Another video problem

[GaryO]

I've tried several of the suggested fixes in the technical notes, but nothing seems to fix this, and no answers to my email to the support address in the manual.

Here is the problem: On my current computer, with a G Force4 video card, CMO pops up a window asking to set the refresh rate. The first window is the correct refresh rate, but selecting it causes the screen to go black. Alternate refresh rates that the monitor will accept also behave this way.

I can finally get a window that says: unhandled exception, c00005 @ 00563951.

Two different monitors behave the same way.

The only thing I haven't been able to try is turning anti aliasing off. Can't find the right spot in the driver, I guess.

The direct x version is 9c.

Works fine on the old computer.

Sorry if this is a duplicate problem, just couldn't find anything that I recognized.

Gary

[Schrullenhaft]

Which exact title is this, CMBO ?

If you can read the text during the resolution selection process (and it is stable and not 'running' horizontally or vertically across the screen), then your monitor should be capable of displaying that resolution and vertical refresh combination. If you cycle through all of the possible resolution and vertical refresh combinations possible, then you'll get that unhandled exception, c00005 @ 00563951 error. That is just DirectX crapping out since there appears to be no way to have it start the resolution selection process over and therefore it just gives an error once it has reached the end.

Which driver version are you using ? I assume that you're running Windows XP, is that correct ? What is your current desktop resolution and refresh rate (that you use day to day for your 2D Windows desktop) ? What monitor model are you using ?

The strange thing is that you're getting just a 'black screen'. Do you hear any game music ? Does your monitor indicate that it is still receiving a signal (usually a green power LED) or does it indicate that it has gone to a lower power or no signal state (often an amber LED or a message on the screen about no signal) ?

[GaryO]

Game is Combat Mission Beyond Overlord.

Monitor is set at 1162 x 834, 32 bit color. I have tried different resolutions and two different monitors. Same result. I'm on a different computer, so can't check the default refresh rate, but think it was 70 or 72.

The primary monitor was a NEC flat screen, and both monitors will run that game on this older computer.

I checked the direct x driver version and it was version 9 00c, I believe. When I checked the driver versions available, this was the most currect.

The computer had just been assembled, so the software should have all been currect versions unless some error was made. Yes, it was XP.

The screen would go black, the pop up windows showing frequency and resolution were stable. The c00005 message pops up after I hit "control, alt, del".

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[GaryO]

Forgot: No music or sound when the screen goes black. Didn't notice if the monitor powered down or anything, but when the direct x message comes up it's working fine.

I'll get the unit back together in a couple of days and could run any tests anyone can suggest and get any internal info in the computer that might be relevant.

[Schrullenhaft]

Again, the c000005 error is normal when you either terminate the program (Ctrl-Alt-Del) during the resolution selection process or it comes to an end without a resolution being selected (after 640x480 at 60Hz). We are told that DirectX didn't support looping the resolution selection process, so it terminates with an error - this is completely expected.

I understand that you're running DirectX 9.0c. What I was actually asking for was the video driver version; for a Nvidia GeForce 4 series under Windows XP the latest would be 93.71. Considering that this was a recent build, you're most likely using something close to this version.

I haven't heard of any particular problems with CM regarding Nvidia drivers (with the possible exception of the 8800 series and their special version driver) for a long time. Almost any of the latest versions for the last several years should work properly.

There was an issue a long time ago with a certain patch for Windows XP (that didn't seem related at all) that caused some problems for CM and several video cards and their drivers. It was patch 328310 that was found in a lengthy process of elimination. Service Pack 2 for Windows XP seems to have included a version of this patch (or another update) that may have fixed some issues or at least the behavior wasn't the same.

When the resolutions come up and there is one that you want, are you clicking on the OK or Select button (or just pressing the Enter/Return key) ? This is necessary to select the current resolution. Once that is done, then you should get the CMBO splash screen/initial menu and the music running. If you've done this, then you could also Alt-Tab or Esc back to the desktop and then re-maximize CM and see if it draws properly at that point or not (though you should be hearing the music).

When you installed CMBO did you use the complete install option (about 300Mb) ? If not, then I would suggest installing with that option. You will also need to have the CD in the drive for the copy protection check.

Where did you purchase this copy of CMBO, was it at a retail store/internet store or directly from Battlefront.com ? If you purchased it from a retail store, then it is the CDV version, which is slightly different because of the copy protection software that it uses (and it also doesn't need any patches since it should already be 1.12).

[ January 24, 2007, 07:35 AM: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ]

[GaryO]

Thanks for the info. Had to make a short trip and just got back.

Give me some pointers on finding the driver version, I don't do much of that kind of stuff. That perhaps is the problem, as the new video card had some problems and I pulled the G Force 4000 out of the drawer. Everything else seems to be working, but maybe the driver isn't current.

When the refresh/freq message comes up, I've been selecting OK.

[Schrullenhaft]

Under Windows XP to find the driver version go to Start Menu > Control Panel > System control panel > Hardware tab > Device Manager button > click on the '+' sign next to Display Adapters > double-click on the display adapter in the list, in your case this would be GeForce 4 MX4000 or something similiar > Driver tab > in here will be text with the line saying 'Driver Version'. Nvidia has changed how they list the driver over the years. Some of the latest versions will have the Nvidia version as the last 4 or so digits. So a current version may say '6.14.10.9371'; this would be Nvidia's 93.71 driver. Nvidia has also used a scheme where the driver version would be something like '6.6.4.1' which would be their 66.41 driver.

