it as per guide tm.asp?m=2414049

[elliotg]

Hi Cliffo

That's very useful info in that screenshot: the missing IESHIMS.DLL is a problem - this means IE is not properly installed - I would try uninstalling and reinstalling it.

As mentioned by zakblood, running sfc /scannow can check for missing windows files and repair them (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_File_Checker)

Thanks
Elliot

[Aletheides]

I had exactly the same problem on windows 8.1 nothing seemed to fix it. Untill i found the cause and also a fix.

Windows 8.1 comes with directx preinstalled. Its supposed to be backwards compatible with directx 9c and it works fine most of times. However for some older games the games are hardcoded to look for specific directx 9c DLLs that are different from the ones provided with windows 8.1 thus it wont start no matter that it tells you your directx is up to date.

To fix it, install the directx 9c SDK package that contains these DLLs and distant world magically works.

Link to package here. I cut up the link as im not allowed to post links untill in 7 days for some reason just remove the spaces. w w w.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=35

Hope this works for others. I confirmed it on two windows 8.1 computers including a surface pro 2.

[zakblood]

yes directx 9c is needed with windows 8.1, as 11 doesn't have all files, needs adding to the list of stuff needed plus the Norton AV problems

[Raap]

I'm not convinced either IESHIMS.DLL or GPSVC.DLL is a problem, since I appear to have the same two 'missing' myself. It's possible that's just some quirkiness with DependencyWalker.

Did you have a full log from running it, Cliffo?

[Raap]

ORIGINAL: elliotg

Near the middle of the log there's a call to RaiseException in KERNEL32.DLL, right after a series of security-related calls into ADVAPI32.DLL, so it looks like there's some security issue that causes an error. Unfortunately we're not getting any visibility on exactly what the error is

You may be right there It's trying to throw the exception, but there's no handler so it uses the default(which is to exit application).

As to why it's throwing it, there's this:

GetProcAddress(0x75ED0000 [ADVAPI32.DLL], "AddAccessAllowedAce") called from "CLR.DLL" at address 0x67E1F5E0 and returned 0x75F0B6DE.

According to MSDN:

The AddAccessAllowedAce function adds an access-allowed access control entry (ACE) to an access control list (ACL). The access is granted to a specified security identifier (SID).
...
(SID) A data structure of variable length that identifies user, group, and computer accounts. Every account on a network is issued a unique SID when the account is first created. Internal processes in Windows refer to an account's SID rather than the account's user or group name.

It does say a return value of non-zero indicates success, but given that this is the last thing that's happening...

Thrgor, could you try disabling User Account Control and running as Administrator? At the same time, preferably.


Cliffo, not sure this applies to you, since I'm just going by Thrgor's log. You posted a screenshot of the modules section; did you also have a log from running the profiler? Despite the same symptoms, you guys might not have identical problems.

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: Aletheides
I had exactly the same problem on windows 8.1 nothing seemed to fix it. Untill i found the cause and also a fix.

Windows 8.1 comes with directx preinstalled. Its supposed to be backwards compatible with directx 9c and it works fine most of times. However for some older games the games are hardcoded to look for specific directx 9c DLLs that are different from the ones provided with windows 8.1 thus it wont start no matter that it tells you your directx is up to date.

To fix it, install the directx 9c SDK package that contains these DLLs and distant world magically works.

Link to package here. I cut up the link as im not allowed to post links untill in 7 days for some reason just remove the spaces. w w w.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=35

Hope this works for others. I confirmed it on two windows 8.1 computers including a surface pro 2.

Thanks for that info Aletheides - very useful to know. DW does use a managed DirectX wrapper for some of the sound, so that might be requiring a specific version of DirectX 9?

Anyway, thanks again for that.

Elliot

[Oddfellow]

By the way, I was having the same issue, and after some hours I realized it was my anti virus Kaspersky Pure 3.0.

This is more an FYI for the company than tryting to help with the issues you guys are having.

