Why this doesn't work?

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All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [World War II] >> Steel Panthers World At War & Mega Campaigns >> Why this doesn't work?

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Why this doesn't work? - 10/4/2000 7:41:00 PM

Patessi

Posts: 6
Joined: 10/4/2000
From: Finland
Status: offline

I've installed SPWaW4.0. Anyway, when I click Play World At War in menu, I'll get the following error message: SPWAW caused an invalid page fault in module SPWAW.EXE at 015f:004002de. Registers: EAX=0040008d CS=015f EIP=004002de EFLGS=00010202 EBX=000000e2 SS=0167 ESP=0056fc44 EBP=0056fe2c ECX=000000e2 DS=0167 ESI=004002d3 FS=0f9f EDX=00400cfe ES=0167 EDI=8000384c GS=0000 Bytes at CS:EIP: 66 89 6b fc c1 ed 10 66 89 6b 02 cf 0f 23 c3 6a Stack dump: 004011ae 0040132a 8161d978 c1518d60 bff712c5 00005700 00000001 816234cc 8162349c 816234b0 000002b3 0056fca0 bff811de 000002b3 8cee0fc7 00000167 why? I've got Win98, Voodoo 3 2000, SB16, Directx 7.0a. I copied the same file (SPWaW4.0) to my friend and it works perfectly on his computer his OS is W2K. Could anybody help me?

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- 10/4/2000 9:04:00 PM

David F. Wall

Posts: 158
Joined: 5/25/2000
From: Waltham, MA, USA
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Pardon me while I don my OS geek hat: Does this happen if you try to start up the game dierectly, without going through the menu? There's no real way to tell exactly what's going on here (unless someone with access to the source and an image map wants to comment) but the long and short of it is that SPWAW went to get something in memory that wasn't there, tried to read it off the disk, and shot itself in the head. Your indication that you put the same image onto another computer and it worked find is suggestive that you may have some kind of local problem, and given the nature of the error, the two likely culprits are memory and the disk. There are some thigns you can try. Some of them require that you have an above average comfort level with diddling around with your system. Now you've probably heard this before, but the first thing to try in the wake of something like this is rebooting the system. Shut it all the way down, all the way to power-off, and bring it all the way back up. Then try it again. The very next thing you ought to do is check your disk for bad spots by running SCANDISK. I forget exactly where they hide this in Windows 98, but it shouldn't be too hard to find. Don't just run the file system integrity check, run the surface check as well, too. Assuming this passes (and I hope it does, because if it doesn't pass the surface check you've got the beginning of a problem that's going to get worse and eventually be fatal) the next thing to try, if you have the disk space, is a fresh install into a different directory. What you want to do is rename the top-level directory of the current installation and then do the default installation again, and see if that works. If it does, then you've solved the problem (a corrupt image). If you're still baffled, you might consider the memory part of the equation. Use the system monitor to see if memory's tight. If you have disk space to burn you might try making your page file a little bigger. This is where your comfort level with system adjusting comes into play. Removing geek hat... DFW

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- 10/4/2000 9:32:00 PM

Colonel Klink

Posts: 103
Joined: 4/9/2000
From: Northern California
Status: offline

quote:

Originally posted by David F. Wall: If you have disk space to burn you might try making your page file a little bigger.

hey dfw, i'm not as OS knowledgable but i followed most of what u said. i'm curious if you are referring to the swap file in the above quote. (i've always been curious what that invalid page fault message meant.. gr8 explanation)

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- 10/4/2000 10:17:00 PM

David F. Wall

Posts: 158
Joined: 5/25/2000
From: Waltham, MA, USA
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I'm pretty sure it's called pagefile.sys on all these flavors of Windows, but yes, that's what I mean. There's a control for adjusting the size in Control Panel->System->Performance. Typing 'virtual memory' at Windows Help would be informative for a specific implementation. I feel compelled to note, having uncovered this particular Pandora's Box, that while this thing looks like a regular file to things like Explorer, it has a number of special characteristics. If you don't know exactly what you're doing, mess with it at your extreme peril.

