Matrix Games Forums

Hello everybody, this is my first post. You may have heard this before. I am running version 7.1 on XP Pro, Intel P4. I started a campaign as the Britons, about 7-10 turns in, the game disappeared. I rebooted and started again. At some point (don't remember when) the game did it again. Being an opptomist, I thought perhaps I should try the Hun. After crushing the Poles in two quick battles, I was once again fighting in Belgium or France. After some 6-7 turns, the game disappeared once again.

Any ideas?

Since I am attached to the internet on cable, I have a firewall running. I also have my virus protection.
In several of the games I know that I had the manual open (Acrobat)

When I double click the SPWAW icon, I get the start screen. When I click "Play World at War" the game starts. I usually hit ESC to get past the movie. I notice that if I hit ALT-Tab in the game I will jump to a screen that shows the SPWAW game menu. If I minimize that window (or close it) I get back to the desktop. The task manager says the SPWAW movie is running. Should I end this application also?

When you talk about closing all programs, are you just refering to those that sit on the desk top (or are minimized)?

Also, does it matter if my screen size is 1280 x 1024?

Thanks!

This is strange because:

I am using Windows XP Professional.
I was connected to the internet.
I have a firewall and anti virus software running.

The only difference is that I am using 1024x768 resolution, so maybe give that a try!

Do the classics: Delete steel.prf from the save folder and start the game directly from mech.exe

These seem to fix many problems. Initial screen size should not matter..I use that same resolution and no problems. If the crashes still happen after the two above fixes you could shut down your background progs one by one, trying to isolate what happens to be the conflicting program in *your* computer. And I refer to alll other running programs, minimized or not.

Btw, I normally have seti@home and mirc running when I play spwaw..and no problems

Voriax

As always the following link (which is really just the tech forum) is your first and best choice for technical assistance.

Many new to the forum are not aware that we have so many cool helpful people in there to assist you.

A lot of troubles have well known common fixes.

forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=18

Follow Voriax suggestion and run the game directly from the C:\Steel Panthers World at War\mech.exe file this will bypass the the autorun menu which is very troublesome for most users. Also is it only happening in the same scenario, some are old and outdated and because the game engine and OOB's have changed since it was created it causes instability.

I'll give that mech.exe start tonight.

I notice it only seems to happen after I end my turn, after the first half of the artillery phase and the computer is well into it's moves and there is a lot of op fire going on. All three times it seems like the game goes away right after a hit on an English vehicle.
(Perhaps the game engine does not like killing Sgt Grigsby?)

Might be a dumb question, but do you have a sreensaver running also? I totally don't use one anymore, I've let my machine sit for an hour or more at times with no probs, screen-savers will mess games up too. Just a thought!!

So the game "disappeared".

Do you mean "the game suddenly closed down without warning and without error message, leaving you on the desktop with an otherwise funtional system"?

In that case, check your CPU temperature immediately after the crash. DOS programs (SPWAW is originally a DOS program though it has been ported) use 100% of possible remaining CPU power (not designed for multitasking), so they are more rough to the CPU than other programs. So check the CPU temperature in BIOS/CMOS and compare it to the temperature when the computer is just idling on the desktop.

Yes, the game disappeared, back to the desktop. No warning, no messages.

It just happened again. This time just as my target exploded, I ended up back on the desktop. The temp is in the green at 82.

I started this one from the mech.exe.

I turned off my screensaver and will try again tomorrow.

Now, I've heard some talk of a patch file for 7.1? I downloaded the complete 7.1. I assume that patch is if I had loaded something less than 7.1. Please let me know if this is wrong.

Thanks!

There is no patch from 7.1. That is the latest version. If you have 7.1 in the bottom of the game screen than you have the most recent version There is an updated set of OOB's that have been released unofficially since 7.1 but that won't be your problem. So lets get it stable before we update the OOB's.

Temperature at 82!?

Well what's the desktop temperature then?

I'm not an expert on CPUs and temperatures, and I know some sensors are placed closer to the CPU than others, but 82 degrees seems VERY high to me.

My computer (AMD 1200 MHz) crashes at less than 70 degrees, so watch out!

Uhmm... is that 82º Fahrenheit or 82º Celsius ??

Fahrenheit shouldn't be a problem, but if it's 82 degrees Celsius, you're close to toasting your CPU. :p

fahrenheit.


According to intel, the red line on the cpu is about 150. next time it crashes I will check it first thing. CPUs tend to cool down quickly.


Thanks!

Real Danes use the metric system :rolleyes:

And celsius.

Originally posted by Great Dane
Yes, the game disappeared, back to the desktop. No warning, no messages.

It just happened again. This time just as my target exploded, I ended up back on the desktop. The temp is in the green at 82.

I started this one from the mech.exe.

I turned off my screensaver and will try again tomorrow.

Now, I've heard some talk of a patch file for 7.1? I downloaded the complete 7.1. I assume that patch is if I had loaded something less than 7.1. Please let me know if this is wrong.

Thanks!

But DON'T forget to delete steel.prf (in teh Save folder).

I had a spate of Crash 2 desktop when I upgraded to V7.1.... deleting the steel.prf file stopped them dead...

Remember the golden rule in SPWAW... when things (other than your ability to win) first delete steel.prf and try again.