Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

There have been a number of reports of crashes and brief instances of "flashing" on the screen and now one where some screens appear as almost a negative image. It's already getting difficult to find all the comments about this as more and more posts come into the forum so I'm starting a new one and we'll pick up from here

QUESTIONS

For those of you that have had cases of the game crashing at some point have you been running in both Windowed and Full screen mode when this happened or only Full screen?

Has anyone who has seen the screen " flash" briefly ever seen this in windowed mode

We ARE trying to fix this genetlemen but we have to find the problem first. The more info we get the quicker this gets solved

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

No. Only in Full Screen.

Don't worry too much guys; every game has these annoying
bugs which only show up when it's been released; Silent
Hunter 3 shipped with bugs that made the rain not show
up, for example.

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

I have occasionally screen flashes only in Full Screen mode. But that is a minor problem because it doesn't affect the gameplay.
The major problem are crashes with soundFX turned on (as already described in the "Game crashes with XP" thread).
That happens in both full screen and windowed, DirectX and GDI, 640x480 and 800x600, mouse clicks on and off, win98 compatibility mode on and off. I even tried turning hardware acceleration and all audio codecs except the MP3 one off, but without positive result..

hope this could help

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

I have had the flashing screen syndrome today in full windows mode but more than that even when the game has been closed down i still get the screen flashing at times which doesn't seem to recurr after a reboot..Anyone else had this problem???Have attached sys info etc... best regards MD

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

Your DirectShow filters have this section, that mine do not

WDM Streaming VBI Codecs:
NABTS/FEC VBI Codec,0x00200000,2,1,,5.03.0000.0900
CC Decoder,0x00200000,2,1,,5.03.0000.0900
WST Codec,0x00200000,1,1,,5.03.0000.0900

A quck google gives
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...odecfilter.asp
wher it states "The NABTS/FEC VBI codec decodes NABTS (North American Broadcast Teletext Specification) teletext from data in the vertical blanking interval (VBI). It also accepts hardware-decoded NABTS data. The codec delivers forward-error-corrected (FEC) SLIP packets."

So - this thing is a possibility. You may find that removing whatever application is updating your clock (??) may resolve this?.

After all - according to the blurb, it is intercepting the video refresh and you are getting periodic flashes on the screen?

Does this application do things to (say) a on-screen clock? - or some other graphical output? - in which case it may be writing directly to (or be affected by our) direct use of the hardware palette on the video card.

Teletext? - some sort of TV function on your card is enabled?

Cheers
Andy

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

Hmm it might be a bug with the latest NVIDIA drivers; I found
that video playback of any kind Windows Media PLayer, or
WinDVD were completely hosed and washed out until I disabled
DirectDraw....

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

Here is a list of my video codecs (attachment).

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens-Mobhack repl
 

Thanks for the reply...Dunno how you figured it all out...the problem is that i haven't a clue about these filters...I will roll back my nvidia drivers and see if this makes a difference..As i have said it doesn't affect gameplay nor my enjoyment of the game but we know what perfectionists you all are and so it was worth mentioning.... best regards MD http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens-Mobhack repl
 

I had a bunch of DirectShow filters installed on my computer,
so I decided to wipe my windows installation and start from
scratch; I'll try out WinMBT with this fresh install and let
you know if it's the DirectShow filters that are causing
the problems.

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens-Mobhack repl
 

Direct Show filters might be the reason for the screen flashes...because I haven't had any flashes on screen since I wiped my HDD and reinstalled fresh after removing my useless
video capture card.

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens-Mobhack repl
 

If anyone can duplicate this without having to wipe their windows installation and start from scratch please let me know. This sounds promising but with a full new installation of Windows it could be a combination of things

Don

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens-Mobhack repl
 

It's not related to the direct show filters; I can still see the screen flashing. This is a very odd bug; it doesn't show up right away all the time, which is why I was misled earlier.

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

Full screens both crashes and flashing screen until I shut off Sound Fx.

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

??????

Are you saying the occasional screen flash on full screen mode goes away for you when you shut off the Sound FX??

Don

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

I have had all sound off since day one.
I get a rare blip of brightness (not me, the screen) that I think is related to things that I am running in the background. JMHO.

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

OK, but what I'm trying to deterimine is if "Black Captain"s crashes AND flashes went away once he turned off the sound.



Don

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

??????

Are you saying the occasional screen flash on full screen mode goes away for you when you shut off the Sound FX??

