CTD on loading at -- Loading Sounds...

[Rabmac]

Any help would be much appreciated. I have never managed to run this game as yet. I have had various errors along the way including the "unexpected closedown" and a "failed to create device" for video. Now I have a crash to desktop consistently while the game displays "Loading Sounds..."

I have read all the relevant posts in this forum and have specifically done...

Change refresh rate to 60, everywhere
Resolution 1024x768 in desktop set
Re-downloaded twice and re-installed twice (having uninstalled and removed folders)
Updated video drivers
Updated sound drivers to two newer versions and reverted (made no difference and they were not WHQ'd by microsoft, the current one is).
Loaded XP Service Pack 3

I am at a loss now..... :

 

[AndrewT]

Try disabling all sound by editing settings.txt, and change master_volume=-1 . If that helps, check for a newer sound driver.

 

[Rabmac]

Thanks for your response

I am sorry to say that with further reading of others problems I have tried that already, it produced no change. I really cant see how sound now enters into the problem

For info I have also cleaned the registry errors that were in the dxdiag for long forgotten games, still no joy.

If it matters at al,l I can play EUIII no problem at all

Mystified...

 

[AndrewT]

But it's still crashing at the point of Loading Sounds? Or it's elsewhere now?

You might try another complete reinstall since you've updated the drivers - uninstall the game, and then manually delete the game directory. Then install Rome then the 1.1 patch immediately.

 

[Rabmac]

Thanks for the reply.

I have manually deleted the folder after uninstalling the game.

Fresh install done
1.1 patch applied
1.2 patch applied
Master volume set to -1.0 in settings.txt

Still the loader crashes at "Loading Sounds..." and returns me to desktop.

All other sound related entries in settings.txt set to -1.0 as well, just for completeness

Still the loader crashes at "Loading Sounds..." and returns me to desktop.

?? Anything else I can try ??

Thanks

 

[podcat]

if you rename the sound folder with all the sounds to sound_backup. do you still crash in the same spot?

 

[Rabmac]

Greetings!

This issue is becoming more interesting..and odd

I followed your suggestion and indeed, an non-existant sound folder and indeed an empty sound folder lets me proceed to the game

However... I began to load the sound files back alphabetically

Result:

When files beginning A thru C are loaded it works fine to the menu
When files O thru W are loaded it works fine to the menu
Combination A-C and O-W works fine to the menu

D thru N...CTD
D alone added to above = memory error
M thru N added to above = "unexpected crash" as a microsoft message, although it gets past the original problem of hanging at "Loading Sounds..."

and the * refers to ability to play but CTD at the end of tutorial intro (separate issue and not important, I think, other tutorials work fine).

So, I concluded the sound files may be corrupted, EVEN THOUGH I played each one in MS Media Player with no problems at all.

Downloaded again
Reinstalled again
1.1 and 1.2 patch applied again

Results as above, game will only load and play with sound files A-C and O-W loaded, or with nothing in folder=sound at all.

Now the next problem is CTD in any tutorial, and the lack of sound files may or may not be conributing to this

Personally I cant believe corruption in download after all the downloads I have done, and I can't believe its my sound installation either if the game plays with the above listed sound entries. I have rebooted every test of sound by letter, and frankly I am worn out tonight. Something is different in the D thru N sound files...

Oh, by the way the volumes are all reset to installation standard

Thanks for setting me off on this investigation, good thinking, but now I await your advice...

Cheers

Rob

 

[podcat]

I was going to suggest grabbing newer sound drivers. The ones you have are from 2005 and seem to be a debug version (which is really odd, and I dont understand how they got WHQL:d), but since you said you have done that the problem must be something else.

Here is another thing to test: put all the sounds back as they were from the start, then start the game in window mode (change fullscreen to no in settings.txt) and let me know if that works.

Does anyone else have a similar problem??

 

[Rabmac]

I am impressed at your lateral thinking

All sounds put back as original
Fullscreen=No

And it does indeed work....

maximise doesn't want to know but its certainly livable with.

Thanks, and how very odd eh?

 

[podcat]

I am impressed at your lateral thinking

All sounds put back as original
Fullscreen=No

And it does indeed work....

maximise doesn't want to know but its certainly livable with.

Thanks, and how very odd eh?

yeah, a lot of driver bugs dont happen in window mode for some reason.