CM Afghanistan won't start under Win 7 64bit

[Manie_de]

Hi !

Bought CM Afghanistan today, installed and licensed it, but could not run it.

Even when I run the program with administrator rights or with the compatibility mode, I only get a message, that the CM Afghanistan.exe won't work anymore.

Then I tried my (once working) CM Shock Force and get the same error now.

I'm running Windows 7 64bit.

Would be nice if you could help me to get the games going.

BTW, do I have to uninstall the elicense before I uninstall the game or will this be done with the uninstall routine ?

Martin

[Schrullenhaft]

It sounds like you may either have an issue with DEP (Data Execution Prevention) or you have a security program that is causing a problem with eLicense. What security programs do you have installed (anti-virus/anti-spyware/anti-malware/firewall/internet-security) ?

Here's our Knowledgebase article on DEP, however at the moment it doesn't specifically list the CM Afghanistan game's actual location and executable file name.

Unlicensing is only necessary if you are going to do any of the following:

1) Reformatting the hard drive ('clean' OS reinstalls, etc.).

2) Reinstalling or Upgrading the OS.

3) Any major hardware changes, primarily any of the following: a new motherboard, a new CPU, a new video card (new non-boot hard drives should not be an issue).

4) Disposing/selling the computer or boot hard drive.

5) Uninstalling the game permanently from a computer.

On occasion it might be advisable to unlicense the game if you're going to uninstall it temporarily. Several of the uninstallers I believe will prompt you to unlicense the game before uninstalling, but they do NOT unlicense automatically. If you uninstall, you will be unable to unlicense UNTIL your reinstall the game. The license should still be active and you can then unlicense the game.

[Manie_de]

Thanks for your reply.

There are no major hardware changes, because it is a new computer (just three months old and with all the original hardware still onboard).

My security programs are AVG Antivir and ThreatFire.

SpyBot Search&Destroy is also installed, but not active (just on demand).

Paused ThreatFire and AVG and tried again to run the game(s), but with no new results.

I'm sure that my older CMSF game worked fine after I installed it on my new computer, but now I get no response from this game, too.

Will try to uninstall (without unlicensing) CMSF Afghanistan and reinstall it to the default installation paths.

I installed both games at drive D:/ (maybe this will cause some confusion).

I will disable my security programs during installation, too.

BTW, my computer has an i7 cpu, 6GB RAM and an ATI 5850.

Are there any config files where I can change some settings (resolution, etc.) ?

Martin

[Schrullenhaft]

Most likely the issue is something is interfering with eLicense since both CMSF and CMA will not run. I haven't had too many problems with AVG in the past (the free version, I'm not sure about the full retail version). I'm not familiar with Threatfire, so there's a possibility that that software package is causing a problem with CMSF. Spybot, even with the Tea-Timer installed, doesn't seem to cause a problem to my knowledge.

We've seen on occasion that even when you 'disable' some security software programs that they continue to interfere with certain operations. Sometimes you have to disable certain features within the program and THEN disable the security program temporarily. Other time an 'exception list' of some sort may help, but even then things may not work. At that point it requires uninstalling the program to get it to stop interfering. Sometimes these security programs have associated utilities that get installed separately. Uninstalling these may also help, if you can identify them.

[Manie_de]

Hi again !

Looks like DEP is not the problem.

Put both games on the white list for DEP and now there are no more error messages, but the games won't start at all.

Tried to uninstall and reinstall CM Afghanistan, but with no better result (ThreatFire wasn't running).

Then I tried to unlicense the game, but because this is done via the CM Afghanistan.exe and the unlicense parameter, it too doesn't work.

How to unlicense and uninstall the games and start from scratch (without formating my harddrive and system) ???

Is there a separate installation for the eLicensing and maybe a patch or a newer version ?

Just checked another Battlefront game I installed recently (last week): Strategic Command 2 Blitzkrieg (and the Weapons and Warfare addon).

Both started without any problems after the installation, but now they are playing dead, too.

