Crash Fest

[Triggerhappy]

This game is so unstable, it's almost funny. On my system HoI crashes about every five minutes. I've been able to play for half an hour once, then again I get a CTD after 10 seconds or while starting up the game or loading a scenario. It's absolutey unplayable. The crashes aren't tied to certain events or dates in the game, they just happen. CTDs in the research screen, CTDs in the diplomacy screen, CTDs while moving armies, CTDs running the game very fast and very slow, CTDs in 800x600, in 1280x1024, with and without music - you name it. I've updated every single driver on my system, including DirectX, and installed abut every Windows update available on the Microsoft website. I've defragmented my harddisk, turned off graphics and sound accelleration, shut down every programm running in the background, renamed the Bink folder (ha! Bink is the ony stable piece of sofware on the CD!), used the HoI Parser (yes, I also experience the infamous 100-MByte-Savegame-Bug), started different campaigns with different countries, even underclocked my system... I tried every possible bugfix and workaround that's mentioned here on the board. It just won't run. Heck, HoI is the only programm that actually manages to crash my system with a friggin' bluescreen of death!

Is there anything else I could try - besides hoping that patch 1.04 will finally make this thing work - before I throw the disc out of the window? Yes, I tried the game on another machine and it was less unstable there. It only crashed about every half an hour.

My system specs and driver details

Windows XP
AMD Athlon XP 2100 (not overclocked)
512 MByte RAM
MSI 6830E mainboard (KT300, with VIA Hyperion 4in1 446vp6 installed)
Geforce 4 4600 (Not overclocked, driver version 41.09. Yes, I know there are newer, unofficial drivers availabe but i also tried some of these.)
On-board sound (AC 97, with ComboAudio v3.40b installed)
Swap file currently at 1086 MByte
DirectX 9a

I appreciate any suggestions.

 

[unmerged(6777)]

Have you renamed the avi folder to avi_bak to disable the binkplayer? I've found that this resolves many people's problems which are somehow relating to the binkplayer not unloading from memory correctly when it finishes playing the splash screens.

 

[Triggerhappy]

Yes, I have. As I said, I tried all the workarounds mentioned in the FAQ. Is there anything else I could do?

 

[Castellon]

What band and type of mouse and keyboard do you have?

 

[Triggerhappy]

I'm using a Microsoft Internet Pro keyboard (using built-in drivers from Windows XP). Actually I got this one only two days ago. Was using a similar one with extra multimedia keys before but from some cheap brand, X-Tension I think. The mouse (optical) is still from said brand (also using drivers that came with Win XP).

 

[Castellon]

Okay this is a little confussing. You should not be having a problem. Lets look a little closer.

Start HOI, then Alt-Tab back to desktop.
Hit ctrl-alt-del
Please list here all programs, and processes running.

 

[unmerged(15718)]

I dont know if anyone knows this but I figured it out accidentally. If you press the Multiplayer button first itll load the bink screen. Then press back and your single player games will work fine. Ive only had one problem since then and Im somewhere in 1943. The one problem I had was a CTD after loading one particular saved game. I went back to the last save before that game and everything seems to be working fine so far.

 

[Castellon]

Originally posted by jny4916
I dont know if anyone knows this but I figured it out accidentally. If you press the Multiplayer button first itll load the bink screen. Then press back and your single player games will work fine. Ive only had one problem since then and Im somewhere in 1943. The one problem I had was a CTD after loading one particular saved game. I went back to the last save before that game and everything seems to be working fine so far.

Strange, does the intro video not play before you get to that screen?

 

[Triggerhappy]

Originally posted by Castellon
Please list here all programs, and processes running.

[Administrator]
taskmgr.exe
explorer.exe
HoI.exe
wordpad.exe

[Local Services]
svchost.exe

[Network Services]
svchost.exe

[System]
smss.exe
csrss.exe
winlogon.exe
services.exe
lsass.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
spoolsv.exe
nvsc32.exe
cisvc.exe
System

I made this list right after starting up. All TSR programmes (e.g. firewall, anti virus software) terminated, no new programmes launched, except for Wordpad !EDIT! and Hearts of Iron. To me, there's no process visible that could cause these problems. There could be invisible processes (e.g. spyware) that I'm not aware of but I forgot the command to list these.

 

[Triggerhappy]

Thanks for your tip, jny4916, but it didn't work.

 

[Castellon]

I do not see HOI running???
Please start a new game of HOI, 1936 scen. USA, start game. Pause game, then ALT-TAB to desk top and list the processes running.

 

[Triggerhappy]

List edited.

 

[Castellon]

When the game crashes, can you load in the last autosave? or is the save corrupted? (Other than the size bug, which is fixed in next version).

 

[Triggerhappy]

Saving/Loading works fine except when the game crashes while writing/reading.
I managed to finish a game yesterday. It does work, it's just a pain in the &$§#* because I have to restart the programm every 5 to 10 minutes.

 

[Triggerhappy]

Some additional information: I tried to keep track of my computer's memory and CPU usage while playing HoI. It seems that the game uses between 70 and 100% (the latter while loading) CPU power and about 8 (while loading) to 150 megabytes of RAM. CPU usage seems a bit high to me or is that correct?

 

[unmerged(6777)]

This seems to be extremely high CPU usage for your motherboard.

When was the last time you did a full clean and defrag of your HD?

 

[Triggerhappy]

I defragmented both of my drives about two weeks ago. It was one of the first things I tried when I experienced frequent CTDs with HOI.

 

[unmerged(15718)]

Ok here is another example of a CTD.

I was playing Germany and had already conquered Poland, Belgium, Netherlands and France. So I built an armada of transports. Loaded a ton of troops on them. A complete pain in the ass because the HOI interface is so bad in this area.

Well I put about 45 ships into the waters between france and England. I start unloading troops from one side, loading troops from the other side. Flying air cover with about 8 me109's. Oh ya another problem with HOI is that you cant do repeat air patrols so you have to set it up as a naval attack if you want the planes to continuously patrol a certain area.

Now I have alot going on: battles on the mainland of England, battles in the skies over the seas, troops unloading, troops loading, battles in the sea itself.

And Unsurprisingly a complete CTD.

I guess sometimes you just have to take it easy on this fragile game.

 

[Castellon]

Originally posted by jny4916

I guess sometimes you just have to take it easy on this fragile game.

If it was happening to everyone then this discussion would be in the bug forum.
So there is some conflict with the particular hardware config on your system.