Wierd problem with CMBB Special Edition

[Bigduke6]

Hello there Matt, you may remember me I am that guy in Ukraine. I like CMBB so much I eventually became owner of two (count 'em two!) copies of CMBB Special Edition, bought in the states from CDV. What an outstanding game!

One copy still runs great, but now for some wierd reason my second copy suddenly won't run. It did before. Afrika Korps runs like a champ on my machine. CMBO I don't play.

I can give you or some one else at BFI the details from the error message(s), but before I do I want to ask, maybe I should be talking to CDV or some one else about this.

[Schrullenhaft]

If you just swap the CDs (the CDV CMBB Special Edition games) does the non-functioning install work or does it still not work ? If you can just swap the CDs and the game will work, then you'll probably have to talk to CDV (in Germany ?) and request a replacement CD.

Do you know if you're getting read errors on the non-functioning computer ? Are all of your working games CDV titles (and not ones purchased from BFC directly) ? I'm not sure of the exact copy protection that CDV has used on each title (it may have changed a bit over the years), but on occasion there are drive incompatibilities with the copy-protection technology. In fact, it may be possible that a drive that once read the discs can no longer read them due to the nature of the copy protection mechanism and the physical aging of the CD/DVD drive's components/motors.

If you're not getting read errors (which would pretty much just occur during the game load up and subsequent copy protection check), then we'll definitely need to know the errors that you're getting. It would be fairly strange that CMAK would work on such a computer, but that CMBB wouldn't. If that is the case, then CMBB may need to be reinstalled (or possibly just re-patched with the latest CDV-compatible patch).

One other caveat. The CMBB titles (at least the BFC versions) need to be sequentially patched (i.e. - 1.01, then 1.02 and finally 1.03) without skipping any previous versions. CMAK on the other hand (again, at least with the BFC versions) on requires the latest patch to be fully up to date. If you don't patch CMBB sequentially you probably won't run into a problem of the game not working (I don't think), but you can get missing textures, etc.

Uh... come to think of it, the CDV CMBB Special Edition probably doesn't need to be re-patched since it is already at 1.03. So don't patch it.

[Bigduke6]

Hello there Schrullenhaft,

To take your remarks point by point:

"If you just swap the CDs (the CDV CMBB Special Edition games) does the non-functioning install work or does it still not work"

No change if I swap out the CDs. Same deal as before, game launch appears to fail as soon as the drum-roll music begine.

What's more, the same problem occurs even if there is no CD in the drive.

This leads me to believe that something in the intitial execution routine is busted, and so, logically, if I could somehow rewrite the .exe file onto the present one, I should fix the problem.

But before I rip the game (which I have modded like mad off my hard drive and try a reinstall, I thought I should talk to some one smart.

"Do you know if you're getting read errors on the non-functioning computer ?"

Don't know what you mean by this. Pls explain.

"Are all of your working games CDV titles (and not ones purchased from BFC directly) ?"

My working version of CMAK is the U.S. version patched to 1.03. I have run CDV's version of CMBB (CM2) on my machine with no particular difficulties, but decided that rather than patch the thing I would just buy special edition, which I did. But yes, I have run other CDV products on my machine.

"In fact, it may be possible that a drive that once read the discs can no longer read them due to the nature of the copy protection mechanism and the physical aging of the CD/DVD drive's components/motors."

That doesn't make sense to me. Why would CDV build in a copy protection mechanism that would, eventually, make their product disfuntional?

In my case I doubt that's an issue, I replaced by CD drive less than a year ago.

"If you're not getting read errors (which would pretty much just occur during the game load up and subsequent copy protection check), then we'll definitely need to know the errors that you're getting."

Ok, here is a step-by-step of what happens. Like I say, it's sort of mystfying:

1. I launch the game. Night on Walpurgis Mountain music kicks in.

2. Black screen. It goes away.

3. CDV screen. It goes away.

4. Battlefront.com screen. It goes away.

5. Black screen.

6. Music skips, and the second stanza or so repeats. Not from the beginning, but maybe 15 seconds into the music. After the strings and the winds, when the French horns start playing. (I think they're French Horns, anyway.)

7. The bar plays, skips, and returns to the second stanza and the French Horns. And so forever. Launch is halted, it won't go further. Clearly at least the music is in some kind of loop.

8. The only way to bail from this is through Alt-Tab.

9. Once I hit Alt-Tab I get the following Windows error message:

Unhandled Exception: C000005

At Address: 51029d81

As long as I am looking at the error message, the music continues to play.

10. The error message contains an "ok" button. I use the mouse to push it. The error message goes away, and the music stops.

11. I get the following pop-up:

The instruction at "0x51029d81 referenced memory at "0x00000004". The memory "could not be read."

The music stops as soon as the pop-up pops up.

12. As soon as I close the pop-up, the game is shut down.

That's what happens.

My unexpert evaluation is that some bug crept into the .exe routine at the point where the music is playing, and that is keeping the launch from proceeding.

Therefore, according to my less than qualified logic, the solution is a reinstallation.

This I am keen to avoid if I can as I have modified my .bmp and .wav files out the yin-yang. Yes I can copy them somewhere and stick them back in once the game is reinstalled, but perhaps there is an easier way....

Thanks for yer response.

[Wicky]

Previous Topic: Unhandled Exception c000005 problem

Hope this helps

[Bigduke6]

Wicky,

Thanks for the web reference, no it didn't help. I made dupes of the heavily modded .wav .bmp and .cme files, wiped the game, reinstalled it, and reinstalled the dupes on top. Several hours of file copying but now the thing works, problem gone.

Nothing like the brute force approach, I guess.

[Schrullenhaft]

I can only guess that the executable had file corruption.

My previous comment:

In fact, it may be possible that a drive that once read the discs can no longer read them due to the nature of the copy protection mechanism and the physical aging of the CD/DVD drive's components/motors.

I'm not sure of the exact method of copy protection that CDV is using on Combat Mission II. However several copy protection schemes use a method of writing errors into the CD and then reference these errors in the executable/copy protection code. CD copying programs can often skip writing these "errors", which makes the CD uncopyable (and therefore less likely to be pirated - at least in one particular manner). It's possible (though not too likely) that a CD/DVD drive can age that it won't read the errors properly. The most common problem with these copy protection schemes is that some drive firmware may not respond to the "errors" in the same manner, thus making the game unuseable on certain drives.

A slightly quicker way to avoid excessive copying is to backup the original executable and perform the fresh install to a different directory (I assume CDV allows you to specify the drive and/or directory to install to) and then just copy over the executable file and see if the old installation works.

Most often the errors that you can directly point to CM as being the culprit are due to file corruption of the main executable.