And both worked with ThreatFire running and scanning without problems.

Something is going seriously wrong her, but I can't figure out, what the heck it is.

Maybe you are right and it has something to do with the eLicensing system.

Martin

New findings about eLicense: looked for the eLicense Control Panel and noticed that I have the 32 bit version installed (while using Win 7 64 bit).

When I double click it, it says that no application is linked with it ???

How can I reinstall eLicense and all of its components ?

[Schrullenhaft]

There is no 64-bit version of the eLicense control panel. I think I've only seen it in operation once. A majority of the time this control panel just doesn't work and I don't know why (I don't have many resources on eLicense's software).

The executable file just gets called up initially to launch the license dialog box to license and unlicense. If you were able to license it earlier, then perhaps change your DEP settings back to the way they were before and see if that makes a difference. Our instructions regarding DEP is actually enabling it and then setting an exception for the game and the 'Runservice.exe' eLicense service. So it seems strange that that setting would make you unable to unlicense (but it is possible).

It appears that something has changed on your system that is preventing eLicense from working. I don't know if an update to AVG or Threatfire has enabled these programs to automatically shutdown eLicense (interpreting its actions as a trojan). Is there any new security software on your computer compared to the last time your games were working ? Were there executable updates to AVG or Threatfire since you last played (not just 'data/signature' updates) ?

[Manie_de]

Ok, I forgot to include Runservice.exe to the DEP exceptions,but now unlicensing and licensing works, but still the games won't launch.

Strangely there is an error message for the games even when they are on the DEP exception list ?!?

ThreatFire and AVG had only their normal signature updates.

Shall I try to unlicense and uninstall all my battlefront games ?

One thing I did the last few days was to simply delete "Theatre of War (instead of uninstalling it).

Maybe this caused the problem.

Will try to reinstall ToW and hope for the best.

If you have other tipps/clues for me and my problem, that would be great.

Martin

PS: Thanks for your fast responses and your help !

[Schrullenhaft]

I don't think that unlicensing, uninstalling and then reinstalling will change things. Something is interfering with eLicense, which in turn prevents the games from running.

Deleting TOW shouldn't have affected any of the other games. In fact the license activation should still be present for the game. I doubt that reinstalling it would restore the functionality of the other games.

Have you rebooted since adding 'Runservice.exe' to the DEP exception list ? Getting errors (such as 'c0000005') is a possibility with DEP.

[Manie_de]

I give up now !

Rebooted several times already, but still no success.

Could unlicense all the games and installed ToW again.

Killed all processes which looked unnecessary and the ThreatFire and AVG processes, too.

NOTHING !!!

Seems that I have to write of my $35 and won't buy the NATO module for CMSF, which I really was looking for.

BTW, I also have another version of ToW (Steam) installed on my computer, which runs fine.

Looks like it is really that #*!"§$%& eLicense application which causes all the trouble.

Martin

Will creating and installing an offline license do any good ?

Maybe then the game executables won't need the eLicense system for starting ?

Just a wild, weird and desperate guess.

[Schrullenhaft]

eLicense isn't exactly an application. It's a copy protection/digital rights management system that unencrypts the encrypted executables to prevent them from being used without a valid license key. It is this encryption/unencryption that causes problems with some security programs that interpret this behavior as that of a trojan. Other programs just flat out interfere with it in some manner.

Off-line licensing will do no good. All that is for is if the specific computer that is going to have the game on it cannot be connected to the internet (but you need access to the internet to use it). The eLicense software still has to run on that computer, which is the problem that you're running into.

Something has changed on your computer. If you were able to run all of these games before, but can't now that suggests that something is still interfering.

Possibly killing the processes may not be enough since some of these security programs have system-level 'drivers' that can't be killed and these will still interfere. Is your AVG software the free version or a full retail version (with additional features beyond anti-virus) ? Can you temporarily uninstall your Threatfire ? Is there a reason that you have two anti-virus applications on your computer or is one of the not acting as an anti-virus checker ?

