Hard freeze on tutorial, main screen
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I just bought GalCiv II Gold (on CD), installed and made sure everything got updated through Stardock Central, and went to run the Tutorials. I promptly started getting hard freezes. (Which means: cursor freezes, computer responds to neither mouse nor keyboard--not even Ctrl-Alt-Del hit repeatedly or held down--and the only thing I can do is shut it off via the physical power button.)
Before running the game I did follow the advice in the Readme and installed the latest nVidia drivers for my XP rig. Also ran dxdiag...it reported no problems.
The first freeze came when I chose Tutorials, then (before I actually played any of them) tried clicking the "Full Screen" box. An "x" appeared in the box, but nothing else happened, and the computer was locked up hard.
I rebooted, restarted the game, and decided to refrain from clicking that box again. I started up the first Tutorial video. It ran most of the way through, until the hard freeze about when the voice was reading me the last sentence.
After rebooting again I decided to give Windowed mode a go. I started the game, chose 1152 x 864 windowed, quit and restarted the game. I went back to Tutorials, and made it through the first tutorial video. Hooray. I breathed a sigh of relief, felt bold enough to click the "Full Screen" box (which worked this time), and started playing the second video. It froze about halfway through.
I purchased Star Rangers 2 via TG.net some weeks ago and haven't been able to enjoy that one yet either, as I got similar hard freezes when trying to play the RTS mode. (The introductory RTS mission locks up with a hard freeze every time I launch it, anywhere from one to five minutes in. If I decline the RTS, I can play a good long while without a glitch. Well, other than the fact that the intro video is glitched up.)
(Oh, and I have also purchased GalCiv 1, Space Rangers 1, and The Corporate Machine from you--never a lick of trouble with any of them, happy to say. Except the intro video for Space Rangers 1 is glitchy, just as with Space Rangers 2--but that's not really important.)
Perhaps the problems are related; and perhaps there is something I can uninstall or disable that might help. There are more open processes in Task Manager than I would like, and more entries in the list of Audio Codecs and Video Codecs than I understand (thanks to your FAQ for guiding me there...wish I knew more about what I'm seeing there though). I don't really know what to try uninstalling and disabling, and what side-effects I could expect from doing so.
Here is my debug.err from TotalGaming/GalCiv2:
========================================
Debug Message: Version v1.5 last updated on: Thu Jan 11 13:39:19 2007
Debug Message: GalCiv2 is activated.
Debug Message: Checking DX Version.
Debug Message: *********DXDiag info follows.*********
System Info
Time: 9/9/2007, 03:26:39
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Machine Name: KMJ-ET3256
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254)
Languages: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: eMachines
System Model: Product Name
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 3200+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.2GHz
Physical Memory: 1024MB RAM
Page File: 379MB used, 2598MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
Display Info
Display device 1:
Device Name: \\.\DISPLAY1
Card Name: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip Type: GeForce 6600 GT
DAC Type: Integrated RAMDAC
Key Device: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_00F1&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_A2
Display Memory: 128.0 MB
Current Display Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: ViewSonic VP171b-2
Monitor Max Resolution: 1280,1024
Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0011.6218
Driver Date: 6/29/2007 00:43:00
DirectX Acceleration Enabled: Yes
Sound info
Sound device 1:
Description: NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) Audio
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: NFORCE_VAD
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Driver Name: nvapu.sys
Provider: NVIDIA Corporation
Driver Version: 6.14.0462.0000
Driver Date: 4/13/2005 12:34:02
Type: WDM
Other Drivers:
Acceleration Level: 3
Cap Flags: 0
Min/Max Sample Rate: 0, 0
Debug Message: *********END dxdiag info.*********
Debug Message: Entering WinMain
Debug Message: ******* Starting Game Shell *******
Debug Message: Preparing to change display settings.
Debug Message: Using multilsample setting: D3DMULTISAMPLE_4_SAMPLES
Debug Message: Game Resolution: 1152 x 864
Debug Message: Running in windowed mode.
Debug Message: HAL (hw vp): NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
Debug Message: D3DPRESENT_INTERVAL_IMMEDIATE
Debug Message: Refresh rate: 0
Debug Message: Bit Depth: 32 bit.
Debug Message: *********Checking D3DDevice Caps***********************
Debug Message: A full-color cursor is supported in hardware at high resolution modes.
Debug Message: Border size reported as 6 by 32
Debug Message: RGB in format 6:6:6, Masks reported as ff0000:ff00:ff
Debug Message: Now windowed.
Debug Message: Shell initialization complete
Debug Message: ***** Initializing Game *****
Debug Message: Timer Frequency is 0 836e3d80
Debug Message: Initializing sound card.
Debug Message: initailizing bink
Debug Message: Create setup screens.
Debug Message: Clear galaxy settings.
Debug Message: Clear influence.
Debug Message: Clear up laws.
Debug Message: Clear first time events.
Debug Message: Clear wonders and trade goods.
Debug Message: Clear sector mapper.
Debug Message: * Collectors Edition *
Debug Message: Set mouse.
Debug Message: Set update timer.
Debug Message: Clear data definitions.
