Sothron

Join Date 12/2007

Need help with minidump issue on new computer

Let me start by the following: thank you in advance for any help. I also have to point out that I know official support from stardock does not cover mods. The game seems to run fine with any graphical settings range from low to highest in the vanilla trilogy mode.

The problems I am having are making two mods work with the game. I had zero problems with them on my old nvida 8800 gtx duo core 2.13 ghz 32 vista system. But now on my new system which does have current drivers so no need to update :

Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz

8 gb RAM

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 1GB

64 bit windows 7 home premium

I can't play the mods at all because of minidumps. I can enable the mods just fine and the checksums are what the modders say they should be. The two mods are Star Wars Requiem and the Star Trek SoA. Once I start playing I can't play more than two to four minutes top before the game will minidump out. I can choose any map and players and this happens. I can simply let the game sit there after starting and not click on anything or perform any action and it will still minidump.

I tried using the developer .exe that the Requiem head modder suggested and it did the same thing. Here is a list for the errors for Requiem:

Failed to Open File: 'C:\Users\Timothy\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Setting\diplomacy.user.setting'

Assert @ C:\Projects\P4\SinsDiplomacy\Release\CodeSource\Engine/Archive/VersionedFileArchive.cpp(52)

newVersionNumberFromFile == versionNumber

Assert @ C:\Projects\P4\SinsDiplomacy\Release\CodeSource\Engine/Core/Settings.cpp(661)

!attemptToReadLegacySettings || (attemptToReadLegacySettings && versionNumberFromFile >= ConvertToReleaseSpecificVersionNumber(184))

Failed to Open File: 'C:\Users\Timothy\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Setting\diplomacy.user.setting'

Assert @ C:\Projects\P4\SinsDiplomacy\Release\CodeSource\Engine/Archive/VersionedFileArchive.cpp(52)

newVersionNumberFromFile == versionNumber

Looking at the boards I saw a LAA fix and then I read how many people said it doesn't really fix any issue with this game from 32 bit to 64 bit. I would appreciate any help. I find it a bit unreal my much older computer handled these mods fine with ZERO minidumps in many, many, many hours of use and yet my new computer which blows it away spec wise can't run them at all. I have spent the last three hours trying to find some way to get them to work and nothing.

Edit: I verified it through Impulse and it said the game was installed correctly. I've deleted and redownloaded the mod files and used both winrar and 7zip. Still won't work.

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GoaFan77

Join Date 10/2008

+629

This is just the Developer.exe generating its new setting file. If you run it a second time in a row it should no longer appear, and has nothing to do with either mod I'm afraid.

Since its happening on two mods that are considered very stable, and no additional errors point to anything wrong with the mods, it probably is a computer issue somewhere. I play on a Win 7 x64 bit laptop with 4GB of DDR3 RAM, an I-5 and a Nvidia GTS 360 M, and while I am no expert your specs look comparable if not superior. So even on lowest you still get crashes at the same time as on high settings?

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Yes, my system is superior to yours with no offense intended. It is a better processor, double the ram and a better video card. It also is 64 bit windows 7.

And yes, I can change the settings from "highest detail" to "low" and any point inbetween and it still gives the mini dump. I just played a bit on a vanilla huge map and everything was fine on highest detail. I enable both mods and within two minutes both mini dump out on low settings. It is simply frustrating.

Edit: actually when I run it through the dev .exe it gives those same errors every time so it didn't just happen once and then go away. I also notice when I minidump out and go back in with a mod enabled when I check the game it goes straight back to vanilla and I have to reenable the mod again.

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GoaFan77

Join Date 10/2008

+629

Quoting Sothron,

reply 2

actually when I run it through the dev .exe it gives those same errors every time so it didn't just happen once and then go away. I also notice when I minidump out and go back in with a mod enabled when I check the game it goes straight back to vanilla and I have to reenable the mod again.

I have no idea if this is related to your problem or not, but it sounds like the game for whatever reason is not able to save the EnabledMods.txt file. Try enabling the mod then immediately quit without starting a game. Start the game again and if it still didn't auto load the mod that is unusual. In that case it sounds like the file and perhaps your entire Sins App Data folder is set to read only, which would also explain why the dev.exe generates those errors every time, because it is never able to change them successfully.

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Quoting GoaFan77,

reply 3

Quoting Sothron, reply 2actually when I run it through the dev .exe it gives those same errors every time so it didn't just happen once and then go away. I also notice when I minidump out and go back in with a mod enabled when I check the game it goes straight back to vanilla and I have to reenable the mod again.

I have no idea if this is related to your problem or not, but it sounds like the game for whatever reason is not able to save the EnabledMods.txt file. Try enabling the mod then immediately quit without starting a game. Start the game again and if it still didn't auto load the mod that is unusual. In that case it sounds like the file and perhaps your entire Sins App Data folder is set to read only, which would also explain why the dev.exe generates those errors every time, because it is never able to change them successfully.

You are exactly correct! My windows 7 64 bit is a homesharing and when I go in to the appdata folder and uncheck read only (actually I remove the blue box in the check field whereas the hidden files has a check in it so I can see those files and folders) it applies...and when I go back to check it is STILL read only. How the heck do I fix this? I never had this problem in vista 32 bit.

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So any idea on what files I need to make sure are not read only to make sure the mods work with the game? From what I've read if you have a blue rectangle in the read only checkbox under properties it doesn't mean it is read only it only means that windows ignores if it is or is not.

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I think I know what the real problem is. I can not get the game or my pc to allow changes to the user setting. Forgetting the mods for a second, if I go into the vanilla trilogy game and adjust graphical effects from highest (which is set to default for me) to low or any other setting and hit "apply" and close the game, restart it...that change was not saved at all. It goes right back to the default.

So it has to be something with the user. I have 64 bit windows 7 and I lowered the UAC to the lowest setting. No go. I checked the ownership of the individual files like diplomacy.user.setting and it is NOT checked read only and it has full permissions to modify on the current owner.

Can anyone help? I've uninstalled the game and installed, verified both installs and both are showing as valid. So why can't it save changes to the setting?

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IIRC, turning off UAC needs a reboot before it takes effect.

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

Quoting Sothron,

reply 4

You are exactly correct! My windows 7 64 bit is a homesharing

If you're trying to run the game from a network share, I'd strongly advise just installing it locally on the machine you're intending to play on, as the game wasn't designed to be run in that fashion.

From what I've read if you have a blue rectangle in the read only checkbox under properties it doesn't mean it is read only it only means that windows ignores if it is or is not.

A checkbox being filled in means it's in an indeterminate state. Generally you'll only see this if you select folders or multiple files with varying read-only states among them (any combination that isn't all-on or all-off). If you're seeing this on a single file, I wouldn't expect reliable behavior from any apps trying to write to it.

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I'm not sure what I did differently other than using 7zip versus winRAR but after three reinstall attempts and deleting all game files twice it FINALLY is working correctly. Thanks for the help guys.

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