Matrix Games Forums

Dear all,

I am playing 7.1 in a P400 128 MRam ATI rage Fury 32 MRam PC.

The problems is that after some action in any game and at some random time the menu screen of the right side disappears. It looks like a bufer gets plenty of data, Then I do not have control on any keyword or mouse to save , restart or whatever.

I have tryed different resolution settings but no way ¿?

The only thing i can do is save every few movements and if crash continue in my last saved game. Which is no way ¿?

Any Idea

Thanks
Sergio

What resolution are you runnng? It was designed to be run at 800x600 16bit. What operating system are you running? Try these simple steps first. Edit your shortcut to point directly to the file C:\MatrixGames\Steel Panthers World at War\mech.exe This will bypass the autorun menu freeing up resources. Don't have anything else running in the background with SPWAW (It's a CPU hog) Delete these files if you have them C:\MatrixGames\Steel Panthers World at War\save steel.prf and holder.txt Make sure you have the latest drivers for both your soundcard(which you didn't specify) and video card. Try disabling any startup program that might start with Windows(I presume) such as Direct-CD, any messenger programs and such. We'll go from there for starters.

what OS are you running? Do you have the latest drivers for your video card installed? And could you describe just what all disappears exactly?

I used to have these kinds of problems on an older machine, somewhat similar to this one. Once I started using Cacheman the problems went away.

If OS is Win98 the Driver Conflict module should also be called up and used; this may take one or two hours to check out but it was the only thing which solved Eric Robinson's problem with WAW - which was similar to what is described here.

What happens is an app other than WAW will change DLL's and not tell you - the DLL WAW has used all along isn't there anymore, WAW doesn't like it and starts acting weird. That is one way how the "It used to work but doesn't any more" event will come about. Roll back as many DLL's to the previous version as you can - no guarantee but if its desperation time, its also worth a try.

Brian Livingston, I think it was, who titled one of his troubleshooting articles "DLL Hell". Pretty well describes how Redmond went about "improving" the OS.

Bing

Thanks for your clear explanation.

SPWAW really gets mad. I guess it's like afert some working time the video control it is loosed, and all the right toolboox "disaapears", like the PC not being able to refresh the screen nor listen to the mouse.

Well I will look the "dll hell" message

Thanks,
Sergio
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Don't tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.
Patton

Dear Orzel,

I am running win 98. I have the drivers updated . The thing that disappears is the irght toolbox with the menu , orders, command icons and so.
So i can not click on anything.

I will tray to find the .dll thread to know which are the .dll version spwaw needs ¿?

Thanks,
Sergio

Originally posted by Orzel Bialy
what OS are you running? Do you have the latest drivers for your video card installed? And could you describe just what all disappears exactly?

Hi ,

I tried to find Eric Robinson message or Brian Livingston and no way.

Can you give some advice on it ¿?

Thanks
Sergio
________


I have

Originally posted by Bing
I used to have these kinds of problems on an older machine, somewhat similar to this one. Once I started using Cacheman the problems went away.

If OS is Win98 the Driver Conflict module should also be called up and used; this may take one or two hours to check out but it was the only thing which solved Eric Robinson's problem with WAW - which was similar to what is described here.

What happens is an app other than WAW will change DLL's and not tell you - the DLL WAW has used all along isn't there anymore, WAW doesn't like it and starts acting weird. That is one way how the "It used to work but doesn't any more" event will come about. Roll back as many DLL's to the previous version as you can - no guarantee but if its desperation time, its also worth a try.

Brian Livingston, I think it was, who titled one of his troubleshooting articles "DLL Hell". Pretty well describes how Redmond went about "improving" the OS.

Bing

Here is one of Brian's articles about DLL hell, search the web( not the forum) there are tons of articles pertaining to the problem. DLL hell

I would also say to address the memory issues. Nothing - I mean NOTHING ought to be running in the background when WAW is started. WAW is CPU intensive and doesn't like competition. Check Msconfig.exe - you can set it up as a desktop shortcut - and make sure only the barest necessities are checked for system startup.

If not using Cacheman currently, get it and start using it. Win98 especially likes Cacheman, I have found it isn't needed in WInXP though it doesn't hurt anything.

Generally - this is just a long time users speculation really - when on screen elements start disappearing, the memory cache file has become overloaded and the system wants to cut down on the load.

Yes, there can be other reasons but starting with memory and DLL's is as good a place as any.

Bing

Originally posted by Bing
I would also say to address the memory issues. Nothing - I mean NOTHING ought to be running in the background when WAW is started. WAW is CPU intensive and doesn't like competition. Check Msconfig.exe - you can set it up as a desktop shortcut - and make sure only the barest necessities are checked for system startup.

If not using Cacheman currently, get it and start using it. Win98 especially likes Cacheman, I have found it isn't needed in WInXP though it doesn't hurt anything.

Generally - this is just a long time users speculation really - when on screen elements start disappearing, the memory cache file has become overloaded and the system wants to cut down on the load.

Yes, there can be other reasons but starting with memory and DLL's is as good a place as any.

Bing

It's not true that you need to have nothing running in the background when WAW is started. I have a stable system and run newsbin, Agent, mailwasher, etc all the time. If I could figure out how to have WAW not suspend when it is minimized, I could run it the background when running ai vs ai tests. Multiple processes don't hurt WAW.

I'll second that heads up for cacheman. Part of why my system is stable is because of that program. That and the fact that I don't generally let it run for more than 72 hours at a time before a power off and reboot.

Another item I keep on the desktop is a shortcut to dxdiag, when a new program decides to take revenge for being uninstalled by deleting files it didn't add, then having that can be a godsend.

Be sure to have a zip disk or CDRW with a installation file for the version of directx you are using and all device drivers that you have downloaded and installed. You might be surprised how often a poorly written installer will nuke the wrong files. An offline backup of your registry file is another nice item to have, just in case.

Microsoft System Information and System Configuration Utility are nested from the menu choices in Dxdiag, they fix most of what is wrong with the operating system as it comes from the factory.

A selective boot with minimal items loaded (like nothing real or quicktime, both of which insert themselves like viruses), will aid both system resources (my computer gets quirky when it gets down below 40% SR, low memory isn't ever a problem) and memory free.

Try running Dxdiag, and see what it says about the files you have under directx files, make sure all of them are final retail version, when you upgrade directx versions sometimes files don't upgrade unless you do so in safe mode, since the files won't upgrade when in use.
thanks, John.