CMSF crashes when it tries to start

[Ruthless]

Something recently updated on my PC. Zone Alarm definitely just updated, but there may have been some minor WinXP update or something that also occurred in the background. Now, when I double-click on the executable or the shortcut to start CMSF, I get the "CM Shock Force.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close" before even seeing a splash screen.

This problem has never occurred before and AFAIK all my other applications work fine.

I tried uninstalling, deleting the directory, then re-installing. Still doesn't work. Tried same but patched to 1.08 version (was previously successfully running 1.20 version with Brits and Marines modules), still crashes when I try to start it.

[Schrullenhaft]

Have you disabled your ZoneAlarm security ? I'm not that familiar with using the current package, but you may want to add an "exception" for CMSF and for a file "\Windows\Runservice.exe" which is a service involved with eLicense that should be running to allow any eLicense game to run. Some anti-virus programs may interpret 'Runservice.exe' and Battlefront games as virus/trojans due to the way the eLicense system works (it hides itself in a manner similar to trojans).

I'm not aware (at this point) of any Windows updates to Windows XP that would cause problems with CMSF. ZoneAlarm is the most likely culprit, unfortunately.

[Ruthless]

I should have mentioned I've tried running with Zone Alarm turned off (and I tried manually shutting down all background processes that look like they might possibly interfere.) I have not previously had any problems with Zone Alarm interfering with CMSF, so I tend to think that some update maybe modified a file CMSF shares with other programs. I should also add that CMBB and CMAK both start just fine.

[Schrullenhaft]

CMBB and CMAK are DirectX games, while CMSF is an OpenGL game. Are all of your games based on eLicense or are your copies of CMBB and CMAK using disc-based copy protection ?

I'm not specifically aware of a system file that CMSF is particularly dependent on that would cause a problem other than video drivers and possibly some of the Microsoft OpenGL DLLs associated with them. I'm not quite sure if CMSF is dependent on any of the Microsoft supplied OpenGL DLLs either.

If you believe it is a Windows update and not ZoneAlarm, you could go to Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs control panel > make sure that "Show updates" is checked and then look through the Microsoft-related updates most likely those under "Windows XP - Software Updates", though not all updates seem to appear in this list. If you find a recently installed update, you can possibly uninstall it and see if CMSF behaves differently.

You could possibly update your DirectX (this is NOT reversible, typically). This installer is just a partial web-based component that will download the necessary modules to update your install of DirectX. Of course CMSF is only based on OpenGL rather than DirectX, but it MAY be worth doing.

[Moon]

My bet would be on ZoneAlarm any day of the week. I don't have ZA so I don't know if it's the worst documented piece of software on the planet or not, but it definitely pops up in support issues very often, blocking processes without telling the user what to do and apparently with no easy way to even deactivate it. There is a test (not too easy unfortunately) which usually shows that ZA is the problem: uninstall ZA or configure it to not boot up when you reboot the PC. For 99% of the support cases where similar issues popped up, this has helped.

[Ruthless]

My bet would be on ZoneAlarm any day of the week. I don't have ZA so I don't know if it's the worst documented piece of software on the planet or not, but it definitely pops up in support issues very often, blocking processes without telling the user what to do and apparently with no easy way to even deactivate it. There is a test (not too easy unfortunately) which usually shows that ZA is the problem: uninstall ZA or configure it to not boot up when you reboot the PC. For 99% of the support cases where similar issues popped up, this has helped.

Ok, I think I found the answer; it wasn't Zone Alarm proper, but Zone Alarm's new toolbar ("Forcefield") thing that caused the problem. I uninstalled that and CMSF started up no problem. No idea why that would interfere, but there ya go. I had also previously shut down the process for that and CMSF still didn't start, so an uninstall is required.

So if anyone else has this problem, you can tell them to try uninstalling the ZA Forcefield toolbar first, rather than ZA itself.

Thanks for the suggestions!

[SABER66]

Hi folks,

I recently purchased a new Sony laptop with Win7 loaded and 1GB ATI card. I loaded CMSF from CD...licensed it, patched it to 1.10 then loaded CMSF Marines and BF bundle. All liecensed easily and will open without problem....the pain comes approximately 10-12 minutes into the BF campaign. The program locks up and is forced to exit. I am in the process of running marines, and CMSF to see if the same happens...not sure yet. I will also throw all back onto my older less capable XP laptop and see if the problem persists....just for testing purposes. If anyone has any advice on how to fix this issue, it would be much appreciated.

Machine specs are as follows...

1GB ATI Radeon HD4650

Windows 7 Home premium 6.1.7600 build 7600

Intel Core Duo P8700 @ 2.53Mhz

4Gb of RAM

Regards, MC

[Schrullenhaft]

SABER66 - your crashing has to do with ATI video drivers. Please install the 9.10 Catalyst drivers (these are for Windows 7 32-bit). This should fix your crashing problem.

