Schrullenhaft

I'm not sure what the answer may be, so the following are some 'shot in the dark' guesses to try out. Do you have macros programmed with the Razer Synapse software ? I'm not aware of any specific issues with the Razer software (I use a DeathAdder V2 myself), but I don't have any specific macros or lighting programmed in. Do you have any custom mappings for your mouse or keyboard ? If so, try to set them for a default setting and see if that makes any difference. For Synapse I'm using version 3.7.731.72516, though I'm not really utilizing any features of it beyond the basic driver that gets installed. The Nvidia driver you're using is the one I'm using (512.15) and I haven't noticed any particular problems with CM and this driver either. What other USB devices do you have plugged in ? Your DXDiag report lists a couple with corrupted names (at least in English). Are you using Razer headphones for audio (especially if they are USB) ? If so, you may want to try unplugging the headphones and using the motherboard's Realtek audio (if you have a set of headphones or speakers that can use an audio jack). Are you using any mods (graphical or sound) ? If so, can you unload them (move them out of your Z or Data folders) and see if that makes a difference ? Do you use Reshade or any other post-processining software ? If so, then disable it and see if that also makes a difference.

Did you purchase the 3.0 and possibly 4.0 Upgrades at any time in the past ? If so, then you DO NOT need the Commonwealth and Market Garden installers. That content is already included in the 3.0 and 4.0 Upgrade installers which are considered 'all-in-one'. The only thing you need to do after installing the 'all-in-one' installer is to activate the appropriate license keys (if they have never been activated on this installation of Windows). If you have the 4.0 Upgrade and all of the Modules and Packs, then you only need to activate the following license keys: 3.0 Upgrade 4.0 Upgrade Commonwealth Module Market Garden Module Vehicle Pack Battle Pack

No way that I know of. Chromebooks use the ChromeOS which does NOT run Windows programs. You could potentially "remote in" to another computer running Windows from a Chromebook, but I don't know if that would really work well when running a full-screen game like CM. The other potential workaround MIGHT work if your Chromebook is an Intel CPU based Chromebook, but there's no guarantee that the WINE emulation would support CM sufficiently to run it.

What version of the game are you attempting to install and are you using an 'all-in-one' installer ? The version number of CM will appear in the lower right corner of the 'splach screen' when you load up the game. Are you just installing and licensing the base CMBN game or are there modules you are licensing too ? The module content actually gets installed along with the base game with the all-in-one installers, but it can't be used until you activate the license for that content (the module content, not the base game). When you activated the game, what license key did you use ? Was it for a version 3.0 Upgrade or 4.0 Upgrade ? Do you know when you purchased this particular copy of CMBN (which can possibly indicate what version the game was when you purchased it) ? Do you recall what text was in the green boxes there were on the screen once you successfully activated the game (unfortunately you can't 'go back and check them') ? These green boxes indicate the exact content that was activated. What videocard / videochip is in your son's computer ? If it is Intel (typically built-into the CPU and very common in laptops), then you might run into some issues depending on your driver version. If you Alt-Tab out of the game once you've clicked on a button and then re-maximize CM, does the display change at all (or simply go to a 'black screen') ?

What Nvidia videocard do you own ? Do you have any mods (visual or audio) installed ? Do you run any really high resolutions or perform post-processing effects on CM (such as ReShade) ? The Event Details you provided indicate that the Nvidia OpenGL driver is crashing. I'm not aware of the 516.59 driver having any specific problems, though I haven't personally used it. You may want to install FurMark 1.30.0.0, which is an OpenGL stress test. It should significantly heat up your GPU (intentionally) performing certain OpenGL routines. If you get crashing running FurMark, then your cooling or power delivery for the videocard may be suspect. There's the possibility of software issues, but usually problems with FurMark are more indicative of hardware issues. Is there an average amount of time that the game runs before you start experiencing problems ? CM tends to be CPU limited and the CPU's cooling and power delivery can be a source of problems too. You can install HWMonitor and run it in the background while running CM (or any other program that is crashing) and see what sort of temperature spikes or other issues you might be experiencing (with both your CPU and GPU). You'll need to Alt-Tab out of CM to check the temps (which will start dropping once you do that), but this could give you some insight into possible overheating issues.

