Hotfix, game crashes on the first try

[castor troy]

Hi

How many people have the game crash after installing the hotfix? First try it crashes before the intro video starts, second attempt and it works just fine.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: castor troy

Hi

How many people have the game crash after installing the hotfix? First try it crashes before the intro video starts, second attempt and it works just fine.

Happens for me about 75% of the time. Second launch try always works. Haven't been able to figure out why the 25% successes happen.

I'm in an old Dell, single core CPU, XP SP3, 6-year-old graphics card enviro. Never did this before the hotfix.

First try opens a black window on the desktop, upper-left corner justified. Covering about 40% of the desktop. Have to close it with Task Manager. Second try to open from same shortcut works.

[Q-Ball]

ORIGINAL: castor troy

Hi

How many people have the game crash after installing the hotfix? First try it crashes before the intro video starts, second attempt and it works just fine.

This exact thing happened to me right before the video intro; crashes. It happened the 2nd time too.

So far, I can't get the HOTFIX to work

[hunchback77]

First attempt is always crashing, Second attempt always works, never had this problem before Hotfix 1102aa.

[Pratzen]

Could being a caching issue. Ever notice thet the first time you load AE after a reboot, it is much slower than subsequent loads. I have to figure that the OS is keeping part of the program in (virtual or real) memory in spite of the fact that you have left the combat zone. Caching.

Has anyone having this problem also renamed their VIDEO folder so as to skip the movie? Everyone should rename their VIDEO folder so as to skip the intro movie. Might solve this problem as well.

[NAVMAN]

Hi Pratzen,
Tried renaming both the folder and file, no joy.

Thx

[scott64]

ORIGINAL: hunchback77

First attempt is always crashing, Second attempt always works, never had this problem before Hotfix 1102aa.

Same here but AE runs super slow (Sub attack took 8 minutes to conclude) on the next attempt. [&:]

[Pratzen]

But at least you are rid of that intro movie.

I'm going to hold off on the hotfix. Haven't seen the problem it fixes anyway.

[bradfordkay]

If you are using your desktop icon to launch the game this will cause problems. The Hotfix replaced the old .exe file with a new one, but the desktop icon is referring to the old one unless you have delted the old icon and replaced it with a shortcut to the new .exe file.

Could this be what you guys are running into?

[Nomad]

I doubt it brad. I installed the hot fix in one of my games tonight. It crashed on the first try but ran fine on the second try. I have not done a combat replay yet. I have never had the videos run, so I don't think that is the problem.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: bradfordkay

If you are using your desktop icon to launch the game this will cause problems. The Hotfix replaced the old .exe file with a new one, but the desktop icon is referring to the old one unless you have delted the old icon and replaced it with a shortcut to the new .exe file.

Could this be what you guys are running into?

I dumped the old shortcut and made a new one. Cut and pasted all the switch syntax verbatim. Someone elsewhere said eliminating the -altFont switch fixed it for them, but not for me. I get -altFont just fine when it does launch, as well.

Since this makes a black window for (nearly?) everyone, I wonder if it's related to trying to force a window mode in the new exec file somehow. Doesn't explain why it works on the second try though.

[kaleun]

I've had no problems on Windows 7 Dell laptop dual core.

[bradfordkay]

When I posted the above I had yet to experience a failure to load. Since then twice have I had an initial failure to load, with the usual "send report to Microsoft" request. Each time it started up fine on the next try.

[eloso]

It crashes on me too. Always on the first launch. Command line switches don't seem to make a difference. I renamed my video folder to novideo after the first time I launched the game a year ago.

[Nomad]

Here is an odd piece of data. I rebooted my computer and launched WitP three times and every time I got the crash on the first try and then it would load on the second time. These were all in windowed mode using the wide screen. I then rebooted and opened WitP using full screen mode with wide screen and had no crash. The really odd part is that now I can not get the windowed mode to crash any more. It has now opened 4 times without a crash.

[eloso]

I have shortcuts for full screen - normal, windowed - normal, full screen - wide screen, windowed - widescreen. All versions crash on first attempt. The game does load on the second attempt after boot so it's only a minor annoyance.

[jhdeerslayer]

ORIGINAL: hunchback77

First attempt is always crashing, Second attempt always works, never had this problem before Hotfix 1102aa.

Same for me on my home XP system. Does not happen on my Vista system at work though. [:)]

[jhdeerslayer]

ORIGINAL: bradfordkay

If you are using your desktop icon to launch the game this will cause problems. The Hotfix replaced the old .exe file with a new one, but the desktop icon is referring to the old one unless you have delted the old icon and replaced it with a shortcut to the new .exe file.

Could this be what you guys are running into?

No - I tried luanching directly from .exe and still does it. Crash first try, succcess second try. Everytime.

[michaelm75au]

Well, I have to admit it, this one has me stump at the moment.
I just can't get it to crash on either of my XP machines.
I'll have to see if my AE copy on the Vista machine is up to date, and try that.

[Halsey]

I know some of you have done this, but...

Make sure the hotfix exe overwrites the old old.
Or, rename the old old, and stash it in the patch folder.

Then, create a new shortcut from the new exe, and place it on your desktop.
Add the peremiters you want to the shortcut, and apply.