Constant crashes to desktop

priapus21 · Postby **priapus21** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 4:55 am

Hello.

First, thank you for the forum. Hopefully you can help me. My issue is similar to others that I've seen on this forum.
- The game loads, and then gameplay slows to a crawl, followed immediately by a black screen.
- I hear a fan in the computer speed up (the graphics card fan, I suspect, although I haven't checked yet).
- Sometimes the game recovers after about 20 seconds and I can play on. If it recovers I can play on for a bit but usually the cycle repeats and the game crashes.
- when it crashes it crashes hard, locking up the desktop completely. I can't <ctrl><alt><del> to restore control, I have to hard boot it.

I've read your forum notes:

1. I've updated my graphics drivers.
2. I've updated Darwinia to 1.42.
3. I've updated my sound card.
4. I'm running direct x 9.0c.
5. Here is the black box file ... ah, we might have a problem with the sound card ... read on ...
and why does my Graphics Card Total Mem = 'n/a'??:

=========================
DARWINIA BLACK BOX REPORT
=========================

VERSION : win32-full-1.4.2
ERROR : 'DirectSound ERROR
C:\Development\Darwinia\code\sound\sound_library_3d_dsound.cpp line 997

Direct sound couldn't set fx
Error Code : E_OUTOFMEMORY
Ran out of memory'

=========================
====== PREFERENCES ======
=========================

ServerAddress = 127.0.0.1
BypassNetwork = 1
IAmAServer = 1
TextLanguage = english
TextSpeed = 15
HelpEnabled = 1
SoundLibrary = dsound
SoundMixFreq = 22050
SoundMasterVolume = 255
SoundChannels = 32
SoundHW3D = 0
SoundSwapStereo = 0
SoundMemoryUsage = 1
SoundBufferSize = 512
SoundDSP = 1
ScreenWidth = 800
ScreenHeight = 600
ScreenWindowed = 1
ScreenZDepth = 16
ScreenColourDepth = 16
ScreenRefresh = 60
RenderLandscapeMode = 1
RenderLandscapeDetail = 2
RenderWaterDetail = 2
RenderBuildingDetail = 2
RenderEntityDetail = 1
RenderCloudDetail = 3
RenderPixelShader = 1
ControlMouseButtons = 3
ControlMethod = 1
BootLoader = random
UserProfile = NewUser
RenderSpecialLighting = 0
Difficulty = 1
ControlIconsChatLog = key L
ControlChatLog = key TAB
ControlZoom = key Z
ControlDeselect = key SPACE
ControlUp = key E
ControlDown = key Q
ControlIconsTaskManagerEndTask = key C
ControlLeft = key A
ControlBackwards = key S
ControlRight = key D
ControlForwards = key W
ControlSkipMessage = key ENTER
ControlIconsTaskManagerDisplay = key TAB

=========================
====== STACKTRACE =======
=========================

retAddress = 00421646
retAddress = 00481B4B
retAddress = 0047ED2C
retAddress = 00486026
retAddress = 004B3966
retAddress = 004B4457
retAddress = 00426262
retAddress = 004D2C9A
retAddress = 7C816FD7
retAddress = 00000000
=========================

OS: XP home Edition (5.1, Build 2600
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3200+ MMX, 3DNow ~2.0Ghz
Memory: 1022 MB Ram

Graphics: Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro
Chip type: Radeon X700 PRO (0x5E4B)
Total Memory: Hmmm. It sez 'n/a'

Drivers: atidvag.dll
Version: 6.14.0010.6631
Date: 8/2/2006

Hope that this is enough to get some help. Let me know if you need more info.

/priapus21

xander · Postby **xander** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 5:13 am

Liam079 · Postby **Liam079** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 12:09 pm

This could possibly be my problem too, I'll check it out.

Edit:
Still no dice.

TinFoil · Postby **TinFoil** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 12:13 am

Are you playing any specific level? Or does it just... Crash?

priapus21 · Postby **priapus21** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 4:55 am

xander wrote:Please use the search link. This is a well known problem. A simple search for "E_OUTOFMEMORY" would have yeilded the following results:

http://forums.introversion.co.uk/darwin ... utofmemory
etc,
etc
xander

Thanks for the reply, xander.