This will likely need to be a fix coming from AMD rather than Battlefront. We have seen it a multitude of times where a newer driver misbehaves and nothing has changed on Battlefront's side. It can sometimes take up to a year to get a fix that ends up working properly (an issue that happened with CMSF1 back in 2009/2010 with AMD drivers). Video drivers can be notoriously buggy with a variety of games. They can work fine with one game and be an absolute mess with another. This is usually the result of 'performance optimizations' which can necessitate taking some 'shortcuts' that can prove problematic with some games. That's probably what you're experiencing here. Most games on Windows are DirectX and CM is OpenGL, which is rendered by different drivers within the driver bundle. In the past it was possible with some drivers to run a different (usually older) OpenGL driver with a newer DirectX driver/driver-bundle. However this really hasn't been a possibility for about a decade with AMD and Nvidia. My assumption is that the OpenGL and DirectX drivers are sharing resources/links within the driver bundle and a different OpenGL driver simply couldn't interact with the rest of the software of the driver bundle (this is especially true of 'control panels', but there are other things too).

CM is single-threaded in its execution with a few exceptions in the code that do utilize more than one core (loading scenarios and possibly some other things). So more cores in a CPU doesn't benefit CM a majority of the time. For CM's purposes single-core performance will be the feature that has the biggest impact. Within the same brand and generation of CPUs, clock-speed would be the most noticeable difference, though you can have differences in cache sizes, cache-efficiency and sometimes multi-core arrangements all within the same family that can have significant impact on performance. In general, CM does like higher clock speed CPUs, but a difference of only 100MHz might be almost undetectable in a majority of situations. Artkin's 5GHz CPUs require overclocking to reach those frequencies (which can potentially shorten the life of them if higher voltages are used). The 3.7GHz of the 3900X should be fine, in fact a single core on that CPU can boost up to 4.6GHz (without manual overclocking). There are some performance improvements with newer AMD Ryzen and Intel CPUs, but you're going to pay A LOT more for them and the performance difference may only be 20% in some cases - so a mildly noticeable improvement, but possibly not worth the price difference.

That system (Ryzen 9 3900X, GeForce RTX 2070S, 32GB) should be fine for both CM and Scourge of War or Arma 3. $1,300 sounds like a fair price, but don't quote me on the exact prices of used computers. Videocards tend to cost quite a bit now and that's been the case for the last 2+ years (thank you crypto-miners); so that 2070S makes up almost half or more of the price for what your friend is asking for the system. The CM series is mostly single-threaded (with a few exceptions) and are 32-bit programs, meaning it won't address more than 4GB of RAM directly itself. Systems can and should have more than 4GB of RAM, so the 32GB isn't absolutely overkill, but your games typically won't use it all. I believe the Scourge of War series is similar too (single-threaded, 32-bit programs). Arma 3 I don't know the details on and it may use more cores, though I don't think it would be 64-bit (meaning it could address more than 4GB of RAM). The Ryzen series helped AMD really improve their single-core performance and the 3000 series is just fine. The games typically won't use anything beyond one core, so i that case the 3900X's 12 cores do appear overkill. Future generations of CM games however MIGHT use more than one core (but possibly not for a lot of tasks/functions in the game).

If you haven't rebooted your computer since this error occurred, then perhaps rebooting it MIGHT help (or a shutdown and full power off rather than any 'sleep' mode). I don't fully understand what the exact 'clocks' are that were originally mentioned when this issue first surfaced about 20 years ago. At the time, for one user I believe, an update to their Dell BIOS seemed to have addressed the issue, though that may have been the true fix for the problem and just correlated to the issue not appearing with the next run of the game. There is a CMOS clock which your OS will typically reference (for your system clock) and then there may be a 'software timer/clock' that is something you may not see as an end user. This would likely be the internal time keeping of CMBB that meshes everything together, especially for turn-based game, but I don't really know the internal workings of the CM games. My guess is that somehow the system clock and the 'game clock' become unsynchronized and this causes turn playback issues, with one result being the especially notable 'standing-at-attention' figures. It would seem that by simply exiting the game and reloading it would resolve the issue, but that doesn't actually work. Perhaps this 'de-synchronization' gets recorded into the game save file and can't easily be overcome. By rebooting and then loading the game again the issue MIGHT go away within a turn or two, but I don't really know what the true fix for this issue is. When the original CM1 games came out (CMBO, CMBB and CMAK), multicore CPUs didn't quite exist for consumer computers. Now that they're commonplace and OSes support them extensively they can possibly cause issues with these older games. The most notable one is usually a really slow turn playback and rendering speed with the CM1 games. I'm not sure of the exact cause of this when it comes to multi-core CPUs and the way that the OS manages processing loads with them. My suggestion has been to set the game to utilize only one core as I mentioned in this CMBB thread. However I've seen that simply Alt-Tab'ing to minimize the game and then re-maximize it results in the same speed improvement of the game (you also Alt-Tab out and back into the game setting the Processor Affinity, so this may simply be the answer itself). The multi-core/threaded support of many video drivers MIGHT be a possible issue , but I don't really know. With Windows 8/10/11 it appears necessary to minimize the game and re-maximize it to refresh certain 2D menu screens that may go 'black' during the initial scenario selection and loading process.

