CTD upon starting a campaign

[Myx]

v0.81a. Installed on a clean 1.5 RTW. Now I can't start any campaign not only in EB but in vanilla RTW either. Sometimes it shows small ActiveMovie window before the crash.

I could fix vanilla RTW by complete reinstall and WMP 10 reinstall. But as soon as I get EB installed - same problem again.

[bovi]

Could you detail exactly where you are installing RTW and EB? Are you sure you've installed them both into the same directory? Also, what are your computer specs? EB requires a LOT more resources than vanilla.

[Myx]

They are both installed in the same folder - C:\Program Files\Rome - Total War. The computer is Pentium IV, 2.2 GHz, 1Gb RAM, Video card is 32MB only but I've been able to play RTW vanilla and RTR for couple of years. The strange thing is that I've been able to play EB the first time I installed it, then upon the exit from then program it hung and I've never managed to start again never EB or vanilla RTW. I blamed codecs first, reinstall RTW and WMP 10 and it helped, then installed EB...

I understand it is hard to fix just thought may be it was a known issue. Looks like it is not the case.

[bovi]

No... You could try to install RTW and EB without the media player 10, but I don't think it will make much difference.

On an unrelated note, your graphics card will probably destroy the game experience for you, it is WAY below what's needed to have it run at a decent speed.

[Myx]

Here is an update on this:

The strange thing is that I was able to run the EB successfully once. Even played it for 4-5 hours (btw, liked the mod – financials, movement traits, there are a lot of things that make the gameplay more interesting). As far as the speed goes it was ok, I did not notice much of the difference comparing to RTR for example. I’m not too picky on that and I can’t be having just 32MB video card. Then I rebooted the machine and this is when my troubles started.

The only way to restore a vanilla RTW was a complete re-install, but once I install EB – I get ActiveMovie dialog and the game crashes soon after. I found the file it was playing – if I choose the Sab’yn faction the file name is pontus_eliminated.wmv from the ..\Rome - Total War\EB\Data\fmv\lose folder. So I renamed the file and it actually loaded the campaign map but it was all scrambled (the mouse cursor was a white square, Arabia was covered in snow and etc.).

Anyway, here is an old gamer’s trick. Hopefully it may help someone in my situation.
1. Completely removed RTW and EB, including the registry entries.
2. Re-installed WMP 10
3. Installed vanilla RTW up to 1.5. Confirmed it worked just fine.
4. (!) Made a system restore checkpoint (I’m on XP)
5. Installed EB 0.81a. It could not start a campaign again.
6. Restored to a checkpoint from #4.
7. EB is working great! It even loaded my previously saved game.
8. Keep you fingers crossed each time you start a new campaign or load a saved game.

[Rex_Pelasgorum]

Bovi is right, you should upgrade your video card.

[Myx]

Bovi is right, you should upgrade your video card.

It is not quite easy to do on a laptop. But I'll be getting a new one soon.

p.s. no offence but you sound like Microsoft people. Hey, my stuff does not work! - Trash your computer and buy a new one ;)