The one caveat to these drivers is I don't know how well they may work with your Sony laptop. It may not recognize the video chip in the laptop (different IDs, etc.), which may require that you modify the driver with the Mobility Modder tool to modify the INF files of the 9.10 Catalyst driver in order to recognize the chip in your Sony laptop.

[Sarjen]

Ruthless: You are my savior Thanks to you i uninstalled the zone alarm toolbar and i can again enjoy CMSF. \o/

[chris talpas]

Ruthless,

Thanks to you I was quickly able to restore my ability to play CMSF after a Zone Alarm update.

Chris

[Stiebritz]

Great work Ruthless....

I to had the problem.....Zone alarm Hmmm....

This could be alot of the problem why CMSF does work!!!!

[theFightingSeabee]

Hey there.

Now I'm having major problems. There's something bad happening. I have searched my computer for zone alarm and I don't see it.

What is happening:

*Computer will either freeze or restart.

*Occurs when loading the 3d engine, or unloading the 3d engine.

*Occurs in other games as well, but more on unloading.

*I've installed/uninstalled drivers like 30 times trying to get it to work.

*Almost never crashes during normal computer use including internet.

Hardware/drivers:

*ATI Radeon x850

*I've used catalyst 8.6 - 9.3.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Nothings sucks more than ~finally~ getting to sit down and load up a new scenario just to have it reboot the computer.

[Schrullenhaft]

theFightingSeabee - You're typically getting freezes or restarts when playing 3D games ? Your video card may be overheating. Are you able to open up your computer and confirm that the video card's fan is working properly (spinning and spinning at the correct speed) ?

It's possible that for normal 2D use the video card does fine, but as soon as some 3D screens need to be drawn, it heats up (which is normal), but the cooling isn't keeping up and crashing the machine.

[theFightingSeabee]

Well, I opened the case last night and confirmed that the fan was spinning. I also gave it a quick blast or two of compressed air.

The thing is, it's crashing while loading, not during gameplay. If it does load, it plays just fine. But crashing while loading leads me to believe that it's a driver issue. It never gets that chance to get hot.

Thanks for the quick response btw, Schullenhaft, you're always on the ball, even on a Sunday!

[Schrullenhaft]

If you feel it is a driver problem, I'd suggest uninstalling your current drivers and running Driver Sweeper afterwards, BEFORE installing the new drivers. Occasionally developers change a few things between major revisions of drivers and it is possible that the uninstallers don't catch everything (as strange as that may seem). Driver Sweeper should hopefully get those wayward registry entries, etc.

How long have you had this problem and could you possibly tie it to any major changes (software upgrades/updates, hardware changes, etc.) ?

As a small CPU and video hardware test you could download and run OCCT (you'll probably want to run some temperature monitoring software while running this) and Furmark to test OpenGL graphics and generally stressing your video card.

I have no idea what benefits it may provide, but the Radeon X850 can now use the Catalyst 9.11 (Windows XP 32-bit driver). I don't necessarily expect it to fix your issues, but it may be helpful.

[theFightingSeabee]

Shortly after posting, I changed drivers to 9.11. I shut off the computer, decided to blow some of the dust out of there, and I turned it back on.

Within 10 seconds it shut off, right as I started to smell burning wires. It totally died on me. The video card's gold edge had a corner melted off. The AGP slot had some blackening inside. Aaaarrrrggghhhhh! Right as I'm moving into a new house and have extremely limited computer money. That's just the way it goes I guess. :[

So now I'm probably stuck with having to get a new motherboard, processor, ram, and video card. BadAss2005... R.I.P..

[phil stanbridge]

Sorry to hear that. Do you have any household insurance? Maybe worth a punt.

[Schrullenhaft]

Sorry about that. Did the video card "creep" out of its socket or something ? This sounds like either something got into the socket to short out some pins (a voltage where it doesn't belong) or the card was creeping out of its AGP socket and a pin touched a connector in the AGP slot that it shouldn't have.

What CPU, memory and motherboard did you have ? Some of the components may be OK still, but hard to tell. It may just be the motherboard and video card that are dead and your CPU and memory might be alright. Depending on what you have I might be able to help.

[theFightingSeabee]

It's an older setup, decent in 2005. A Gigabyte Nforce chipset motherboard with an Athlon xp 3500+ processor and 2 512 sticks of pc3200 RAM. The video card was a Radeon x850. So as you can see, it may just be time to upgrade. I think the hardware is about 2 or 3 generations behind current. I've considered just getting a cheap old mb, my fiance has an extra x850, so I could at least try to get back up and running very soon. But over the coming couple of months, I'll be buying bits and peices of what will be my newest Frankenstein rig. It will suck if the ram and cpu are fried though.

Schrullenhaft, you may be right. I had not considered that a loose card may have crossed pins/connectors. That would make a lot of sense, since the card and slot melted on one end (not the end that locks into place). Yep, I think that just may be what happened.