Runtime error

[smudge56]

I am no comouter expert after about a number of turns I get a runtime error and it crashes to desktop. I reload game carry on from were it stopped and after another few turns same again. Now I have used suggested tweeks to the quick game short cut. Could these be causing it or is it something else? Please bare in mind im no super techie.

[Lokasenna]

What are the specifications of your computer? I.e.:

What is the graphics card?
What is the CPU? (Pentium 4, Core2, AMD 64, AMD X2, etc.)

I'm not sure the command line switches have anything to do with it, but they might if they don't match up (with your CPU in particular). It could be some funky interaction between various drivers (the software that makes the hardware work) and the .exe. If you can tell us what "tweaks" to the game short cut you are using and the information above, then we might be able to make some headway.

Just stabbing in the dark.

[smudge56]

Im using my old Laptop at the moment its a Duel core intel t9300 2.50ghz, it has 4gb ram and is running vista home premium. In the comand line of the short cut i started out with : -

-fw –px1680 –py1050 –altFont –cpu2 –multiaudio –dd_sw at the end of the line.

I the took out -dd_sw and -multiaudio but it still happened again a few turns later.

ive reduced it to "C:\Matrix Games\War in the Pacific Admiral's Edition\War in the Pacific Admiral Edition.exe" -fw –px1680 –py1050.

The next time it happened i'll try to get a screen shot of the error.

I have played the original Witp on the same laptop and never had any problems.

Do you suggest i remove the tweeks completely and try it as normal?

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Blighty56

Im using my old Laptop at the moment its a Duel core intel t9300 2.50ghz, it has 4gb ram and is running vista home premium. In the comand line of the short cut i started out with : -

-fw –px1680 –py1050 –altFont –cpu2 –multiaudio –dd_sw at the end of the line.

I the took out -dd_sw and -multiaudio but it still happened again a few turns later.

ive reduced it to "C:\Matrix Games\War in the Pacific Admiral's Edition\War in the Pacific Admiral Edition.exe" -fw –px1680 –py1050.

The next time it happened i'll try to get a screen shot of the error.

I have played the original Witp on the same laptop and never had any problems.

Do you suggest i remove the tweeks completely and try it as normal?

Take out the -px -py portion and see if it still crashes.

I believe that crashes in the past have also related to DirectX installs. There is a DirectX diagnostic program you can run and post which has been of help in the past. I don't know the commands to do that, however.

If it runs fine for a few turns and then crashes you might have other laptop-related issues with bad RAM, too much heat, overheating graphics chips, etc. Do other programs crash too?

Or, it's faintly possible you have a corrupted install. Usually it woudln't run at all if that were the case.

Does it crash in the same spot or during the same part of a turn each time? Or are the crashes random? Are you multi-tasking while playing?

Probably other questions, but you haven't given much to go on.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

ORIGINAL: Blighty56

Im using my old Laptop at the moment its a Duel core intel t9300 2.50ghz, it has 4gb ram and is running vista home premium. In the comand line of the short cut i started out with : -

-fw –px1680 –py1050 –altFont –cpu2 –multiaudio –dd_sw at the end of the line.

I the took out -dd_sw and -multiaudio but it still happened again a few turns later.

ive reduced it to "C:\Matrix Games\War in the Pacific Admiral's Edition\War in the Pacific Admiral Edition.exe" -fw –px1680 –py1050.

The next time it happened i'll try to get a screen shot of the error.

I have played the original Witp on the same laptop and never had any problems.

Do you suggest i remove the tweeks completely and try it as normal?

Take out the -px -py portion and see if it still crashes.

I believe that crashes in the past have also related to DirectX installs. There is a DirectX diagnostic program you can run and post which has been of help in the past. I don't know the commands to do that, however.

If it runs fine for a few turns and then crashes you might have other laptop-related issues with bad RAM, too much heat, overheating graphics chips, etc. Do other programs crash too?

Or, it's faintly possible you have a corrupted install. Usually it woudln't run at all if that were the case.

Does it crash in the same spot or during the same part of a turn each time? Or are the crashes random? Are you multi-tasking while playing?

Probably other questions, but you haven't given much to go on.

Ah, yes, dxdiag. There is a sticky thread on this, but it's pretty simple. Open the start menu, type in "dxdiag.exe" in the search box that is there at the bottom, and it should open the tool for you. The sticky thread is here: tm.asp?m=2178205. I think you should generate that file and post it as an attachment here; it will give us a lot more information to help you out.

Typically, bad RAM will cause a hard system crash (particularly in Windows - it's happened to me a lot over the years, building PCs for myself and friends). So unless you're having problems with other applications crashing, I don't think this is the case.

Since you are able to run the program for some length of time, and boot it up with no immediate problems (until it crashes again), I really think this is some kind of driver error. Posting your dxdiag file might help us figure it out, but you can try playing around with the startup flags in the meantime. Add/remove the following flags to your original command line, one at a time, to see if you can isolate which one (if any) is causing the crashes:

-fw: try simply -f, or -fd.

-cpu1/-cpu2: since you have a dual-core system, using anything other than these won't do anything. I see you used to have cpu2 in there. If you use this flag at all, I would use -cpu1 (a bit of computer science superstition).

-multiaudio: since you have a multicore machine, this may be something you want to use. But not if it crashes your game (but then we know that it might be a problem with your audio drivers in some way).

-dd_sw: This one is related to your graphics driver.

-px1680/-py1050: could be unnecessary if you are running in full screen


I noticed that you have been using the -fw flag (for weekly autosaves). Do you know if the turn it is supposed to autosave is the same turn it crashes? I don't think this is the problem, but changing to -fd will test whether there is a problem if autosaving. If it crashes every turn when you change to the -fd flag, then that may be the problem.

