SPWAW wont start: direct draw error

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All Forums >> [General] >> Unofficial Tech Support By Gamers for Gamers >> SPWAW wont start: direct draw error

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SPWAW wont start: direct draw error - 12/31/2002 6:16:22 AM

gdrobinson

Posts: 8
Joined: 2/22/2001
From: Pearland, Texas USA 77584
Status: offline

I have redirected the icon on the desk top to point to MECH.EXE as the auto run has never run under Win2000. The program ran fine until a power surge got me and SPWAW would not run afterwards. I then completely reloaded a ghost image of my C drive complete with SPWAW. The game ran last night... this afternoon nothing! I did get one error message quoted as follows "Direct Draw Inilization Error #2005532091". Are there issues with SPWAW and direct draw under WIN2000 or do I need to just get new copies of the ddraw.dll and ddrawex.dll? Help Please!!! Thanks.

Post #: 1

- 12/31/2002 7:24:33 AM

Supervisor

Posts: 5166
Joined: 3/2/2004
Status: offline

No issues with DirectX versions as long as it's at least 6.1 or better. Run scandisk and disk defragmentor along with a virus checker to make sure you don't have any underlying problem. I know Win 2000 has a defualt install greater than 6.1 (I think it's ver 8.x). Go to the run box under start menu and type [B]dxdiag[/B] and verify the version and also run all the DirectX tests to make sure they perform properly. Also since your image creation but prior to the surge you may have also updated your drivers for your Video card and sound card. I would check for updates for these, also Microsoft has also gone final on DirectX 9 recently [URL=http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/downloads/drx90.asp]DirectX 9[/URL] you might want to consider updating DirectX as this will probably overwrite the particular ddraw file that apears to be corrupted. I would try updating the drivers first as this is a less intrusive measure to your system and can easily be undone if you have problems as opposed to updating DirectX as this rewrites many of the core code of the operating system and can't be undone. Don't give up I'm sure we'll figure something out.

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Post #: 2

reply to gmenfan - 1/1/2003 7:31:26 AM

gdrobinson

Posts: 8
Joined: 2/22/2001
From: Pearland, Texas USA 77584
Status: offline

Thanks for the tips. I did a complete disk scan, installed directx9, ran all the diagnostic tests, Un/Reinstalled SPWAW then rebooted and no joy. The most preplexing thing is that the game ran directly after the restoration of the ghost image. It was the next day that the game went out. Does SPWAW have some possible processes unclosed which could have corrupted a file elsewhere?

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Post #: 3

- 1/1/2003 12:47:23 PM

Supervisor

Posts: 5166
Joined: 3/2/2004
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Try this, look in this directory C:\MatrixGames\Steel Panthers World at War\save and delete these 2 files if they exist [B]steel.prf[/B] and [B]holder.txt[/B] and restart the game, I hope the game preference file is what is corrupting this as it seemed to work initially. Make sure all other background programs such as antivirus aren't running at the same time. One other thing try, running the game in resoultion 800x600 16bit if you haven't done so already, it shouldn't be running any other procesess that would cause a directx draw error. Did you try looking for an updated video card driver?

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Solution to SPWAW not starting - 1/12/2003 12:09:18 AM

gdrobinson

Posts: 8
Joined: 2/22/2001
From: Pearland, Texas USA 77584
Status: offline

Greetings Gunfan. Finally solved the NO-Start problem and wanted to share the solution: First, but least important, SPWAW uninstall leaves corrupted files in the windows registry: run: regedit using search strings run "matrix" and "steel" allowed removal of corruted componets...Careful, WINDOWS REGISTRY FIRST. aLSO DO NOT to remove any matrix componets which are associated with windows. Then a fresh insall is possible and the garme will run... Until shut down. Upon restart, SPWAW would not play again. On my Sys-Admin guy's advice, I tried DISABLING DIRECT-CD and shezam, the game worked! It apears that the Adeptec/Roxio programs have priority access to some of the sound card or sound resources at boot, destabilizing the gaming environment for a number of games. The fresh install apears to have given SPWAW top recource access, which was lost when the machine was shut down. To cure simply exit the Direct-CD or burning programs in the systray. Hopely this may help some other lost soul, and again thanks for your time and hekp.
[email]GDRobinson@houston.rr.com[/email]

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Post #: 5

- 1/12/2003 1:25:49 AM

Supervisor

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Joined: 3/2/2004
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I'm glad to here you got it fixed I wasn't going to suggest the registry scan until it was a last resort. As you know 1 wrong move within it will corrupt the whole computer. And thanks for the Direct-CD issue I had never heard of that on before so I'll commit it to memory.

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Post #: 6

- 1/12/2003 6:56:51 AM

chief

Posts: 1660
Joined: 9/28/2000
From: Haines City FL, USA
Status: offline

GDR: just a quick question.....Y r u running game from what sounds like a CDR/W drive?

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"God Bless America and All the Young men and women who give their all to protect Her"....chief

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Post #: 7

Re: Solution to SPWAW not starting - 1/13/2003 5:10:03 AM

john g

Posts: 984
Joined: 10/6/2000
From: college station, tx usa
Status: offline

[QUOTE]Originally posted by gdrobinson
[B]Greetings Gunfan. Finally solved the NO-Start problem and wanted to share the solution: First, but least important, SPWAW uninstall leaves corrupted files in the windows registry: run: regedit using search strings run "matrix" and "steel" allowed removal of corruted componets...Careful, WINDOWS REGISTRY FIRST. aLSO DO NOT to remove any matrix componets which are associated with windows. Then a fresh insall is possible and the garme will run... Until shut down. Upon restart, SPWAW would not play again. On my Sys-Admin guy's advice, I tried DISABLING DIRECT-CD and shezam, the game worked! It apears that the Adeptec/Roxio programs have priority access to some of the sound card or sound resources at boot, destabilizing the gaming environment for a number of games. The fresh install apears to have given SPWAW top recource access, which was lost when the machine was shut down. To cure simply exit the Direct-CD or burning programs in the systray. Hopely this may help some other lost soul, and again thanks for your time and hekp.
[email]GDRobinson@houston.rr.com[/email] [/B][/QUOTE]

This is strange, unless DirectCD acts differently under 2000 than it does under win98. I have never noticed any problem with running any games with directcd or createcd50 running.

It may be because I have a 16 voice 2d soundcard, it can play many sources at the same time. I have had winamp, realone and spwaw all playing thru it at once with no crashes.
thanks, John.

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Post #: 8

DirectX with Windows NT 4.0 - 3/17/2003 11:58:03 PM

patriot101

Posts: 22
Joined: 3/7/2003
From: Ohio
Status: offline

As a side note, I tried to install WaW on a computer running Windows NT 4. I got the Direct Draw error described here. Unfortunately, the only version supported on Microsoft Windows NT� 4.0 is DirectX 3.0a. You must also install Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6 to get it, and I understand the WaW will only run with DirectX that is version 6.1 or higher. The bottom line is, it isn't going to work with Windows NT.

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Post #: 9