Boy, how it crashes!

Alex · May 27, 2002, 18:57

Ok, now I'm having this problem...

I used to play SMAC in my Duron 850 MHz w/ 256 MB RAM and Windows ME without a single problem. All of a sudden, the game starts to crash randomly. Sometimes it happens when I move a unit, sometimes when I close the base screen... no pattern here.
I always get the message "Terran.exe made something illegal and you'll pay for it" or something like this...

Actually, I tweaked the game a little bit: I added the line "Video Mode=1024" to the "alphacentauri.ini" file, because I wanted to play the game in that resolution even if my screen resolution is 800x600 at the moment. Only then the game started to crash.

I tried to change the line "ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm" as described in the readme file, but to no avail. Do I have to reinstall the game? (Please, tell me I won't have to do it).

Thanks.

Chowlett · May 27, 2002, 19:55

Well, the obvious thing to try would be to take the resolution line back out...

Alex · May 28, 2002, 08:22

Quote:

Originally posted by Chowlett
Well, the obvious thing to try would be to take the resolution line back out...

I did that. It didn't work. Well, I think I'll have to reinstall it and see what happens.

Phobos · May 28, 2002, 10:28

I had the same problem as you have now. I think it has to do with how much memory you have left on your hard drive. When i emptied some diskspace the game run normaly. Im not sure thoe. If you dont have much free space on your hard drive, try and remove some stuff and see if it works.

Alex · May 28, 2002, 10:36

Phobos: I had approximately 3.6 GB free on my HD at the time the crashes started to happen.

Is it possible to delete the "alphacentauri.ini" file? I know that this file is created when you first install the game, I'm thinking it might be recreated if I delete it... or not?

Phobos · May 28, 2002, 11:08

oh....well. Then im afraid i dont know

I dont know what happens if you delete alphacentauri.ini. What do you want to accomplish by doing that?
And be sure to make a copy of the alphacentauri.ini before you delete it just in case the game wont run. But you probably thought of that

Alex · May 28, 2002, 14:33

Phobos: yes, always keep backups is a lesson I learned painfully some years ago...

I'm thinking on these lines: if the game started to crash constantly after I tweaked the alphacentauri.ini file, then something must have gone wrong (corrupted file, whatever). Given that the file is created after the game is installed, rather than being part of the original file package, then when I delete it, it might possibly recreate itself next time I start a game, and then it will be brand new.

I know... too many words.

Phobos · May 28, 2002, 14:58

Ok, i see your point.
If it doesn´t work and you dont want to reinstall the game i can send you the original alphacentauri.ini file.

Lefty Scaevola · May 28, 2002, 17:23

Quote:

Originally posted by Alexnm
Phobos: I had approximately 3.6 GB free on my HD at the time the crashes started to happen.

Is it possible to delete the "alphacentauri.ini" file? I know that this file is created when you first install the game, I'm thinking it might be recreated if I delete it... or not?

Do not delete it, just empty it except for the end of file line.

johndmuller · May 29, 2002, 01:32

Are you sure that you limited your tinkering to just the AC.ini file? No teenie weenie little changes to any of the .txt files? (nothing that would make any differences of course)

Did you change any of your hardware/software(particularly drivers) at about the same time. On a computer I fortunately use only rarely, I took MS's advice and 'upgraded' my sound drivers and ended up with a system that would only reliably run AC if it were shortly after a reboot and if the proper chants and rituals were performed in the correct order.

Re reloading the game: For the record, I share your angst about doing that, but actually, it only takes a few minutes to do it and you can always save the prior installation into some other folder or archive it onto another partition or CD.

Alex · May 30, 2002, 11:18

The crashes have changed their methods. Now I don't get that nasty "Terran.exe" message anymore, the game just freezes. Sometimes the game screen remains visible, sometimes it just locks on a blank screen. Nothing helps. No Ctrl-Alt-Del, no praying, no virgin sacrifices. I have to turn off the computer and start the game again only to have it crash a few turns later.

My checklist:

- Changed the line "eax=1" in alphacentauri.ini. Nope.
- Changed the line "dsd3=1" in alphacentauri.ini. Nope.
- Changed the line "ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=0" in alphacentauri.ini. Nope.
- Checked dxdiag to spot any incompatibilities. Nope.
- Uninstalled and reinstalled the game. Nope.
- Changed color depth from "True color (32 bits)" to "High color (16 bits)". Nope.

Funny... in theory, I would not even have to make these changes, because the game WAS playing fine until some days ago (one or two weeks) and I did not make any changes to my system at all.

I know that probably no one will be able to help, I just wanted to vent my frustration a little bit. I did it in an orderly fashion, I guess... the moderators won't be angry.

I'll have to play Civ3.

Clear Skies · May 30, 2002, 12:37

I seem to get the terranx.exe crash when I'm upgrading units...anyone else come across this?

Googlie · May 30, 2002, 12:51

Quote:

Originally posted by Alexnm
the game just freezes. Sometimes the game screen remains visible, sometimes it just locks on a blank screen. Nothing helps. No Ctrl-Alt-Del, no praying, no virgin sacrifices. I have to turn off the computer and start the game again only to have it crash a few turns later.

A:

I had the same problem with my last desktop PC, but worse - I'd get that same absolute freeze not only in smac/x, but also Word, Excel, etc

Turns out it was a videocard problem that smac exacerbated (was the original basic GeForce card) - after I re-installed the video driver the problem more or less disappeared. (I say "more or less" as I found that if I left the machine unattended for an extended period - say 10 minutes or more - then when I tried to renew everything was frozen, and I had the usual "hit reset" action.

