Environment crashes

hank · Post by **hank** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 3:13 pm

Environment crashes have been an issue for me for several days. At first it was sporatic. I tried the cleaner method of loading a pilot then exiting and a few times it appeared to fix it but then the crashes came back for all my pilots and the cleaning method did not work.

Its been crashing after I've loaded a pilot and launched the
session from the main menu. The crash occurs every time at 99% when it says "entering universe".

But, I think I found the problem. I tried removing all the environment mods related to nebulas and stars. All the pilots loaded. I tested my hypothesis and installed the nebula mod again and it started crashing again. I removed the nebula jpgs again and the pilots loaded no problem.

Maybe I have a bad jpg file for the system those pilots are in. (Atlas ... hint) I have not tested any more since I'm having E:M withdrawals. So for now I'm playing with stock stuff and may revisit this problem in the future after re-downloading the mod off the internet.

Anyone else experienced this?

If anyone wants to see what Win7 dumped, I copied the info several times in a text file. They' re all exactly the same.

have a nice day

[Edited on 9-3-2012 by hank]

Post by **Marvin** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 3:18 pm

The nebula mod is a big memory-grabber. I had more trouble with it than with any other mod ... including the cockpit mods. So, if you really want the nebulae, I suggest you reduce the size of each of the nebula files and live with the reduced resolution.

Capt_Caveman · Post by **Capt_Caveman** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 3:39 pm

try to free up some memory

hank · Post by **hank** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 2:43 am

Its gone from good to bad now. The game has gotten to the point where it crashes nearly every time. I've sent Vice an email per his instructions with everything he asked for. I've uninstalled then reinstalled; stopped services and processes; I ran the memory test and it passed; I used DFF explorer to alter the exe; virus scan; unloaded all mods; etc etc.

Nothing has helped. The bottom line is it was working and now it doesn't. Nothing has changed on my computer. The only thing I've been doing for over a week is play Evochron. All my other memory hungry 3D sims all work. I can usually find problems like this. My computer is fairly new and has plenty of graphics and memory power. I'm stumped.

Hopefully the developer can help. I spent all day on this. If he can't, I won't be playing any more.

Post by **Vice** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 3:37 am

The crashing relates to the music module, so we're looking into possible sound device problems on the system. Could be caused by a number of things, sent some initial steps to try and diagnose it.

hank · Post by **hank** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 1:23 pm

Thanks and many thanks for the quick reply. Before I fell asleep at the keyboard last night, I did step one and turned off the music and it loaded but I will have to try it several times before I know it worked for the long term.

I'll do what you recommend if it crashes again. I used to be an IT guy so I have a little experience troubleshooting stuff.

Thanks again. I will keep you posted.

hank · Post by **hank** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 9:16 pm

I'm back in the drivers seat thanks to tech support. I'm not going to post much until another day or two but suffice it to say; I've loaded EM dozens of times today and everything is working.

It was a sound device issue. I started by turning off music. That stopped the crashes. Then I disabled what appeared to be a conflict between an AMD and the system RealTek audio devices (I think ... not being and expert) so I disabled the AMD device per Vice's recommendations turned music back on and it worked with no crashes.

All appears to work now. Thanks again.

a learning experience it has been

[Edited on 9-5-2012 by hank]

hank · Post by **hank** » Thu Nov 29, 2012 11:45 pm

I've become fairly good at fixing error loading problems but was wondering if other users experience the same thing.

Around once every 5 or 6 weeks I will suddenly get an error message which stops the program. I've become pretty adept at fixing it. So far its related to a mod graphic or sound file.

First, I simply delete all my mods and go back to stock. Do the "load pilot" then "exit" process to clear things up and I'm back up and running.
Then I start re-installing my favorite mods and I usually have no problems for several weeks.

I play mulitiplayer a lot now ... I've wondered if it had anything to do with it. Everything works great for weeks at a time then bam .. an error is thrown ... but now I know how to fix it.

Is this a rare (me only) problem or do others have this happen?

thanks and have a nice day

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Fri Nov 30, 2012 4:44 pm

I do not use any mods or modded sound files at the moment and no problem since. In the passed using mods and different soundfiles I would get occasional errors!......

hank · Post by **hank** » Fri Nov 30, 2012 11:28 pm

thanks for the input. I've wondered if the mods were the issue. Right now I'm almost mod-less ... I still like my music and enhanced nebulae.