[Manie_de]

AVG is the free version and ThreatFire is a mixture between SpyWare and AntiVirus (and meant to be running alongside a fully featured AntiVirus program.

Will try to uninstall ThreatFire next week (because here in Germany its about 11:30 pm and I'll be away for the whole weekend.

But Strategic Command 2 and CMSF used to run with ThreatFire installed and running.

My Steam client was updated this week and I installed the usual Windows updates.

Also bought and installed same games the last few days.

It would be nice, if you could check this thread once in a while next week; maybe I'll find out something new ?

Thanks and good night,

Martin

[bobbylhosey]

I have the same problem with CMSF+Marines+British it just crashes before i can even license it and i am also running Win 7 64-bit. i get that c00005 error on the crash report and this is after doing all of the dep steps in the knowledge base and even completely disabling dep in the command prompt. the weird thing is i also have theater of war 2 + centauro addon installed and it runs just fine licensed ok and everything. this really needs fixed cause i want to buy cm afganistan and nato but wont be if the problem isnt resolved cause im not going to buy a game that wont run just because the drm is broke.

[Schrullenhaft]

bobbylhosey - What security software do you have installed on your computer (anti-virus/anti-spyware/anti-malware/firewall/internet-security) ? Typically the 'c0000005' errors involve either DEP or security software interfering with eLicense. However if you can't even get the license dialog box to come up to license the games, then the DEP settings probably aren't coming into play yet.

[bobbylhosey]

im using the free version of comodo internet security but disabling it has no effect. how many times do i need to mess with dep to get this to work then?

[Schrullenhaft]

Are you using anything besides the 'Comodo Internet Security' ? If you can't get a license dialog box, then the issue is not a DEP issue at this point as far as I'm aware. Have you installed any other security programs at some point ?

[bobbylhosey]

nope i only use comodo and i did verify that runservice.exe and the licctrlservice is running

[bobbylhosey]

here is the crash report i get when i click on the icon to run the game

Problem signature:

Problem Event Name: APPCRASH

Application Name: CM Shock Force.exe

Application Version: 0.0.0.0

Application Timestamp: 4af14c9e

Fault Module Name: elicen40.dll

Fault Module Version: 4.0.0.0

Fault Module Timestamp: 3d86b216

Exception Code: c0000005

Exception Offset: 000039e2

OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.768.3

Locale ID: 1033

Additional Information 1: 0a9e

Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789

Additional Information 3: 0a9e

Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789

[Schrullenhaft]

The only thing I can suggest at this point is to uninstall Comodo Internet Security and see if that allows CMSF and eLicense to work. What is strange is that other games, supposedly using eLicense, are currently working.

Is there any sort of 'exception' list for Comodo ? However disabling Comodo should mimic an exception, but possibly not. Some security programs continue to interfere with computer operations, even when 'disabled'.

Basically two or three 'attempts' at setting a DEP setup should be sufficient.

[bobbylhosey]

i completely uninstalled comodo and now it works like a charm im just wondering if reinstalling comodo will affect it now if it does do you have any recommendations for a free antivirus/firewall?

[Schrullenhaft]

I suspect reinstalling Comodo MAY affect eLicense working. There's a possibility of some setting affecting it, but I haven't used Comodo and don't know what that setting may be (if there is anything that would allow it to work). It's possible that reinstalling Comodo, it may allow CMSF to continue working.

It is strange that some eLicense games WERE working with Comodo and CMSF wasn't (and it was an eLicense issue, as far as I can tell).

There are several anti-virus programs that can work with eLicense, AVG and Avira seem to work fine, though I don't know if you have a preference on speed of scanning and interface features. For firewalls, ZoneAlarm typically works fine, but you do have to UNINSTALL an utility that comes with ZoneAlarm by default which DEFINITELY interferes with eLicense (the 'ZoneAlarm Toolbar'). There are a couple of other products out there that can work with eLicense, though we have seen problems with F-Secure and variants based on it (typically not free, unless it comes from your Internet provider).