Medieval Total War CTDs and Solutions

[Hiebe]

Hey im new and need some help.

every time i try to play campain it always crashes and sends me back to my desktop page. i dont know what to do.

i have a windows xp (dimension E521 type), nvidia geforce 6150LE

thanks if you can help.

[caravel]

On that graphics card you should be able to get away with it and older drivers. You mal also need to enable 2x AA as well but the game should run.

[Hiebe]

On that graphics card you should be able to get away with it and older drivers. You mal also need to enable 2x AA as well but the game should run.

whats 2x AA? and how do i run it?

[Axalon]

While you’re at it Hiebe, perhaps you should be a tad more polite towards Cynwulf and perhaps he might be more motivated in helping you out here? If it were the other way around, wouldn’t you be? (Take it away Cyn!)

- This is just a friendly suggestion for you Hiebe, that’s all…. Oh, and welcome to the Org by the way!

[caravel]

2x sample antialising can be enabled in the Nvidia control panel.

1) Right click the desktop, select "Nvidia Control Panel".

2) Click the "3D settings icon".

3) Under appearance category, select "adjust image setings with preview".

4) Then find the section "use the Advanced 3D image settings" and then click "take me there".

5) Under global settings find "Antialising settings, select the drop down list and change it to 2x"

If it still doesn't work then you'll need to get hold of older drivers.

[Hiebe]

Thank you im trying it right now. sorry about earlier. thanks so much this is a good website. i'll hang out here more :)

[Hiebe]

It works!!!!!!!! thank you soo much

[caravel]

It works!!!!!!!! thank you soo much

You're welcome, glad you got it working.

The .org has a dedicated subforum for MTW called the Main Hall. You can post all of your MTW related questions or just your campaign or battle accounts and anything else over there.

[T-LO]

I have a nVidia 9600GT and the "battlemap mouseover" failure. Same as kaidonni. I just wondered if there is a solution. If not, does this game run in Virtual PC or VMWare?

[caravel]

I'm afraid you're out of luck with that card. There is no known fix to the battlefield synchronisation issue on Nvidia 8xxx/9xxx cards to date.

[evo481]

nice to find this answer thread...

one question...does this game play with any of the newest cards that i can buy? i am in the proccess of buying a new card but i want to be able to play mtw1...

[Achilles]

Hi everone.

Sorry its another CTD problem. I've just recently bought a copy of MTW to bring back old memories and i have installed it fine and it will even run quick battle and historical campaigns but whenever i try single player campaign it will start to load and once the bar fills up it bring up the campaign menu and usually follows it up with CTD.

I have read some other fixes but i have an odd graphics card so some of them simply don't apply.
I have tried changing resolutions but no help there.

Here's my graphics card info:

Chip type: S3 Prosavage DDR
BIOS version: 78.60.00.02
Display driver: s3dnb.dll 6.14.10.0033-13.94.33
DirectX: 9.0b

Btw i have Windows XP home sp2.

Any help apprieciated, thanks.

[Axalon]

Hi there guys, welcome to the Org the both of you….

Achilles: My guess is that this is your problem; there are two small GFX-files that might very well do the trick here and get your MTW up and running in campaign mode. They are:"button_ipprev.BIF" and "button_ipnext.BIF" and are usually located here: "C:\program\X-Total War\campmap\buttons" -folder. You have two/(three) ways of getting these files:

• 1. Download and install/or scavenge one of the only two existing mods that do have the right files that you need (as far as I know at least, never heard of any others). One is the “NTW” (it’s the Napoleon-mod I) and the other is my own mod, MTW-Redux, which is an alternate version of MTW. They are available over here:
  
  NTW:
  https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=40
  
  MTW-Redux:
  https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=106497
  
  
  2. You also have the option to check out the CTD thread for MTW, again named GFX-files are available there somewhere (these are the NTW version of the files), its probably the last post there. You can find that thread in MTW’s Main hall. The thread you are looking for is this one:
  
  CTD Thread:
  https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=79500 (These are the NTW version)

I can’t guarantee you that this solution will work, but I suspect that it does. You should give it a try.
It’s probably what you need to do, but you never know with PCs…. Good luck!


