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SOLVED: . . . - - - . . . help! - 7/24/2001 2:25:00 AM

Gusano

Posts: 7
Joined: 7/23/2001
Status: offline

Hi All! I'm a newcomer to the SPWAW world and I've been having so much fun since I started playing it (two week ago). Now...the bad news :( I shutdown my machine yesterday like I usually do after playing the Utah Beach scenario, and when I turned on my computer this morning and went to play, the same problem that I know a few of you have been experienced struck me :( I'd start SPWAW using the autorun and it would dump me to the desktop after the skipping the SSI logo...or would cause a GPF to the explorer.exe if called using the mech.exe. I did all of what Wild Bill suggested, although I don't have the MCNA... deleted the save games, the steel.prf... reinstalled...etc etc. This is really depressing since I was starting to 'enjoy' it after reading the huge manual hehe. Anyway...I'm running Windows2000pro, SPWAW version 6.1 (the upgrade process was according to the 'book)...and like I said...the game ran fine for two weeks. And no, no new hardware drivers or updates to anything whatsoever :( Gremlins? thanks t'all who might help! -E [ July 23, 2001: Message edited by: Enrique V ] [ July 24, 2001: Message edited by: Enrique V ]

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- 7/24/2001 2:33:00 AM

Warrior

Posts: 1808
Joined: 11/2/2000
From: West Palm Beach, FL USA
Status: offline

First, try running ScanDisk, and then System File Checker (Start/Run/SFC). Also, the game is very memory intensive. [ July 23, 2001: Message edited by: Warrior ]

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Post #: 2

- 7/24/2001 2:38:00 AM

Larry Holt

Posts: 1969
Joined: 3/31/2000
From: Atlanta, GA 30068
Status: offline

You can use Regcleaner (NOT Regclean) to tidy up your registery on W2000pro. Its at http://www.jv16.org/ then follow the link for regcleaner. This may get rid of something tha is corrupt then reinstall.

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Post #: 3

- 7/24/2001 3:13:00 AM

Gusano

Posts: 7
Joined: 7/23/2001
Status: offline

Thanks to you both! regretfully I'm still having the problem, and I did check the filesystem and the registry. I even reinstalled and tried playing with 5.01 and nothing :( It's very odd...the game ran fine till last night :confused: thanks againn -E

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Post #: 4

- 7/24/2001 8:49:00 AM

Gusano

Posts: 7
Joined: 7/23/2001
Status: offline

Guys I've tried almost everything... from defrag to updating sound drivers! I'm desperate!! has this happened before to any of you? I wiped the directory and reinstalled even 5.01 and nothing! :( thanks! -E

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Post #: 5

- 7/24/2001 8:55:00 AM

Warrior

Posts: 1808
Joined: 11/2/2000
From: West Palm Beach, FL USA
Status: offline

Enrique, try posting the problem in the Tech Support Forum, maybe someone there can help more.

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Post #: 6

- 7/24/2001 10:35:00 AM

Bing

Posts: 1366
Joined: 5/20/2000
From: Gaylord, MI, USA
Status: offline

Enrique, you still haven't given your system stats. However, here is something to try - I swore I would never again post this, but what the heck. Fire up msconfig.exe and see what kind of baggage you are dragging along when you boot the OS. If you see a bunch of checkmarks, do away with ALL of them except Taskbar Display Controls - and if you are running Intellipoint the appropriate exe - then reboot at least once and see what happens. If you do have Intellipoint and can use your mouse without the specific software, leave that off the startup list also. There. That's it. Never again. Bing

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Post #: 7

- 7/24/2001 12:08:00 PM

Gusano

Posts: 7
Joined: 7/23/2001
Status: offline

Guys...I don't even know how to explain this! I found out that somehow the #"&/)#%% Netmeeting was taking posession of SPWAW! After opening the Netmeeting, I tried one more time to run the game and it would work like a charm! Now, I can't even think of a possible answer to this (my sister uses Netmeeting for videoconferencing...I don't know if that uses DirectX for something and might have something going on...like holding it directDraw hostage or something)... thing is...after I opened crappy netmeeting, the problem went away. I defragd, scanned the HD, upgraded drivers...reinstalled service packs/DirectX and of course...SPWAW. All for nothing. Any thoughts? Amazing...this is one of the weirdest things ever! But well..I do know the solution tho'... I'm getting rid of that crappy software... heck...I'm about to start running SPWAW under Linux using Wine! I tell ya...! Anyway...it's back to happy wargaming for me. I love this game :) Thank you ALL! your help was great :) -E