Debug Message: No files found matching mask C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\My Games\GalCiv2\ships\*.xml
Debug Message: No files found matching mask C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\My Games\GalCiv2\ships\*.shipcfg
Debug Message: Reading Star Names
Debug Message: Reading Star Names... Done
*DEBUG ERROR: ***TutorialWnd: Unknown edit field Totorial_GridList_Entry type: CustomListEntry ***
Debug Message: TutorialWnd: Cannot find OBJID Totorial_All_Button
========================================
Also, for what it's worth, here's what's listed in my Device Manager under Audio Codecs:
==========
IMA ADPCM Audio CODEC
Microsoft ADPCM Audio CODEC
Microsoft CCITT G.711 Audio CODEC
Microsoft GSM 6.10 Audio CODEC
DSP Group TrueSpeech(TM) Audio CODEC
msg723.acm
Windows Media Audio
Sipro Lab Telecom Audio Codec
Fraunhofer IIS MPEG Layer-3 CODEC
Indeo® audio software
Microsoft PCM Converter
==========
And Video Codecs:
==========
Cinepak Codec by Radius Inc.
DivX 6.6.1 Codec
EA VP6 Codec
Indeo codec by Intel
Indeo® video 5.10
ir41_32.ax
iyuv_32.dll
Microsoft RLE Codec
Microsoft Video 1
Microsoft Windows Media Video 9 VCM
msh261.drv
msh263.drv
msyuv.dll
tsbyuv.dll
vp6vfw.dll
==========
Finally, all the junk listed under Processes in Windows Task Manager, in descending order of memory usage:
==========
firefox.exe (of course, I'm using that to post this message)
explorer.exe
vsmon.exe
svchost.exe
SMSystemAnalyzer.exe
iTunesHelper.exe
ScanningProcess.exe
ScanningProcess.exe
services.exe
zlclient.exe
svchost.exe
spoolsv.exe
nvsvc32.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
ioloDMVSvc.exe
Monitor.exe
svchost.exe
ups.exe
CALMAIN.exe
csrss.exe
rundll32.exe
hpztsb04.exe
AppleMobileDeviceService.exe
wmpnscfg.exe
schedul2.exe
razerhid.exe
zHotkey.exe
PrintScreen.exe
iPodService.exe
razertra.exe
ctfmon.exe
Runservice.exe
FreeRAM XP Pro.exe
shwiconEM.exe
taskmgr.exe
razerofa.exe
schedhlp.exe
winlogon.exe
TrueImageMonitor.exe
lsass.exe
smss.exe
System
System Idle Process
==========
Any advice, suggested fixes, and/or "Dude! Uninstall that! No wonder your computer is running like a dog these days!" exclamations would be appreciated. Thanks.
Before running the game I did follow the advice in the Readme and installed the latest nVidia drivers for my XP rig. Also ran dxdiag...it reported no problems.
The first freeze came when I chose Tutorials, then (before I actually played any of them) tried clicking the "Full Screen" box. An "x" appeared in the box, but nothing else happened, and the computer was locked up hard.
I rebooted, restarted the game, and decided to refrain from clicking that box again. I started up the first Tutorial video. It ran most of the way through, until the hard freeze about when the voice was reading me the last sentence.
After rebooting again I decided to give Windowed mode a go. I started the game, chose 1152 x 864 windowed, quit and restarted the game. I went back to Tutorials, and made it through the first tutorial video. Hooray. I breathed a sigh of relief, felt bold enough to click the "Full Screen" box (which worked this time), and started playing the second video. It froze about halfway through.
I purchased Star Rangers 2 via TG.net some weeks ago and haven't been able to enjoy that one yet either, as I got similar hard freezes when trying to play the RTS mode. (The introductory RTS mission locks up with a hard freeze every time I launch it, anywhere from one to five minutes in. If I decline the RTS, I can play a good long while without a glitch. Well, other than the fact that the intro video is glitched up.)
(Oh, and I have also purchased GalCiv 1, Space Rangers 1, and The Corporate Machine from you--never a lick of trouble with any of them, happy to say. Except the intro video for Space Rangers 1 is glitchy, just as with Space Rangers 2--but that's not really important.)
Perhaps the problems are related; and perhaps there is something I can uninstall or disable that might help. There are more open processes in Task Manager than I would like, and more entries in the list of Audio Codecs and Video Codecs than I understand (thanks to your FAQ for guiding me there...wish I knew more about what I'm seeing there though). I don't really know what to try uninstalling and disabling, and what side-effects I could expect from doing so.
Here is my debug.err from TotalGaming/GalCiv2:
========================================
Debug Message: Version v1.5 last updated on: Thu Jan 11 13:39:19 2007
Debug Message: GalCiv2 is activated.
Debug Message: Checking DX Version.
