Game crashes: menu disappears

Christian Blex · Post by **Christian Blex** » Mon Jul 09, 2001 9:18 pm

I finally got the MC Cd. After installing the game(ver. 5.01) and playing for a short while the map became a little bit more grey and all the buttons, apart from the "preferences" and "help" buttons, disappeared!!!!
I can move the mouse and move vehicles with ist, I still can use some keys but the graphics are not correct. Opening the submenus(unit information, preferences etc.)I can read the writing, but the background is still the original map!!! More strange the sound has disappeared, too!
I have upgraded the game to ver.6.1, but the problem remains: After a short while all this s*** happens again and again and again. The map gets some graphics errors (black fields), too!! I've deleted the steel.prf file for no succes!
I didn't have any problems with ver.4.5 .
My computer is a Duron 650Mhz with a Gigybyte board, an Elsar ErasorIIi with the newest driver. In addition I'm running directx 8.0a. Did anyone experience the same problem. Any advice/help/solution for me?

David Heath · Post by **David Heath** » Mon Jul 09, 2001 9:33 pm

How much memory do you have on your machine and what size scenario are you playing

Christian Blex · Post by **Christian Blex** » Mon Jul 09, 2001 9:49 pm

196 MB. I've played the tutorial scenario "using a tiger" for fun and the game crashes. Then I started the MC with the ambush on the train. BTW sometimes the game has some errors in the MC menu to after clicking through the submenus for a while: The sounds and some texts disappear.

Warrior · Post by **Warrior** » Mon Jul 09, 2001 10:06 pm

Did you install this over another SPWaW?

Christian Blex · Post by **Christian Blex** » Tue Jul 10, 2001 5:35 pm

At first I installed it over ver4.5. After some crashes, I deleted the whole program and reinstalled it completely (ver5.01 and upgrades). The crashes still happen.

Christian Blex · Post by **Christian Blex** » Tue Jul 10, 2001 5:44 pm

Forgot to mention. I'm running Windows98SE (for quite a long time, since the last reinstall).

Larry Holt · Post by **Larry Holt** » Tue Jul 10, 2001 7:58 pm

Originally posted by Christian:
196 MB.

196? Not to seem rude but RAM comes in multiples of 8, usually 32, 64, 128 then 256.

David Heath · Post by **David Heath** » Tue Jul 10, 2001 9:19 pm

OK how much free hard drive space do you have.

11Bravo · Post by **11Bravo** » Tue Jul 10, 2001 9:39 pm

Originally posted by Larry Holt:

196? Not to seem rude but RAM comes in multiples of 8, usually 32, 64, 128 then 256.

He probably means 192. In other words 128 + 64. Some computers let you mix the size of the RAM chips on the board. Others don't.

Christian Blex · Post by **Christian Blex** » Wed Jul 11, 2001 10:43 pm

Oops! Indeed, I have 192 MB (128+64=192) (Well, hard to believe, but I'm on the last steps to my diplomata in mathematics at the monent.)
At the moment there are around 250MB left on my hard drive.
I the game on another drive in the same computer (again around 250 MB left), no effect, the game still crashes after some minutes! Any advices???

swami12 · Post by **swami12** » Fri Jul 13, 2001 5:44 am

I have begun to have the exact same problems with the 6.1 version. I have not had any previous problems.

any fixes yet?

tracer · Post by **tracer** » Fri Jul 13, 2001 6:03 am

What chip is the ErasorIIi based on?

tracer · Post by **tracer** » Fri Jul 13, 2001 6:53 am

Originally posted by Christian:
My computer is a Duron 650Mhz with a Gigybyte board, an Elsar ErasorIIi with the newest driver.

I checked the Elsa site; is your vid card an Erasor III? If so, its based on the TNT2 chip. If so, you may want to try using the driver from nVidia; I have a Creative 3D Blaster (also TNT2) card and I've been using nVidia's driver since I bought it and find its better than the driver supplied by the card manufacturer. Check out
www.nvidia.com
Worth a try.

