CMAK Demo causing Outlook to Crash

[Holien]

Hi,

I have been playing the demo and sending turns via Outlook. I usually keep Outlook up when playing the game and logged on Internet so I can hear any turns arriving while doing a turn.

This SOP works well with CMBB but since playing the CMAK Demo Outlook has started to crash and I am wondering if anyone else has had this.

The other problem is when I jump out of CMAK to the desktop (Win 98) I then jump back into the game and the two blocks of graphics lower left and lower right of the screen show the desktop and flash very quickly.

To re-set this I goto the briefing and come back out and everything is re-set and looks fine.

Anyone else have similar issues?

It does not stop game play but just minor points.

H

[Monty]

No problems on my side.

We need some more info about your system:

Which type of video card are you using ?

Which video drivers are you using?

Which version of Outlook (Express?) ?

Monty

[Holien]

Ok...

More when I get home from work, just posted to see if anyone else had had this.

H

[Holien]

Right just had it happen again.

I was in the process of watching a video turn from CMAK and sending in the background a e-mail turn to a friend.

The game dropped to desk top (Still active) but displayed on screen the following message.

MSIMN caused an invalid page fault in

module DIRECTDB.DLL at 017f:01bf6bb1.

Registers:

EAX=00000000 CS=017f EIP=01bf6bb1 EFLGS=00010246

EBX=01efd234 SS=0187 ESP=01efd088 EBP=01efd240

ECX=00000000 DS=0187 ESI=01c194d4 FS=4657

EDX=00000000 ES=0187 EDI=800c0131 GS=0000

Bytes at CS:EIP:

83 78 60 00 75 07 8b ce e8 d9 e4 ff ff ff 76 0c

Stack dump:

00000000 016734d0 007df252 01c194d4 01efd234 007e01be 01672490 01efd234 007df47b 016724e0 01efd234 00000000 016734d0 016724e0 074002e0 00000001

Outlook Express crashed out halfway through sending the file. The game was still ok and I re-accessed it (after answering message) and could continue to watch the video.

However the game has two blocks of black on the bottom toolbar (far left and far right). These were now flashing alternating between black and white and as I could not hit the briefing button (watching vid) I had to put up with the effect until the vid stopped and I could exit the game.

I am using the latest Outlook Express.

I am Second Ed Win 98.

It is a AMD 1.3 processor.

The Vid card is Geforce 2. Not with the latest drivers as these caused me some problems some time ago.

I have never had this error message before CMAK and my life (sad as it is)is just one long CM game. So I play no other games / do very little else with the PC.

It is not a great problem, just FYI.

H

[Schrullenhaft]

The files you listed are OutLook Express crashing itself (at least that is the net effect). The latest version of the DIRECTDB.DLL is 6.00.2800.1123 (at least on a Win2K system it is), this also corresponds to the OutLook Express version.

How do you connect to the internet, is it some sort of broadband connection or is it modem-dialup ? If it's dialup, do you drop your connection when OutLook Express crashes ? Does this problem occur only when you're sending email or does it also occur when you're receiving email ? Do you have any instant messaging clients loaded up in the System Tray (even if they're inactive) ?

The two lower corners seem to have some minor graphical problems at the moment. What you see drawn in them probably isn't an indicator of any problems per se, but of a 2D refresh of that part of the screen. Other people have seen text remenants on that part of the screen (that come from CMAK), so I assume that this is just a minor graphical glitch.

Can you play a CMBB session the same way (currently) and not experience a problem ? I know you said that CMAK was the only one to cause this problem, but it would be interesting to see if you now have a problem with CMBB or CMBO.

[Holien]

Hi,

Sorry for delay in response to this but the BBS was down last night when I tried to check for any responses.

Right in answer to your questions.

1.I have no chat clients loaded.

2. It is an ISDN link and hence a dial in.

3. When I play CMBB or CMBO I have never had this problem. I tend to use the same modus operadi for those games.

4. The modem does not drop and seems a fairly clean crash. In that I can reload Outlook and re-send the file it was sending without rebooting the PC.

5. The graphical problem is independant of this crashing problem and can be re-created at will be dropping out to the desktop from the game and then going back to the game. As I say by hitting the briefing button in game and then coming back to the game fixes this.

