Crash Crash Crash...

[unmerged(1253)]

I'm having lots of trouble with the American Version 1.07c

I love the game, and I don't want to sound like an bastard, but here's my list of problems:

-music gets garbled and distorted during startup (is this normal?)

-autosave frequently does not save (it set to save every year)

-repeated random crashes during the game sometimes when I'm clicking sometime all by itself. It's usually when I'm involved in a large war, but not always.


System:

P3 1000 MHz
512 MB ram
Windows ME
GE force2 GTS
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card
DirectX 8

My gut feel is that it is the sound card, but I'm not sure. I'm playing of the cd-burner drive and I'm usually running winamp at the same time.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks.

 

[unmerged(1345)]

You have an A+ system, but I'll bet that the sound card may be the problem. I have a Soundblaster Live! card - and there are no problems. Try going to your sound card's manufacturer website and download the latest drivers for your card.

Also, disable your screen protecters, anti-virus protection, and close down any unneeded programs running on your machine.

It also sounds like the game's information is not being processed properly. It could be the CD-ROM RW drive that you are using. Others have experienced crashes and problems that sound like they are related to the type of CD-ROM drive they were using.

This game is finicky. If anything is not just right, it will crash. Hopefully future patches will address these issues.

Hope this helps.

 

[unmerged(490)]

Interesting...

I have been playing this game for months (German version) but I just upgraded my system to almost the same as yours (but a P4) - same sound card and graphics card.

I now get exactly the same symptoms - Weird sound breakup up business during the first 'green bar' initialization screen (it stops on 'sound initialization' for ages!) and then random crashes to desktop.

Very frustrating.
Are you using a DVD or a CDRW? I have mine installed via the DVD.

I have tried shutting down everything else which is running and no joy. I also have latest drivers for everything (The machine is only a week old but I checked just to be sure.)

 

[unmerged(1253)]

Huh, thats very interesting, Rogan. At least I'm not the only one. I guess it must be the Santa Cruz card.

This is the first system I've bought from a big manufacturer (Dell) and I'm convinced they use funky drivers or something. The first thing I did was a total format and reinstall of everything, but the screen still flashes 'Dell' when I restart (silently mocking my inability to overcome their corporate might).

Anyway, maybe this will be fixed in the next patch, since it has been confirmed by 2 people (hint, hint).

 

[Paradox Interactive]

The problem sounds very much as a compatibility issue. EU is using DirectSound as handler for all the in-games sounds and music. If the soundcard isn't 100% DirectX compatible this will happen. Right now the only thing I can recommend is that you install the latest available drivers for your soundcard. You can also make a new hardware configuration where the soundcard is disabled and play that way.

We are of course looking into this but the soundcard is a bit exotic so we need to get hold of one first before we can actually test this ourselves.


Patric

 

[unmerged(490)]

I checked I have the latest drivers already. Mine is a dell too, and this sound card is now the default for their higher end machines.

I also find the crashes happen much less on slower speeds (1 to 4 and lower).

I haven't seen the problem with the Autosave.