New error message
 

Hi,

I've been pulling my hair out over all the Range Check Errors while *trying* to play this game (I've managed to finish a game only once).

And now, to make matters worse, in my current game (around Turn 70) I keep getting Messages like this:

Access violation at address 00000038. Read of address FFFFFFFF.

and

Access violation at address 0045A6E3 in module "SE4.EXE". Read of address 72617521.


Please, somebody out there, help!

I'm running Version 1.30, with no other mods than the TDM pack and a change to the systemtypes.txt file to remove moons and black holes.

I have Win98 on a Compaq PIII 733 with 128 megs RAM. Before this install of SE4, I ran scan disk and defrag.

Another recurring problem is that sometimes, during the portion of the end-turn phase when my ships are moving around, a picture of one of my ships will get "stuck" in the upper left-hand corner of the screen, and I have to reduce the game and bring it back up again to get rid of the corruption.

Re: New error message
 

Sounds like something funny going on with your memory. I doubt it's a hardware fault though. Do you run any other programs in the background whil playing? (virus checkers, internet apps, anything at all?)

Re: New error message
 

Usually, I have the virus checker McAfee VShield running, but not always.

Re: New error message
 

I don't know what to suggest really. There don't seem to be many complaints from other Users so the problem must be with your soft/ hardware. It could be a graphics card or driver or something that doesn't get on with SE. There are a few things which might make it go away:

Get rid of that virus checker when running SEIV. This is a pain, but try it a few times and see if it makes a difference. If it helps, consider switching to another V_vhecker. If not, keep running the old one.

Have a look at your startup directory to make sure there's nothing else running in the background that maybe you didn't know about / had forgotten.

You might also want to try updating some of your hardware drivers from the web. It could be a bug in that software which has been fixed.

Oh, the same applies to win98 - there are some patches on M*croS*ft's site which do wonders for certain Versions of Win98.

These are all fairly safe activities, but if you do mangle your ststem whilst attempting them - it wasn't me=-) Perhaps we should see what some other ppl on this forum think first. Any ideas?

------------------
There is an exception to every rule. Including this one.

Re: New error message
 

I received an error message like that one time, I don't remember the exact error but it was an access violation. It happened about 100-125 turns into a game IIRC. I was using the TDM mod pack, 1.61 I think, and a few other downloaded races. I just figured it was caused by one of the downloaded races as I never had a problem with using the mod pack and standard races.
Had to eventually scrap the game.

Re: New error message
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Samurai:

....
Another recurring problem is that sometimes, during the portion of the end-turn phase when my ships are moving around, a picture of one of my ships will get "stuck" in the upper left-hand corner of the screen, and I have to reduce the game and bring it back up again to get rid of the corruption.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


i actually had this problem too, it only occured with a certain transport ship which had movement orders at the end of the turn
i'm not having that anymore in my new game, don't know what caused it either.

i don't think any of the other problems are hardware related, i play this game on celeron 466 with 128 mb ( played it for a while with 64 mb, no problems )
in my new game i only get errors if a ship is still moving and i press the cargo transfer button.


[This message has been edited by LemmyM (edited 11 April 2001).]

Re: New error message
 

I too had these errors...called them the 'big blue screen errors' cause thats what would flash up with 'access violation' of se4.exe module etc. Eventually they got so bad that they were not exclusive to Se4. Even my web browser began to cough up errors every time I loaded. I have reinstalled windows about four times now...(recovery disks used for 'factory reinstall') to no avail. My friend thinks somehow my RAM got fried. This computer is now just a glorified browser until I can get it fixed/looked at. Currently I am running Se4 on a p133 with 32meg ram. No problems so far (been running for about month and a half.)
Maybe you are one of the 'lucky' people whos RAM decided to die too. I run 'DrWatson' on the computer all the time now and when it fails it is because of 'invalid memory access.'
Ah well, sorry for the lengthly post but just wanted to see if any of my bugs are your bugs http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon9.gif. Hopefully your computer is not as fried as mine.

------------------
"The Empress took your name away," said Chance.
Owen smiled coldly. "It wasn't hers to take. I'm a Deathstalker until I die. And we never forget a slight or an enemy." -Owen Deathstalker.

Re: New error message
 

Deathstalker, it sounds similar to heat problems that I've experienced. A P133 is going to be ancient, and probably extremely dirty and dusty so you might consider opening the case and using an air duster to clean all the excess dust out of the fan and heat sink on the CPU, because that will keep airflow from carrying away the heat. I had similar problems with an old P200 and that fixed it.

Re: New error message
 

I too have had the transport pic get stuck in the corner. What is that all about?

BTY samurai have you voted for the civil war feature yet? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Thanks for your time.

Re: New error message
 

Send savegames and all other materials (mod pack, etc) to MM.
Otherwise the bug won't be fixed!

Re: New error message
 

I've seen various games run quite a bit slower with a virus checker running in the background, enough that, for example, music tracks have a noticeably slower tempo. I turn off my virus checker whenever I play a game offline.

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Cap'n Q

Re: New error message
 

SE4 is the only software I've had any problem with since I got this computer a year ago.

