Saved games won't load anymore

[zeekater]

Let's try again, this time a bit more "official"

1) Using HoI2, recently patched to 1.02 (don't quite know that I've been able to load ANY game with 1.02 actually)

2) Windows XP Home Ed, version 2002, service pack 2
(5.1, build 2600)

3) 256MB RAM

4) 983 MB free drivespace

5) Video card: NVidia GeForce 4 Ti 4200 (128 MB), version 6.1.7.7

6) Sound: VIA AC '97 (WDM), version 5.12.1.3516

7) DirectX 9.0c 4.09.0000.0904

8) The problem goes like this:

load up the game fine, go to single player, select one of the saved games (any, also autosaves), select Germany, start, the bar starts with 'provinces', then goes to 'reading scenario', immediatly the screen goes black, the music still plays though, after a few seconds; 'HoI2 has encountered a fatal error and has to be shut down' (or something like that, I have it in Dutch), crash to desktop.

And yes, I obviously read the sticky

 

[Castellon]

So perform a little experiment for me.

Start a new 36 game as USA.

Let one month go by where you do nothing.
Save the game, then exit, reboot the computer, then see if you can load the USA game you saved.

 

[zeekater]

Done, didn't load either, exact same thing as before, stopped after 'initializing provinces'.

 

[unmerged(42434)]

have u edited a provence/ any major file in 1 of the files but not in any of the other files

 

[zeekater]

I use a slightly modified version of the latest HSR, with only a few events added. And a switch in tech team files. Also some changes to the stats for naval units. Deleted some names for divisions (don't remember which file that was).

I don't recall editing any province files.

 

[jpd]

Done, didn't load either, exact same thing as before, stopped after 'initializing provinces'.

Ok. What is the file size of this save game file? It should be around 12 MB or so.

 

[zeekater]

The USA one is 13.5 MB, another is 12 MB and after a year and a half of playing it's 14 MB.
(There is also a temp.txt file in the save games folder, in case that shouldn't be there )

 

[jpd]

The size sounds about right, so we can rule out an incomplete save game file (for example due to hdd full). Could you try and load as a different country, Germany or Japan for example ?

 

[zeekater]

Starting games as USA or Germany works, continuing saved gamed games works for neither.

I did a HitmanPro sweep, which cleared a lot of HD, but the problem remains.

 

[zeekater]

Loaded up another 36 scenario as Belgium, saved after a month, quit the game, restarted PC and tried to load the game: same problem.

 

[Castellon]

Well you must have Fubar'd something with your edits.
YOu need to uninstall and wipe the game from your system. then do a fresh reinstall, and apply the latest patch. Then see if the problem is still there.

 

[zeekater]

Done, reinstalled and applied the 1.02 patch.
Works now

How am I supposed to know what went wrong with the edits? Are there any files which shouldn't be touched?

 

[jpd]

Glad the issue got resolved. Guess some file got corrupted in your previous game installation.

And to answer your question. Almost any file can be modded, but you must know what your are doing. If something goes badly wrong with editing any file of the game, you can render the game inoperable. So always make backups of any file you plan to alter.

 

[zeekater]

As an update:

added about 100 events today, and the game still worked

(Still have lots to do however )

Thx for all the help.

 

[Castellon]

You may want to get involved in the Editing forum and read up on how the game files work if you are going to be editing files.