Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrghhhhh!!! For the love of God...help!

[Gary T]

Congrats on Gold Demo - looks great etc. However….I’ve been trying to play the Gold Demo for the last hour and unfortunately have not been able to complete two consecutive turns. Every time the game has crashed but in different ways. The twelve crashes are as below:

1. Got a ding during resolution phase - game froze up. Windows still okay.

2. Got a blue screen OE - something to do with VxD but didn’t make a note (see others below). Had to reboot.

3. See 1.

4. Got a blue screen with the following: An exception OE has occurred at 0028:C02BAD57 in VxD VMOUSE (03) + 00000a17. This was called from 028:c02BAD2C in VxD VMOUSE (03) + 000009EC. Returned to game - screen had black flashing black polygons, no trees or buildings, units were still there but unresponsive. Windows okay.

5. Just froze completely - no ding - during orders. Couldn’t access Windows (Ctrl Alt Del wouldn’t work either). Had to reboot.

6. See 5.

7. See 1.

8. See 1 but happened during orders.

9. See 8.

10. Complete Crash - black screen although ambient sounds were still playing. Had to reboot as C+A+D produced nothing.

11. Got a blue screen with message: An exception OE has occurred at 0028:C0049b9BB in VxD LMOUSE (01) + 00000E87. Returned to game - screen had bick flashing black polygons, no trees or buildings, units were still there but unresponsive. Windows okay.

12. See 1.

Also, because I have had to reboot every time, I have had the video check box 12 times - on two of the occasions it chose 640x480 and on the others 800x600. I exited straight after last start so it created a Pref file - then restarted but still crashed.

My system is a PII300, 64MB RAM, Riva TNT 1 with 16MB (with latest Riva drivers), Logitech mouse, W95 with DX7. I have tried turning some of the graphic options down but this has made no difference. Anyone else out there (apart from Molyneaux) with same probs?

TIA,

Gary.

PS Had no problems (apart from the same as everyone else) with the Beta Demo - managed to play all scenarios through with no crashes.

[Fionn]

It definitely sounds to me as though you're having a problem centred on your graphics card.

CM is damn stable ( I haven't had a crashbug for about 3 months) so I'd have to say that most problems we'll find are to do with hardware.

In ur case it sure looks like video driver problems. Have you done the usual, check they're all up to date?

If that doesn't work.. do you have a spare old 3D card around somewhere which you could pop in to try out?

[slazzari]

This looks like a Logitech Mouse driver problem. Here is some information from my Microsoft Technet:

SYMPTOMS

========

The fourth and fifth mouse buttons may not be recognized by Windows. This

applies to the typical mouse, as well as to integral mouse hardware on some

laptop computers.

CAUSE

=====

The mouse drivers included with Windows 98 and Windows 98 Second Edition do not

support the 5-button mouse.

RESOLUTION

==========

A supported fix that corrects this problem is now available from Microsoft, but

it has not been fully regression tested and should be applied only to systems

experiencing this specific problem.

To resolve this problem, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the

fix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services phone numbers and

information on support costs, please go to the following address on the World

Wide Web:

http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/overview/overview.asp

Date Time Version Size File name

---------------------------------------------------

02/25/2000 06:08pm 4.10.2223 10,123

Mouhid.vxd

06/14/1999 05:35pm 4.10.2223 15,833 Msmouse.vxd

06/14/1999 05:37pm 4.10.2223 33,356 Vmouse.vxd

It sounds to me like either your software needs to be updated, your mouse is going bad, or a Direct Input issue with DirectX. I would reload your mouse drivers first, and if that doesnt help, reload DirectX 6 or 7. But the multiple errors in LMOUSE.vxd and VMOUSE.vxd definately indicate a mouse input problem.

Good luck!

[Schrullenhaft]

Logitech has some newer drivers (assuming that you're using Logitech and not Microsoft's Logitech drivers).

Mouseware 9.0:

http://www.logitech.com/cf/support/mousefiles.cfm

Unfortunately newer drivers can also be problematic. Save a copy of your older ones in case these cause more problems. There was also an issue with cursors with the Beta. Go with the standard "Windows Default" ones.

For your video card here are NVidia's latest OEM drivers (that are released on their website - there are newer ones on other websites: v. 5.x).

Detonator 3.68 (there's a PCI and an AGP version):

http://www.nvidia.com/Products/Drivers.nsf

It is also possible that you may have to unistall previous video drivers, clean out your registry and install a generic Win 9x SVGA driver - THEN install the lastest video driver. You may want to try the same with your mouse.

[Gary T]

Fionn,Slazzari,Schrullenhaft:

Thanks alot for the advice. I updated my Logitech mouse drivers to 8.32 and reinstalled my Riva drivers (I already had the latest ones). And hey presto! I've just managed to play an entire scenario no problems. I even won!

Gary.

[Fionn]

My pleasure Gary. Glad to see it worked.

------------------

Ask me politely and you'll get a complete and polite response. Act impolitely and I'll ignore you forever. Your choice.

This sig is so NO-ONE can say they haven't been warned about my stance on this subject.

[slazzari]

Glad I could help! Enjoy the Gold Demo, I know I am!

ps - Fionn - I *love* the new .sig

[Fionn]

Believe it or not but I've already gotten into "trouble" for my new sig.

It seems that my sig is "creating trouble" but the people who call me hypocrite and liar aren't. Sometimes I wonder if there's any such thing as natural justice.

Care for a game Slazarri? Any scenario, any side. Just send me the setup if you're interested.