Game crashes when first starting as miner/trader

Stateofpsychosis · Post by **Stateofpsychosis** » Wed Dec 11, 2013 6:20 pm

when i first bought this..

after I installed it, steam would just hang indefinitely while trying to start it...

it was either a problem with steam or my skype was messing something up with my direct x.

after I uninstalled skype, uninstalled the game and steam itself, then re-installed them, it worked right away.

so if you're having this problem just do what I did.

pretty easy to fix compared to some other games I've had before

but yea it was probably just my steam not the game, because when steam was trying to upload to the cloud it would get stuck indefinitely and it also wouldn't update.

so if you're having this problem... there's the solution

[Edited on 12-11-2013 by Stateofpsychosis]

Post by **Marvin** » Wed Dec 11, 2013 11:16 pm

Thanks. Solutions are always much appreciated.

Stateofpsychosis · Post by **Stateofpsychosis** » Fri Dec 13, 2013 12:59 pm

Hi, I was getting the error about the sound buffer as well.

It's not necessarily anything wrong with your sound card itself. It could just be the driver not loading at start up.
(if you can hear sound on your computer, then your sound card should be fine)

But for me it was a different solution than what was in this thread...

so I'll share. follow these steps

1. ctrl alt delete... now check to see if one of the scvhosts processes is stuck at 99%
the scvhosts exe loads start up dll files so if it's stuck at 99% it's probably because a. two dll files are competing over each other causing it to lock up, b. or you have a virus taking over that exe, c. or microsoft update is trying to update a bad dll file (probably still have two competing dll's in this case)

*you might not see the svchosts process at 99% if it got terminated.

2. here's how to solve it if a or c applies to you.. first try to remove any old devices that you might have two of in device manager (make sure you know for sure though)... common one would be your wireless internet adapter..
then if that doesn't work, go to start - run - type msconfig - then change it from selective startup to normal startup...

it'll prompt you to restart when you save and exit..
do so..

don't know why this worked for me, but changing to normal start up stopped the dll file that was bogging my system down.

3. okay if these things didn't work.. time to make sure this isn't a virus... download rkill, download tdsskiller (both free)... run rkill... let it do it's thing... then run tdsskiller and do a scan... if nothing comes up i'd say it's not a virus..
but if it is a virus change all your passwords because scvhost viruses can be worms and those are the worst viruses you can get pretty much..

anyways, if none of this works it may not apply to you because errors like this can have so many different causes that you never know which solution will work.

worst comes to worst try a system restore.. for me the restores were failing so I couldn't do that.

p.s. if none of this helps... try this: go to control panel - sounds and audio devices
.if no device driver is listed here than your driver hasn't loaded (might be unrelated to scvhosts)
now, you can manually activate it (might have to do it every time you start the computer though)
... okay so this is how to manually activate it
go to start - run - type services.msc
scroll down to the line that says "windows audio"
now right click it and click start

that should fire it up.
if you've tried everything and even tried to resinstall the sound drivers and everything on top of all of this and you hear no sound... then and only then would I say that there's something actually physically wrong with the sound card itself.

good luck!

excuse the grammar

I hope this helps someone

[Edited on 12-13-2013 by Stateofpsychosis]

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Stateofpsychosis · Post by **Stateofpsychosis** » Fri Dec 13, 2013 1:19 pm

no problem

if anyone is having the sound buffer error (different problem) as well

I found an alternative solution for if your problem is specifically different than the one that's been discussed.

I posted it in this thread

http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7587

Stateofpsychosis · Post by **Stateofpsychosis** » Fri Dec 13, 2013 4:00 pm

one more thing...

this is a long shot..

if all that doesn't work... try unplugging, and pulling the battery out of it (if it's a laptop)

then hold the power button down for 60 seconds

after that, put everything back in and turn it back on

this probably has nothing to do with the problem but it's one of the things I did before i got it working again so I'm right to mention it just in case...

this is actually how to fix a monitor on a laptop that goes blank (this releases an excess charge that built up in it)

but sometimes this process also reverts things back to defaults so it could possibly have been what fixed it..

sincerely doubt it though

Stateofpsychosis · Post by **Stateofpsychosis** » Fri Dec 13, 2013 11:31 pm

Hi,

the game is working fine for me when I play on other modes,
but when I start the game as a miner/trader the game crashes shortly after getting the message about your first mission to land on the nearby planet.

Is there a way to resolve this issue?

I'm running the game on a dell xps m170 with a Nvidia GeForce Go 6800 shader model 3.0 graphics card.
I have the game's graphics setting on the lowest setting and I've tried both modes with the planets (installing them to the hard drive and the regular mode)

anyways,

thanks in advanced if anyone can help me with this

Post by **Vice** » Fri Dec 13, 2013 11:42 pm

What error message is displayed?

