Cant load game

[DoomedMantis]

I cant get past the screen where the troops are marching when the game is loading. This actually happened a while ago, but I was waiting on the 2.2 patch so hadn’t worried about it. The game had been running fine for me apart from the known bugs, then stopped loading.

I have just today uninstalled reinstalled and patched up to version 2.2, and cant think of anything that would have caused the game to do this.

Im using windows XP pro, and am up to date on all my service packs and drivers. If you want my dxdiag, let me know

Pentium 4 2.6ghz with 236 meg of ram

[#Vassago]

Can you give a little more info?

I know Symantec Antivirus can do alot of weird things. One way to know is to completely uninstall Symantec Antivirus, reboot and then run the "faulty" software. If it works then you know Symantec has done it again...protecting your PC from nasties while promoting crashes and cursing.

OT: I would recommend anyone to use NOD32 antivirus, alot less overhead and same protection or probably even better protection since most virus signatures are released by either Sophos or NOD32 teams first.

Have you installed Directx 9.0b? 9.0a is full of bugs.

OT: Do yourself a big favor if you have some money to spare and upgrade your memory to at least 512mb. Windows XP Pro is resource heavy and has a overhead of 197mb...so that leaves only 59mb of ram to run everything else...alot of crashes are caused by this because that means alot of swap file operations.

Have you installed anything that reserves a process, I mean anything?

Probably useless to say this but have you run "ad-aware" from lavasoft lately? If not, do so!

[jheydt]

I have had the same problem that you've had. I get the opening screen with the picture of the troops. Normally from there you go to the game screen where you can select sides, scenario etc. However, about 40% of the time the game hangs on the first screen and I have to reboot the computer. The 3 fingered salute doesn't work. I am presently running Windows XP Home. I have found that it's prudent to close all other applications when I start the game. However, this doesn't completely alleviate the problem. I may try turning off Norton Anti-virus and see if I still have the problem. I just installed the new patch and the first time I tried to run the game I got the same hangup although there were a couple of other applications running.

John

[DoomedMantis]

yes I have 9.0b and I have Norton. I actually have more memory, just not the techincal skill to put it in.

Ill have a look at that ad aware program

Im not aware of anything that is running that reserves a process.

Between when the game ran fine, and when it failed I hadnt installed anything, but have done so in the interim.

[Rainbow7]

Many of us had problems if, when installing, you put the game in a different folder than the one that comes up by default. Using the default setup cleared up most of my problems.

[#Vassago]

Hi DoomedMantis!

I've been debugging software and computers for 15 years....and trust me on this...at least 25% of all glitches have the name Symentec or Norton attached to them. I've lost count of how many problems I've solved just by disabeling Symantec Anti-Virus. the most ironic about this is that it's the most popular anti-virus... [&:]

So, don't unistall norton yet, disable norton, uninstall CotD, reboot, disable norton, reinstall CotD to default directory, apply patch 2.2, make sure norton is still disabled, run CotD.

I've seen alot of software beign messed up by norton at installation because norton blocks certains files and areas of the registry.....like all the DirectX stuff....

Let me know if it works

[DoomedMantis]

Id love to say it worked, but unfortunately it didnt.

As for the default directory, I was aware of that problem and had installed there.

I havent uninstalled Norton yet, but I think that might be my next step. As for Norton, I went to Norton after having so many issues with McAlphee[&:]

[Jonathan Palfrey]

I have Norton Antivirus installed, but I keep the part of it that runs all the time permanently turned off. I use it just for checking e-mail and to check the whole hard disk occasionally.

For many years I didn't run any antivirus software at home, and never suffered as a result. But finally I decided that I ought to take some sort of precaution, as hostile e-mailers seem to be getting too clever.

I sometimes wonder if the antivirus companies spend half their time spreading viruses on the side, to persuade people to buy their software...

[DoomedMantis]

Its a commonly held theory

[#Vassago]

Hi!

Try uninstalling Norton and if it doesn't work then I am affraid it's the directx layer that got corrupted somehow...for that you ain't gonna like the solution... [:(] Reformat and resintall windows...and if you do so please make a backup of all important data "before" formatting. [;)] I've done tech support for quite some time...old habits die hard.

Before launching the nuke solution you could also try this http://www.majorgeeks.com/download509.html
and then reinstall directX 9c...we never know, it might fix everything. However be warned, removing directx this way might result a a full system crash and you might not be able to boot windows after this operation... so again please make a backup of all important data "before" and be mentally ready to the fact that you may have to reformat anyway.

[DoomedMantis]

Yep when I get some time (and the patience) Ill have a go at that option.

Do you think thought that installing 9.0c will help? now that its out?

thanks for the help

[#Vassago]

You could try installing directx 9.0c, it might fix everything indeed. [:)] The directx installation actually removes the old version layer before installing the new one, that`s why they always take en eternity.