Game Stops Responding (Sort Of)

[Wrathchild]

I've been experiencing a strange issue that seems to kick in only when I overaccess player cards during a managed game. It only happens when I try to return out of the player card screen. The game will come to a grinding halt, though Windows shows that it's using 99% of the CPU. It's impossible to switch to other tasks or even move the mouse around. The display of the game in process will slowly return and the game will attempt to continue, all the while maxing out the system resources. However, what really happens is that the game will progress maybe a little bit every minute or so, and what I mean by that is that it seems to take forever for the next line of text to come up. And the ball moves it moves only a millimeter and then stops again. I left the computer with a pitch halfway to home plate, and when I returned an hour later the ball was about halfway to first base after being hit. Finally I just hit the power switch on the computer as it was impossible to even kill the task. Any one have any ideas why this might be happening or has any one seen this before?

[Wrathchild]

It figures. I finally get a game going where I might win and I lose it to do this issue. This time it locked up just when it into the Lineup Card. This is killing me, as I probably go into the Lineup Card and Player Cards a couple dozen times a game, at least. Is it possible that this is happening due to having the game in windowed mode and multitasking? I rarely go all the way through a game without minimizing it to do something else. Maybe something is getting corrupted somewhere?

Oh, and the funny thing is is that the background sounds are still going the whole time; I just can't get back to the game.

[Wrathchild]

This time it just happened after clicking on a player's name (to look at the Player Card) on the Deals & Moves screen. And I was even playing in full screen mode this time. Anyone have any idea what would cause the game to lock up like this? Is anyone even monitoring this Tech Support forum?

[puresimmer]

Try disabling anti-virus software (just temporarily as a test) and making sure you are current with the latest windows updates. It would have nothing to do with multi-tasking. Are you running the very latest version of Puresim? One last thing to try might be getting latest video drivers installed and rebooting. When dialogs are displayed, Puresim uses some DirectX to dim the underlying screen.

Shaun

[KG Erwin]

I use DirectX 9.0, and perhaps Wrathchild is using an older version. If you haven't upgraded to this version, please do so.

[Wrathchild]

I thought at one point that my anti-virus might be playing a part so I kept it disabled while Puresim was running. However, a point came when even that wasn't helping. So I uninstalled Puresim and reinstalled, v170DR followed by the 1.72 patch. I'm also running DirectX version 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904), with all Windows Updates being installed immediately upon notification. Yet the problem is still occurring, perhaps even more frequently now. I will check with video driver updates, though if anything I'm still running the version of the NVidia drivers that were working at some point.

[Wrathchild]

After checking, I see that I'm already running the latest NVidia drivers.

Is there some kind of debugger I can run that will let me review a log of when the lock occurs?

[Wrathchild]

Unbelievably, this has happened again. This time it happened on a brand new, unformatted disk. I installed XP, applied all updates, latest DirectX, etc. I was even using a different, fully updated video card this time. Is there some corruption in my database or something? I am completely frustrated now, as this is making the game unplayable as I am afraid to click on various parts of the player cards for fear of locking it up in the middle of a game.

What makes this even worse, is it's just after the expanded roster, so not only do my season long players have their stats all screwed up, I've got new players showing a batting averages of .400 when they've only gone 1 for 4 in one game so far. Is there any way at all to clear out whatever temporary table is holding the leftover garbage from when the game locks up????

[Wrathchild]

These lock ups are still happening. Does anyone have any idea what could be causing it? I've seen it happen on two different computers. As much as I like this game, I'm starting to debate giving up on this, as it's just too frustrating to have to make copies of the association after every game in case I get a lock up in the middle of the next one. It always happens when closing a player card or the lineup card during a game. There has to be something that's known about what's taking place during this process. I see a file name such as this:

659154CE22BE4C9FA2C85C197654E7BB.tm~

in the Puresim folder, but I don't know if that has anything to do with the issue. Should I contact Matrix and see if they have any troubleshooting that can be done? The only other thing I notice is that the database lockfile gets updated at the same time as the lock up.