Another thing I think you should try is running in windowed mode. I used to have crash issues (which I think were related to my graphics driver) when I first installed the game, and running in windowed mode prevented them from occurring. Switch the -fw flag to -ww, -w, or -wd. I would recommend changing to -px1600 and -py900 when running in windowed mode.

[jmalter]

just a thought i thought of while replying in another thread, but all my crashes have been after i'd been running the game too long (i use 2-day turns in a GC vs. the AI).

i suggest that you savegame/exitgame/shutdown/reboot/restartAE more often, mebbe 2-3 times per real-time week, or after every 5th-6th game-day turn.

IMO the WitPAE thing gets munged by continuous play. a full computer shutdown/restart after a limited # of turns has eliminated my probs w/ crashes.

[smudge56]

My laptop isn't on all the time. I will try what is suggested and will have a try and post the dx diag file you want. Im playing full game 1 day turn. Ive noticed each time I press thd button to end turn the computer does a pre save. I dont think ive ever made it to the weekly save mind you I havent counted the turns. I seem to get the runtime errors randomly. I also have only had this game running , im not tabbing to anything else. My wife unfortunately broke her elbow yesterday so I'll try and post the file asap. Please bare with me I do love this game and would love to fix this. Thanks all so far for your help.

[smudge56]

Ok here is the dxdiag file. I hope that may help you. I know the drivers may be old but i've never been able to update these from the start on the laptop. anyhow have a look.I will try out the other things hopefully tomorrow.

[Lokasenna]

I do think you should download the latest driver. If this is in fact a problem with DirectX or something, that is the first thing I would try. The driver you have installed for it now dates back to at least 2008 - before AE was even released!

I've looked it up, and you can find the latest drivers for your card here:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook-w ... river.html

To install them, download that file and just run the .exe - it will do all the work for you . A restart will be required for it to take full effect.

[smudge56]

I'll try to install it but I've never been able to update the drivers on my laptop i dont know why. I can update them on my pc but they never update on my laptop. I have other games on my laptop none of these have ever crashed. Any other ideas to what could be causing it. Oh by the way I went to copy my saved gamesand copy them onto my pc to play the game on that as well. I noticed not only the saved games but lots of txt files in there. Is this something uunique toAE as with the original witp you only have the saved files.

[Lokasenna]

The .txt files are the daily operations, combat events, signal intelligence, and combat reports. I think there is some way you can play around with whether these are created or not (the -archive switch? I think that just moves them into another folder).

Does your laptop give you errors when updating drivers? If so, what are they?

[smudge56]

Good news the first time after years ive managed to update the laptops video drivers. So I'll see what happens now. Thanks so far for all your help and input guys.

[Lokasenna]

Great, keep us posted. I think it's got a decent chance of fixing your problem.

[smudge56]

Yes I pray it will thanks again for your help. Fingers crossed.[:)]

[smudge56]

Well damn still got the runtime error come up. I have attached the screen message i get come up. Weird. Just comes up after a few rounds perhaps 4ish i havent counted.

[guytipton41]

ORIGINAL: Blighty56

Well damn still got the runtime error come up. I have attached the screen message i get come up. Weird. Just comes up after a few rounds perhaps 4ish i havent counted.

Hi Blighty,

Can you check the version of the C++ run time you have installed? You might freshen the install.

Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package (x86)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en

Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package (x64)

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download ... x?id=15336

Cheers,
Guy

[smudge56]

Ok not being the worlds expert on computers, how do I check what version im running?

[Lokasenna]

Open the start menu, then hold the mouse over "Control Panel" on the right-hand side. When it expands, select "Programs and Features". When that list fully loads, sort it by name and it should contain items like these (taken from my laptop's list, which is running Windows 7 on an Intel Core 2 Duo):

Visual Studio 2008 x64 Redistributables
Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 x64 Redistributable - 9.0.30729.17
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 x86 Redistributable - 9.0.30729.4148
Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 x86 Redistributable - 10.0.40219

The number at the end is the version of Visual C++ you have installed. This is definitely a problem with C++.

(I'm not sure why I have both x64 and x86 for 2008, but I think it was to solve a problem with some game or other... Either this one, or one on Steam.)

[smudge56]

Do you think thats in the same area for vista?

And that link given in previously is where to get updated version?


Another interesting thing is I get the runtime error everytime during thd 5th turn. Just did a test and it did it both times during 5th turn. Not sure if that means anything?


Thanks again for help guys.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

Open the start menu, then hold the mouse over "Control Panel" on the right-hand side. When it expands, select "Programs and Features". When that list fully loads, sort it by name and it should contain items like these (taken from my laptop's list, which is running Windows 7 on an Intel Core 2 Duo):

Visual Studio 2008 x64 Redistributables
Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 x64 Redistributable - 9.0.30729.17
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 x86 Redistributable - 9.0.30729.4148
Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 x86 Redistributable - 10.0.40219

The number at the end is the version of Visual C++ you have installed. This is definitely a problem with C++.

(I'm not sure why I have both x64 and x86 for 2008, but I think it was to solve a problem with some game or other... Either this one, or one on Steam.)

FWIW I have 10 C++ Redeistributables, on a Win 7 quad-core. I have many games loaded, including old ones. My oldest Redist. is a 2005 version, and my newest is the same as your newest: 2010 x86 10.0.40219.

If the video drivers on the laptop were as old as they were I'm betting this guy is too.

If it works for Win 7 it ought to work for Vista so long as the version works for your edition of Vista--32 bit or 64 bit.