CMFI won't start - nothing happens

[rocketman]

Worked fine yesterday. Other CM games work. When I click shortcut, try to run from .exe or even via Razer Control nothing happens at all. Doesn't seem to try to load, no error messages, no nothing. I have made no changes or updates to my PC since it last worked. Weird and annoying. What should I do/check? And yes, I tried a restart

Edit: tried starting in administrator mode as well

Edited December 17, 2019 by rocketman

[A Canadian Cat]

Joy /s

Do you have CMFI's install directory in your anti virus exclude list?

[rocketman]

57 minutes ago, IanL said:

Joy /s

Do you have CMFI's install directory in your anti virus exclude list?

I don't know what the install directory is, but I put the EXE on the exclude list and will try what happens. Never have had to put any CM games on exclude to play (Windows Defender).

Edit: didn't help, by the way what did you mean by "Joy /s"?

Edited December 17, 2019 by rocketman

[A Canadian Cat]

3 hours ago, rocketman said:

I don't know what the install directory is, but I put the EXE on the exclude list and will try what happens. Never have had to put any CM games on exclude to play (Windows Defender).

Sorry it didn't work. By default the install is in C:\Program Files x86\Battlefront\... etc. If you right click on the short cut you use to launch it and display the properties you can see where the .exe is in that dialog.

3 hours ago, rocketman said:

Edit: didn't help, by the way what did you mean by "Joy /s"?

Normally if I am face to face with a friend upon hearing a frustrating story I would say "Joy" or "Awesome" or "Great" but in a way that told them I was being sarcastic and therefore meant the exact opostie. /s is short for sarcastic kinda like colon close parentheses means smile face.

[rocketman]

Looks like a reinstall 

[A Canadian Cat]

2 minutes ago, rocketman said:

Looks like a reinstall 

Good luck

...I actually mean that...

Edited December 17, 2019 by IanL

[rocketman]

So which of my purchases contains the full download? I have all modules and upgrades.

[Kevin2k]

I am wondering: What is your Operating System? Did you upgrade to CMFI v2.10 since yesterday?

[rocketman]

Nope. Played PBEMs and used the editor yesterday. Went to bed and today - nothing. Barely touched the PC.

My system is Win 10 with no updates since yesterday.

I'm downloading the full installer now but sadly the download speed is abysmal. On a 100 Mbit fixed line.

[Kevin2k]

Nevermind then. ( I just know that CMFI behaves like that on Windows XP  since update v2.10. Then when using Windows Task Manager you can see CMFI is actually running as a process, taking up memory, but showing no screen or message.  One then has to terminate the process from there, or reboot.)

Edited December 17, 2019 by Kevin2k

[rocketman]

I checked that too. No sign of a process running either. It'l like the PC decided to uninstall the game on its own but left all the files for show.

[Kevin2k]

AFAIK: As long as the files are there these games will run. There is nothing else to it except for the licensing, and in case the licensing is not proper you get the usual licensing interface.

[rocketman]

First time trying with this one installer thing. Confused. The latest via R2V was a 2 GB file and that is called "CM Fortress Italy v210 Updater" which implies that I should have another file. Which?

[rocketman]

OK, things are getting really weird. Dowloaded the master download thanks to a friendly chap sending me the link. Tried to uninstall CMFI and nothing, I mean nothing, disappeared. Again it was like my PC couldn't even recognize the existence of the game. So I manually deleted all the files, restarted and installed from the master file onto an external drive. Everything looks like it always does and no hiccups in the installation process. Great, now only to activate module...but wait, the PC doesn't run the activate new products feature and like above, absolutely nothing happens. Tried to run the game just to see if I would get the game to start and show me that it needs to be activated, but again nothing.

CMFI is now Schroedingers Game, it is both dead and alive at the same time. And I'm clueless. Never seen any program behave in this way.

Helpdesk here I come. 

[Sgt.Squarehead]

I reckon this may well be an anti-virus issue.....All my CM games are installed to their own directory and that entire directory is added to my exclude list. 

I'm running Win10 on a very modern system, everything works just fine.

Lighting the Bat-Signal.....If anyone can help you, @BFCElvis can. 

[BFCElvis]

15 minutes ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Lighting the Bat-Signal.....If anyone can help you, @BFCElvis can. 

He beat you to it. We've been working since this morning.  

[rocketman]

1 hour ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

I reckon this may well be an anti-virus issue.....All my CM games are installed to their own directory and that entire directory is added to my exclude list. 

I'm running Win10 on a very modern system, everything works just fine.

Lighting the Bat-Signal.....If anyone can help you, @BFCElvis can. 

Thanks for the Bat-Signal, but as it looks now Batman wouldn't be up to the task, not even the entire Avengers squad. But SuperElvisMan (or what is you superhero name? Mine is obviously rocketman) just might and he ain't quitting yet.

[AVR]

Were you able to get it working?

I've been having the same problem with CMFI for a few months now.

CMFB works fine and up until a couple of months ago so did CMFI. I played my turn in a H2H game, quit and later in the day tried to launch the game for another turn but all I get was the blue windows spinning circle for about a second then nothing. Uninstalled and reinstalled probably 5 times with no effect. Then I managed to get it running a few times by either,

1. Running the .exe as administrator (worked for a about a week)

2. Moving / copying the .exe in and out of the directory (worked for about 2 weeks)

Then for some reason that I don't have the technical skill to understand - neither of the techniques worked anymore (only came across them on the forums).

The only fix that consistently worked was to launch the game through Steam but it makes it a stuttering, laggy bitch to play and a miserable experience.