Don

[/quote]

Andy you were right about third party codecs...
Uninstalling the SLD codec-pack solved all my sound and instability problems! And the screen flashes don't show up any more.
I can't say which codec exactly produced the problem, just uninstalled the whole thing and now is everything extremely well. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

I've experienced no problems so far.
Notice the "flash" between turns
when the turn goes
from the ai's back to my turn

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

I do not get the flashing screen in full mode but the game does minimize by itself from time to time. I wonder it the flashes are related to that and on these flashing machines the game just doesn't get the minimize done but flashes in the attempt???

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

the crashes went. The flashes are still with me periodically, when the program ends the AI movement; so it's not a huge issue for me.

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

My screen flashing seems to have stopped since I deleted a very old version of MS Works I had installed to open some files from an old computer. It appears that it had an update function that was constantly running.

Probably not much help to others with this problem, though.

Still get the end turn flashes sometimes.

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

I get some white flashing form time to time. I also have the map go black for a second when the AI moves. the rest of the screen stays normal.

..full screen mode BTW

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

The screen going black between the AI and your turns for a brief moment is normal

Don

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

OK just doesn't happen all the time. didn't think it was a problem.

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

I've had a problem with crashing in both Full and Windowed mode. It seems to happen less often in Windowed mode, but still happens. In Full mode, the crash seems to lock up my whole system but in Windowed mode I can escape out of it.

I am running Win98SE, 256MB of RAM, 64MB Geforce4 video (which I've tried rolling back the drivers on), using DirectX 9.0c.

Please let me know if you guys need any more information or come up with anything -- I'm dying to get into this game but it's just too frustrating having to reboot so often.

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

Press the START button then RUN then type DXdiag and check every tab for conflicts. If there are none turn off as many background programs as you can. The game requires a great deal from your CPU. If there are an abundance of programs running before you start up the game a sudden increase in requirements from the game during play can push you over and cause a crash. ( NOTE: There may be things running in the background that you don't even know about )

You didn't tell us what sound card you are using either. Try running the game with sound off in Preferences for awhile. If that solves the problem then that points in a different direction

Don

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

OK I checked all tabs (and ran all tests) using DXDiag and no conflicts or problems were found. I had already checked background tasks and closed everything except for Explorer and Systray before running it.

I'm using an on-board sound chip, looking in my device manager it just says "Via AC '97 Audio Controller". All DirectSound tests run fine in DXDiag.

I will try running with sound off for a little while and see if it helps. I guess I should've clarified earlier that I am usually able to play a few turns before the freeze-up happens. It generally seems to happen after I've played 3 or 4 turns, but it has also happened 3 separate times when trying to play a single PBEM turn...

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

I'm not 100% sure yet but it looks like turning sound off has fixed the problem. I even went back to full-screen mode (which seemed to freeze more frequently) and so far have made it about 20 turns into a battle with no problem. I will follow up if the problem reoccurs, but for now it appears the problem is sound-related. I know I have the latest driver for this chip, as one hasn't been released in quite awhile...

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

Play a few times with the sound off then save a game and turn the sound back on again. Remember if you do crash the autosave will catch the last full turn so you won't be losing your games completely. If you can establish that sound off = Good and sound on = Bad let us know. You may be one of the few who has a problem with the MP3 sound files. If that does indeed turn out to be the problem the patch ( which will be released in a couple of weeks ) has instructions on how to convert the MP3's in the game to WAV format. This may not sound like a great solution but a full set of WAV files in an equivalent sound quality would be an 80+ MB download so converting is quicker and easier for everyone all the way around

Don

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

OK I'll let you know how it turns out...

Thanks for the help.

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

OK I'm almost positive it's the sound now.

With SoundFX off I finished my last scenario and played the first several turns of another scenario with no problem. I turned SoundFX back on and the game froze up within two turns. I rebooted, turned SoundFX back off, loaded my Autosave and finished the rest of the scenario without problem.

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

While you were playing with sound ON did the sound FX appear to be playing normally up until the freeze up??

Don

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

Just before your game locks up with sound on did you notice if there was an intensive use of sound just before the crash ?? i.e. gun or tank battles where lots of things were happening at once and did the crashes occur during your turn or the AI's turn ( or both ...)???

Don

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

Yes, sounds were working perfectly right up until the crash. I've noticed the crash happens on both my turns and the AI's. I don't think that there is anything really intense happening sound-wise when it happens, it seems like it will happen at some random point during the turn but it does seem to happen always like right when a vehicle starts moving. I will try to see if I can cause the error again and I'll try to notice what is going on when it happens...

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

If you can cause a repeatable error with a vehicle sound I will need the vehicle, the nation, the year. Then we'll see if anyone else that has had crashes like this can duplicate it

To test this correectly you need to save before moving then save each time you move. Then, after the crash go back and move that same one again. If it crashes three times in a row you've got a repeatable.
Once you establish that you have a repeatable crash try moving something else BEFORE moving the vehicle that cause the crash then try that vehicle again then let me know if that clears the problem or it continues on.