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- 10/5/2000 9:59:00 AM

Colonel Klink

Posts: 103
Joined: 4/9/2000
From: Northern California
Status: offline

quote:

Originally posted by David F. Wall: I'm pretty sure it's called pagefile.sys on all these flavors of Windows, but yes, that's what I mean. There's a control for adjusting the size in Control Panel->System->Performance. Typing 'virtual memory' at Windows Help would be informative for a specific implementation. I feel compelled to note, having uncovered this particular Pandora's Box, that while this thing looks like a regular file to things like Explorer, it has a number of special characteristics. If you don't know exactly what you're doing, mess with it at your extreme peril.

Roger.. good tip. i'm running norton utilities which placed a permanent swap file on my c: drive. interesting that it would do that considering i have 256 megs of RAM. Changed it back once, didn't notice a difference in performance so went back to norton.

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- 10/5/2000 10:58:00 AM

Rhone

Posts: 114
Joined: 8/17/2000
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If you do adjust your pagefile I would follow these suggestions. 1. Never mess with it if your partition you place it on drops to low on available space. 2. When setting the minimum and maximum levels, always keep them both the same. It will enhance performance slightly (you don't want the system continually adjusting the size of your virtual memory). 3. I believe a good recomendation is to use the size of your memory plus 128mb as a static virtual memory size. I don't remember why those numbers stick out, but that what I've done with my in the past (but now leave it on recommended size).

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- 10/6/2000 2:07:00 AM

Patessi

Posts: 6
Joined: 10/4/2000
From: Finland
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None of these advices has helped me. Thanks anyway. Haven't got anything done by myself either. Everything should be fine, still the game just ain't working. Sniff.

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- 10/6/2000 9:05:00 AM

Rhone

Posts: 114
Joined: 8/17/2000
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Well, there is always old reliable. Re-install Windows....ugh...

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- 10/6/2000 9:06:00 AM

Major Ed

Posts: 51
Joined: 9/23/2000
From: Jackson, MS USA
Status: offline

I found this info on a website after a search for "invalid page fault:. Page fault errors can occur for any of the following reasons: 1. The virtual memory system becomes unstable due to a shortage of physical memory (RAM). 2. The virtual memory system becomes unstable due to a shortage of free disk space. 3. The virtual memory area is corrupted by a misbehaving application. 4.An application attempts to access data that is being modified by another running application. The Matrix Vets recommend you close as many files as you can to free up RAM and to minimize the possibility the another app will interfere (Nos 1 & 4) You may want to free up some disk space on the drive you have installed it on (No. 2). I have about 400 meg free and have had no problems. And if it's No. 3 you may need to re-install SPWAW. Hope this helps. "Battles are fought by platoons and squads. Place emphasis on small unit combat instruction so that it is conducted with the same precision as close-order drill." - Gen. George S. Patton Jr.

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- 10/6/2000 11:11:00 AM

Scipio Africanus

Posts: 76
Joined: 6/21/2000
From: Somerville, Ma, USA
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How long have you had your current motherboard? Who manufactured it? Various memory management protocols used by such things as dos4gw and directx can cause invalid page faults on motherboards with sub standard chips and chip sets. Back in 1996 the problem was extensive and terminal on early Intel boards (Atlantis= pure crap with a 90% failure rate on dos4gw). If you just got a new board, take it back to the distributer and tell them to sell you something that works. If your board is 1996 vintage or earlier then it might be time for a new one. Otherwise, dig up some other programs, especially stuff that uses dos4gw and see what they do on your machine. If you get failures, I'm afraid your motherboard is bad. I've seen it before. I worked on the problem for 3 months in '96. When all else is eliminated and you can reproduce page faults with other programs, then it is definitely the Motherboard.

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