Vexing Problem

[unmerged(35619)]

Hey gang,

I've had a rather vexing problem patching HoI, which goes as follows:

* v1.00 runs with no problems, but is virtually unplayable for reasons I'm sure I don't need to explain.

* My machine currently lacks a sound card (long story, but it involved a lightning strike), thus, when I load the game, it hangs and comes up with a message stating something or other about downloading sound drivers.

Anyhoo:

* Besides that, v1.00 goes fine, gameplay issues notwithstanding.

* Seeking to remedy the problem, I downloaded and installed the v1.06 patch

Now, HoI rarely runs (I switch tasks to close the error message about sound, then it hangs during loading the rest), and when it does, the graphics are very badly warped, eg port icons are squashed, but even worse, thick black lines run through dialog boxes and menus and things, which makes the game nigh on impossible to play.

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the game (again, it ran fine on v1.00) and updating with a less recent patch (v1.05), with the same results as above.

I probably should point out that the game ran fine (v1.05) under Win98.

Anyhoo, you folks seem to be able to solve pretty much any HoI-related problem under the sun, so I'm hoping you'll be able to put an end to mine... I've got an itch to fight out WW2 as Mexico, and I'm sure it'll make for some great AAR reading (my last game as Mexico was a hoot)

Cheers,

Sten

 

[unmerged(35619)]

Vexed no more!

Hi All,

After reading another thread in the Tech Support Forum, I changed my display depth to 16 Bit.

Problem solved running under 1.03b, that is).

I'm still wondering why I didn't have to do this with 1.00 though.

Still, no matter.

 

[jdrou]

Patches generally increase the load on the system because of new features, etc. (Although 1.06c has improved loading times; you should get it.)

 

[Castellon]

Later patches changed graphics. The game is optimized for 16BIT.

 

[unmerged(24320)]

Now, HoI rarely runs (I switch tasks to close the error message about sound, then it hangs during loading the rest), and when it does, the graphics are very badly warped, eg port icons are squashed, but even worse, thick black lines run through dialog boxes and menus and things, which makes the game nigh on impossible to play.

first, a suggestion. i read somewhere that playing without the CD means you will not have any sound. so, would playing without the CD solve the "problem"?

second, i have this (above) same problem but only when i get this error message:

Critical error !
- - - Database Mismatch (type = 7 / id 2028) already used! - - -
do you still want to continue? [natcherly, i say yes :wacko: ] and get this ... id 2029 ...

anyway, IIRC, i sometimes (always?) get a CTD after i say yes to the second error message.

thoughts? tia

 

[jdrou]

first, a suggestion. i read somewhere that playing without the CD means you will not have any sound. so, would playing without the CD solve the "problem"?

AFAIK the CD is completely unecessary to play the the game with all features unless your publisher uses it for copy protection (Strategy First doesn't).

second, i have this (above) same problem but only when i get this error message:

Critical error !
- - - Database Mismatch (type = 7 / id 2028) already used! - - -
do you still want to continue? [natcherly, i say yes :wacko: ] and get this ... id 2029 ...

anyway, IIRC, i sometimes (always?) get a CTD after i say yes to the second error message.

thoughts? tia

That doesn't sound anything like the original problem (which sounds like some kind of device driver/sound/video problem). Your problem seems to be the game detecting duplicate event ids (type = 7 is events). Has your game been modified at all? Have you tried reinstalling from scratch?

I probably should point out that the game ran fine (v1.05) under Win98.

Was this on a different machine or did you do a clean install or upgrade to 2000 or XP? Doing an upgrade rather than a clean install can cause many problems. (I wouldn't consider your problem solved until you can run the latest patch successfully.)

 

[Castellon]

Not a related problem.

 

[unmerged(24320)]

jdrou: AFAIK the CD is completely unnecessary to play the the game with all features unless your publisher uses it for copy protection (Strategy First doesn't).

OK, that means i am wrong about understanding that the CD was required for sound.

GhostWriter: ...Database Mismatch (type = 7 / id 2028) already used!...
jdrou: That doesn't sound anything like the original problem (which sounds like some kind of device driver/sound/video problem). Your problem seems to be the game detecting duplicate event ids (type = 7 is events). Has your game been modified at all? Have you tried reinstalling from scratch?

i did not see any connection between my problem and Emperor Sten's question, except for the identical result. the reason i responded is that i don't understand how you could have identical results without some relation between the problems. :wacko:

bingo. many thanks! the event series 20xx is for Germany. what i did was copy two German events into another event file to try to write an event for another user. after i had the crash in that game, i just installed another copy of HoI in another folder. i could not reinstall without losing my modified files, which are many (which is why i know that events id = 20xx is German events.) so i tracked down where the duplicate id numbers were and changed them. problem solved. thank you very much!

 

[Castellon]

The original poster never mentioned a DB mismatch error, which one certainly would if they are reporting a problem.