In the resolution selection process CM will typically start at (or possibly under if it is an unrecognized resolution by CM) your current desktop resolution, but at possibly a higher vertical refresh rate. Say for example your current desktop resolution is 1024x768 @ 75Hz; CM will start at 1024x768 @ 120Hz (or whatever maximum your videocard supports at that resolution, not necessarily what your display may support). For some users this can result in a scrambled screen when CM first starts. If you wait awhile CM will automatically try the next lower vertical refresh at that resolution (which for some users may still result in a scrambled screen). If the 'Select' button or the Enter key is not pressed, CM will continue to display lower vertical refresh rates until it reaches 60Hz at a particular resolution. At that point it will then go to the next lower resolution (which would be 800x600 in this example), but again at the highest vertical refresh rate available to the videocard. For CMBO it will try some 640x480 resolutions, including some software rendered versions (which should mention this in the resolution selection screen). The software rendered resolutions will not use your videocard's 3D capabilities. Instead they will throw that work to the CPU. Software rendering isn't available for CMBB & CMAK since they're limited to 800x600 as the minimum and software rendering was considered unworthy of supporting. Software rendering will also use down-sampled textures, so it will be somewhat slow and unappealing in appearance.

If you can see the info on the screen properly you should click the 'Select' button if that is what you want. Typically I'd recommend the same settings as your desktop since that should offer an optimized screen (not off-center, etc.). However if you're running a pretty high resolution, then running CM at such a resolution may result in slower screen 'scrolling' on the 3D battlefield (depending on how fast your computer and videocard are).

CMBO will offer software rendering resolutions first if it doesn't recognize any 3D videocards being present. Essentially this boils down to some sort of problem with the driver or DirectX installation. In your case you may need to make sure that the previous driver (for whatever videocard you originally had) is uninstalled via the Add or Remove Software control panel (since most driver installs should appear here).

More than likely you have a Nvidia driver that should work with CMBO, unless you installed one that came off the driver CD that may have been with your GeForce 4 MX4000. In that case you may have a driver that is a bit dated and could have some possible problems with CM. Generally some of the 4x.xx and 5x.xx drivers should be avoided. Not all of them are bad, but they had some problems with CM.

[GaryO]

Here is some more info: Game was purchased, not dowloaded.

Nvideo driver loaded was not the one you referred to as probably the current version. Mine was a 7.x version (I've uninstalled it, and didn't write it down.)

Went to the Nvidia site and selected a driver. I'm on an AMD chip, XP Pro, so ended up with a version 6.14.10.5673. Had a 2006 date on it.

This sounds like it isn't the driver you referred to, and it also doesn't work either. In addition to behaving the same as the old driver we also get the message "unable to initalize 3D driver."

[GaryO]

I've made some changes and downloaded different drivers.

I removed CMBO and re-installed it, with the full option.

Nvidia driver is 6.14.19.9371

DirectX is 9.0c

We ran the DirectX tests and everything looked fine.

Things still don't work, but I'm getting slightly different messages.

The window is labeled "3D DirectX test" and presents a resolution option, such as 800 x 600 and gives an Accept or Next selection.

Still, nothing seems to work.

[Schrullenhaft]

It sounds like you're on the 'resolution selection screen' that you'll get with any of the CM titles the first time you run them. You need to click on the 'Select' button or hit the Enter key to select the currently displayed resolution (and corresponding vertical refresh rate), which was what you were speaking of in your first post.

Did you select any of these resolutions ? Once you do you should get the 'splash screen' (Battlefront.com or CDVs, depending on where you purchased CMBO). During the splash screen you'll likely hear some music and then eventually get the main screen to CMBO (a Sherman tank and American infantry advancing towards you) which has the initial menu to play.

The 56.73 driver is something that I believe is included by default with Windows XP SP2. It doesn't offer all of the controls of the Nvidia provided one, but should have worked to my knowledge with CMBO. It isn't the best driver and it is among the 5x.xx series that had some hiccups with CM. The 7x.xx series driver should also have worked with CM. I haven't been aware of any problems with that series and CM.

Anyway, you're on the latest driver now and CM should work with it. From what you're saying, all you need to do is select one of the resolutions you're prompted with and CMBO should start up for you.

[GaryO]

Well, it's working now. For reference, here is what we found out and what we did.

After fiddling around with the direct X diagnostics, we decided the problem was some kind of incompatability between Direct X version 9 and our graphics driver. Some digging turned up the info from the board maker site that it was only good up to DirectX version 8.

I thought DirectX should be downward compatible, but we installed a later video board that would work with DirectX version 9. Problem solved.

I'd have never gotten into the driver issues without the help you gave, so many thanks.

[Schrullenhaft]

DirectX is backwards-compatible. Typically you want you video driver to support the particular version of DirectX you have installed (and vice-versa). What you read on the videocard manufacturer's website was probably the DirectX capability of the videocard. The GPU (graphics processing unit) is capable of supporting routines that are part of DirectX 8.x. DirectX 9.x supports some additional graphics features that only some cards are capable of drawing. However the drivers and DirectX itself should continue to work with the DirectX 8.x capable card.

CMBO, CMBB & CMAK only utilize DirectX 5.x/6.x routines (as far as I'm aware). So your GeForce 4 series videocard should have worked fine with it. In fact the GeForce 4 series supports DirectX 8.x routines, which CM doesn't utilize. So a DirectX 9.x compatible/capable videocard is somewhat overkill for CM (in terms of its capabilities).

What videocard did you end up using in the system ? Also, when you said that you purchased CM rather than downloaded it, was this purchase in a retail store of from the Battlefront.com website ? A retail purchase is actually a CDV distributed product which does utilize a different form of copy protection than the Battlefront.com internet purchased version. The one difference that I think it could have made was support for the tiny video that precedes the game (and the particular codec that it needs - Intel Indeo for the Battlefront.com version ?). I believe that you have to launch the game with the Shift key pressed in order to skip the video, though I'm not sure if that was part of the issue here or not.