[zakblood]

anti virus program cause more errors than anything, next is o/s errors, then you go to hardware and missing files, then after all these and only then you get game bugs and game errors [&o][&o][&o]

but still you see the odd moaning about something that has nothing to do totally with the game itself, but still, this is pc life and forum life, this is why steam should have a IQ test built in to become a member to buy from them, if you fail it or your pc doesn't meet a set requirement ie (working) etc, then you shouldn't be aloud to purchase so no need for a refund....

thanks codeforce and matrix for the game and support, i feel for both of you

[DoctorG21]

@Oddfellow:
Very interesting. I also use Kaspersky Pure and tried everything including disabling Antivirus, putting Distant worlds files to trusted files.... But I don't want do uninstall.
So, what did you do to solve the problem?

Regards

[VPaulus]

Create an exclusion rule:
http://support.kaspersky.com/us/9685#block1

and add the game to the trusted Trusted applications:
http://support.kaspersky.com/9724

[DoctorG21]

Thank you,
but again it won't work.

[Tom_Holsinger]

I had to totally uninstall my Norton 360 AV, reboot, install DWU and then reinstall my Norton. The latter was not a hassle as my days earlier foolish obedience to MG's advice about use of a download manager had gotten Norton customer support to download a clean copy of Norton to my download folder.

"You f****d up... you trusted us!!" - Animal House

[Meteor2]

ORIGINAL: Oddfellow

By the way, I was having the same issue, and after some hours I realized it was my anti virus Kaspersky Pure 3.0.

This is more an FYI for the company than tryting to help with the issues you guys are having.

Same thing with here with Kaspersky Internet security:
With the AV running, DW is not starting, the exe-file is classified as dangerous
(PDM: Trojan.Win32.Bazona.a malware).
The file is then in quarantaine and I cannot "release" it for use.
Every attempt to do so failed and Kaspersky stops DW immediately.

Disabling of AV brings DW to life and it works.

Remark: During download Kaspersky was running.

What to do now ?

[DoctorG21]

The strangest thing is that distant worlds with legends worked for me. But universe not.

[SimonSlater]

I recently bought DW:Universe and now seem to have the same issue with starting the game. It worked perfectly with all previous expansions but after I installed Universe the game doesn't start anymore. I also tried the beta patch but I keep getting the following error log in the AppData/Roaming/... Folder:

Code: Select all

Distant Worlds - Crash Dump - 1.9.5.1
 
 15:14:08 Dienstag, 3. Juni 2014
 
 
 System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80040154): Klasse nicht registriert (Ausnahme von HRESULT: 0x80040154 (REGDB_E_CLASSNOTREG))
    bei System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.CoCreateInstance(Guid& clsid, Object punkOuter, Int32 context, Guid& iid)
    bei System.Windows.Forms.AxHost.CreateWithLicense(String license, Guid clsid)
    bei System.Windows.Forms.AxHost.CreateInstanceCore(Guid clsid)
    bei System.Windows.Forms.AxHost.CreateInstance()
    bei System.Windows.Forms.AxHost.GetOcxCreate()
    bei System.Windows.Forms.AxHost.TransitionUpTo(Int32 state)
    bei System.Windows.Forms.AxHost.CreateHandle()
    bei System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl(Boolean fIgnoreVisible)
    bei System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl(Boolean fIgnoreVisible)
    bei System.Windows.Forms.AxHost.EndInit()
    bei DistantWorlds.Start.XkCYaRIG4UKiNVl6ZUy(Object )
    bei DistantWorlds.Start.PDqJ52o3mV()
    bei DistantWorlds.Start..ctor()
    bei sUMn0fc5CEqtPeT10H.I3qOOMQIxxForGALDE.oBUhiDVFYIM()
 
 
 --- COMPLETE ---
 

I already tried reinstalling/repairing Dotnet, DirectX9c, XNA Framework, running as administrator but nothing fixed the problem.