I can't help but wonder if I somehow got a bad CD.

Does anyone know what causes a message like: Access violation at address 00000038. Read of address FFFFFFFF or Access violation at address 0045A6E3 in module "SE4.EXE". Read of address 72617521?

Re: New error message
 

Ok, first off, its the p133 with windows95 that runs the game (error free, so far). The 'new' computer (packard bell, 300cyrix? with tonnes of memory)is the one that crashes constantly. In the times I actually get Se4 to work the one thing I can count on is that if I use the ministers (complete AI) the game will crash, Dr.Watson will say that the game tried to access memory that 'wasn't there'. Thought I had a bad cd myself, but so far (about a month+) the game has worked fine on the p133. My friends laugh and say the fact that the computer is a 'packard bell' is the problem right there (radio shack). Don't know myself. Havn't had the $ to take it into a store to see what is really wrong. Gonna try removing half the ram (drop to 32 from 64) to see if I somehow got a bad ram batch. Other than that.....time for a new computer http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon9.gif

------------------
"The Empress took your name away," said Chance.
Owen smiled coldly. "It wasn't hers to take. I'm a Deathstalker until I die. And we never forget a slight or an enemy." -Owen Deathstalker.

Re: New error message
 

The one thing I forgot to mention (after re-reading the forum) is that I only encountered these problems after playing 80+turns, every game b4 that was fine but I would usually restart due to lack of 'interest' in a particular game. Been reading this forum for a while and the other people who complain about these type of errors are from games that have run awhile too. Coincidence?? (never actually finished a game myself).

Re: New error message
 

I haven't run into these errors yet, and I've played a couple games out beyond 100 turns. I also switch between multiple computers while playing (play a couple turns at work when I have time, then play a few at home, etc.). Of course, I'm using the standard game (no modpack, no downloaded races; only change is some tweaking of the population bonuses in Settings.txt and using the expanded system names file because I like galaxies with 200+ systems).

The one thing I've noticed about the system error-related complaints is they always come from people with high-speed CPU's and lots of RAM. I'm using a three-year-old P-233 with 64M RAM, and SE4 has yet to cause problems. I have trouble with Netscape sometimes, and occasionally problems with MS Excel, plus some things running in the background that I can't completely turn off, but SE4 has not caused any problems yet.

Re: New error message
 

I have this problem sometimes also.
I have WinMe, P4 1.5 with 256 meg memory. It happens when I am in a battle. I have already sent the files off to MM and gave them my system parms. I have no moded files on this system. I do the modding on my NT station with no problems. and my p3 400 win 98 runs it fine so far.
{I have a Packard Bell p100 overdriven, that has given me no problems at all with any software /win95, I have a gateway P3 400m that has given me no problems with this game w/win98. I have a P3
GB w/ NT 850m(this one uses scud Drive) that has given me no problems with this game. I have a GB K6 300m that does have problems with most games.
My newest is a P4 1.5g gateway that every now and then I get a range check error during battles.

I also have a p133 but I have not tryed anything on it in a long time. (thinking about using it as a game host.)}



[This message has been edited by Dracus (edited 12 April 2001).]

Re: New error message
 

The overheating suggestion is a good one- even if that's not the casue it wouldn't hurt to open it up and remove any dust. Also, make sure you aren't blocking any ventilation holes, and your machine isn't situated by a sunny window / above a radiator / behind the fridge / in the oven etc.

A duff memory chip is another possibility I suppose. If you can get hold of similar chips (from a similar computer, maybe) swap them over and see if the problem goes away.

I don't think it happens on modern motherBoards / gfc cards but some older Boards had jumper settings to tell the computer how much memory was fitted. If those jumpers were wrong the computeer might try to use memory that wasn't there.

Just FYI - my machine is also a P133 (40meg ram, Voodoo 3/16meg), but it's my main computer, not my spare.
It does everything I ask it to just fine.

------------------
There is an exception to every rule. Including this one.

Re: New error message
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>My friends laugh and say the fact that the computer is a 'packard bell' is the problem right there<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>They could be right. Back when I was researching which computer to buy before I picked my current one, Packard Bell came in dead Last in a _PC World_ customer survey in almost every Category. That was three years ago, though, and ISTR hearing that PB has improved somewhat since then.

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Cap'n Q

Re: New error message
 

I've gotten this error too in our simultaneous game. We tried having 2 other players try to execute as host on their PCs and the game still errored out, so I don't think this is a hardware problem or antivirus problem at all.

the error I got was:
"Access violation at address 004DECA4 in module 'se4.exe'. Read of address 000001F4." We are using 1.30 and TDM 1.70.

Re: New error message
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Samurai:
Does anyone know what causes a message like: Access violation at address 00000038. Read of address FFFFFFFF or Access violation at address 0045A6E3 in module "SE4.EXE". Read of address 72617521?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Access violations are generally a programmer error, although they can be caused by hardware. It simply means that the program in question tried to access a place in memory that the operating system did not give it permission to access. #1 cause is a mis-indexed array.