Those two options (Hardware 3D Sound and Realtime FX) were actually off. It's one of the first things I tried when it happened. I should have mentioned that. Sorry.

It's definately happening at the later levels, but it's happened on the earlier levels as well. It actually did it again while I was in the middle of composing this and checking the setting in Darwinia. I hit <Esc> to get into options and it froze again, about six times in a row before it crashed the machine.

priapus21

priapus21 · Postby **priapus21** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 12:36 am

Ok, this is not making any sense to me ...
I've made all the suggested changes ...
I've turned evey conceivable option down to it's lowest setting, from soundcard setting to graphics, I've tried both renderlandscapemode = 0 and 1, as some posts suggest and i've upgrade and updated evey portion of my system that you have suggested.

It's making only a marginal improvement. I can stay in the game from between 1 and 10 minutes before it bombs and locks up my pc.

Don't get me wrong. I really, really like the game. It's different, refreshingly so actually, and I've manage to make to the 2nd-to-last level even with the constant crashes. I'm just confused. What am I missing? Why are others able to play this game while I am not? Is it due to the uniquec combination of my processor and graphics card and sound card? What is it? It's maddening.

I'm a pretty patient dude, and I'll try anything that you suggest. But I'm not a PC guru so I'm not coming up with some magical, spontaneous combo to fix this.

So, please, read my posts again, including Xander's answers and see if you can figure out what I've missed.

/priapus21.
[/b]

Liam079 · Postby **Liam079** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 12:50 am

Don't worry, it's not unique, mine seems to do exactly the same thing (Except I get no Black box unfortunatly) but I only had the patients to make it to the third level.

priapus21 · Postby **priapus21** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 4:35 am

Liam079 wrote:Don't worry, it's not unique, mine seems to do exactly the same thing (Except I get no Black box unfortunatly) but I only had the patients to make it to the third level.

Frankly, I'm at the point now where I don't really care anymore. I've devoted a lot of energy to this game to try and get it to work. I've been nice, polite, accomodating and friendly. I work for a helpdesk in a corporate environement, so I know how frustrating it can be from the "answer" side to deal with insensitve, technologically-challenged users.

I don't consider myself among that crowd. I note this however. I've paid for the game (US$33). It will not run as advertised. I don't give a fig how many people work at the company that produced the game, or how many thousands of people get it to work. I know this: I paid for the game. I've tried everything I can see to get it to work. I've never been rude, arrogant or annoying on the message boards, as far as I can tell, but when it comes to the bottom line, the game simply won't work as advertised.

What can I do? Spend more personal time on trying to tease out fixes from the forum? Wait for some "guru" to come to my resuce? Abandon this game as "unplayable"?

I think my choice is clear. "Suck it up", and move on. Frankly, at this point I don't believe there is a fix. So, I'll chalk this up to experience and move on. Like my football coach would say, "What you focus on will grow". I've focused too much time on this game so far, and it's not paying off in any way, shape or form.

So I think I've learned my lesson. Don't waste time on frivolous pursuits. no matter how attractive they may appear. They don't have a very high Return on Investment.

Good luck to those of you who are having the same issues. I hope you are able to resolve your problems. I'll be deleting this game from my pc, effective immediately, so I won't get to witness your successes. Pity. This game had so much potential, at least from my perspective. It "broke the mold", for "FPS and strategy games. I was totally sold on it's gameplay, strategic requirements and interface. I just can't in good faith spend any more time trying to get it to work!

/priapus

o and o.

/priapus21 - out!

xander · Postby **xander** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 10:59 pm

priapus21 wrote:
Liam079 wrote:Don't worry, it's not unique, mine seems to do exactly the same thing (Except I get no Black box unfortunatly) but I only had the patients to make it to the third level.

Frankly, I'm at the point now where I don't really care anymore. I've devoted a lot of energy to this game to try and get it to work. I've been nice, polite, accomodating and friendly. I work for a helpdesk in a corporate environement, so I know how frustrating it can be from the "answer" side to deal with insensitve, technologically-challenged users.

I don't consider myself among that crowd. I note this however. I've paid for the game (US$33). It will not run as advertised. I don't give a fig how many people work at the company that produced the game, or how many thousands of people get it to work. I know this: I paid for the game. I've tried everything I can see to get it to work. I've never been rude, arrogant or annoying on the message boards, as far as I can tell, but when it comes to the bottom line, the game simply won't work as advertised.