In the DOS version a bad sound file WOULD crash the game faster than you could say *crash*. However, all the old .MEL sounds and their code have been removed and neither Andy or I have had crashes like you describe but neither of us or our playtesters had integrated sound and as I recall someone else had this and solved it by buying a sound card. I'm hoping we can solve this some other way and we seem to have traced most of this to some sytems unable to handle multiple MP3. Other people have reported that converting to WAV has solved their problem but I'd like to follow up the theory that it may be one particular sound even if it's to eliminate that as a cuplrit

Don

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

I will try that when I have time DRG, but I can tell you that most likely it isn't linked to one particular vehicle. The reason I'm guessing this is because I've had the crash playing as everyone from the Soviets in 1946 to the US in 2005 and a few other nations in between.

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

Most ( if not all ) vehicle sounds are generic and apply to all nations equally

Don

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

OK I'll test it out when I get a little free time and I'll let you know what I come up with.

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

OK, I'll have Andy check the thread. I'm going on vacation for 10 days starting tomorrow.

Don

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

New type of crash I haven't read about yet on this board:

-when in purchase screen for PBEM games, the game crashes everytime I click on 'previous' to navigate back and forth on the list of what I've purchased.

-doesn't happen when I click on 'first unit' or 'next', only 'previous'

It happened 4 times in a row yesterday.

Is this a known bug?

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

Fixed as part of the forthcoming patch:

Cheers
Andy

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

I'm tired so maybe I missed above somthing but I cant get past turn one before it crashe. Always when I try to advance the turn full screen mode no sound. running 98se

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

Try typing DXdiag after pressing Start then Run and see if your DX is working correctly. How much memory do you have in your machine and what speed is it? So this happens only when you end your turn?

Don

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

You may well have a bad coded, or one of the cards that cannot play multiple MP3 sound files siimultaneously.

Turn all sound off:
1) on the Game Options programme Misc tab - set mouse click to off.
2) Open the game and choose PREFERENCES and in there set Sound FX and Battle FX both to OFF.

Exit game to ensure preferences saved, then re-enter and try a quick test game. If your problems went away then you have either a bad audio codec installed, or a sound card which cannot hack multiple MP3 streams (the latter tend to be, but are not always, budget integrated sound chips).

A bad codec is up to you to find by checking your installed codecs through the usual windows utilities. (The name of the codec may be in the crash report - XP gives you one of these, not sure about Se. The crash report may report about a bad .vxd file for example).

If your sound card and/or codec cannot handle multiple MP3 files, there are instructions elsewhere (and these will be included in the patch) how to convert the sounds to WAV format, and to update the sounds.ini file to point to WAV files. Try searching the forum for "goldwave" (the conversion programme) to find these posts.

Cheers
Andy

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

All DX works right except 3d acceleration 9 not supported by hard ware.

Killing all sound seems to cure problem thanks Guys

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

I had the screen flashing when I was in "full screen mode". This game will just not work in that mode. Now I've changed it over to "windowed" mode it starts up but when I try to move my units, the game crashes with an error message reading: Error Signature Appname winspmbt.exe AC3audio.ax...can anyone help as I would love to play this game?!

Caesar4

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

First try playing with all the sound controls in the game preferences set to OFF

Then try pressing START and RUN and entering DXDIAG and check that your Direct X is working correctly.

Then read through the sound threads in this forum . There are a couple that are just dedicated to sound.

The game **will** work in full screen mode, lot's of people run it that way, It just won't run on your machine without some adjustments. First we have to run through the basics. The fact you are getting an audio error message leads me to think it's sound related and if you're game runs fine with sound off we can procedd from there

Don

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

I posted this as a separate thread but this might link in to this also

I was using the game in windows mode today for the first time and when I went to shut down the game the x in the upper corner of the main screen was greyed out. I closed using the menu bar(right click mouse..get popup menu and close.) the next time I tried to play the game I got to the main screen but when i hit the play button i went back to desktop and nothing further happened. When i rebooted it worked fine. I tried using windows mode again to see if it was a one time thing and the same thing happened. I thought you might like to know of this possible bug.

Tom D
I tried this on 3 separate computers with the same result

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

Same answer, the EXIT button on the main game screen exits the game, whatever windows mode you are in.

(Please don't ask the same question multiple times and in different threads as that can cause confusion.)

Cheers
Andy

Re: Game Crashes and flashing screens
 

Thanks Andy for the quick reply. Sorry about the multiple posts....was a bit tired at the time http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/redface.gif