Long Delay in Starting and Saving

[DJAndrews]

Hi, during the last week the game has started misbehaving somewhat. When I fire it up, it moves through the loading process to the point where the main menu screen appears. I set the game mode to one of the "vs computer" setting and then press "select previous game" or some such. It then hangs for between 50 seconds and a minute. Then the list of saved games comes up and the game proceeds normally, without further problem.

Everything goes well until I try to save (which I like to do regularly, in case some small scale process such as loading goes awry). At this point the same thing happens except the wait is only 20-30 seconds before the list of save slots comes up.

Both problems are simply irritants and I know that 20 to 60 seconds is not a big deal, but it effects how I play the game (fewer saves and shutdowns) and its annoying as H___.

Does anyone have any ideas?

[rogueusmc]

Do a defrag and reboot...it can make a big difference.

[DJAndrews]

Thanx. The analyser says its OK but that may be due to the size of the disk. Overall fragmentation is less than 20% on a 145 GB drive that is 75% free. However 3 of the 4 largest fragmented files or from WITP.

I'll try defragging overnight (guesstimate of 4 hours to complete based preliminary start/stop).

[rogueusmc]

Sometimes I notice mine slow down a little bit when I have outlook running and it downloads mail...that's about the worst I have had. WitP has been very hassle free for me.

[DJAndrews]

Unfortunately the defragging had little effect. I continue to experience a 45-60 second wait from when I press the "select saved games" button on the main menu screen and when the list of saved games actually appears. Same thing when I try to save.

[jhdeerslayer]

Thats because with today's large drives, the general industry feeling is that defragging is a concern and a tune up of the past.

[Dereck]

1) Could it be a swap file problem maybe?

2) Could a virus/worm have got on your computer? If other programs seem to be running slow, run a virus scan just to check and rule this possibility out.

3) Did the program always take this long to load or just recently? If just recently then did you download or install any new software which could be the culprite?

4) Did you recently make any changes to any system settings?

5) If you have Windows XP did you do a Microsoft windows update and maybe get hosed that way? The new service pack for Windows XP is so bad from what I hear that it may be better to stay away from it.

6) Do you leave your computer on 24/7? If so, try restarting in case something got screwed up that a restart would clear. If running XP, you may also want to hit CLT-ALT-DEL and bring up the Windows Task Manager to see what programs and processes are running.

7) Could some AdWare have got on your computer slowing things down?

8) This may not have anything to do with it but it may not be a bad idea to clear your internet cache. If you use Internet Explorer - Tools->Internet Options->Delete Files ... make sure to check Offline Files. May want to delete the cookies too.

Just some possibilities. Hope you get your problem fixed.

[DJAndrews]

ORIGINAL: dereck

1) Could it be a swap file problem maybe?

2) Could a virus/worm have got on your computer? If other programs seem to be running slow, run a virus scan just to check and rule this possibility out.

3) Did the program always take this long to load or just recently? If just recently then did you download or install any new software which could be the culprite?

4) Did you recently make any changes to any system settings?

5) If you have Windows XP did you do a Microsoft windows update and maybe get hosed that way? The new service pack for Windows XP is so bad from what I hear that it may be better to stay away from it.

6) Do you leave your computer on 24/7? If so, try restarting in case something got screwed up that a restart would clear. If running XP, you may also want to hit CLT-ALT-DEL and bring up the Windows Task Manager to see what programs and processes are running.

7) Could some AdWare have got on your computer slowing things down?

8) This may not have anything to do with it but it may not be a bad idea to clear your internet cache. If you use Internet Explorer - Tools->Internet Options->Delete Files ... make sure to check Offline Files. May want to delete the cookies too.

Just some possibilities. Hope you get your problem fixed.

Thanx for the suggestions, while I regularly run virus, adware and spyware checkers, and have installed service pack 2, it appears that something simpler was the problem.

Mr. Frag pointed out that the program reads all the saved files when you tell it that you want to load one. I was carrying about ninety files in the save directory because I had been tracking a glitch that occurred in one of my games.

I transferred all but 4 of the files out of the save directory and now I have instantaneous response again, instead of the 60 second delay.

[pmath]

[:@]I just ran into exactly the same problem, and none of the suggestions has made any impact

[DJAndrews]

Do you have a lot of files (eg. witp001, 002, 003 etc.) in your save directory? If so, move the ones you're not using to another directory. Best to keep the 001 and 002 as they are the automatic saves for the last turn.

[Mr.Frag]

000 & 001 are the autosave and combat replay ... 002 is a normal slot [;)]

[pmath]

[:@]I am experiencing this same problem, Itstarted right after I switched from Norton to Macafee and I upgraded my spy sweeper. Did you make any similar changes?

[bombata]

it seems that alot of players have different problems which result in a delay when playing the game.

some have the delay while they save/load the game and some others by closing windows.

bye

[pmath]

[:@]
I deleted all but five of my save games, and this dramatically improved the delay in selecting save games, but it is still significant. The really puzzling thing is the suddeness of the problem developing. It worked fine with 40 saves, sudden terrible delay with 41 saves, now some delay with 5 saves?

[Mr.Frag]

You defrag after house cleaning?

I always remind people to flush their browser cache as well. You'd be amazed at just how quick it fills up with garbage.

[DJAndrews]

Pmath, sorry for not replying earlier..I've been tied up for a bit.

Yeah, when my problem first occurred it had the same characteristics....sudden onset after installing Windows Service Pack 2. After eliminating many of the save files the wait time was much less, but as you indicated, the delay has started to climb again even though I'm keeping the number of games on the list to 5 or 6.

I've defragged the disc to no effect. I've got a 160 GB hard drive that is three quarters free. One thing I noticed when I defragged was that when you run the assessment prior to defragging it gives you a list of the most fragmented files. Five of the top six fragmented files werr from WITP. I'm wondering if there is something wrong with the archiving method used by the game.

[Mr.Frag]

Nope, just the nature of the beast ... it is constantly creating and recreating the save files and the reports. They jump around each other coupled with web browser activity and end up fragmenting into little holes all over the place.

[Erik Rutins]

Try a program like EndItAll (do a Google search) to shut down everything else before running WitP. Also, try a better defragger like Diskeeper 8 from www.executivesoftware.com and see if that helps at all.

Regards,

- Erik

[kayjay]

Ive noticed the increase in losd/save delay after installing SP2 as well and agree on the defrag. Im carrying a lot of saved games and will do some house cleaning, probobly zip up the saved games and stash them elswhere.

It seems to me that the ability to create a saved game directory structure woudl be useful as with a few games in each directory WITP wopud only read those in the dirtectory you pointed to on the load.,

[kayjay]

SORRY!

Unfortunately the very useful formerly-freeware utility EndItAll2 which I have praised and recommended for years is no longer available free of charge to end users. While there are a number of copies still floating around the web for those who look hard enough due to the intervention of the Ziff-Davis, Inc legal team and their false accusations to my ISP that I personally have been providing their copywrited program, links to the program can no longer be found on this web site. Those prepared to pay for a subscription can find it available at winmag.com