Matrix Games Forums

Just a bit of an update. I installed EiA onto an old laptop of mine and the screen came up fine. So I do know that it is not an improper DL, corrupted DL or a faulty install file. The laptop is a dell as well, onboard video, about 256mb RAM, Windows XP, an older version of DirectX9.

Not an optimal solution (that laptop is old and slow), but it does prove there is something specific to this setup.

SoM

ORIGINAL: Son_of_Montfort
Just a bit of an update. I installed EiA onto an old laptop of mine and the screen came up fine. So I do know that it is not an improper DL, corrupted DL or a faulty install file. The laptop is a dell as well, onboard video, about 256mb RAM, Windows XP, an older version of DirectX9.

Not an optimal solution (that laptop is old and slow), but it does prove there is something specific to this setup.

Very useful info, thanks - though it also means that unless we can figure out what it doesn't like in these setups, we're going to be hitting a brick wall.

SoM:
 
Great info! Appreciate the footwork!
 
 

Hi Guys,

This might not be useful in this particular error, since the game does not halt or exit, however we commonly use Microsoft SysInternals suite to diagnose software that is working in lots of boxes but failing on one or two.

I recommend ProcessMonitor (it use to be a few programs individually called FileMon and RegistryMon but this version is more complete)
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/FileAndDisk/processmonitor.mspx

It allows you to see everything that is going on when the program runs.

Mostly, once it is running you filter the results for the process you are trying to monitor 'EiANW.exe' or whatever the process is called, you can then look for failures or other anomalies and try to correct from there.

Can I also suggest that you you do a complete Microsoft Update on the offending PC so that you have a known working good OS (well it is MS so that's a relative statement).

Also try rebooting into safe mode (F8 while booting then select safe mode) this will load a generic vga driver, then try the game in that mode. If it is successful, try finding the next last version of the video card driver and use it instead. (Always make sure you have a copy of the current video card driver on your PC so if you bugger it you can boot to safe mode and put the one you know works with everything else back on).

I would suggest Safe Mode as the first try, then go for the MS Update, then if we still can't fix it we can start looking at the ProcessMonitor logs. (you can run the monitor, then start the game, then quit, then save the logs and email them to me and I can have a look at them for you, might not prove helpful, but it has worked before).

Let me know and I will send you my contact details.

Keep posting I am sure we will find an answer.

Kelvin

Thanks for the ideas Kelvin, unfortunately none worked for me. I'm not really willing to try that ProcessMonitor quite yet, as I don't want to add any more variables until I have ruled out all other. I have used MSconfig to axe all non-essential processes, I have used lower versions of nVidia Forceware, my MS/OS is completely up-to-date.

I have no idea why my out of date, lower video card, lower memory, lower directx version laptop runs it fine. The only thing I can think is that it is the nVidia card causing the problem (laptop is not nVidia).

SoM

I have the exact same problem as SoM, and not solved after going through the same steps.
 
thanks
 
PiW

I use a freeware program called cpuz to give a monitor of my system. It has a regdump function that can give information on all of the things attached to my system. I could provide that (over PM incase it has sensitive info like IP address) if anyone thinks this is useful (it has addresses and technical data on all aspects from memory speed to headphones).

Just thought I would offer, in case it helps.

SoM

SoM:
 
Appreciate the offer and we may call for your help! I am currently looking to get a test EXE uploaded for anybody with screen problems to try. Let's see what happens with this which should tell me a lot.
 
 

Just uploaded the test exe in the other thread, please give it a try!

what thread?

I am having the same problem. Using a Dell laptop. The video has run fine each time but the game splash page is as indicated in the previous screen shots that have been provided in this thread.

As a test I disabled my Radeon graphics adapter. Now my computer runs slow as mud because it lacks the graphic acceleration... However, the splash page is loading correctly.

Is there possibly an incompatibility issue here?

There's a thread pinned to the top of this forum that has the new test exe, please give it a try.

ORIGINAL: Shaharaim
As a test I disabled my Radeon graphics adapter. Now my computer runs slow as mud because it lacks the graphic acceleration... However, the splash page is loading correctly.

Hm, did you try decreasing your hardware video acceleration step by step to see if that made any difference short of disabling it entirely?

i do too. i use a dell laptop.
god, i've been waiting so long for this game to come up in computer version....

Didn't really know what I was doing or what to try... So now my main concern is reinstalling what I inadvertently disabled. lol

Here's the technical info on what I have that I had disabled. If there is something you want me to try for you let me know. You may need to point me to some things with a bit of detail though.

Title : Video:ATI MobilityRadeon X300 BIOS
Version : A01
OEM Name : ATI
OEM Ver : 008.017M.192.058
Computers : Inspiron - 9300
Oses : Windows XP Home Edition,Windows XP Professional
Languages : English
Created : Mon Mar 7 09:05:53 CST 2005

Title : Video:ATI MobilityRadeon X300 Driver
Version : A00
OEM Name : ATI
OEM Ver : 8.063.2.1-041203a-019751C
Computers : Inspiron - 9300
OS : Windows XP
Languages : Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese-S, Chinese-T, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish
Created : Mon Dec 13 14:44:01 CST 2004

Here is the result of using the test .EXE.

Pretty much the same, although with a grey background.

When I tried running EiA in safe-mode, it gave me a license error. Is there any way to circumvent this so that I can run in safe mode and see if it is a graphic driver issue?

I wanted to add that I appreciate the diligent help today. I know it adds stress to release day to have problems, so it is nice to see the big guns helping on this.

ORIGINAL: Shaharaim
Here's the technical info on what I have that I had disabled. If there is something you want me to try for you let me know. You may need to point me to some things with a bit of detail though.

No problem. First, run DxDiag - then look at the Display tab. You should see some options there to turn off the DirectDraw Acceleration. Try that out with a re-enabled video card and let me know if it helps.

here
i did run the tests (before) and no problems detected

thanks guys [&o]

Erik and Ellis, FYI.

I checked every slider setting on my Video acceleration - no effect on the EiA screen.

I also disabled the DirectDraw and Direct3d in my dxdiag - no effect on EiA screen.

I am now going to change my CMOS video aperture size and other motherboard settings: will report back.

SoM

No change.

My Dell Dimension 8300 - Bios Rev. A05 had no change with different CMOS settings.
Standard Settings: AGP Aperture 128MB, Hyperthreading - Enabled

Changing this to AGP 32, 64 or disabling Hyperthreading had no effect.

I'm beginning to wonder, the Dell laptop I have that I tested EiA on (and got it to run fine) has an ATI Radeon Mobility 64MB video card. My desktop (which has the screen problem) has a nVidia Geforce 7800GS 256MB card (eVGA manufacturer). Perhaps the difference is between nVidia and ATI?

SoM