1.05 Crashes to Desktop constantly

[unmerged(7216)]

Hello:

I just upgraded to patch 1.05 for EU2and haven't had any luck playing more than about a year or two before it crashes (after which it constantly crashes). I have been successfully playing v. 1.03 for months now, (after having received support from this excellent forum). My system is as follows:

Windows 98
Pentium III 600 MHZ
128 MB 133 MHxz SDRAM
20 GB ATA-66 Hard Drive 7200RPM (no-where near full)
12X Atapi DVD ROM
32 MB nVidia TNT 2 Pro AGP video card
Sound Blaster Live!


I believe I have up-to-date video drivers & Direct X (as of a few months ago, anyways). I did the uninstall/reinstall/upgrade, defrag routine already, which helped the last time I upgraded to a new patch.

I read the "running problems" post and did those of which I easily understood and could manage, but by no means everything (OK, I'm not much of a computer genius, if it wasn't for games like EU2 I would only use my computer for the internet and word processing, and buy a Playstation or something)

For example, I haven't been able to do this Detonator Destroyer thing, which it sounds like might help with my video card. Partly because I don't really understand the instructions but mostly because when I download its a zip file and I don't know how to unzip it.

Anyways, I thought that someone in this forum might have some suggestions or point me in the right direction before I regress to version 1.03 (which would be a shame given all the improvements in this version) (Just as a footnote, I was never able to install v. 1.04, I kept getting error messages the nature of which I've forgotten now, but can probably be buried unless they somehow relate to this problem)

thanks,
James

 

[viper37]

you need to download Winzip (www.winzip.com) to "unzip" a file. Once you have it installed it will be easy to perform the other tasks.

for the rest of the instructions...
Uninstall the drivers from the Add/Remove Section of Control Panel

1. Run this program
2. Click on Uninstall
3. Click on either Restart to restart windows or close to shut the program. You will need to restart shortly
4. When the machine has restarted, Install the display adapter as "Standard VGA"
5. Restart when prompted
6. Install the new display drivers
7. Restart again

wich one is giving you troubles?

 

[unmerged(7216)]

Hello Viper:

Sorry for the delay in responding - I had the real world intrude into my megolomania a little bit.

I was able to unzip and do the detonator destroyer. Everything seemed to work, but on the fifth step I never got any sort of "Standard VGA" option that I could see. Maybe its not important...?

The game still CTD'd a couple of times (2X in 10 years), although it seemed a little better. I had another look at the running problems and was able to do #12 & #13 (cache size and music off). I am now in year 1433 of the GC, so that 14 years without a CTD -a record since I upgraded to 1.05!!

Too tired to play anymore tonight, but I'll certainly be playing again later in the week to see how stable everything is.
Do you think I'm home free or should I continue holding my breath...


Thanks for your help (again),
James

 

[jpd]

Hi James,

I don't know if you can do something with this info, but here it is anyway.

When I had upgraded v1.00 to 1.04, I experienced problems similar to what you are describing. I even had frequent CtD's on a freshly installed Windows.

Then came Dungeon Siege (beautifull graphics b.t.w.) It had it's own DirectX 8.1 installation check, which it insisted on running. Well, this DirectX 8.1 installation modified my EU2 DirectX 8.1 installation, allthough one would have expected them to be identical

Well, I guess EU2's DirectX 8.1 is NOT identical to Dungeon Siege's DirectX 8.1. One indication was that the latter did update my DirectX 8.1 installation, as created by EU2. The second indication was the GREATLY reduced number of CtD's after Dungeon Siege was installed

EU2 can now run for hours without a single CtD.

Jan Peter

 

[viper37]

Originally posted by James123
Hello Viper:
I was able to unzip and do the detonator destroyer. Everything seemed to work, but on the fifth step I never got any sort of "Standard VGA" option that I could see. Maybe its not important...?

since the game is working now, let's not touch it
however, FYI, "Standard VGA" is when you right-click on your desktop, select properties, settings, advanced and then you change your graphic card to "Standard VGA". A bit complicated though You could still skip this part.

 

[unmerged(9584)]

Hello James 123

Have you Played EU? and if you have did you notice any odd things that are similar to EU2?
I wish to get the Last version of EU released by Paradox
Will pay $100 american for it.
Hope you have more years in EU2.
regards,
-------------Patricia.
patriciathomas@xtra.co.nz.

 

[unmerged(7216)]

Hello everyone:

Just a quick update. Played for a couple of more hours without any CTD's and noticed things running a lot smoother. I would guess that my problem is solved.

Hello Jan: My son's name is Jansz & the roots of my last name are "De Veer". I haven't had a chance to visit the town of Veer yet, but hope to at some point. My forefathers left The Netherlands about 500 years ago and eventually emigrated to Canada after being chased around Europe for 300 years. As you can imagine, I get a real kick out of taking one of the Dutch principalities and kicking some Catholic butt... the Grand Campaign doesn't even get interesting for me until the Reformation....

I experienced similar problems when I upgraded to 1.03. I believe one of the things Viper had me do was upgrade my Direct X, so I probably accomplished the same things another way.

Patricia: I'm not sure what you mean by similarities between EU & EU2. I had similar problems with both games in terms of CTD's (especially late in the game). The one thing that I do remember is that when I first got EU2, I had to load up EU first before I could play it, otherwise it wouldn't even start - that was weird. I still have EU, but I would recommend EU2, its a much better game. I haven't even touched EU since I got it.

James

 

[unmerged(9584)]

Thanks James

Actually i dont want to play EU1.
but, just compare it with EU2

 

[viper37]

Originally posted by James123
Hello everyone:

Just a quick update. Played for a couple of more hours without any CTD's and noticed things running a lot smoother. I would guess that my problem is solved.

James

glad it works now