-------
Evo481: Essentially you stick to ATI when it comes to MTW, because Nvidia have worse track-record then ATI does so that’s why. I got ATI X-1950 pro myself and with the use of the files mentioned above that works just fine, without them that card refuses to run the game (besides that GFX-card is hardly new, although still fairly good by todays standards, If you could find that card I would recommend you to get it in lack of anything else. One thing is certain: with the right files (mentioned above) installed it does run MTW. Anyway this is not the place for such questions, the place for that is over here:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=132


- Cheers

[Achilles]

Axalon:

I went ahead and dled the redux mod and installed but no it still will not work on single player campaigns. Again same problem, when the loading bar hits full it brings up menu then crash to desktop.
I also tried the Moorish failsafe savefile but no luck there either (although that time all the game did was bring up menu and didn't CTD). I am really at wit's end here.

Anyone think I should take the game back and try to get my money back?

[Axalon]

Axalon:

I went ahead and dled the redux mod and installed but no it still will not work on single player campaigns. Again same problem, when the loading bar hits full it brings up menu then crash to desktop.
I also tried the Moorish failsafe savefile but no luck there either (although that time all the game did was bring up menu and didn't CTD). I am really at wit's end here.

Anyone think I should take the game back and try to get my money back?

Ok Achilles, sorry to hear that….

Then we can exclude the earlier suggested solution entirely. Downgrade your drivers. Your card is fairly old so you should have several of old drivers-versions to choose from, but do try to downgrade your drivers because that might actually help. Try about 2003-04 or there about (I have no clue which driver will work best). Also thoroughly check out the MTW CTD’s thread(s) for stuff that might work (such as antialias x2 and other stuff), although its ATI and Nvidia in particular, most such threads are right here at the Apothecary and then you have the one in the Mainhall:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=79500


At any rate, hope it works out for you, there is little else, I at least, can suggest you (I am no Savage-expert). MTW is a great game, it definitely worth while if you find a way to get it to fully work. Finally and ultimately you also have the option of buying a 2nd-hand GFX-card (ATI) that works for sure with MTW. It would not be that expensive (ATI Radeon 9800pro for instance). Good luck what ever you decide to do.


- Cheers

[caravel]

Chip type: S3 Prosavage DDR
BIOS version: 78.60.00.02
Display driver: s3dnb.dll 6.14.10.0033-13.94.33
DirectX: 9.0b

Btw i have Windows XP home sp2.

That is a legacy integrated graphics chipset and those are the latest drivers for it. It should run MTW ok providing you've allocated it enough shared memory (16MB or above) in the BIOS setup. There is no need to try any of the the troubleshooting fixes in this thread as they are only relevant to much newer cards.

[xKiwi]

Hey there. Recently got back into the MTW mood and I've come bumping into a loooong string of crashes and errors while trying to play on the laptop I use now. So far, I've tried AA 2x, setting map resolutions the same, skipcredits.txt, and disabling AGP texture acceleration. Hopefully you can think of some ingenious way to fix my problem.

I can run it almost perfectly fine. Almost. There is just one issue which seems impossible to fix. Every so often, there's a small chance that I get the infamous CTD when I right click to open up the info window on units/etc. Sometimes it takes a long time for this to happen, sometimes it's only after a few minutes, which makes it extremely unpredictable and annoying.