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Post #: 8

- 7/24/2001 4:14:00 PM

Halgary

Posts: 52
Joined: 6/4/2001
From: Oulu, Finland
Status: offline

quote:

Originally posted by Enrique V: Guys...I don't even know how to explain this! I found out that somehow the #"&/)#%% Netmeeting was taking posession of SPWAW! After opening the Netmeeting, I tried one more time to run the game and it would work like a charm! -E

Do I understand correctly: when you run Netmeeting simultaneously with SP, both of them work? And without the NM, SP doesn't? :confused: With my computer the NM reserves the DirectSound in a way that SP cannot start. Have to use Roger Wilco instead. Well, it's Microsoft, their programs have done even stranger things... ;)

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Post #: 9

- 7/24/2001 6:52:00 PM

Warrior

Posts: 1808
Joined: 11/2/2000
From: West Palm Beach, FL USA
Status: offline

quote:

Originally posted by Enrique V: I found out that somehow the #"&/)#%% Netmeeting was taking posession of SPWAW!... (my sister uses Netmeeting for videoconferencing...)...

Time to get your own computer, and delete NetMeeting. That was one of the first things I did when I got my new machine. :D

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Post #: 10

- 7/24/2001 7:08:00 PM

Jeff Norton

Posts: 2054
Joined: 8/8/2000
From: MD, USA (You're not cleared for specifics...)
Status: offline

Enrique, Maybe try to install SP2 for Win2K. The basic-vanilla initial load had some probs (like all initial releases) and SP2 might help. I run Netmeeting at work and have installed WAW and never had a problem. As a test case, of course... :) Have you upgraded to DirrectX 8.0 yet? It seems a touch more stable. Thanks for the good problem. They keep us all on our toes...

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Post #: 11

- 7/24/2001 9:50:00 PM

sinner

Posts: 174
Joined: 5/7/2001
From: North Carolina
Status: offline

Folks, I really got fed up with all this wierd Microsoft behaviour. It was painful. I kept images of my hard-disc in CD-roms, images made with Norton Ghost (a good program tha came with my motherboard). Then, recovering from a crash or weird situation was a 15-minutes thing. Maybe you should considere using Norton Ghost. Install from zero everything, configure it as you want, do not put any document or SPWaW saved games. Just the plain everything installation. Then, build a Ghost image, burn it on a CD and have a floppy-disk with CD-rom access handy. You should be safe. But if you get tired of this...do like mr. In the end, I decided to wipe-out completely Windows from my machine. Yes, I had been using Linux as a second OS for testing and fun... but I turned it as my only OS. Ghost works great, but you get tired of the crashes. In the beginning, I was pretty sad, I was unable to play SPWaW... Then, in may (?) I tested SPWaW with some later version of WINE (a "Windows emulator"). Yes, just in time for the release of the MC, I had a running SPWaW on Linux! Now I'm happy. My computer doesn't crash unless the power company decides to give me one of their famous "1-second-long blackouts". I can do almost anything with Linux. Most important, SPWaW goes great. And I keep Netmeeting at my wife's computer. :D

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Post #: 12

- 7/25/2001 1:06:00 AM

Gusano

Posts: 7
Joined: 7/23/2001
Status: offline

Hey all... well...I'm sending my sister over to my father's computer, and I just nuked netmeeting. I will also try the service pack 2 for win2k, I have SP1 currently running and DirectX 8a. Halgary: no, I don't need to have both netmeeting and SPWAW open at the same time, it was after I ran netmeeting that I realized it had released 'something' (maybe directSound, like you said) because SPWAW started to run again. Sinner from the Prairy: I've used norton ghost before...it is an excellent program. I use Linux both at home and as my backend environment for development, Wine and Samba are a great combo. I'm a fan of flight simulators, and most of the good ones,regretfully only run in windows, except for X-Plane, which you may use under Wine. Thanks to all again :) cheers! -E

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Post #: 13

- 7/25/2001 4:34:00 AM

sinner

Posts: 174
Joined: 5/7/2001
From: North Carolina
Status: offline

Hi Enrique, SPWaW runs great on WINE. So, no problems at all, no messing with Netmeeting. Only good gaming experience. If you already have a system with WINE, I would recomend you to move your SPWaW to that Linux box. It runs great on any WINE newer than 20010501, specially the 200106xx, because of it's good handling of DirectX programs. Regards,

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Sinner from the Prairy<br />"Thalassa! Thalassa!"

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Post #: 14