Weird, consistent desktop boots / crashes

[Guest]

Here are my specs, first off -

Windows 98 Second Edition
DirectX 8.1
AMD Athlon 1.2 Ghz
256 RAM
64 MB Geforce2 Ultra
SB Live! Value

I'm running the latest detonator xp video drivers from nvidia (v 29.42, I believe) and I lowered my sound acceleration to "Basic" which allows me to exit the game without a system lock-up. My desktop screen resolution is 800x600 in High Color (16 bit) mode, if it matters.

My issue is that not long after having gone into the game, I'll just be playing, and boom, I'm at desktop just like that. No messages or anything. After a bunch of these crashes, it started crashing where the game would stop functioning but that last frame of action, whatever it might be, would be stuck on the screen still. I could move my cursor over where my various desktop folders were and get the little finger-pointing icon. Unfortunately, this resulted in an otherwise non-responsive system requiring a restart-button hard reboot.

All the game's options are set at max, I'm running the game at 16 bit, with AA off and bilinear filtering. My graphics card never hiccups (one bad spot so far, close quarters with lots of sound effects and 4 or 5 bad guys, gfx stuttered a bit, but none other than that) so it does seem to be some sort of gfx or system overload, and I seem to have fixed the only major bug that had to do with my sound (the acceleration/exit lock-up I described earlier).

Now, here's what I've done to try and fix this myself. I've tried running with just my Norton, SB Live Audio HQ, Volume, Power Settings, and Task Scheduler running in the system tray (all I ever have running anyway), and have tried it with just Explorer and Systray running. I've tried running the game in 640x480x32 and 800x600x16 and the problem keeps arising. I've tried uninstalling the game and reinstalling it. A no-go. I tried uninstalling the game, uninstalling all my nVidia drivers, then reinstalling the newest Detonator XP drivers and then reinstalling the game. Still, it crashes. However, I did manage to get rid of the screen-freeze/desktop-underneath-but-can't-be-seen crashes that I described earlier, and now we're back to just desktop boots.

Any ideas, guys? I appreciate it immensely, the game's fantastic so far! All that great Roscoe Street scenery that I've experienced so far images/icons/wink.gif

I was thinking maybe trying to uninstall the game/drivers, then reinstalling drivers/game but this time making sure I delete my old saved games in between the uninstallation and the reinstallation. Will that make much of a difference? Running the game and then loading up one of my quick saves from when I had the game installed before, when I was still encountering problematic behavior in the game?

I'm completely out of self-suggestions. I need a little help here. images/icons/smile.gif Thanks!

-Tom
P.S. I recently reformatted my hard drive, everything is at the factory defaults for Windows 98 SE except DirectX, my video drivers, and my DX Media Runtime stuff. This means IE and Media Player are also at their factory default level, though I sincerely do not think that should be causing these crashes. But I just thought I'd throw that little tidbit out there.

[Nyghtfall]

I'm experiencing identical problems, and have tried everything you have. I have no idea what's going on.

I'm also experiencing audio issues. I have a set of Cambridge Soundworks FPS speakers, and can here absolutely nothing from the two front speakers (including doors, running, gunfire, NPC dialogue). If my back is turned on something happening, I can here sound from my two rear speakers with no problem. The moment I turn to face an NPC, everything goes silent.

P4 1.6Ghz
WinME
GF4 Ti4600
512Mb RDRAM
SB Live!
Cambridge Soundworks FPS Speakers

[Nyghtfall]

Problem solved, per this thread (http://forums.3drealms.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=17;t=000956)!

Go to Control Panel/Multimedia/Audio.

Click Advanced under Sound Playback, click the Performance tab, and move the Hardware Acceleration slider far enough to the left so that the setting reads, "Basic acceleration".

According to Windows, using basic acceleration will enable only the required acceleration features of your sound card.

Good luck!

[Guest]

Well, I wrote that reply lol! Yes, I know it works. images/icons/smile.gif It keeps the game from crashing when I exit, but what about my desktop crashes?

I've since updated my motherboard drivers, and for awhile that seemed to fix everything! The game only crashed when I would quick save and then do stuff, like bullet-time or a dodge roll or something. I just waited a second or two after saving, and then the game played just fine.

I experienced a few abnormal start-up crashes, and now I'm getting the regular desktop crashes from before.

I don't understand. The demo wasn't buggy at all, I would have never purchased the game if I'd known it was this unstable, and aside from this tech support forum, I've never heard of such instability associated with this game!

I would greatly appreciate any help here! Suddenly this forum appears to have gone silent. I've already read much of what you guys have suggested to other users experiencing game instability. I've tried much of it but to no avail. Please - a little assistance here?

Thank you very much!
-Tom W.

[Guest]

I could not get the game to play despite every effort. It would get to the main menu and I'd hit new game and either the game would freeze or crash to the desktop. I tried something from the readme file and it helped somewhat so it may do the same for you. Right click on the desktop icon and in the target line after .exe" place a space and type -disable3dpreloads now this did not fix my game completely because I still got a crash to the desktop, but I was actaully able to play the game for about 30 minutes before the crash. I also put everything on a medium setting and changed my desktop setting to high color 16 bit. At least yours was working so these fixes may be a little more helpful and get your game running better.