Crash to desktop

[Gregoshi]

So as not to derail caravel 's "Questions" thread, I'll take my CTD issue here.

Which video card do you have?

I've got a Radeon X1300XGE AGP (512mb RAM) with the latest Catalyst drivers (as of about 2-3 weeks ago). I've only had the card for a few weeks and haven't really adjusted any graphics setting from what they were for my old card (Radeon 9700TX 128mb RAM). BTW I'm running Windows XP SP2 with 1gb of RAM.

Since I have a Radeon, I can't roll back the drivers as suggested for the nVidia cards. Even so, having a newer Radeon card kind of limits that option anyway.

I swear on the one time I played and it didn't CTD, I had disabled AGP Texture Acceleration, but when I just checked it was re-enabled. Is this a setting that re-sets itself on re-boot? I'll have to remember to disable it again before I play next time.

Things I haven't done yet, as per this thread:

1. disable AA (according to Geezer
2. disable AF
3. change display properties to 800x600
4. anything else???

[Puzz3D]

I have an ATI 9800 Pro 128 MB video card, and I have to use the Catalyst 4.6 driver for MTW/VI to work. MTW/VI had lag in multiplayer with the Catalyst 6.0 driver or anything newer. You may not be able to use a driver that old with the X1300. Warmann has an X1300 and plays Samurai Wars, but he was getting an out of memory error in multiplayer battles. I'll ask him if his game is working properly now.

You could try lowering your AGP memory to 16 MB in the game options, but I think this is usually tried if you are having problems in battle mode.

[Gregoshi]

I'm hoping to force a battle or two very soon, so I'll see how my PC performs on the battlefield.

I'll see if I can snoop around as to which drivers are options for the X1300 as well.

[Jochi Khan]

I don't know if it is an option for you but I use the GeForce 7600GT AGP 8X 256MB DDR3.
This card runs all my games with no problems.

[TosaInu]

I'm hoping to force a battle or two very soon, so I'll see how my PC performs on the battlefield.

I'll see if I can snoop around as to which drivers are options for the X1300 as well.

Play custom battles to test videocard settings Gregoshi?

[Gregoshi]

I could have done that Tosa, had I been bright enough. I finally threw half of Japan into war last night by starting my own innocent little war. Other than my dreadfully out-of-practice troop maneuvering, there were no problems. I did get a crash to desktop almost immediately by left clicking on a province, but I had not re-adjusted the graphics settings. AGP Texture Acceleration apparently isn't the fix by itself. Once I dropped the display resolution down to 1024x768 (still at 32 bit) I played numerous battles and years without any crashing. Fingers are crossed that that is it.

However, I am still plagued by the 2 minute delay between menus, campaign map and battle maps. This in itself almost makes this excellent mod unplayable. I could use that time to learn to juggle I suppose. I'm tempted to install vanilla MTW/VI and see if it is the mod or my PC's freaking out to MTW.

[Gregoshi]

Okay, I checked over at .com support and several others report problems with 1-2 mintute delays before the load bar begins to move for MTW and/or VI. So it is a system issue and not an issue with this mod. Good. Alas, there is no solution. Bad. Suggestions to disable antivirus and all background tasks don't seem to make a difference. Wonder what the games is doing between the load screen going up and when activity affecting the load bar begins?

[TosaInu]

Forging alliances behind the players back?

[Jochi Khan]

More than likely.

[caravel]

Okay, I checked over at .com support and several others report problems with 1-2 mintute delays before the load bar begins to move for MTW and/or VI. So it is a system issue and not an issue with this mod. Good. Alas, there is no solution. Bad. Suggestions to disable antivirus and all background tasks don't seem to make a difference. Wonder what the games is doing between the load screen going up and when activity affecting the load bar begins?

The lag issue is a known problem, I have it now on my 7300GT and can't get rid of it. The load bar delay lasts about 20 seconds before it starts to move. Apart from that it does now work and I managed to tweak some other settings to get rid of that weird in battle synchronization issue (where you can't get your units to go where you want them to go).

Previously I had much the same card as Puzz3D and had to use the Catalyst 4.8 drivers. Previous to that I used 5.7 but they cause much more lag. And newer drivers cause all kinds of CTD problems, especially Catalyst 7.x series drivers, which will make the campaign map CTD randomly and can cause the icons to corrupt. You should downgrade those drivers.

[Gregoshi]

caravel, I could tolerate a 20 second lag on the load bar, but I counted it out (one-one thousand, two-one thousand...) and got to about 1 minute 50 seconds before the load bar began to move.

[caravel]

caravel, I could tolerate a 20 second lag on the load bar, but I counted it out (one-one thousand, two-one thousand...) and got to about 1 minute 50 seconds before the load bar began to move.

And I thought mine was laggy...

You need to get older drivers on there, it should sort out the problem once and for all. Try the Catalyst 5.7, there may be some lag still though not as bad as what you're experiencing at present. I used that version before and they were laggy during the campaign selection but not in the menus.

