M2TW: "Unspecified Error"

[Karl]

Hi,

This is my first post as I'm new to both this forum and to the Total War series in general. I bought M2TW a few weeks ago and really like it! I installed the official patch prior to launching the game for the first time. Every thing has been working as expected, until recently...

I've searched the forum but can't find any posts regarding my problem, forgive me if it's already been discussed...

My problem is that I constantly get a pop-up stating "Medieval 2: Total War encountered an unspecified error and will now exit". There's only a "OK" button to press and when doing so the game crashes to the desktop. This happened for the first time two days ago while I were in the middle of my first grand campaign playing as the HRE. I've tried to restart the saved game but as soon as the loading screen appears the error message pops up again. This is really frustrating as I was well on my way with my campaign and I'd like to finish it

I've tried all sorts of things, to no avail... I downloaded the "MedManager" and wound the game clock backwards a few turns, no luck. I've also started a new HRE campaign this evening, but I only got to play three turns before the message came and destroyed it for me.

Last night I did all sorts of experiments with the graphic settings, but nothing helped. Please note that I've played the game without any errors prior to two days ago. I've used O&O Defrag to check the HDD's for errors, none were found, and defrag.

I can't see that my PC is at fault as I don't have any problems with other applications or games. My PC is fairly up to standards (AMD 4000+, 2 GB Corsair RAM, two nVidia 7800GTX in SLI, DFI nf4 SLI-DR MoBo, 590W PSU). I've checked my temp's and none are even near the red zones.

Has any one else encountered this error? How did you resolve it?

Is it possible to backup my saved campaign and reinstall it in to a fresh M2TW install?

Kind regards,
Karl

[todorp]

I have it non stop on my new PC, which I bought fot MTW2

I don't know what is the problem. Is it the Core Duo CPU or the 22" 1600x1050 LCD? I reinstalled Win XP, loaded all the new drivers and MTW2 is the ONLY game or application on the PC!

[Cras]

well guys, I had no problem before the patch and how have it too..

the error.. pc locking up so bad I have to turn the PC of via the power button. I have no idea what they did.. it certainly is no improvement for me!

[econ21]

Technical support issues belong in the Apothecary.

[Karl]

First off, my apologies to the moderators for posting in the wrong forum

Perhaps this "unspecified error" is correlated to the new patch? A theory I can't justify as I've only run the game with the patch. Or, might it be related to running M2TW in wide screen? (I'm running it on a Dell 24" at 1920x1600)

Does some one know if the developers are working on a second patch? Has this error been brought to light before?

Not many answers in this message, I'll get back with more information as I get wiser...

Kind regards,
Karl

[Fat Buddha]

I'm having the same problem. For me it happens 150 -170 turns into the game without fail. The error appears at the end of the turn when the comp is doing its thing prior to my next turn. Ive tried 3 games, 3 religions/factions and once the "unspecified" error happens loading previously saved games will randomized what turn the error occurs but it will alway happen in the next few turns.

What are some recommendations to up the logging level? "unspecified error" in the logs isn't terrible helpful.

Thanks and good luck to everyone else with the same problem.

[Karl]

Fat Buddha, if I understand you correctly you're saying that once you've encountered the "unspecified error" with one faction you will continue to get it unless you start a new campaign with a totally new faction. Correctly understood by me?

I agree that the information in the log is not much of a help... by the way, who's Charlie? He's all over the place in my log file =)

Kind regards,
Karl

[Fat Buddha]

Fat Buddha, if I understand you correctly you're saying that once you've encountered the "unspecified error" with one faction you will continue to get it unless you start a new campaign with a totally new faction. Correctly understood by me?

I agree that the information in the log is not much of a help... by the way, who's Charlie? He's all over the place in my log file =)

Kind regards,
Karl

Correct. The unspecified error is a CTD error from that point on that particular save game tree (i keep 3 saved games every handful of turns) will always result in a unspecified error within a few turns of when the original happened. eg. england turn 168 unspecified error, reload an earlier game at 157 and it will crash at 160-ish. reload a different earlier game (same campaign) lets say 165 it will crash at 170ish. If i save a game on the crash turn it will always crash at the end of that turn.

aside from that the first half of the game is fun

and yes, Charlie ...buddy... we understand you are a busy and likely unappreciated guy but come on...