[DonBraswell]

Wrathchild,
I wish I had an answer for you. Shaun is the only one that could help. I haven't had any lock ups in a long time.
Sorry,
Don

[Wrathchild]

The sad part is that it seems to happen when I'm winning a game. This game is actually a real challenge for me and it seems I'm not very good at winning. So when I am I probably spend more time in the lineup card and player cards, trying to ensure my victory, and that's when the lockups happen. And, of course, it never fails that when I have to replay the game I lose. Badly. I hate my players. Of course, I'm sure they feel the same way about their manager. Ok, I take that back. I don't hate my players. I hate the players on the teams we play against.

Jeff

[KG Erwin]

I'm confused by one thing, Wrathchild. Why would you click on a player card in the midst of a game? It shouldn't matter, so it's gotta be somewhere in your PC config. Have you tried rolling back to an earlier Nvidia driver? That might be it. Nvidia seems to be notoriously bad in handling the graphics in older games. A few SPWaW players have had problems with newer Nvidia drivers.

My 2003 model Dell 2400 uses a built-in graphics adapter, with a driver updated to 2006 specs, but I've never had any lockup issues with PureSim.

[Wrathchild]

The main reason I open a lot of player cards is to check the splits for pitchers and batters. Some of the numbers that are shown on the game screen don't get updated until after the game and therefore don't reflect any changes during that game. Maybe I'm just being too anal, but in the later stages of a game I like to be completely current on a pitcher's vsL and vsR, as well as a batter's current vsL and vsR, as well as OBP and RISP. Maybe it makes no difference in the program, but my thought process is that I don't want to put a late game pinch hitter in the game, regardless of whether he's a LHB or RHB, if he's only hitting .125 against RHP, for example, when I may have someone else that's hitting .325 against RHP.

[CrashDavis]

It always happens when closing a player card...

That's precisely when it happens to me too, Wrath. It's kinda like Russian Roulette...you never know when you close a player card whether it's going to close properly or if you're going to get the "white screen of death". In which case I have to Ctrl-Alt-Del and close it out with Task Manager. Though Ive not had the problems with stats being messed up, but then I'm not a GBG player and so I don't look at lineups during game play.
I have the latest video drivers, audio drivers, and DX version. I have tried setting my Windows desktop resolution down to 800x600, but that didn't help. My mouse does move when I get the "white screen of death" tho.

[Wrathchild]

Yeah, my systems are all current and I've seen it happen on both of them, even though they both have different video cards. It's not that big of a deal if you are simming the games because you probably wouldn't get any data out of sync. But when you're in a nail biter and it's the bottom of the 7th and you're trying to put in just the right pinch hitter and you close that lineup or player card and the screen just stays white it makes you want to cry.

[Wrathchild]

This issue has killed this game for me. The lack of support provided by Matrix for technical issues shows that the product is basically abandonware. I've already preordered Out of the Park 10, and once that comes in probably won't have a need for Puresim or Draft Day Sports Baseball. I'm completely disgusted. It's hard to implement the grandiose plans for replaying the whole 20th century I had when I can't even depend on the game not to lock up on me. 

[CrashDavis]

Wrath,
since my last post, I have had great success by forcing PureSim into "windowed mode" under the Options link. I run my windows desktop in 1280x1024. I now only experience the problem maybe once per 50 starts. I can live with that. I have not tried GBG managing tho, so I don't know about that aspect of it. This leads me to think this is definitely a video/graphics issue somewhere.

Crash

[Wrathchild]

I think you are probably right about the source of the problem, as my experiences have been completely different. 99% of my lock ups have been in windowed mode. I've just decided that I'm only going to risk looking at player cards if I'm losing. That way I don't care if I have to start over. Sure, that sounds gamey, but if the baseball gods don't want me to do it they won't cause the game to lock up!

[CrashDavis]

Wrath,
what version of Flash are you using? I've gone back to 8 (from 10).

So far, so good.

SL

[Wrathchild]

I'm on the latest (whatever that is). I always update it. I could try going back and see what happens.