With the problems you've been having, I think it's time I review your system in detail for possible causes. Some appear related to possible core system file damage/corruption, insufficient memory/HDD resources, and/or outside interference. To do so, complete the steps at this link and I'll take a look: http://www.starwraith.com/evochronmercenary/faq.htm#8

Stateofpsychosis · Post by **Stateofpsychosis** » Sat Dec 14, 2013 5:31 am

there is no error message. it just crashes now. and there wasn't an error message before except for another problem i resolved where my windows audio device wasn't loading and giving me the no sound buffer message but that problem is gone now and I resolved the root of the problem as well by resetting my svchosts file and I had the game working fine after that for a bit until now.

okay, i'll have to take a look at that after the weekend. wasted enough time of my weekend on this already.. but just an update. I tried switching the option for how the planets load again... and now the game can't get past the loading screen.. gets stuck at 98% even if it's a new game not a previous save.

now, I had this game working then then it stopped working 3 times now.

3 separate solutions I figured out on my own

I'm wondering if it has to do with the fact that I bought the steam download version.
I think it may be crashing after steam updates..
it could have updated since I last played it.

I saw another thread somewhere where a bunch of people had this specific problem who bought it on steam.

oh important to mention before the game stopped working altogether again, I figured out the it's that it was crashing when I got in close proximity to a planet hence why it crashed when I started a new game as a miner since you start near a planet on that mode.

weird thing is that the first time I started this game on combat, i was able to land on planets just fine.

one day it works, one day it doesn't. strange like that.

I don't have any other problems with any other games by the way.

It's just this game or steam.

thanks

[Edited on 12-14-2013 by Stateofpsychosis]

Post by **Vice** » Sat Dec 14, 2013 5:36 am

The causes I listed are the most likely places to start. You likely have something on your system causing intermittent interference with the game and/or Steam. Start by checking the other programs you have running in the background. Are you running any of the security programs Steam has listed here:

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_art ... -SFLZ-9289

Then also check for other interference causes/programs:

http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6595

Edit: and again, with the msinfo report I requested above, I can likely pin down where the source of the problem is.

[Edited on 12-14-2013 by Vice]

Stateofpsychosis · Post by **Stateofpsychosis** » Sat Dec 14, 2013 7:40 am

okay I sent the msinfo and the save files via email like the link said

I also tried to check for interferences. I only use microsoft security essentials for anti virus stuff. I had to run rkill and tdsskiller or whatever it's called not long ago but these don't run permanently and didn't effect it before.

I tried disabling microsoft security essentials anyways.. no results.

I tried msconfig. none of the things that were listed where there. I tried disabling a few of them but don't want to mess around with the ones I don't know what do.

I watched task manager while it was loading. the cpu usage of the game dropped down from around 98 percent to 6 percent right at the point where it always crashes.
no other processes were bogging it down either.
my cpu usages averages around 4% with no programs running.

I even tried downloading the demo the runs outside out steam and that has the same problem. always crashes at 98%

I have an idea though...

since the problem started after I tried to uninstall and reinstall the planets setting.. maybe something happened there and there are some corrupt files that aren't getting deleted on the uninstall inside the program for them...

where are those files located. I can try manually deleting all of them then reinstalling the game again.

worst comes to worst I'll try a system restore on monday but I don't want to try it now because last time I did it failed before I fixed the last problem I had with this computer.

it failed due to the mse anti virus software running while the restore points were saved I think I saved a new one before this problem came back in the game without anti virus software running so that is one thing to try on monday..

anyways,

I hope you come up with something.
this is a strange one to me. an evolving bug. reminds me of an episode of star trek with will wheaton involving nano machines

i kid..

thanks again

[Edited on 12-14-2013 by Stateofpsychosis]

Post by **Vice** » Sat Dec 14, 2013 7:54 am

Thanks for sending the report. As for the 98% consistency after trying the alternate planet rendering mode, yes, look for the \\planet subfolder in the game's save data folder (default is c:\\sw3dg\\EvochronMercenary, find the \\planet folder in there), you can delete, rename, or move that folder to test for changes. Here are a few things I noticed from your report:

- Your system only has 1.17 GB of free physical memory out of 2 GB installed. This is below the minimum of what the game needs to run effectively. You need about another 300-400 MB of free physical memory for needed conditions. Try to close down as many non-essential background tasks/programs as you can to free up more physical memory. With this memory limitation on your system, it will be no surprise if you run into intermittent out of memory conditions at various points during gameplay (especially at events during loading or when trying to descend into planet atmospheres when the memory needs of the game are at their highest). The stated requirement of 1.5 GB available memory may sound arbitrary, but it is an important minimum requirement for this game.