6. Thinking about this it could be always when playing a video and sending an e-mail. I shall check this tonight if I get a chance.

As I say I can work around it but it is interesting to see if there is a problem.

Thinking further there is one program that I have running while playing the game and that is a small utility to re-connect me if I drop the line. I forget the name but it saves me having to try to connect and constantly redials until I get back in.

When I have the crash the ISDN line has been up and running so it is not tied to the phone line going down.

Also while playing the game the window (small one) which displays this re-connect program keeps track of the time on line. This flickers through the game screen every now and then. It is as if the game screen can not handle drawing graphics over the top of this window.

I have used this program with CMBB and it has been on the PC for quite a long time. I will check tonight if it causes the same graphic problem with CMBB. I don't think it does, but will double check.

H

[Frenchy]

Holien:

I have not had the crash that you had but I do have the same graphical glitch..ie, the pics in the corner seem to flash or have that "snow effect". I have emailed Matt about this and sent him my system info.

I do not have the problem in CMBO and CMBB.

Just FYI..

[Schrullenhaft]

As you've surmised the graphic problem is unrelated to your email crashing problem. It is a problem with the 2D portion of the screen refreshing. Other people have experienced this problem and you may have heard it mentioned as 'text thingys' in these lower corner areas. Not everyone experinces this problem and it may vary with the particular driver and particular video card you have installed (i.e. - certain drivers along with certain video cards may be more likely to experience this problem).

I realize that CMBB & CMBO don't have this problem, but have you tried to send an PBEM turn in the background while playing these games lately ? How consistent is the problem of sending a PBEM and having OutLook Express crash - does it do this every time you send a PBEM in the background ? Does it only crash while you're playing back a turn or will this happen while you're giving orders too ?

Not that it would make a huge difference with what is occurring here, but are you compressing the files that you're sending ?

[Holien]

Right update on last nights events.

I was wrong it does happen with CMBB and it happens either playing a Vid or planning a turn.

This could now mean that it is something changed on my system.

The only recent update to my system was a recent security patch by MS.

This was applied upon my return from holiday on the 23rd Nov.

Before my holiday I did not have this problem and the only change was the loading of the CMAK demo and this security patch.

I can not unload the security patch as I am on Win 98 (tell me if I am wrong in this view) so I shall have to live with the problem unless I can work out the exact cause.

I guess I could try and replicate the problem by running other games while sending mail.

Hmmmm

Am I missing anything?

H

[Monty]

Bit offtopic:

I read/hear regularly about problems after installing security "updates"

I myself have W XP with SP1.

Is this good enough? Im afraid to install any additional "updates"

Can i uninstall those security patches with XP ?

Monty

[Schrullenhaft]

Most 'security patches' can be uninstalled, unless they're part of a Service Pack (which is often a collection of security patches). The 'Add/Remove Programs' control panel should list the OS patches that have been installed. The problem is that you'll have to know the 'Knowledgebase number' or something to that effect to know what to uninstall. You can search for the ones you have installed on the Microsoft Support page.

Some patches however can't be uninstalled (like DirectX). I'm not specifically aware of patches that can't be uninstalled on Win98 that can on other Windows versions.

Regarding the OutLook Express problem, you may want to check your settings for the 'account' (Tools > Options > Security tab or other tabs). Microsoft annoyingly turns on some settings with each security patch. Possibly reviewing some of these might help, though I don't know why a security setting would cause OutLook Express to crash.

During any install its a fairly good idea to turn off your anti-virus software, just to make sure something doesn't get screwed up.

[ December 04, 2003, 01:00 PM: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ]

[Holien]

Thanks for listening and sorry to have raised any concerns.

I will let you know if I get any further with it.

Cheers

H

[Holien]

Just a quick update on this issue.

Solved.

It happens when you get too many e-mails sat in your sent folder in Outlook.

Solution is to clear down all the mails sent to all your gaming opponents.

Then tidy up outlook using maintenance tools.

Crap error message outlook gives which gives you no clue. Apparently it becomes unstable if you have too much in the sent folder.

Anyway after doing that and using the repair IE option all is well again.

So apologies for crying wolf. Just so happened that I hit that e-mail limit at same time as loading CMAK demo.

H