This is what is in the crash.txt file:

//--

Medieval_TW.exe caused an EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION in module ntdll.dll at 001B:7C911E58
EAX=048F5328 EBX=00150000 ECX=00000000 EDX=00000000 ESI=048F5320
EDI=04975000 EBP=0013D1F8 ESP=0013D1EC EIP=7C911E58 FLG=00210246
CS=001B DS=0023 SS=0023 ES=0023 FS=003B GS=0000
001B:7C911E58 (0x00000000 0x04975000 0x0013D224 0x00000000) ntdll.dll
001B:7C918251 (0x03150000 0x0000B230 0x00000000 0x00000000) ntdll.dll
001B:7C911C76 (0x00150000 0x00100008 0x0000B228 0x0000B228) ntdll.dll
001B:7C80FE6F (0x00000040 0x0000B228 0x02234BED 0x02234600) kernel32.dll
001B:004072D0 (0x2508458B 0x10000003 0x0F03F883 0x02BF7284) Medieval_TW.exe

//----

Some specs:

//----

Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_qfe.080814-1242)
System Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
System Model: F3JC
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T5500 @ 1.66GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 1024MB RAM
Page File: 1084MB used, 1376MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce Go 7300
Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.8628 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail

//---

Any help would be extremely appreciated. =)

[Rick]

xKiWi, have you updated you drivers for your video/graphics card? I have Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT and just downloaded and installed a fairly recent update from the Nvidia website. Prior to that I was getting CTDs, but since I installed the updated drivers I've had no problem (knock on wood). Also, if you go into the Nvidia setup you select it to run games in a different mode. But so far, it runs fine for me on the default settings.

I've been playing the Pike & Musket mod, which is fun but a little touchy. But again, since the updates I haven't had a problem (double knock on wood).

[caravel]

The last solution in this thread may help: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=79500

@Rick, what driver release did you download that cured the CTDs?

[xKiwi]

Rick >> My graphics card is for laptops, so the drivers from nVidia isn't recommended and I have to get updates through my laptop manufacturer. The current driver is most updated one.

Caravel >> Haven't had much problems with the right-click thing recently, but I did bump into a new one.

I was playing a campaign up to a point where it just crashed at the end of a turn, no matter what I did. I managed to save it on the turn right before it crashed. So now, whenever I load that saved game and hit the end turn button, it'll crash after the AI has made its moves on the chess board. Basically, I have no way to get past that point in the game on that saved file.

[TevashSzat]

@xKiwi

You don't necessarily have to try out the laptop manufacturer drivers. The standard ones from Nvidia should work just as well and if the generic drivers work, there is no reason why you shouldn't use them

This website has I think all of the Nvidia drivers for laptops released lately

[Rick]

@Rick, what driver release did you download that cured the CTDs?

178.24

[weetaylor]

I need big help with this i am not good with computers and i just want mtw gold edition to work on campaign it will work rarly but not when i want it to work if enyone could kindly help and exsplain how to make it work please help

[petter76]

hello

i have a problem with my MTW I.

I`m not able to change screen resolution within the game.

current fixed resolution:
strategy map: 800 x 600

battle map: 640 x 480

my graphics card is: geforce 8800gts

my windows version is: vista 64

do have the newest drivers installed, which have cured problems i have had with other games. this is an old game i know, but still..

[Noddy The Beefy Egg]

At what point does it crash? As soon as the campaign map has loaded? You can either employ some of the solutions in this thread, such as 2x Anti-aliasing and/or running the campaign map at a resolution of 800x600 while the battlemap would need to be 1024x768. However, there is another thing to try:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=79500

The last post in that thread features a unique solution to the CTD issues, and should help you a lot.

2 questions. i tried the campaign map at a resolution of 800x600 while the battlemap at a resoloution of 1024x768. It was not working. and how do i do 2x aa? so sadly, i had to stick to roller coaster tycoon 3. sorry. very sorry. until the solution, kaidonni. i have geforce4 mx 4000.

[Geezer57]

2 questions. i tried the campaign map at a resolution of 800x600 while the battlemap at a resoloution of 1024x768. It was not working. and how do i do 2x aa? so sadly, i had to stick to roller coaster tycoon 3. sorry. very sorry. until the solution, kaidonni. i have geforce4 mx 4000.

