AAAAAAAAHH! Game won't start...?

chief · Post by **chief** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 12:36 am

Game resolution 800x 600 16 color also per your request.

pops · Post by **pops** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 7:16 am

Thanks.....and no I downloaded the whopping whole game...almost a gig installed......I may have already had the whole thing somewhere but I lose track of what I have and where it is....... :rolleyes:

Wild Bill · Post by **Wild Bill** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 7:35 am

Okay Pops. Now try this. Any scenarios that are in the game, remove them. Remove them all. Just shift them to a temp file so that the game does not see them.

Then delete the Steel.prf file from the Save folder.

Reboot your computer. Let it load. Now try to start the game and tell me what happens.

Standing by....WB
Then try restarting the

pops · Post by **pops** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 7:28 pm

...thanks, the same thing happens unfortunately.......black screen, monitor seems to shut off and computer becomes unresponsive......I can either hit reset button (on computer) or if I wait long enough the computer comes back up with resolution and colors all garbled with an error message that a device failure has occured and I need to reboot my computer to restors functionality....

I have no rpoblem with any other program or game.....including graphics intensive progs such as Combat Flight Sim3, IL2 Forgotten Battles, Medal Of Honor, Close Combat etc, etc,.......even Steel Panthers WW2.....?....

Bernie · Post by **Bernie** » Tue Oct 14, 2003 8:25 am

Aha! Now we're getting somewhere. What is the exact error message that you get when the computer "comes back"?

pops · Post by **pops** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 4:20 am

The exact error message is:

"Windows has detected and recovered from a device failure. Please save your work and reboot to restore full functionality."

......?........

Bernie · Post by **Bernie** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 9:43 am

pops wrote:The exact error message is:

"Windows has detected and recovered from a device failure. Please save your work and reboot to restore full functionality."

......?........

Gotta love those helpful, descriptive Windows error messages. :rolleyes:

Okay, my thoughts here are that there's only two devices that could be causing the problem. One is the video card, which we've already covered. What about your sound card? Are you having sound problems with anything else? Are there any conflicts showing in System Information?

pops · Post by **pops** » Sun Oct 19, 2003 8:41 am

EventType: 0xEA - Thread Stuck in Device Driver

//
// The driver for the display device got stuck in an infinite loop. This
// usually indicates a problem with the device itself or with the device
// driver programming the hardware incorrectly. Please check with your
// display device vendor for any driver updates.
//

ShutdownCount: 117
Shutdown: 0
EaRecovery: 1
EventCount: 4
BreakCount: 4
BugcheckTriggered: 1
DebuggerNotPresent: 1
DriverName: nv4_disp
EventFlag: 1
DeviceClass: Display
DeviceDescription: NVIDIA GeForce3
HardwareID: PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0200&SUBSYS_402F1043&REV_A3
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
DriverFixedFileInfo: FEEF04BD 00010000 0006000E 000A11AB 0006000E 000A11AB 0000003F 00000008 00040004 00000003 00000004 00000000 00000000
DriverCompanyName: NVIDIA Corporation
DriverFileDescription: NVIDIA Compatible Windows 2000 Display driver, Version 45.23
DriverFileVersion: 6.14.10.4523
DriverInternalName: nv4_disp.dll
DriverLegalCopyright: (C) NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved.
DriverOriginalFilename: nv4_disp.dll
DriverProductName: NVIDIA Compatible Windows 2000 Display driver, Version 45.23
DriverProductVersion: 6.14.10.4523

...I don't have any problems with any other games though....and this one came out of nowhere.......?......

Bernie · Post by **Bernie** » Sun Oct 19, 2003 9:41 am

Okay, I notice the driver is described as a Windows 2000 driver, and I think you said you were running Win98? If that's the case, try getting a set of Win98 drivers for the card. If I'm wrong, and you're running a different version of Windows then the problem could be a corrupted driver file. You said you reinstalled them? How did you do that? If you haven't already done so I'd go to the manufacturers site and get the latest drivers then delete what you're currently using, reboot (using the default Windows driver, install the new drivers, reboot and then try the game again.

If you've done all that already, then try turning off any hardware acceleration that might be enabled, as well as Open GL and Direct3D support (or at least switch them to their most compatible states) If you still have the problem after that, try sending an email to the companies support dept and see what they say.

Bernie · Post by **Bernie** » Sun Oct 19, 2003 9:52 am

Pops, I just checked the Nvidia site and you have the latest drivers (and they're the same for all versions of Windows) so, unless you're reinstalling them from a corrupted copy (you did d/l a new set and install that, right?) then it's beyond my skills and I suggest you contact Nvidia tech support.

pops · Post by **pops** » Sun Oct 19, 2003 7:38 pm

Thanks, I have Win xp and am totally at a loss as to this new problem because I did not change anything before the problem started and have been playing SPWAW for years and am currently running many 3d intensive games that did not previously or currently have any problem with my video card.....there appears to be something in the loading process of SPWAW that kills the video card....

Frank W. · Post by **Frank W.** » Sun Oct 19, 2003 10:45 pm

pops wrote:Thanks for your kind consideration...

...my screen goes black when I hit the mech.exe..

..I've just reinstalled 7.1 with no luck as well as reinstalling my video drivers and directx (same versions as before....the game worked with these before, I just thought I'd try...)

...the only thing new I've installed prior to my problems was Microsoft .net framework which leaves no option to uninstall that I can see, but to be honest I can't recall whether or not I had the game successfully started since installing .net or not.....

?

it happens me, too sometimes.

can be that direct x9 is the cause, can´t remember if i
had the black screens as i used 8.1 still

pops · Post by **pops** » Fri Oct 24, 2003 9:15 pm

Thanks for the assistance all!!

Nvidia just came out with some new drivers that seem to fix my problem....I don't know why the problem hit me when I didn't change drivers at the time or do anything else that I could see stopping the game from functioning....but all's well that ends well I suppose!

So if anyone else is using a Geforce card with the latest DX and has any problems with SPWAW I would reccomend the new drivers:

NVIDIA® ForceWare™ release 50 graphics driver

You have to make sure you download this one because the automated process where you select your card and OS still lead you to the old drivers.

Thanks again!

Bernie · Post by **Bernie** » Fri Oct 24, 2003 10:47 pm

pops wrote:Thanks for the assistance all!!

Nvidia just came out with some new drivers that seem to fix my problem....I don't know why the problem hit me when I didn't change drivers at the time or do anything else that I could see stopping the game from functioning....but all's well that ends well I suppose!

So if anyone else is using a Geforce card with the latest DX and has any problems with SPWAW I would reccomend the new drivers:

NVIDIA® ForceWare™ release 50 graphics driver

You have to make sure you download this one because the automated process where you select your card and OS still lead you to the old drivers.

Thanks again!

I have a suspicion that when you installed .NET it changed either one of the .dll's your old drivers were working with, or made registry entries that "broke" something. The new drivers from Nvidia, so soon after their last new set of drivers were released, inclines me to believe they found out about the problem and jumped on it to fix it. I expect their links will soon be changed to the new drivers.

Glad it worked out for you!