Crashing back to Windows Desktop in 6.1

James P · Post by **James P** » Fri Aug 10, 2001 9:03 pm

I've been playing 6.1 error free for about 2 weeks. Today I played my new PBEM turns as normal with no problems. I got a new invite for a game requesting me to set up a battle.

I went back into SP and set up a battle, selected my forces, choose my password and hit enter to contiune. At this point the screen flashes and the game vanishes and leaves me at the Windows desktop. I deleted the steel.prf file, rebooted and tried 4 more times, all with the same result.

NOTHING changed on the PC since my last error free session, yet now I seemingly can't create any new battles without the game crashing.

I hate PC's!!! Any suggestions?

James

Paul Vebber · Post by **Paul Vebber** » Fri Aug 10, 2001 10:57 pm

Delete teh steel.prf file in teh SAVE folder. SOmetimes it gets corrupted

James P · Post by **James P** » Fri Aug 10, 2001 11:36 pm

Paul,

As noted above I did try that, but I'll keep trying....

Paul Vebber · Post by **Paul Vebber** » Sat Aug 11, 2001 6:45 pm

Duhhho, RTFP

sorry about that, how much actual and virtual memory do you have and does turnign the sound off help?

Reinstalling the game might help to. Drives are getting so big that even bit error rates catch up to you.

James P · Post by **James P** » Sat Aug 11, 2001 7:23 pm

[QUOTE]how much actual and virtual memory do you haveQUOTE]

I've got 128Mb RAM installed with Windows set to manage virtual memory. I have a 19Gb hardrive, with 9Gb free space. If you can suggest manual settings for virtual mem, I'll switch it from Windows control.

Thanks,

Kinja · Post by **Kinja** » Sat Aug 11, 2001 9:45 pm

I am having the same problem with 6.01. Out of the blue it will just drop to the desktop. The first time I ran it, it was fine for 3 turns, than bang, back to the desktop. There were no saved games at that point.

I have been playing with the problem by saving the game at numerous intervals. A bit of a pain. One thing I have noticed is that the drops seem to come when a large caliber weapon is fired as the last thing in a cycle of the turn. When it drops you can still hear the sound of the explosion in the background. I have a feeling it maybe a sound card issue.

I have also gotten a few BSOD's. These list a windows exception error at a memeory address. I don't remember what it was, but next time it happens I will make a note of it.

My system.
AMD T'Bird 800
Epox 8kta MB
ATI Rage Fury 32 meg. (most recemt drivers)
SoundBlaster Live Value. (only drivers loaded)
256 meg ram
512 meg swap file

Paul Vebber · Post by **Paul Vebber** » Sat Aug 11, 2001 9:50 pm

If you turn the sound prefs off, does the problem still occur? Try using "alt-L" to activate combat logging, that way the unit that fires last before the crash should be recorded (if it doesn't crash before it logs it) or try to remember what unit fires that casues the crash? DO you have an "old SB emulation mode" on your sound card?

Kinja · Post by **Kinja** » Sat Aug 11, 2001 9:53 pm

Whew, that was quick Paul! I'll try turning off the sound prefs. I do not have SB 16 emulation installed.

Thanks

Paul Vebber · Post by **Paul Vebber** » Sat Aug 11, 2001 10:17 pm

Try activating the SB16 emulation mode - the game is based on old code and we know that playing well with some sound cards has been a problem.

Kinja · Post by **Kinja** » Sun Aug 12, 2001 6:53 am

I seem to have fixed it. I turned off battlefield fx, and the music. Played for 3 hours straight with out a crash.

Thanks for the tip Paul

James P · Post by **James P** » Mon Aug 13, 2001 12:15 pm

Quick update.

I can contiune to open and play PBEM turns from my e-mail oppoents. The game only crashes when I set up a new battle, choose a password and hit enter.....

Paul, is there something complex in the game code at this point that needs loads of memory or something?

I'll try the sound suggestions, although I'm playing with sound in the games I'm already playing on PBEM with no problems.

skukko · Post by **skukko** » Mon Aug 13, 2001 3:02 pm

just shot to the darkness: Rename your maps-scen-save-and email folders by adding 2 after their name. Then create new folders that are empty and named as original folders. Try to do that battle again and look if it crashes.

Sometimes some of these files have corrupted 'dat-file and it has crashed me few times to desktop. Cleaning folders have helped.

mosh

James P · Post by **James P** » Wed Aug 15, 2001 11:33 am

Originally posted by skukko:
just shot to the darkness: Rename your maps-scen-save-and email folders by adding 2 after their name. Then create new folders that are empty and named as original folders. Try to do that battle again and look if it crashes.

Sometimes some of these files have corrupted 'dat-file and it has crashed me few times to desktop. Cleaning folders have helped.

mosh

Skukko,

Followed your advice, and renaming the folders seems to have worked. Although I'm trying not to upset my PBEM games by avoiding setting up new games at the moment <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

skukko · Post by **skukko** » Wed Aug 15, 2001 1:08 pm

Hi <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

If it helped then you can search which of these folders have bad material. Usually for me its been map-folder...

mosh

Asheshi · Post by **Asheshi** » Wed Aug 22, 2001 10:29 pm

I just downloaded the updates to version 6.1 (from 4.5) and after about 2-3 turns, the game crashes to the desktop. I'm running with a

p3 866mhz
128MB RAM
SoundBlaster Live!
32MB GeForce 256

I tried to delete the file in the SAVE folder, but it didn't help.

Paul Vebber · Post by **Paul Vebber** » Thu Aug 23, 2001 12:01 am

Make sure you delete the steel.prf file in the SAVE folder and make sure there not any "nested directories" inside your SP:WaW folder with the same name

J18_Arc · Post by **J18_Arc** » Fri Aug 31, 2001 12:48 am

Things were fine until 6.1 and the Kyro 2 video card. SPWaW dies now on my (long) campaign. It drops to the desktop in the wrong res with some kind of monochrome colour map. Any change to display properties causes a crash in the display driver itself requiring a reboot to recover. A pal of mine just installed his Kyro 2 and reports he cannot play at all now. New card, raw driver, most likely the driver in this case. Kyro 2 users beware. I'm might have to put my TNT2 back to complete the campaign.

James P · Post by **James P** » Sun Sep 02, 2001 4:58 pm

Originally posted by skukko:
Hi <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

If it helped then you can search which of these folders have bad material. Usually for me its been map-folder...

mosh

I spoke too soon! I'm still getting the same crash with PBEM games. I can set up and play battles vs the computer, so the problem must lie with the game handling the entry of the security password, which is causing my crash.

I've no idea why this has suddenly started as up until the start of this thread I could set up PBEM games with no problem.

I'm stumped.....