Tried uninstalling again and this time around I cant even get the activation menu to load after install - just the little blue windows circle for a second again then just me starring at my desktop while voicing profanity. (even after running the EngineGSClean tool from Battlefront). Managed to get the activation screen to load when launching through steam but now I'm back to the laggy experience.

I know its got nothing to do with my antivirus as out frustration to identify the issue I uninstalled it completely just to check if the game would launch - it doesn't.

I want to add CMBN and CMRT to my collection but I cant get pass taking a $200+ gamble for a product that might not work, spent a week downloading every single mod and scenario for these titles in preparation for the purchase.

Desperately curious if you were able to fix it and if so how?

 

 

 

 

Edited June 19, 2020 by AVR

[Schrullenhaft]

If you're running Windows 10, then Windows Defender Antivirus may have become active if you uninstalled your AV program. If that's the case, then you'll want to add an exclusion within Windows Defender for CMFI. You will want to exclude both the game executable and the game folder (just in case). When you uninstalled your AV program was it with the uninstaller (via the Apps control panel) or did you have to run an utility ? You may want to double-check with that AV provider's website to see if an utility might be necessary or helpful in removing the AV program fully (in case something is 'left behind').

Something is definitely interfering with the running of CMFI. I doubt that the game has suddenly become 'incompatible' with your system and it is somewhat unlikely that the game files have become corrupt (a reinstall would easily fix that, if that were the case). Is this a laptop or a desktop ? If it is a laptop and you have both the integrated Intel video and a dedicated GPU, then you'll want to add a profile for CMFI game/executable in the dedicated GPU's control panel/app so that the game will run on the GPU rather than the Intel integrated video. Intel video often can work to a limited degree, but when it does the text can be blurry/unreadable and the performance will definitely be sub-par. Frequently Intel video may run into problems where the game may not run (which you MIGHT be experiencing here if this is a laptop).

[AVR]

Thanks for the response,

Added the .exe and folder to the Windows Defender exclusion list. Didn't help.

Will have to double check with our IT guy at the office he ran the AV uninstall if he made use of a utility.

Laptop - I've been through the blurry text issue when I first purchased so I know about the dedicated GPU profile adjustments to avoid it - that's not the issue through steam.

 

 

 

[rocketman]

3 hours ago, AVR said:

Thanks for the response,

Added the .exe and folder to the Windows Defender exclusion list. Didn't help.

Will have to double check with our IT guy at the office he ran the AV uninstall if he made use of a utility.

Laptop - I've been through the blurry text issue when I first purchased so I know about the dedicated GPU profile adjustments to avoid it - that's not the issue through steam.

 

 

 

If I remember correctly when I installed I had missed one license key which was with a CMBN purchase at the same time (engine update probably). So carefully check your purchase history.

Edit: I also installed from the all-in-one file.

Edited June 19, 2020 by rocketman

[Schrullenhaft]

When you get the 'blue circle', do a Ctrl-Alt-Del and launch the 'Task Manager'. In the Processes tab look for the CM Fortress Italy.exe file and see if it is present (and whether it is 'Not Responding', etc.). If it is 'Not Responding', then 'End Task' on it. If it is still present, close up the Task Manager and see what happens (wait several minutes). Do you still continue to get the 'blue circle' endlessly or does that stop ? If it stops, go back to the Task Manager and see if CM Fortress Italy.exe is still present (it can be within the Apps section or the 'Background processes' section.

After running the GSClean utility, have you been able to re-activate CMFI (and whatever modules you have) ? If you have activated again, did this require running the game through Steam (to activate) ?

If adding the exclusion didn't work try temporarily disabling 'Real-time protection' in Windows Defender.

I'm not sure why the game performs with so much lag when launched via Steam. Does the text look good or is it blurry like it was if the game was running on the Intel video ? I don't know what parts of the Steam interface would work with the CM games and if the interface would cause draw performance problems for CM. More importantly, I have no idea why the game would launch through Steam, but not directly. Almost as if Steam were running some sort of interference on whatever prevents the game from running directly from the Desktop.

Are you installing CMFI to the default directory or to a custom one ? This shouldn't make any difference to my knowledge. Moving the executable "in and out of the directory" sounds strange and I have no idea why it would have worked in this situation. If it was just the executable I would think that it would have problems finding the other data files to run the game. That particular 'solution' is something I've heard of with Macs, but I'm unfamiliar with it on PC/Windows.

You may want to delete the (Nvidia ?) game profile in your GPU control panel/app and recreate it (with only default settings) and see if that makes any difference. Typically the game does like 'Triple Buffering' (an OpenGL setting), though not having that set should not affect the game launching.

What are the shortcut properties for CMFB (typically in the 'Compatibility' tab) ? Make sure your CMFI shortcut matches those (other than the game directory, etc.).

Edited June 20, 2020 by Schrullenhaft

[Erwin]

This sounds eerily like my own issue re unable to launch any CM2 game on a brand new Win 10 machine.  My IT guy opined that perhaps the CM2 software is not compatible with the latest Win 10 OS.

Have been waiting a couple weeks to see if a new Win 10 update solved the issue.  Will be interested in what checklist you guys run through for AVR to get his running.

[AVR]

6 hours ago, rocketman said:

If I remember correctly when I installed I had missed one license key which was with a CMBN purchase at the same time (engine update probably). So carefully check your purchase history.

Edit: I also installed from the all-in-one file.

Bought the Big Bundle with all the modules so I only have the one license key.

[AVR]

@Schrullenhaft - Thanks will try and post the results.