- You're running a display driver that's over 3 years old (from April 2010). Although it won't likely address the low memory issues on your system, I would recommend updating your display driver to the latest available for your system. This will likely help with performance and possibly reliability in a number of games.

- After completing the above steps, if the problem continues, try launching the game with the 'Run as administrator' option. If it continues, also try shutting down Steam entirely (right click on the taskbar icon, then click on 'Exit'), then launch the game directly from its install folder. See if the behavior changes.

- It's good that you ran those scans. However, you still have a number of core system file crashes/haults in your Windows error log recently, including ntdll.dll and kernel32.dll. This can sometimes indicate damage/corruption problems. Has this system been exposed to virus/malware damage in the past? Have you also run the SFC /SCANNOW step to check for core system file damage? If not, I would recommend completing that process and maybe again running scans with tools like TDSKiller, MalwareBytes, and a full scan with a program like Avast. Links for these tools are below:

http://usa.kaspersky.com/downloads/tdsskiller
http://www.malwarebytes.org/
http://www.avast.com/index

Crashes are logged for these programs and games and could be related:

- Skype (kernel32.dll)
- Kraken (game crash)
- Runaway 2 (ntdll.dll)
- Rabbit something? (kernel32.dll)
- Wallace and Grommit (two versions, both game crashes)
- T5C (as failing module and kernel32.dll)

And a few others, these are just the ones with multiple listings.

What was the last problem you referred to that you had to fix on your computer?

Stateofpsychosis · Post by **Stateofpsychosis** » Sat Dec 14, 2013 8:03 am

the old problem was that the scvhosts exe process was stuck at 99%..

yea all of those games you listed were notoriously buggy and lot of people had problems with them. I couldn't even finish playing that night of the rabbit game.

skype is uninstalled as of right now.

hmm... the memory requirements don't explain why it worked before unless something else is bogging it down but i believe i've freed up more memory since then. this computer only has 2 gigs of ram but i guess you're saying that more of that's being used by idol processes eh?

okay I'm trying deleting the planets folder now

Post by **Vice** » Sat Dec 14, 2013 9:00 am

Actually, the memory requirement could easily explain the intermittent issues you've run into (aside from the planet rendering mode, which could be separate). The total memory load on your system will likely change over time, even while the game is running, changing the points at which memory runs out, which in turn changes the points at which the game stops when it's denied memory it needs.

Yes, the background programs you have running (which you can view in a list in msconfig > startup tab) are consuming some of your system's installed memory down to a point where only 1.17 GB is left at the time of the msinfo snapshot. You could probably get things working better if you can get that level to 1.4 GB, but 1.5 GB would be best.

Stateofpsychosis · Post by **Stateofpsychosis** » Sat Dec 14, 2013 9:10 am

I wonder what's eating up so much of my ram. i don't see it in task manager.

i'm already running as admin

i'll try updating that display adapter on monday.. same with avast. don't want to mess with any of that on the weekend. gotta get at least 2 days of gaming in

but for now i'm doing the sfc /scannow

nothing cam up after running the scan and i already deleted the folder the planets were in so I'm not sure what's wrong

good i thing i have my xp disk handy

so is there a way to get rid of those bad dll's for skype and those other games.. some of them could have led to the scvhosts problem if they were startup items

Post by **Marvin** » Sat Dec 14, 2013 2:36 pm

Whenever my computer memory begins to fluctuate, I suspect that a program has decided to auto-update. Using MSConfig, I disable as many "update" options as possible.

Post by **Vice** » Sat Dec 14, 2013 4:39 pm

so is there a way to get rid of those bad dll's for skype and those other games.. some of them could have led to the scvhosts problem if they were startup items

The system file scanner can help, but Windows XP is limited in what it supports for that option (ie the verifyfile flag). It could indicate a system problem (ie infection damage), but it could also be related to resource issues. I suspect, at least for this game, that the issue mostly relates to limited memory. It may be difficult to free up the needed memory with only 2 GB installed, but you do have a number of programs running in the background that once stopped, should provide more to the game. After making those changes, restart your system and immediately launch msinfo, note how much free physical memory is now available. This will help you gauge your progress. For further testing, I would also suggest turning off the 3D cockpit, turning down all details to minimum, then launch and test the game. Also, use the option in Steam to verify local game files. Once you've freed up more memory and have checked your system, you might also want to delete or rename the sw.cfg file in the save data folder (again, the default location is c:\\sw3dg\\EvochronMercenary) and let the game rebuild it.

Stateofpsychosis · Post by **Stateofpsychosis** » Sat Dec 14, 2013 5:32 pm

yea, i was able to free up enough memory to have over 1.6 gigs.. after the game crashed it would be just under 1.5 for a bit before going back up to 1.6 again though..

interestingly enough i was able to run the game with firefox and other things running in the background just fine before which would have left me with much less memory than I'm running now.

