My CMSF+everything CMx2 related will not work.

[AslakH]

I've been royally pissed about CMx2 the last few days, because when it doesn't work - it just doesn't work. No small box pops up, nothing.

I am bored out of my skull in the hospital, with a brand spankin' new laptop (got it yesterday). CMSF won't work on in, patched and all. CM:A is the same story.

It works AWESOME (because it is) on my home computer.

When I click on the CMSF-logo, my computer does nothing. No flickering, nothing.

Maybe it doesn't like updated drivers and DirectX 11?

Maybe it's the ATI stuff?

Read that CMSF is ATI-unfriendly.

Anywho, I am guessing this is one of those "it will never work on your computer. Ever." situations.

I'm no 45-year old tard that wants to play computaah games.

[phil stanbridge]

What are the specs of your laptop? Presumably Windows 7 as well yeah? Did you try running as administrator?

Runs here on ATI and Nvidia hardware (to varying degrees of course).

[AslakH]

Win7, and run as admin has been the rule ever since 2007.

Specs?

[phil stanbridge]

Win7, and run as admin has been the rule ever since 2007.

Specs?

What specification - what ATI card is it you are running? Presumably being a laptop it uses its own driver set. DirectX should have nothing to do with it as its an OpenGL game. Have you tried updating the video drivers because it suggests that it is a graphics problem.

[Elmar Bijlsma]

Did it license okay? Because it sure sounds like a licensing problem.

Probably DEP is stopping e-license from doing it's thing.

http://www.battlefront.com/helpdesk/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=62&nav=0,2

[Moon]

I've been royally pissed about CMx2 the last few days, because when it doesn't work - it just doesn't work. No small box pops up, nothing.

You should probably be royally pissed about Windows or your anti-virus software instead. One of these probably blocks the execution of the program. Which is ok. What is not ok is that, like you say, it does so without any indication of what it is doing.

First things first: make sure you launch CMSF with full administrator rights. Right-click, select "Run as admin" from Properties. That already should help in most cases. If it doesn't help, check if you have the file runservice.exe in your C:/Windows directory. If you don't, then try reinstalling the game but this time make sure you do so with full admin rights, and, before you first launch it, you set the Run as admin flag.

If that doesn't solve it, then the next thing to look for is your anti-virus program. Some aggressive ones, especially those coming with toolbars and what not, tend to get into the way, and - what makes this bad - don't tell you. Our knowledgebase at www.battlefront.com/helpdesk has a few entries for the most intrusive av programs. Nothing against av programs, but some really go too far, without telling the user what they do, and are a nightmare to shut down (I spent a week once trying to get rid of Norton).

The LAST thing to look for are your DEP settings. "Data execution prevention" used to be very buggy in early CPUs but this has improved a lot, so for most people this should not be an issue.

If all fails, submit a support ticket at www.battlefront.com/helpdesk. We can work with you specifically to get it to run.

[AslakH]

You should probably be royally pissed about Windows or your anti-virus software instead. One of these probably blocks the execution of the program. Which is ok. What is not ok is that, like you say, it does so without any indication of what it is doing.

First things first: make sure you launch CMSF with full administrator rights. Right-click, select "Run as admin" from Properties. That already should help in most cases. If it doesn't help, check if you have the file runservice.exe in your C:/Windows directory. If you don't, then try reinstalling the game but this time make sure you do so with full admin rights, and, before you first launch it, you set the Run as admin flag.

If that doesn't solve it, then the next thing to look for is your anti-virus program. Some aggressive ones, especially those coming with toolbars and what not, tend to get into the way, and - what makes this bad - don't tell you. Our knowledgebase at www.battlefront.com/helpdesk has a few entries for the most intrusive av programs. Nothing against av programs, but some really go too far, without telling the user what they do, and are a nightmare to shut down (I spent a week once trying to get rid of Norton).

The LAST thing to look for are your DEP settings. "Data execution prevention" used to be very buggy in early CPUs but this has improved a lot, so for most people this should not be an issue.

If all fails, submit a support ticket at www.battlefront.com/helpdesk. We can work with you specifically to get it to run.

I've done most of those, but suspect that it is an ATI-thingy.

Licensing was good,

run & install as admin was good.

I will post my driver info here. This isn't my laptop, I'm borrowing it from the missus while I'm chained to the bed - if it was mine CMSF would've worked like a chinaman in a sneaker factory!

Display Devices

---------------

Card name: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5145

Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.

