avoiding crashes, any solutions?

Recently, the last few times I have tried to advance my English expert campaign (around 1341), it seems to always crash after a couple of years. I have only 6 saves used (this usually helps to reduce game crashes), yet it still keeps crashing out sometimes before I can save after a battle, but recently more when I try to end my year turns.

Anyone have any suggestions? I'm running vanilla MTW with the patch with a new computer with plenty of hard drive space. The only thing that might be a complication is it's a Japanese OS I'm running under, but it is Windows XP.

Hello gaijinalways.

I can only give a few tips of what I do to keep the game running without interruptions:

I make use of the inbuilt Windows tweaks-Control Panel-Performance and Maintenance-System-Advanced-Settings (Under Performance)-then activate "Adjust for best performance"

Then Advanced again and activate "Programs"

This makes sure all the juice goes into the program you re running ie the game.

Then I Run 'msconfig' in the Run program after Start.

I choose "Selective Startup" and remove the first,second and fourth tick, leaving the "Load System Services".

Then click the top tab called "Services"

Click "Hide All Microsoft Services" then "Disable All"

Click Apply and OK

Youll be asked to Reboot.

When you re computer restarts all the unessential services will have been disabled.

You can then run the game .

To return to normal, type in msconfig in the run and just choose "Normal startup" then reboot.

It sounds longwinded, but if you re playing for some time it can be worth the hassle. Basically, it squeezes all the juice into the game and shuts off everything irrelevent.

Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully that's a help.

Stable WinXP drivers for MTW are:

nVidia 61.76
ATI Catalyst 4.6

I agree with Puzz3D on the NVidia and ATI drivers, but would like to mention that I've had very good luck with my ATI Radeon 9800's and x800/x850 series cards using the Radeon Omega Drivers 2.6.53 (based on Catalyst 5.7). They're available in the archive section here: http://www.omegadrivers.net/archive.php

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Originally Posted by gaijinalways

Recently, the last few times I have tried to advance my English expert campaign (around 1341), it seems to always crash after a couple of years. I have only 6 saves used (this usually helps to reduce game crashes), yet it still keeps crashing out sometimes before I can save after a battle, but recently more when I try to end my year turns.

Anyone have any suggestions? I'm running vanilla MTW with the patch with a new computer with plenty of hard drive space. The only thing that might be a complication is it's a Japanese OS I'm running under, but it is Windows XP.

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Your crashes may also be down to corrupted save games. If you use the ingame quicksave CTRL+S alot then that may be your problem. Generally you should only quicksave directly after you hit end turn. It is a bad idea to make alot of moves, send agents on missions, invade provinces, etc etc then quicksave. Doing that makes it more likely that you'll get a corrupted save. The safest way to avoid this is not to quicksave at all. Exit to the menu and save normally. Also the pre-battle save is the same as a quicksave so you may want to avoid using that also. (that on gives me more corrupted saves than CTRL+S)

Sometimes my game goes down when I press escape and go to save (Which is very very annoying). Also my internet connection is really bad right now, and goes off and on ; that also crashes me. This hasnt happend that often since I installed the XL mod, but when I press alt-tab it also crashes. And then, sometimes it crashes for no apparent reason whatsoever.

:thumbsdown:

Actually, I never use the quicksave feature. thanks for the suggestions TF, now if I can only learn to read the kanji on my Japanese OS:help: !

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Originally Posted by holybandit

Sometimes my game goes down when I press escape and go to save (Which is very very annoying).

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That's a random XP related bug that doesn't occur in Win98/98SE/ME, it may also be related to Radeons under XP, so if you've a Radeon that may explain it. You'll probably have to quicksave. for added insurance, before hitting esc.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by holybandit

Also my internet connection is really bad right now, and goes off and on ; that also crashes me.

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I've seen this before. Often if your LAN is not connecting properly MTW hangs. To avoid this you should disconnect your LAN, before playing. When MTW detects no LAN the MP menu is greyed out, and MP functionality disabled.

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Originally Posted by holybandit

but when I press alt-tab it also crashes. And then, sometimes it crashes for no apparent reason whatsoever.

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Try setting your desktop resolution to the same as MTW and set the colour depth to 16 bit.

I'll try using the quicksave option and see if that helps. Thanks for the advice, it does seem like the crashes are more frequent now since I went to XP. Not sure about the drivers.

Now you've had some useful answers, can I add the best way to avoid crashes is keep your hands on the wheel and eyes on the road? :clown:

My own experience is also with XP, using GeForce 5200 with old drivers (newer ones no good for MTW), and get occasional CTDs on hitting ESC -- of course when I want to save game after a really intense year of ten battles all of which I should have lost etc etc... So I always ctrl-S at end of year, and before hitting ESC. Sometimes I do have save game corruptions, but very few. Usually now I can reload my quick-save from before an ESC CTD and carry on the game, which suggests the save isn't corrupted, and that something else is triggering the CTD (maybe the PC getting bored with mediaeval warfare?) So in effect, I can't stop them happening, but I can stop them causing too much grief. GL.

(EDIT: incoherent fingers...)

Bummer, I a few months ago, shortly after starting to play MTW again, I upgraded my NVidia drivers on my GeForce 5200 equipped laptop. (Trying to find a better driver to handle the "TV output" capabilities) [Was running the 60+ something driver, now I am using the 71.89]

I am sure its the cause of my occasional CTDs when returning to the campaign map from fighting a battle.

Which I had known of the NVidia driver conflict with MTW before I upgraded. I really don't want to have to roll back to 61.76 as I like the functionality I have now.

Ok, stupid tech question which probably does not belong here.

Is it possible to have both drivers on my laptop and switch back and forth between them depending upon which capability I need? 61.76 to play MTW and 71.89 for everything else and TV output.

Thanks,
BlackHat

I think you need to instal/uninstall/reinstall the drivers to change between them. I originally got the Geforce as I wanted to try RTW, and first installed the drivers on the CD provided - that wasn't good enough, so upgraded to 79.xx or 81.xx I forget which, but that killed MTW functionality. After that I got bored with RTW pretty fast, so just uninstalled the new drivers and went back to the even older ones bundled in with my OS (51.xx, I think) and that is just fine for MTW. You might be able to do something clever with hardware profiles, but I'm not the one to advise you on that, I'm afraid....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BlackHat

Bummer, I a few months ago, shortly after starting to play MTW again, I upgraded my NVidia drivers on my GeForce 5200 equipped laptop. (Trying to find a better driver to handle the "TV output" capabilities) [Was running the 60+ something driver, now I am using the 71.89]

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There are two separate issues with NVidia GeForce graphics cards and MTW, depending on which generation. GeForce 5xxx and older cards need to use the older drivers (v61.77 or older recommended - available here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_61.77.html), GeForce 6xxx and newer chips should manually set the antialiasing to 2X, although sometimes changing other settings is also beneficial.
So if you want to play MTW, but also want the improved TV output capabilities, you might want to consider an upgrade to a later generation graphics chip (6xxx or higher). It's just not practical to switch between drivers versions when changing applications.