We never did find out how to cure that one - the store tekkies reckoned that it was to do with my powersmart settings, but tinkering with them made no difference.

All I can say is "good luck"

G.

Googlie · May 30, 2002, 12:53

Quote:

Originally posted by SMAC Fanatic
I seem to get the terranx.exe crash when I'm upgrading units...anyone else come across this?

Using ctl/U, or while in the workshop?

I got it on my old machine while in the workshop, if a base screen was open (ie, change production, activate workshop, try to assemble a new unit for upgrading, result, frequent absolute freezes - see my previous post)

G.

big_canuk · May 30, 2002, 13:11

Since I installed a new vidio card, I only have reloads when my sons or wife quit a game that I leave unattended. lol.

With the old card, I once had a unit disappear in a MP game when I hit Cntl/U.

No such problems recently.

bc

Securion · May 30, 2002, 14:00

Instead of creating a new thread...

All of a sudden my game have started to crasch after Air power. I think its becouse my artillery tries to attack air units?
How do i correct this problem? Right now its impossible to finish a game becouse of this.
It started after i reinstalled the game.
P4, TNT 16mb, 256 mb ram and 60gb HD with XP Pro.

Alex · May 31, 2002, 16:14

Right now I'm downloading the latest drivers (Detonator 28.32, from Nvidia site) for my video card (Viper v770, TNT chipset). I hope this can fix the problem. Another shot: I could try to install the original drivers for my card (I am now using Det. 12.41) and see what happens. But, for the moment, I prefer to go forward instead of backwards...

Oh, there is another thing I can do: reinstall the game without applying the patch (v 4.0), play a couple of games with vanilla SMAC and, if nothing goes wrong, I could install the patch. But let's try this driver thing first. Who knows, maybe my FIFA 2002 performance improves too...

BustaMike · May 31, 2002, 17:30

This may be a really stupid suggestion, but I've found that normally with computers the easy stupid thing is 99% of the time the thing that is wrong. I used to have a similar problem with SMAC. The game would crash for no reason all the time while the rest of my computer seemed to be fine. The problem was actually a bad RAM chip in my computer. Replaced the chip and the problem was solved.

There is a program available now called MemTest that is freeware and will check your RAM for defects. It's pretty handy if you buy the cheap ass stuff like me. This way if it is bad I know before hand and can return it before that 30 days is up.

BTW, I'm using a Viper v770 Ultra also

. It's a good little card and I think it's funny that you can overclock with just the software it comes with.

Fitz · May 31, 2002, 18:41

Question #1 to ask in regards to SMAC/X crashes: Do you have a wheel mouse? If yes, questions #2: Do you remember to disable it before you start the game?

Also, I highly recommend disabling pretty much all the auto startup programs from the system information tool (Win98). If you have an icon in your tray other than volume control, you're probably running the risk of a crash.

Alex · June 1, 2002, 15:36

Fitz: no, I do not use a wheelmouse. And I also disabled everything that was running, leaving only "Explorer" and "Systray".

Mike: thanks for your suggestion. I'll try MemTest.

I'm inclined to think that the crashes are related to a video problem. Driver? I don't know, I have yet to install the driver I downloaded.

Now let's update the most thrilling compatibility story you ever heard!

:

- After I installed the game once more, I played some turns without the patch. It crashed.
- I then installed the patch and tried to play again. Again, it crashed.
- "Let's do this step by step", I thought. Then I changed the value in the line "ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm" (in "alphacentauri.ini")from 0 (zero) to 1. Tried to play once more, it crashed.

As I said before, the crashes are wildly varied. One of the last crashes gave me the message "Terran.exe did not get along with sound.dll" or something like this. Then I thought: hmm, a sound problem. But when I tried again, it just crashed leaving me with a blank screen (and a bar made of little vertical traces on the upper side of the screen, which definitely indicates video problems). I'll try the driver thing later.

I know that some of you are probably thinking: "why in the hell this guy don't just reinstall windows and put an end to all this thing?" Well, I just thought that it would be interesting to discuss this with ilustrious and intelligent persons.

Plus, it distracts me. Maybe this thread can be of some use to newbies who are finding their way through the thick xenofungus for the first time...

Securion · June 1, 2002, 15:40

Intelligence and DOS based Windows sounds like a contradiction to me.

Googlie · June 1, 2002, 20:43

Of course with Win XP after a crash you now get the pop-up window "Do you wish to report this to Microsoft/"

A fat lot of good that would do - but OTOH, maybe we should. If MS get spammed with enough crash-reporting e-mails they might just get huffy with Firaxis and something just might get done about the interceptor crash, north pole freeze, etc.

(Dream on, eh?)

G.

Phil_de_geezer · June 2, 2002, 09:10

I had a strange problem with Unreal Tournament - one week it worked the next it didn't (i'd made no system changes AFAIK). It just crashed on startup so i went through the windows troubleshooting thing but that didn't work. Then i tried setting my audioplayback hardware acceleration to none and it worked! If you're stuck for any better ideas then you could try this.

A friend of mine also had strange problems with sound on SMAC - if you disable the sound file by changing the extension it worked (albeit without sound).

Just some ideas - i'm certainly no expert and generally only fix problems by pure luck!

Fitz · June 4, 2002, 18:27

Yknow, that sound dll error message sounds familiar with me. Have you gone to the Firaxis website and from there to the EA support page for SMAC/X? IIRC, one of the FAQs is about the sound.dll message.