Chip type: ATI display adapter (0x9553)

DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)

Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9553&SUBSYS_9071104D&REV_00

[Moon]

Ah, if you were able to license, then scratch all that I said Yes, sounds like a driver thing. Looking at what you just posted, it's not surprise to be honest. Those "Mobility" cards are often "dumbed down" from the "real" version and do not support certain graphics libraries. I am not sure about CMSF, but I do remember that most Theatre of War games (and many other games, too) do not support mobility cards specifically.

[AslakH]

Updates:

I did nothing, but CM:A is working like a charm. CMSF is still not working.

This one has me puzzled.

Once I came to the CMSF main menu, but it froze up.

Yeah, I hate laptops. I like the big rigs, like having a P-47 engine roaring under your desk.

Laptop is like a Two-cylinder waterpump engine.

Want a good laptop, you need a lot of monies.

[Schrullenhaft]

Which Catalyst driver do you have installed ? There were issues with the 9.4 - 9.9 Catalysts, however since CMA is almost identical to CMSF, they should have a similar problem with the drivers.

The Catalyst problem with the 9.4 - 9.9's was an OpenGL bug that caused the game to crash within 5 - 20 minutes. I also heard of some problems with some of the 10.x series Catalysts, but I'm fairly certain the 10.5, 10.6 and possibly later ones should work fairly well.

With a laptop you may NOT be able to use the Catalyst drivers that AMD/ATI host on their website. A number of laptop manufacturers 'customize' their Mobilitiy Radeons so that the standard drivers don't recognize them. Some work and others don't. So you may be stuck with whatever your laptop manufacturer hosts on their website... and with number of laptop manufacturers they don't update their video drivers often or at all.

I'm a bit puzzled as to why CMA works, but CMSF doesn't. Do you know if both are running at the same resolution ? Have you tried unlicensing, uninstalling and then reinstalling and then relicensing CMSF ? Do you have just the base game or do you also have modules ? This is a Battlefront version of CMSF you have, correct ?

[AslakH]

I've tried everything you just suggested, yes.

And it is the BFC version. I buy my BFC games straight from BFC, ever since CMAK. (Bought CMBO in a store, found CMBB really cheap in a bargain bin somewhere approx. 3 months after release. I digress.

I will try the resolution thing, but I haven't messed about with it in any way. And I have updated the catalyst stuff, since I installed GRAW2 and want to play it as best this laptop can.

[Schrullenhaft]

Do you know which specific Catalyst driver you have installed ? However, even in that case I believe that CMA would have the crashing problem that CMSF had if it were due to the video driver.

[phil stanbridge]

I doubt cats work with that chipset! - it sounds like there are some files missing or its a corrupted installation? Have you had a look at the folder? I'd uninstall the cats and reinstall the manufacturer drivers.

I've seen this once before. ATI mobility will let you install the cats, but they don't support the chipset properly.

[AslakH]

Someone just close this thread, since I've given up on CMSF (on this laptop).

Catalyst works fine, and GRAW2 runs awesome. If you've ever played that game, you'd know how awesome it is. And that catalyst must work properly.

Running around in Mexico, being a "ghost". Good stuff. But I digress.

I've done everything. I've reinstalled it three times. Since I still have my youth, I do not wear glasses and can't count my friends on just one hand - I didn't want to spend time reinstalling and fidgeting about with it. It's a good game, and a shame I have to wait six weeks to play it again. But when I get home... the missus can't drag me away from my CMSF!

thanks for the help guys, I appreciate it.

[AslakH]

I don't know if I mentioned that CMSF works somewhat fine, but if I press the "scenario editor" it gets pissy and won't work anymore.

I don't have this problem with CM:A.

But I just had a random scenario test ("Fist of Allah" or sumtn'), had it on for 5+ mins, moved the camera around, etc.. it didn't crash. So it's like a cut - it heals. From not working, to working somewhat..

[TheVulture]

I had a problem that sounds very similar on my new windows 7 64 bit machine - I installed CMSF fine, but clicking on the icon to launch the game did nothing whatsoever. The solution that worked for me was to right click on the .exe, select properties and set it to run in WinX SP 3 compatibility mode. Which makes me suspect that there is some windows API call very early on in the program execution that fails under windows 7 (or some versions thereof) so the program never properly launches.

[Noltyboy]

It works perfectly with windows seven for me.

[AslakH]

It got somewhat better when I re-installed the 1.21 patch, but still the editor was dead. Compability settings did absolutely nothing. Days passed.

Then, one crisp autumn morning, it worked as it should.

When I get home, I'm gonna rock CMSF old school!

Windows 7 is mere poppycock!

But still, thanks for all the help.