Contact the Helpdesk (click on the blue '+ new ticket' button in the upper right) and they MAY be able to help you. Depending on how you purchased your CM games, the license keys may be printed on a sticker attached to the printed manual or often the disc case. If your purchase was a 'pre-release' that had both a download and a physical copy or a 'download only', then your license key would be stored in your Battlefront Store account. If you've changed email accounts and no longer have access, then if you can provide that account and other identifying info, it may be possible for the Helpdesk to change the account to something you can currently access.

If you have the license keys for both Market Garden and the Commonwealth Forces modules, then the 'Activate Modules' shortcut should be used and apply those license keys. With a successful activation the next screen shows, in green boxes, what has been successfully activated so far on this computer. If you get an error with your license keys, make sure that there is no 'white space' at then end or beginning of the license key (usually if you 'cut-and-paste' them). If you're certain you are entering them correctly, then you may want to contact the Helpdesk and provide your license keys and the error that you may be getting. If you've run out of activations they can be added to the license keys.

If you're running Windows 10 and your CM games are version 1.x, then you will likely get an error attempting to activate the game(s). You'll need at least the 2.0 Upgrade to activate any of the games under Windows 10 (though, just the latest version of CMSF1 and CM Afghanistan should work since they use a different copy-protection system). To upgrade to the latest version you can buy some of the 'upgrade bundles' such as this one for CMBN (3.0 and 4.0 Upgrades): https://www.battlefront.com/cmbn-upgrades/cmbn-upgrade-3-4-bundle/ There are upgrade bundles for other titles such as CMFI, etc. When it comes to installing the games and you've purchased the upgrades, then just use the 'upgrade installer', which is actually an all-in-one installer that will have all of the content and patches. Nothing else will need to be installed (I'm not absolutely certain of the latest patch, but it usually should have that too).

If you're speaking of the 3D game interface, then the 'menus' have only been located at the bottom of the screen and can't be placed anywhere else. The GoG.com releases only differ in that they don't have any of the copy-protection systems used in the past by Battlefront and other distributors. Otherwise they should be exactly the same as the Battlefront.com distributions of the games. The game initially starts out with some graphical selection buttons that can occasionally appear completely black (solid black screen), which can sometimes be 'refreshed' by minimizing the game (Alt-Tab) and then re-maximizing it (you may need to do this a few times with different screens until you reach the 3D game interface).

I'm not sure how long it takes to get the download links in your purchase history to work. Look for an email from Battlefront, especially in any Junk/Spam folders you may have since it can get automatically classified as such by many email systems. This email (there may be two in total regarding the order) should have the download link (Sharefile.com is where the files are hosted) and also list the license key for the game/bundle.

The current CM series will NOT be updated for Metal/Vulkan. That is a significant enough of a difference to require an engine re-write and to be cross-compatible it would have to be in Vulkan rather than in Metal. I believe the next engine should accommodate such issues, but the previous (current) games are NOT going to see an update to accommodate the deprecation of OpenGL on MacOS. The issue for the Radeons has always been the driver. I don't know what the differences are between the drivers that are supplied with the MacOS and the drivers that are developed for the Windows platform. I would say that they are almost completely the same except for a few specific details that Apple specifies that drivers supplied to them must have. This might result in better compatibility with games such as CM (better backwards compatibility with older OpenGL calls), while the Windows drivers may see some heavy optimization (and less support for older OpenGL calls) that causes problems with CM (the longer loading times). I've heard mention that CM puts out 'quads' for their 3D models instead of 'tri's' and maybe such 'quad' data is undergoing some sort of conversion (to 'tri's') during the loading process (this is simply a guess). Whereas the Nvidia driver seems to have less of an issue with this and maybe the MacOS Radeon driver does too. However such a change would suggest a significant difference at the core of the Radeon driver between MacOS and Windows.