I had almost every non-essential windows process disabled in msconfig and the problem didn't go away.

I already tried turning off the 3d cockpit and turning down all the setting to minimum to no avail. I was also able to run the game on the highest settings just fine.

yea I also tried deleting the entire sw3dg folder already and no results.

I just tried verifying the game files in steam and it didn't turn up anything.

I'm at a loss for now.

my memory seems to fluctuate a lot in msinfo though. I guess I'll still try to keep picking at that but it makes no sense that I was able to get the game running while having so many programs open before.

maybe this isn't a memory issue after all.

Stateofpsychosis · Post by **Stateofpsychosis** » Sat Dec 14, 2013 6:35 pm

are there any registry files/dlls associated with this game that i could maybe purge and reinstall?

something that could have become corrupt.

maybe something to with the direct x installation that comes installs on steam for the game on first start?

i have a list of other things to try for monday when it comes to exploring whether the computer is the problem like doing a system restore to when the game worked so I have to get ready to explore the other end (whether not it's something to do with the game installation) a bit more.

Post by **Vice** » Sat Dec 14, 2013 9:45 pm

are there any registry files/dlls associated with this game that i could maybe purge and reinstall?

No, the game doesn't actually mess with the registry much at all, only to install itself within Windows. DLL's it depends on are either internal or standard Windows API. But from the sounds of it, it may just be a system-side issue. Come to think of it, you might even find a change in the behavior after updating your display driver.

maybe something to with the direct x installation that comes installs on steam for the game on first start?

From the sounds of it, your install is fine, the game is just not being given the memory it is requesting by your system for whatever reason. When you're already that lean on memory, the maximum available can shift around quite a bit as things load, unload, update, and process. So I'm not sure a restore point will necessary help, but it's worth a try. A stop at 98% suggests it could be at a point where a display call is being requested and/or loading data into video memory, so I'd keep updating the display driver pretty high on the list of things to try on Monday. I'd also suggest switching over to the Locked (FS) screen mode, exiting the game, then relaunching it to see if the behavior changes at all.

Stateofpsychosis · Post by **Stateofpsychosis** » Sat Dec 14, 2013 11:39 pm

it was bugging me too much to wait until monday..

I tried to update the video adapter from the dell drivers site and that didn't fix it.. i made sure i restarted before testing as well.

the nvidia site doesn't have a download for my graphics card. the 6 series download they have there says it's not compatible.. but they say you're supposed to go to the laptop's manufactures site not the nvidia site anyways.
I'm pretty sure the driver I just installed from the dell site is the same version as I already had to.

locked screen mode didn't help either

I also got my memory up to about 1.7 this time I tried and that didn't help either.

[Edited on 12-14-2013 by Stateofpsychosis]

Post by **Vice** » Sat Dec 14, 2013 11:48 pm

See if there is a 'crashon' text file in the install folder (not the save data folder). If there is one and it contains text, post it here or e-mail it to me. Also, do you see an error message at 98% or does it just close to the desktop?

Stateofpsychosis · Post by **Stateofpsychosis** » Sun Dec 15, 2013 1:48 am

I checked.

I don't see any crashon text file and I checked both these areas

C:\\Program Files\\Steam\\SteamApps\\common\\Evochron Mercenary
C:\\sw3dg\\EvochronMercenary

yea it just crashes to the desktop with no error message.

Stateofpsychosis · Post by **Stateofpsychosis** » Sun Dec 15, 2013 2:11 am

ahhh
if i hit my start key to go to the desktop right at the screen where after loading my profile i can choose to launch, go to multiplayer, options, etc... and then try to go back to the game again i get an error.

runtime error 7008 object does not exist at line 6689

object number not found: 90

i had another error with a differnt line and number pop up when i tried doing this the first time

not sure if this has anything to do with it

[Edited on 12-15-2013 by Stateofpsychosis]

Stateofpsychosis · Post by **Stateofpsychosis** » Sun Dec 15, 2013 2:53 am

i got it working!

not a memory issue

it was the planets installation...

something must have happened one of the times i installed or uninstalled the 2 gig planets folder.

even though i deleted it before completely it still didn't work

but after trying multiple times to reinstall them it just so happened it worked on about the 3rd try.

maybe when my memory or cpu was peaking during the installation of that folder it created a problem..

anyways, I still have to test to see if i can land on planets without it crashing but i can play the game now

Post by **Vice** » Sun Dec 15, 2013 3:30 am

For the 6689/90 error, just switch back to the Optimized (WM) No VSync (or Vsync) screen mode in the Options menu.