Debug Message: *********DXDiag info follows.*********
System Info
Time: 9/9/2007, 03:26:39
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Machine Name: KMJ-ET3256
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254)
Languages: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: eMachines
System Model: Product Name
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 3200+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.2GHz
Physical Memory: 1024MB RAM
Page File: 379MB used, 2598MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
Display Info
Display device 1:
Device Name: \\.\DISPLAY1
Card Name: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip Type: GeForce 6600 GT
DAC Type: Integrated RAMDAC
Key Device: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_00F1&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_A2
Display Memory: 128.0 MB
Current Display Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: ViewSonic VP171b-2
Monitor Max Resolution: 1280,1024
Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0011.6218
Driver Date: 6/29/2007 00:43:00
DirectX Acceleration Enabled: Yes
Sound info
Sound device 1:
Description: NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) Audio
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: NFORCE_VAD
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Driver Name: nvapu.sys
Provider: NVIDIA Corporation
Driver Version: 6.14.0462.0000
Driver Date: 4/13/2005 12:34:02
Type: WDM
Other Drivers:
Acceleration Level: 3
Cap Flags: 0
Min/Max Sample Rate: 0, 0
Debug Message: *********END dxdiag info.*********
Debug Message: Entering WinMain
Debug Message: ******* Starting Game Shell *******
Debug Message: Preparing to change display settings.
Debug Message: Using multilsample setting: D3DMULTISAMPLE_4_SAMPLES
Debug Message: Game Resolution: 1152 x 864
Debug Message: Running in windowed mode.
Debug Message: HAL (hw vp): NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
Debug Message: D3DPRESENT_INTERVAL_IMMEDIATE
Debug Message: Refresh rate: 0
Debug Message: Bit Depth: 32 bit.
Debug Message: *********Checking D3DDevice Caps***********************
Debug Message: A full-color cursor is supported in hardware at high resolution modes.
Debug Message: Border size reported as 6 by 32
Debug Message: RGB in format 6:6:6, Masks reported as ff0000:ff00:ff
Debug Message: Now windowed.
Debug Message: Shell initialization complete
Debug Message: ***** Initializing Game *****
Debug Message: Timer Frequency is 0 836e3d80
Debug Message: Initializing sound card.
Debug Message: initailizing bink
Debug Message: Create setup screens.
Debug Message: Clear galaxy settings.
Debug Message: Clear influence.
Debug Message: Clear up laws.
Debug Message: Clear first time events.
Debug Message: Clear wonders and trade goods.
Debug Message: Clear sector mapper.
Debug Message: * Collectors Edition *
Debug Message: Set mouse.
Debug Message: Set update timer.
Debug Message: Clear data definitions.
Debug Message: No files found matching mask C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\My Games\GalCiv2\ships\*.xml
Debug Message: No files found matching mask C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\My Games\GalCiv2\ships\*.shipcfg
Debug Message: Reading Star Names
Debug Message: Reading Star Names... Done
*DEBUG ERROR: ***TutorialWnd: Unknown edit field Totorial_GridList_Entry type: CustomListEntry ***
Debug Message: TutorialWnd: Cannot find OBJID Totorial_All_Button
========================================
Also, for what it's worth, here's what's listed in my Device Manager under Audio Codecs:
==========
IMA ADPCM Audio CODEC
Microsoft ADPCM Audio CODEC
Microsoft CCITT G.711 Audio CODEC
Microsoft GSM 6.10 Audio CODEC
DSP Group TrueSpeech(TM) Audio CODEC
msg723.acm
Windows Media Audio
Sipro Lab Telecom Audio Codec
Fraunhofer IIS MPEG Layer-3 CODEC
Indeo® audio software
Microsoft PCM Converter
==========
And Video Codecs:
==========
Cinepak Codec by Radius Inc.
DivX 6.6.1 Codec
EA VP6 Codec
Indeo codec by Intel
Indeo® video 5.10
ir41_32.ax
iyuv_32.dll
Microsoft RLE Codec
Microsoft Video 1
Microsoft Windows Media Video 9 VCM
msh261.drv
msh263.drv
msyuv.dll
tsbyuv.dll
vp6vfw.dll
==========
Finally, all the junk listed under Processes in Windows Task Manager, in descending order of memory usage:
==========
firefox.exe (of course, I'm using that to post this message)
explorer.exe
vsmon.exe
svchost.exe
SMSystemAnalyzer.exe
iTunesHelper.exe
ScanningProcess.exe
ScanningProcess.exe
services.exe
zlclient.exe
svchost.exe
spoolsv.exe
nvsvc32.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
ioloDMVSvc.exe
Monitor.exe
svchost.exe
ups.exe
CALMAIN.exe
csrss.exe
rundll32.exe
hpztsb04.exe
AppleMobileDeviceService.exe
wmpnscfg.exe
schedul2.exe
razerhid.exe
zHotkey.exe
PrintScreen.exe
iPodService.exe
razertra.exe
ctfmon.exe
Runservice.exe
FreeRAM XP Pro.exe
shwiconEM.exe
taskmgr.exe
razerofa.exe
schedhlp.exe
winlogon.exe
TrueImageMonitor.exe
lsass.exe
smss.exe
System
System Idle Process
==========
Any advice, suggested fixes, and/or "Dude! Uninstall that! No wonder your computer is running like a dog these days!" exclamations would be appreciated. Thanks.
GalCiv2 Forums
, but the thing I was wondering is your running your dessktop at 1280 x 1024 and the game at 1152 x 864. Any special reason? It is best to match your desktop resolution.