I would guess some sort of Windows Update has changed this (not sure which one it could have been though). This used to be a setting that would be controlled by a GPU utility (such as Nvidia Control Panel), but Microsoft decided Windows should control such functionality with Windows 10 at some point. I don't think this feature was part of the earlier versions of Windows, but probably something more recent (20H1 or later ?). I would guess that this setting reverted to the Intel integrated video at some point. Luckily you discovered this since I was going to recommend uninstalling your current video driver and installing something newer (if that wasn't installed already).

Are you playing CMSF (Combat Mission Shock Force - 2008 Syrian invasion) or are you playing CMAK (Combat Mission Afrika Korps - WW2 North Africa) ? CMSF offers both a 'turn based' and a 'real time mode', while CMAK only offers a turn-based style of play. I assume you're running in a turn-based mode for the issue that you're having. A GeForce GTX 1660 Ti should be fast enough to play either game. CMSF is an OpenGL based game, while CMAK is a DirectX 5/6/7 based game. I'm not aware of any patches to either game that would address an issue of the 'turn progress button becoming unresponsive'. So for CMSF you do not get a response when clicking either the Play/Pause, Skip to End, Fast Forward or Rewind buttons ? Does the game remain unresponsive from here on out and you can't do anything at all or does the turn playback end and you can proceed to playing the next turn ?

I posted a response in the Tech Support forum asking about your OS. If you're running into issues with 10.15.x (Catalina) and your iMac Pro has a Radeon Pro Vega series video chip, then it looks like you're going to have issues with the entire CM series. The OpenGL drivers in Catalina seem to be broken when it comes to the Radeon Pro Vega series and I'm not aware of any fix beyond upgrading to a newer OS (since Apple only releases driver updates with OS updates/upgrades).

I'm not sure if transporter's issue was resolved with an OS/driver update or what. He was originally running 10.15.5, what OS version are you running currently ? What video chip do you have in your 2019 iMac Pro ? I've seen some models listed as having Radeon Pro 570X's, but the most common being the Radeon Pro Vega 56 or 64X. The Radeon Pro Vega and its drivers were probably at the heart of the original poster's issue and the update to the OS/driver fixed it (I assume).

CMSF2 was ONLY engine version 4.x; the latest patch being 2.04 (game version). The download link for your CMSF2 purchase will likely be the 2.03 version (that is what my download link has). You will likely need to download the 2.04 patch to be at the latest version.

Sometimes this issue may be due to corruption of the extracted files. You may want to use something like 7-Zip or Bandizip (or possibly WinRAR for .rar compressed files) to uncompress the installers. If necessary, right-click the installer and select 'Run as administrator' from the popup menu to run the installation program. Also you may want to temporarily disable any anti-virus/security software you're running in case it ends up interfering with the installation process.

The 'green' patches are the 1.01, 1.02 and 1.03 patches that MUST be consecutively applied. The patches are NOT cumulative, so you could not simply apply the 1.03 patch and be fully up-to-date. These patches are for the Battlefront version of the game, which will require the CMAK CD to be present in your optical drive in order for them to work. You will need CMAK to be fully installed before applying them and make sure you know the path to the CMAK installation, especially if it is not the default one (the patches may require you to specify this path). These patches do NOT do anything in regards to Windows compatibility. These patches mostly addressed minor data issues with the game (incorrect characteristics for vehicles, etc.). They all came out before Windows Vista (2003 time frame, I believe). There is/was a 1.04 patch that addressed a particular graphics bug seen under Windows Vista (and possibly later) that newer driver releases from Nvidia and AMD addressed (thus negating the need for the patch). The 1.04 patch utilized the eLicense copy-protection system and was NOT free. It is also no longer offered, so 1.03 is the latest patch for CMAK.

I'm not certain if CMSF1 has an all-in-one installer. I think the closest thing may be the '3 Module Bundle', which probably doesn't have the base game (which may require that the base game be updated to 1.10 BEFORE installing the module bundle).

With Nvidia videocards the issue is typically having FXAA Anti-aliasing enabled. Disable it within the Nvidia Control Panel > 3D Settings > Manage 3D settings > Program Settings tab > 'Add' button to create a profile for the CMBS Demo and browse for the executable file. Once this is set, make sure that 'Antialiasing - FXAA' is OFF. I'm not sure if there are other settings that make a difference for the text.

I assume that you're using Windows 10. If you go to the Start Menu > Settings > System > Sound > Advanced Sound Options section (near the bottom) > App volume and device preferences > do you see CMFB (CM Final Blitzkrieg) listed ? If so, what are the settings; is the Volume set to 100 and are the Output and Input settings set to 'Default' or something else ? Does sound work fine for any other application during the same session when CMFB will NOT work ?