Before you install the older drivers download and install driver cleaner pro then download the older drivers. I used the Omega 2.6.53 which are based on Catalyst 5.7 but you can use the official Catalyst 5.7 ones if you're unsure about using 3rd party drivers. You should also download 3 newer drivers such as 5.8, 5.9 and 5.10a just in case 5.7 doesn't support your card.

Next go to add/remove programs, remove the existing drivers and do not reboot when it asks you.

Then run driver cleaner pro, select "ATI" from the list and click start. When cleaning it done exit the program and reboot.

On reboot you will get the "found new hardware" wizard. Cancel it and run the driver installation instead. Then reboot again.

If the installation fails with a "no supported hardware found", or whatever the message is, it basically means that 5.7 is too old for your card and should cancel try the next newest, and so on.

When you're up and running, disable AA as it adds even more lag, and see if there's any difference (believe me there should be a massive difference over the latest drivers).

[Gregoshi]

caravel, I'm not sure I see why video drivers would cause such a lag on the near-static load screen and then give me no problems in the graphics intensive battlefield. I think I'd rather mess with other things before I start screwing around with video drivers.

I think one of the things I'm going to do is uninstall my Norton's security suite and install some free security software. Norton's is such a pig with system resources and I suspect it to be the root cause of a couple of other annoyances I've been experiencing (such as here at the Org).

[caravel]

caravel, I'm not sure I see why video drivers would cause such a lag on the near-static load screen and then give me no problems in the graphics intensive battlefield. I think I'd rather mess with other things before I start screwing around with video drivers.

It seems strange but it is the case. It's up to you of course whether you mess with the drivers or not.

I think one of the things I'm going to do is uninstall my Norton's security suite and install some free security software. Norton's is such a pig with system resources and I suspect it to be the root cause of a couple of other annoyances I've been experiencing (such as here at the Org).

A wise move.

[Puzz3D]

I'm using the free AVG 7.5. I'm seriously thinking about buying the full AVG 8.0 version for $55, but after a year you have to renew for additional cost.

[Tomisama]

Echoing in the back of my mind there is a memory of someone saying “I wish I could get this to work with my X1300” I thought it was Tosa, but could have been R’as or George.

Unless there is anyone here who is currently having success with one of these 1300s, you need a new card.

Just my opinion, but don't waste time fighting this (as I have with the 8800).

[TosaInu]

Hello Tomisama,

I struggled to get it to work with a 9700 pro years ago (STW, WE and MTW).
After a few minutes it just froze, as if the memory was exhausted. No other game did this with that card.

A pity as it was a great card.


The lastest 'wish I could this get to work with MTW' by me, was the GF8800.

I'ld also recommend the 7600GT, there are 512 MB ones. A very nice card, both AGP and PCI-e.

[Gregoshi]

That is strange Tosa. I had a 9700TX (Dell's version) and I recall having no problems what-so-ever with MTW/VI back in the day when they came out.

Tomisama, please don't say I need a new card. My X1300 is a new card! Playing with Samurai Warlords, I had to drop the display resolution to 1024x768 and that is all that seemed to be required to stop the CTD. My biggest concern at the moment is the 2 minute lag I get between the campaign and battlemaps.

I do have Nero 6 installed on my PC and I vaguely recall seeing some kind of an issue with it and MTW. I installed the latest patch for Nero 6, but I'll have to dig again and find out more detail on the specific problem it causes MTW.

After much gnashing of teeth, I finally managed to uninstall Norton's last night. There was no uninstaller that came with the ISP version I had. Nearly drove my head through the wall in frustration trying to find out from my ISP phone and web support how to uninstall it. I had to resort to Symantec's Norton Removal Tool to rid my PC of that plague.

I replaced Norton's with Avira's Anti Vir anti-virus software. I was inclined at first to go with AVG as my dad has that on his PC and it seems to be doing well. It also gets a lot of recommendations from others as well (Puzz, etc.) I was doing some checking around the web, and of the big three free AV programs (AVG, Avast! & Anti Vir), AVG seemed to have the most holes in its defenses in actually testing against various types of attacks. Aside from that, it seemed like a coin toss between the three...and Anti Vir won the toss.

I'll have to see is any of this impacts the MTW lag I have, but I doubt it will. Still, my PC feels (mentally) lighter with that hog Norton's off the hard drive.

[Puzz3D]

Installed MTW, then VI, then VI patch 2.01. Over this I downloaded and installed Beta 8.

You're aware that patch 2.01 is a replacement exe and not a patch that you run right?

I do have Nero 6 installed on my PC and I vaguely recall seeing some kind of an issue with it and MTW. I installed the latest patch for Nero 6, but I'll have to dig again and find out more detail on the specific problem it causes MTW.

Nero 6 was associated with causing CTD's in MTW/VI.

[TosaInu]

Yes, it's odd Gregoshi. I heard of other people getting their 9700pro and 9800pro to work.

And it was a great card. I wouldn't call myself a NVIDIA fanboy, but it was the first ATI I had. I was very pleased with both the 2D and 3D performance. All other games I threw at it worked without a flaw.

I spent some 50 hours, easily, on settings and drivers, the result was nearly always the same: battle for a minute or so and then it froze.