EU2 won't start anymore

[unmerged(7889)]

Hi,

I've got a problem with Europa Universalis 2 on my machine. I had been playing without any problems (using 1.05 patch) and had saved my game before I went to bed. The next day, I tried to return to the game. Almost immediately, the game became intolerably slow. I resetted the computer (running Win2000 by the way). From that point on, everytime I try to start EU2 it never gets past the point "initializing global variables". If I look with taskmanager, EU2.exe is consuming all CPU-time.

Things I tried to get it back to work (in this order):
- I deleted the files that were left over from the previous run. The bar starts at the beginning but stops at the same point as before.
- I tried "repair" from the install program of the CD.
- I uninstalled and reinstalled EU2. With and without the latest patch.
- I uninstalled EU2, removed every registry key about EU I could find, rebooted, reinstalled. No difference.

I am pretty much out of options right now. Which is a shame, because I had just conquered a province with gold in it and I am anxious to see how it will improve my cash flow.

Does anyone have suggestions?

Some specs: Athlon XP 1600+, 256MB, plenty of disk space left, GeForce 3Ti200, SB Live!

Bye,
Steven

 

[viper37]

did you defragment your hard drive recently? If not it might be a good idea.

You might also want to check for viruses, you never know
If EU2 is consuming all CPU time, it probably was infected... Norton Antivirus 2002 is quite good.

 

[unmerged(7889)]

Originally posted by viper37
did you defragment your hard drive recently? If not it might be a good idea.

You might also want to check for viruses, you never know
If EU2 is consuming all CPU time, it probably was infected... Norton Antivirus 2002 is quite good.

Thank you for your reply. I tried both your suggestions yesterday, but it did not make any difference. I also tried reinstalling drivers for video, sound, motherboard, DirectX, and I tried turning off acceleration for video and sound in DirectX. Nothing works.

I may have to reinstall Windows 2000, which is a major pain. All my other games and applications work fine.

I wish there was some way to turn on a debug mode or logging so I could see what EU2 is having problems with.

Anyway, thanks,
Steven

 

[viper37]

I fail to see anything more for your problem currently I think the only way will be to reinstall Win2k

 

[unmerged(7889)]

Originally posted by viper37
I fail to see anything more for your problem currently I think the only way will be to reinstall Win2k

Luckily, I finally "solved" my problem (it is more of a work-around). I downloaded the compatibility extension for Windows 2000 and tried to run EU2 while emulating Windows 98. This works. I still do not know why, because the box says Windows 2000 is supported and indeed, it used to work.

Thanks for trying to help!

Bye,
Steven

 

[viper37]

neither do I, since it's working fine on XP

anyway, it works now, so it's good