What can I do? Spend more personal time on trying to tease out fixes from the forum? Wait for some "guru" to come to my resuce? Abandon this game as "unplayable"?

I think my choice is clear. "Suck it up", and move on. Frankly, at this point I don't believe there is a fix. So, I'll chalk this up to experience and move on. Like my football coach would say, "What you focus on will grow". I've focused too much time on this game so far, and it's not paying off in any way, shape or form.

So I think I've learned my lesson. Don't waste time on frivolous pursuits. no matter how attractive they may appear. They don't have a very high Return on Investment.

Good luck to those of you who are having the same issues. I hope you are able to resolve your problems. I'll be deleting this game from my pc, effective immediately, so I won't get to witness your successes. Pity. This game had so much potential, at least from my perspective. It "broke the mold", for "FPS and strategy games. I was totally sold on it's gameplay, strategic requirements and interface. I just can't in good faith spend any more time trying to get it to work!

/priapus

o and o.

/priapus21 - out!

Jeebus... didn't even give me a chance to reply... I was out of town over the weekend, and you have already decided to give up. If that is what makes you happy, whatever.

You have asked for troubleshooting aid, but it would seem that you have not read the stickied topic about reporting bugs. If you had, you might have posted some system information (what kind of processor do you have? how many cores? what graphics card? &c.). The first reply of my was in response to the error you stated, which is, 99 times out of 100, caused by realtime fx and/or hardware 3D sound being enabled. If that had been the problem, it would have been an easy fix. It wasn't, so we need to begin troubleshooting more aggressively. For that, we need hardware specs.

At a guess, I would suppose that you are running on a dual (or more) core machine. Darwinia does not support multiple cores / processors. It needs to be told to use only one proc, which, I believe, can be done from the task manager. I would say "see if that helps," but you seem to have given up...

xander

priapus21 · Postby **priapus21** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 4:59 am

xander wrote:Jeebus... didn't even give me a chance to reply... I was out of town over the weekend, and you have already decided to give up. If that is what makes you happy, whatever.

You have asked for troubleshooting aid, but it would seem that you have not read the stickied topic about reporting bugs. If you had, you might have posted some system information (what kind of processor do you have? how many cores? what graphics card? &c.). The first reply of my was in response to the error you stated, which is, 99 times out of 100, caused by realtime fx and/or hardware 3D sound being enabled. If that had been the problem, it would have been an easy fix. It wasn't, so we need to begin troubleshooting more aggressively. For that, we need hardware specs.

At a guess, I would suppose that you are running on a dual (or more) core machine. Darwinia does not support multiple cores / processors. It needs to be told to use only one proc, which, I believe, can be done from the task manager. I would say "see if that helps," but you seem to have given up...

xander

Hi.
Sorry, I guess I sounded a bit like an a-hole, complaining about the game and then getting all pissy about it without really giving anyone a chance to reply. I apologize. I was frustrated with the amount of time spent trying to get the game to work. Since then I've uninstalled/reinstalled it and added the latest patch back in. Yeah, I know I said I was done with the game ... but I guess I just hate giving up. So I'd like to start from scratch.

Xander, I actually did read the sticky about reporting bugs and I did post my system specs, at the bottom of my first post. Here they are again:

OS: XP home Edition (5.1, Build 2600)
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3200+ MMX, 3DNow ~2.0Ghz
Memory: 1022 MB Ram

Graphics: Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro
Chip type: Radeon X700 PRO (0x5E4B)
Total Memory: 256 Mb

Drivers: atidvag.dll
Version: 6.14.0010.6631
Date: 8/2/2006

It's not a dual core processor, according to the specs, if that helps any.

Anyway, as I mentioned I uninstalled/reinstalled the game, applied the patch and took all the settings way down. It doesn't seem to make any difference. Often it will freeze if I'm just looking at the options screen. Once it freezes, the PC is a dead duck and locks up. I need to do a soft-boot to get it back again. I'm now almost completely unable to play the game. Average time to freeze-up is about 2 minutes. I do hear a fan speed up when the screen first freezes.
Maybe that helps?

I promise I'll be patient this time. And nice.

priapus21

Constant crashes to desktop

Constant crashes to desktop

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