Msciwój's crash

[Msciwój]

Hi!

I do actually have exactly the same problem and the same story: I didn't have any problems with EB, neither with nor without the Alexander Pack. Now since I reinstalled my RTW Gold Edition and Alexander Expansion and EB in order to move it to another hard drive, I get my PC freeze! As with STuNTz2023, the crashes happen randomly during battles or on the general map, during action and while me being away from the keyboard.

Yes, it freezes completely, first the graphics freeze, while the sound continues, than after 5-10 seconds the sound freezes too. After that moment, I cannot even restart the computer my pressing the reboot button! I have to unplug the PC (oddly it has no on/off switch at the back). Obsolete to say, that Alt+Ctrl+Del doesn't work either.

I have uninstalled the Alexander Pack (the modification to EB, that makes run EB with the Alexander Expansion CD). I have unistalled the Alexander Expansion. I have uninstalled the whole RTW Gold Edition. I have even deleted the RTW folder AND cleaned the registry, just to make sure no corrupt entries survive the de-and reinstall.

Nothing helped. No, the unmodded RTW does not crash and no, neither does the Alexander expansion. Therefore it doesn't seem to be a hardware problem nor a problem with the RTW Gold DVD or the Alexander CD.

I have installed the permanent fixes now. I will report if that helped.

[Msciwój]

Have played EB with the permanent patches now. Froze again after ca. 45 mins. This time at another turn and while the diplomacy window was opened. So there is no rule for when it crashes.

PS: I played with and without the Alexander Pack, in between, I have uninstalled EB and RTW completely to ensure it was not the Alexander Pack. It froze then too.
- When reinstalling EB, I first used my saved installation files (EB1.1.exe and EB12.exe) I used initially in February. Afterwards I downloaded them again (twice and from two different sources) to ensure the installation files were not corrupted.
- I even checked, whether they differed using Total Commanders synchronisation tool. They did not.

[bovi]

I still think this is a hardware thing. Just because vanilla works doesn't mean it's not the hardware, for EB takes a lot more resources than vanilla and therefore increases the chances of something going haywire. Check your memory and video drivers. Perhaps the system event log will have something useful too.

[Msciwój]

Soooo...

This time when the PC froze I waited until kingdom come, in order to see whether something else might happen. After half an eternity I received a blue screen containing, among other, the following information.

1. "The device driver is in an infinite loop."
2. The responsible file [I quote] might be nv4_disp
3. ***STOP: 0x000000EA (0x89C90798, 0x892CB4E0, 0xB84EBCBC, 0x00000002)

Sadly the message did not tell me which devices drive was in an infinite loop, so cannot work on the possible hardware problem. Is it the sound card, the video card or what? Does the given error code reveal anything that might be helpful?

The file however, that "might have" caused the problem, belongs to my graphics card. Could it be that?

[bovi]

That's an Nvidia file, yes. Try to change your video driver. Both upgrading and downgrading.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Surprisingly the error code does mean something: "THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER". From: http://kadaitcha.cx/xp/stop_error.html

Better yet, following that site I stumble upon: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314215/en-us

This problem occurs because your computer has an Nvidia video card installed that uses the Nv4.sys video driver.

To resolve this problem, obtain an updated driver by contacting your video card manufacturer, or visit the following Nvidia Web site:
http://www.nvidia.com

[Msciwój]

@ Tellos Athenaios
Hey, thanks for the crash message page, will help in the future.

@ bovi
The computer froze BEFORE I installed the latest driver and continued to do so AFTER I did so in reaction to the crashes. Therefore the new driver cannot be the reason.
Furthermore, as I wrote, for a very long time I did not have that problem, while I still used the older driver. Therefore also downgrading will not help, for the non-downgraded driver did well for the longest time.

@ everyone, whom it may concern
I guess I found the reason: seemingly it was the hardware, just as bovi assumed in the beginning.

After the error message, I finally took my PC to a gas station and had the dust blown away by a high pressure nozzle. Man, that was a hell lot of dust!
In addition I still had to remove dust from the graphic cards fan with the vacuum cleaner.

Since than, the problem did not reappear. The game crashed only once since that, but in a "usual manner" - to the desktop - not that total freezing of the system.

I guess after three days of testing, since the cleaning, this proves it was the graphic card overheating, due to the extraordinary resource usage of EB, combined with the inability to cool the card as it should be.
Heureka!



Btw. have you turned my problem into a separate thread? If yes, why? I would still assume it is of the same kind as the original poster ones, and might help more people than just me.

[bovi]

Yes, I split the thread. Mixing up various issues in one thread may lead to the original problem becoming drowned. Also, it is easier to organize, for myself.