Christian Blex · Post by **Christian Blex** » Sat Jul 14, 2001 9:24 pm

I have an Erasor III with an TNT2 chip on it. (Typing error). I'm using the latest nvidia dirver (4.13 or something like that. Releade date was in early June I think). Nevertheless, thanks for your advice tracer.

Yesterday, I've installed the game on my old PC (K6-266, 8 MB video card, 64 MB memory) at my parents house. The game run fine!! No crashes!
Although I like visiting my parents, I would prefer playing Steel Panthers on my new computer in my appartment!
Any advice, or do I have do try reinstalling Windows.

Supervisor · Post by **Supervisor** » Sat Jul 14, 2001 9:40 pm

Didn't catch what OS your using, but try disabling everything except necessary programs. Hit ctrl alt del and from the task manager end task everything except Explorer and Systray before starting SPWAW this will help see if you have a program conflict. Disable antivirus if you running too. Also you can try running the program just from the mech.exe file.

tracer · Post by **tracer** » Sat Jul 14, 2001 11:13 pm

I think the TNT2 chip *may* have some problems with SPWAW, but haven't been able to nail it down exactly. When my TNT2 was in my old system (P2-400), and now that its in this new one I built in March (P3-1g) I occaisionally get one little annoying glitch with SPWAW: when I launch the game and the SSI logo comes up I hit 'enter', and about 1 time in 10 I get a black screen. At first it looks like a crash, but when I move the mouse it 'wipes' the black away (best way to put it); I do this until I can see enough of the underlying screen to click on a button (solitaire, etc)and then the game runs flawlessly. I searched for a solution for a while, but since its not a 'fatal' bug I just live with it now.

tracer · Post by **tracer** » Sat Jul 14, 2001 11:22 pm

Just re-read your original post and remembered a similar problem I had back in 97 or so. I was playing alot of Quake back then and using a VooDoo add-on card; after a while the screen would begin to 'degrade'...first I couldn't read text, then it would crash. Turned out to be inadequate cooling of the video card; bought a little 12v squirrel cage fan at Radio Shack and had it blow across the VooDoo card; did the trick. What made me think it may be related to your problem was that you mentioned it occurred after you 'played a while'. Try running the computer with the case-cover off...if this eliminates the problem consider adding a fan.

swami12 · Post by **swami12** » Wed Jul 18, 2001 8:53 am

Tried all of the suggestions!!

Still crashes or menu disappears

Dave

Paul Vebber · Post by **Paul Vebber** » Wed Jul 18, 2001 6:04 pm

A couple other things to check is to make sure your CPU is no overclocked, similar to Vid card overheating, CPU overheating can cause that sort of thing and Mom and Pop vendors often do that to sell a 550 as a 650, with the heat sinks on some you can't tell what the chip is.

Degradation like that is generally a problem with either CPU of vid card. Straight memory erors cause crashes - though your 250MB of HD space is geting low - you should have 256MB of swap file space (though many recommend at least 2 times RAM - and don't windows manae it as it gets snakey when you get low.

Another possible problem is unstable power to the computer. Do you have an UPS?

You seem to indicate this only happens with SP:WaW - do you have problem with other apps?

parusski · Post by **parusski** » Wed Jul 18, 2001 6:24 pm

Hello Christian. There are a couple of things no one has suggested. First, do you have a System Utility program such as Norton System Works? If so you should do a couple of things: one-you should scan your hard drive for errors, with Norton you would use "Disk Doctor", allowing "Disk Doctor" to automatically repair any errors on your disk. Two-You need to have "Norton" or some other program do a system check, this normaly looks for corrupted files, ie: DLL files. A corrupted file could be causing your problem.

Also, are you using "Win 95", "Win 98" or "Win ME"? "Win ME" is the most unstable.

You should look into updating all your drivers, not just the one for your video card. Another idea: update your Bios for your system.

If you do not have a program to do this or need help with the other suggestions, email at parusski@aol.com with further questions and I will be glad to help you.