Martok's thread, that Kaidonni linked for you, has what you need to do in the first post. Download the ForceWare 61.76 drivers and the freeware version of Driver Cleaner v1.5. Reboot your machine into Safe Mode (hit F8 key at startup), run Driver Cleaner to remove all your old video card drivers, then reboot into regular Windows with the generic VGA drivers built-in to your O/S. Finally install the old 61.76 ForceWare drivers for your MX4000 GeForce 4 card. Medieval should behave fine at that point, and allow you any resolution your system is capable of displaying.

Medieval is an old game now (but still great!), and likes older drivers with old hardware. Good Luck!

[caravel]

I have been looking into the slow loading screen problem. To summarise this problem: It's the screen that appears before the campaign map or battle map are loaded. This screen is made up of several .tga image files. It seems to me that the problem itself may be caused by these actual files that are used to make up the loading screen.

Now, when in game you hit esc to go to the menu and it shows you the same screen? No, the screen that is displayed at this point is a bif/buf image file and not the .tga that is used for the load screen. This screen does not hang and has no issues. In fact I tried renaming the file for this screen and instead of the fading/zooming effect when going to the menu, the screen blacked out for an instant and the menu appeared. The same does not work when removing the .tga files, this causes a CTD.

Now the reason I think it's the .tgas themselves causing the CTDs and not the campaign map or the battle map or something else, is because this same problem occurs when loading either the battle map or the campaign map and it is common knowledge that the battle map and campaign maps are very different - two different games almost. So a long delay before loading the campaign map would be accepted as that having the fault. But the same delay for both, no I don't think so.

We have seen before where something such as an image can cause a CTD on the campaign map. The button review panel up/down button issue is evidence enough of this.

My humble opinion is that the load screen is a very shakey bit of programming. Why is it a tga and not a bif? I think it may be due to the red load bar that fills up inside the frame. Perhaps CA had no way of doing this with a .bif? I'm not sure but it does seem that the solution lies in these tgas (if there is a solution). I have tried replacing the tgas with smaller files and this has not helped. Also if you even re save one of them and put it back into the game it causes an instant CTD probably due to pallettes etc.

-Update: I've tried replacing the MTW load screen .tgas with the ones from STW. The result is no difference. I've reinstalled STW today (I've recently rebuilt and reinstalled my PC which is why it wasn't installed) and STW V1.0 works ok, in fact the load screen goes by so fast it's only visible for an instant. I am about to test STW/MI V1.02. If that works as well then perhaps MTW V1.0/1.1 may behave differently to VI 2.0/2.01? I doubt it, but it might be worth a try.

-Update: STW/MI V1.02 tested ok, no load screen issues.

[CountMRVHS]

Hello,

I'm trying to get MTW to work on my new computer. I've installed it and can watch the intro movie, select an era, and select a faction, but once the red bar fills up the screen goes black and I CTD.

I have a nVidia 8500. I've been looking through this thread and I see there are some possible solutions to get to the campaign map, but I wonder if I'm just doomed because the nVidia 8xxx and later is too incompatible with MTW to work. Is it a guarantee that I'll run into the "mouse-over" problems and other issues?

Ideally I'd like to still be able to play all the newer games, like MTW2, on this new computer, along with the original MTW. So I don't really want to monkey around too much with changing drivers or doing anything that will compromise my ability to play newer games.

Basically, I'm asking if it's feasible for me to get MTW working with that driver and minimal hassle.

[caravel]

Driver wise, there is not much you can do. The button fix should stop the campaign map CTDs.

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=79500

The in battle synchronisation problem should still be an issue of course.

[wladimirowicz]

Hello!
I'm trying to get Medieval Total War to work on Toshiba Satellite l300-129 with Windows XP Professional SP2. I'm unable to start campaign but on the other hand I can play quick, custom and historical battles.I supose that the main problem is my video card - Mobile Intel 965 Express Chipset Family which is as I presume terrible, surprisingly though Rome Total War works fine and without problems.
Is there a solution?
Any help appreciated!