At wit's end

[Great Est.]

I recently upgraded to Windows 7 32bit. Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.80GHz, 512 MB RAM, ATI Radeon 700 series card with the latest drivers.
Eagerly reintalled MTW VI, updated it, installed the XL mod, and performed the button fix.
Still crashing after selecting my faction in campaign mode. I can play historical and quick battles, but load bar doesn't even start up before dreaded "program must close" message crops up.
I've changed the battlemap resolution to 1024 to match the desktop resolution, disabled Data Execution Prevention settings for the .exe, changed the graphics settings using the ATI Catalyst control center to maximize performance over quality (ie, antialiasing set to the min of 2x). I run the exe as administrator and in xp service pack 2 compatibility.
I don't know what else I can do!
Help!!

[caravel]

ATI Radeon 700 series
Hello Great Est,

That seems odd. Can you give the full model number / description of this card?

:bow:

[Great Est.]

ATI Radeon X700
That's all it says in device manager (actually, it says RADEON X700 Series).
It worked fine back when I had XP, but that was on an older motherboard that since was fried.
I can play the Pirates remake and Homeworld 2 without any problems.

[Great Est.]

Device manager says driver is dated 2/10/2010 and was loaded 7/29/2010.
ATI Catalyst control center says the adapter is RADEON X700 series [DELL E173FP]
Device ID 5E4B
Graphics bus: PCI Express
Bus max: PCI Express x16
Memory type/size: DDR3/256MB
Core clock/memory clock: 425MHz/432MHz

[caravel]

From the late 9000 series Radeons onwards through the X series and HD cards - there are CTD problems on the campaign map. The button fix usually solves this problem. If the button fix is not working, then I would advise that you check that it is correctly installed. Ensure that the two files go in the correct directory, overwriting the originals. If this still doesn't work then I am out of ideas as it looks like you've tried everything else.

[Great Est.]

Maybe I didn't copy the button fix files into the correct directory. I copied the button fix files into the campmap, buttons folder in the programs-medieval total war folder and deleted the originals.
Now CA wants me to take a survey? Survey says -- great while it lasted.

[Great Est.]

Maybe if I reinstall in vanilla, then do the button fix, then the update, then the XL mod it will work. ugh

[caravel]

1. Install MTW

2. Install VI

3. Patch to 2.01 if required

4. Install XL

5. Install button fix.