[sapi]

Firstly, i can confirm it has nothing to do with running widescreen - it's working fine here.

Secondly, isn't that about time the new world is discovered? I've never got that far so i can't say for sure but maybe there's an issue with the emergence of the aztecs or something?

[Fat Buddha]

Secondly, isn't that about time the new world is discovered? I've never got that far so i can't say for sure but maybe there's an issue with the emergence of the aztecs or something?

Yes the new world and the other faction timur(?) appear around this time, well a few turns earlier. You think this may have something to do with them? can you think of any way to confirm this? up the logging or anything? i am open to suggestions.

[sapi]

Hmm...i've got no way to confirm that - it's just a stab in the dark - but that's the only significant thing i could think of that changes around that time of the game

[Fat Buddha]

Oh well. I got my first early game unspecified error. playing as France. 50 some turns into the game. anytime i enter a battle i get the error with france now. just after the loading battle progress bar finishes loading. so much for our new world theory.

[sapi]

:(

Unless gunpowder was invented around that time, there goes our little theories :P

[Karl]

Secondly, isn't that about time the new world is discovered? I've never got that far so i can't say for sure but maybe there's an issue with the emergence of the aztecs or something?

Well, I don't think that my problem stems from the New World as my campaign crashes at turn 20! I haven't been able to get a campaign to carry on any longer than that

It really ticks me as I fancy the idea of conquering the world I will reinstall my game today and ignore the patch. I hope that I don't get any other problems as the patch is supposed to fix SLI errors. Fingers crossed...

Kind regards,
Karl

[GeneralHankerchief]

Yeah, I just got it too. Can't remember the exact timing, but it was in a HRE campaign about 5-10 turns after the Mongols showed up in Baghdad. At first the game froze and said that I had to shut down the game due to running graphics too high (strange, never had any problems before, the campaign map runs smoothly). Now whenever I try to run the game again, "unspecified error" comes up.

This is unpatched. I'm going to put in the patch and see if anything else changes.

EDIT: Well, that's interesting. It seems as if the patch doesn't recognize the install. Guess I'll just have to reinstall...

[Karl]

Well, I did a complete "wipe" of my M2:TW install and reinstalled it without the patch (or update as it doesn't really address any major code bugs). I've started a new HRE campaign and so far everything seams to be OK. I've managed to get to turn 35, which is a whopping 15 more than I could get out of the previous install

However, when I try to load my "old" HRE campaign I still get the "unspecified error" message at the loading screen. This makes me suspect some sort of corruption of the saved game file. Could this be true? Can it be so that M2:TW corrupts the files randomly when auto saving?

Does any one of you know of a utility that checks the integrity of a saved game?

Kind regards,
Karl

[Slug For A Butt]

I'm thinking it's some sort of corruption when it's saving the file at the end of the turn too. I get this regularly when I hit end turn, it's making it impossible to play.
I've not patched the game, but curiously, I used to get the same problem with Rome AFTER I patched to 1.5. It was fine BEFORE the patch.
I'm going to keep watching this thread hoping that someone will have a flash of inspiration.

[DarKorg]

In a dozen campaigns, and hundreds if not thousands autosaves + quicksaves, I have not had one saved game corruption. On my first day playing the game, I crashed playing as the Venetians when I clicked on a city, since that day I haven't had a single crash.

I've been using the same hard drive for years, I found that if I left hard drive write caching enabled (drive disk properties) many of my files would become corrupt, whether it be my Firefox (FTW!) bookmarks, windows log files, critical system files. I have read a little about the possibilites of SATA drives corrupting data due to shady SATA controllers and such and that is also a possibility.



Keep the suggestion snowball rolling.

[Fat Buddha]

I did something that seemed to fix my issue. Granted its possible that what i did didnt fix anything and a crash is still lurking in my future but...

a moderator on the totalwar.com forums mentioned that extracting the compressed files has unstable results on some systems.

i had previously extracted the compressed files to try to figure out some of the mechanics of the game and though i had not edited any file apparently just having them extracted was enough. they are now all deleterd.

ive since then played two games to the 100th turn mark without the error. it could be luck but i just thought i would offer it as a option.