Consulted tech guide and still no avail

[trist007]

System Specs: win xp, 2 gigs of ram, amd 64 fx-51 chip, ati radeon x850 256mb

Anyhow, I downloaded and applied the wwpatch v1.0. I also downloaded virtual dub and converted all the .avi's to the old type, so they aren't compressed. I also edited the shortcut so that it uses win98 compatibility and I clicked on the run in 640x480 res. In my display properties, my minimum res is 800x640, but I usually leave it at 1024x768. I also maxed out virtual memory, but with 2 gigs I doubt the game would ever access my virtual memory. I also open up the task manager and under the processes tab, the only things I have running that have the Owner user name are taskmgr, explorer, and wbload (which loads my desktop theme). Should I remove anything else that have the system, local service, network service, or system user names? and if so, which? Last time I tried removing some from those user names and my computer directly started a shutdown sequence.

Anyhow, so when I run the game, it loads up with the intro screen on and the little timeglass loading, then bam it switches to my desktop with some wierd green and purple video slashes on the top part of my monitor. I can hear the intro music playing and the program Deep6 running on my taskbar, but when I click on Deep6 I just get a black screen. Please let me know what else I should do to make this game run on my comp. Thanks.

[Bungleau]

First off, welcome to the boards, trist007. [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img] May you soon be dispensing justice in the Gael Serran.

Now... lessee here.

First off, you don't want to maximize virtual memory. You want to set it to be something fixed (min and max are identical), and it's typically 2-3 times your memory size. With 2GB of memory, though, that's close to ridiculous; try setting it to 768MB on both sides and see what happens there.

Second, there are several different Win9x compatibility settings. They don't all work, so try the different ones. I believe I've had success with Win98 second edition, but try all three.

Third, you want to make sure as many things as possible are shut down. That doesn't just mean to stop the things owned by Owner; some stuff will load as system and so on. Post a full list, and I'll give it a once-over.

The "run in 640x480 res" - was that in the W&W graphics setup, or was that somewhere in Windows?

When you did the initial graphics setup, did you set it so you were running in software mode? That and 640x480 are really the minimal settings, and cover the most ground.

It sounds like you're having a little graphics problem. What version of directx are you running?

Also, make sure you've defragged the hard drive. That can sometimes cause grief.

Give that a shot, and let's see what's happening.

[Wyvern]

Welcome to the board, trist007!!!

Bungleau is great at sorting out these sort of problems so I hope you will soon be playing W&W!

Wyv

[bsftcs]

Welcome to the board, Trist. [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img]

Sounds like you will soon be able to fix the problem with the guidance of our most excellent board techies. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[trist007]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys. This feels like a cumfy forum already. I've been wanting to play this game for a long time. I love true rpg fantasy games. Especially ones that don't include robots, aliens, and muskets.

Anyhow, I have directx 9.0. I changed my virtual memory paging file to 768mb-768mb. As for that 640x480 thing, it was under the w&w shortcut under the compatibility tab. Furthermore, I tried running the shortcut in all 4 compatibility modes. I noticed that in Win nt and Win 2000 I would get an error message saying that "instruction at 00423dba referenced memory at 02464000, memory could not be written". When I ran it in win 95 and win 98 I would just get that previous glitch where I would see the desktop with a Deep6 tab running at the bottom as the intro music plays. If I clicked on the tab I would only get a black screen. Also here's a list of my task manager processes:

[Local Service]
alg.exe
wdfmgr.exe
svchost.exe

[Network]
svchost.exe
svchost.exe

[Owner]
wbload.exe
explorer.exe
taskmgr.exe

[System]
System Idle Process
System
TEKS_Service.exe
smss.exe
CTSVCCDA.EXE
csrss.exe
winlogon.exe
services.exe
lsass.exe
ati2evxx.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
InCDsrv.exe
wmiprvse.exe
MsPMSPSv.exe
spoolsv.exe
wuauclt.exe

Thanks again.

[ 08-12-2005, 10:11 PM: Message edited by: trist007 ]

[Bungleau]

Okay... all the additional programs running look okay. At least, assuming your machine is an Alienware machine... if it's not, then TEKS_Service.exe may be a piece of malware.

One other thing... what exact version of DirectX are you running? You said 9.0, but that goes up to at least 9.0C. Run dxdiag to check to see the version.

So... let's get back to the basics. When you installed W&W, seems to me there's an initial configuration screen where you can specify the default resolution and acceleration type for playing the game. I think it only happens the first time you try to run it; after that, the file is created, and you can change your selections from the game menu. In that spot right there, you want to select 600x480 for the game along with software resolution. I'm not completely sure, but I *think* that if you remove the file INTROOFF.DAT from your W&W root directory, you will clear the flag that tells the game it's already asked you for the base information. Just rename it slightly, though; don't actually remove it [img]graemlins/nono.gif[/img]

If that's not working, then I'm going to go back to basics. Uninstall the game, and then install it again (as administrator, just for kicks. It may matter). Don't apply the patch yet, and don't do the virtualdub thing on the .avi files. You will need to do the Win9x compatibility mode thing -- on my XP Home box, I'm using Win95 compatibility mode (and I'm set for 600x480 resolution there too). See if you can get in that way.

If you can, then try starting a game to see what happens -- you can exit the town through one of the two gates without doing the virtualdub thing.

If you can get in, then do the virtualdub thing to expand the .avi files and make sure they work.

If you can't, then report back [img]smile.gif[/img] with how far you've gotten and what's taken place.

[trist007]

Yup, it's an alienware. I have directx 9.0c
I uninstalled the game and reinstalled it. However, it never asked me to choose the resolution and acceleration type. I did a full install btw. I tried running the shortcut on win95 compatibility and the same thing happens, desktop shows while music plays and there's that weird video smudge on the top of the screen. Also, the screen goes black as before if I click on the Deep6 tab on the taskbar.

[Bungleau]

Hmmmm.... I'm going to reinstall the game on my machine (which isn't an alienware ) tonight, and see if I can remember what might be giving you grief. Stay tuned....

[trist007]

Sweet, thanks alot man. I'll be on standby.

[Bungleau]

Okay, sorry for the delays. I reinstalled tonight, and here's what I found. I'm running XP SP2, DX 9.0C, and a paltry 1GB of memory (1.5GB fixed swap, I believe).

I reinstalled just straight, no patches.

First, that introoff.dat file simply bypasses the opening video. So that's a red herring.

Second, after the opening video, you're put into the main screen with the picture of Kerah and the Start/Load/Credits/Exit options.

I took start and it brought me into town. IIUC, you're saying you don't even get this far?

I was able to add a character and start the game. I saved outside town and was able to get back in town.

While in town, I couldn't access the top row of buildings or the right-hand gate. This is consistent with not virtualdubbing, which I hadn't done yet.

Applying vdub to the video files did fix that problem. However, I have a problem on my machine when I look at a directory with those expanded .avi files. Explorer craps out and dies... every time. I had to rename and copy the files at the command prompt, but it worked.

From the town menu, I could go in to the control options and set the gamma and video driver settings there.

A couple of interesting things...

When I start in Win95 compatibility mode, the game hangs when I leave. This happens in Win98 mode as well... but *doesn't* in WinNT mode. I'm playing there now.

Also, I tried checking nothing more than the compatibility mode -- no screen resolution, no other flags. Everything seems to be running fine... but I haven't done any long-term testing yet.

So... where in that process is it dying for you?