CTD at a loading time--Please Help!

Hi all, this is my first post on this forum, just wanted to say that I have heard only good things for EB. So, I was determined enough to play it, and had to reinstall RTW and EB twice just to get as far as the title screen. However, that's when it got ugly. The game CTDed at the black screen with the white bar when I tried starting the roman campaign. Here's the checklist.

_ Using a nocd crack? Your game won't work, use the original executable instead. There is no point in trying the rest of the list until you install a fresh, clean 1.5 RTW.
Y Install RTW and EB once again, from scratch
N Install using 7-zip rather than installer
N Download a map.rwm file and place it in eb/data/world/maps/base (requires both the disaster and Oppida permanent fixes)
Y (((I added it like this:"-mod:eb -show_err -nm"))) Add -nm to the shortcut. This disables movies. Using an NVidia 8xxx graphics card? No movies for you, you will probably HAVE to add this switch.
_ Delete some interfering files that Vista hides in its bowels
_ For Vista users, install RTW and EB in a folder outside of "program files". This means changing the default location! You can also try to simply move the RTW installation, but you may be missing some files, so installation is the safest bet.
Y ((( it said my installation was fine))) Run the validation tool to diagnose the problem
N (((read P.S.))) Install the fixes linked in my sig
Y (((This caused the validator to register my program as corrupt, it was fine before I did this))) Extract this archive into your <RTW>/EB/Data folder. It will disable the Greek voicemod, but has proven to make the mod work for at least one user (a very patient one at that).
N Add more swap space in Windows, and other technical measures you can take
_ Using RTW Gold? Try to uninstall everything and do not install BI
_ Got an ATI Radeon X700 graphics card? Apparently some setting called "Support DXT textures format" is creating problems. Try to change this setting for the driver called "Support DXT textures format". Try it if you've got any ATI card, really.
_ Using Nero Burning ROM? Apparently it does something weird to TGA files that causes CTDs when starting EB. At least one forum member got EB to work after uninstalling Nero.
Y (((Definitely 1.5, defintely works))) Check that vanilla RTW works. If it doesn't, your problem is not with EB.
_ Validation tool says that you are missing patch_1.pak (or something similar)? Get this file and extract it in <RTW>/data/packs.
Y Try to copy the settings found here into both <RTW>/EB/preferences/player.txt and <RTW>/EB/preferences/preferences.txt.

Anything that I didn't say Y or N to did not apply. If anybody wants more details, I'd be happy to oblige :) Any help would be greatly appreciated, this mod sounds awesome!!!

PS--I didn't try any of the permanent fixes Bovi said yet because, as aforementioned, I have not even seen the campaign map yet. So close, yet so far...

Thank you, you're the first person to ever follow the instructions to copy the checklist in :2thumbsup:.

I'd next try to download that map.rwm file, it could be crashing at the point where it's generating that. But you'll need to install the fixes first! Note: The validation tool will say that the installation is corrupted as the files are changed, this is okay (with the greek excision it's okay as well).

If it doesn't work, I don't know what could be the problem and you'll have to install FileMon and post its log after running the game, see the sticky for that.

Thanks Bovi, I got it to actually start a campaign, albeit it's VERY VERY slow. I have tried to make it run faster by following the instructions in that article, and there is an improvement, but it still takes like 3 min just to open something like a city construction/recruitment window. So, given that I've done the stuff that the article recommends, is there anything else to minimize the lag? I'm thinking something like disabling the unnecessary campaign map effects (rivers flowing, clouds over the sea, etc.) I have 256 mb of ram, and 1.8 Ghz, and I don't know how to look up my video card, but I've played RTR perfectly fine, and certainly without any of those new animations on the map. If anyone knows how to turn off that stuff, please let me know. Thanks!:beam:

I would buy another gig of RAM. 256mb ain't really enough for EB.

2GB RAM is ideal for EB.