Game crashes - could it be XP SP2?

[Silent Sorrow]

SE crashes on me somewhat frequently. I believe this started to happen after I upgraded my XP Home installation from SP1 to SP2.

It typically happens when I'm in tactical combat around the third round. To get around this, I've been forced to play only strategic combat. But it also occasionally happens at other random moments when not in combat. I'm playing with the latest TDM mod (340) installed.

My other relevant specs are:

Intel D875PB7 (latest drivers)
GeForce 5950 Ultra (not overclocked)
1.5 GB RAM
SB Live Value

I've also got Norton AV and I wondered if that had anything to do with it, but even if disabled I still get the crashes.

Anyone have any ideas?

[Suicide Junkie]

What in particular is happening? During weapons fire, perhaps?

There are some known sticking points, such as:
- If a ship tries to fire a beam weapon against a target in the same square (such as a missile, or a ram-survivor) then there will be an invalid floating point operation (Probably related to a div by zero, when trying to figure out which direction the beam should be drawn travelling in)
But that only affects combat replays, and if you look away from the ship as it happens, the animation dosen't get drawn and there is no crash.

[Atrocities]

Runs fine on my system. XP SP2 - AMD

[Suicide Junkie]

As generic things to try you could reinstall SE4 to a new folder and see if its any better.
You could also try running under one of the compatibility modes.

[Kana]

Defrag...possibly bad memory stick...heat...bad mobo...bad hard drive...is it only while playing SE?

Kana

[Silent Sorrow]

Kana said:
Defrag...possibly bad memory stick...heat...bad mobo...bad hard drive...is it only while playing SE?

Kana

I doubt it's any of that as SE4 is the only game with which I encounter this crashing problem. My comp seems to be in good shape.

[Silent Sorrow]

Suicide Junkie said:
As generic things to try you could reinstall SE4 to a new folder and see if its any better.
You could also try running under one of the compatibility modes.

Yeah, I did try re-installing twice already with no luck. Would seem odd to run it under compatibility mode given the very specificity of the crash and the fact it only happens in this one game. I don't know how that would help me identify the problem.

I use the SE4 mod launcher. Maybe I should use the mod switcher instead? On another computer, I use the switcher not the launcher and I don't have crashes. But then, that comp is using SP1, not SP2, so I just can't be sure what the issue is.

[Fyron]

It can't be the mod launcher. All that the mod launcher does is rewrite Path.txt and launch SE4. It has no possible affects on how SE4 runs.

[Silent Sorrow]

Suicide Junkie said:
What in particular is happening? During weapons fire, perhaps?

Seems to happen on or about the third turn of combat and only in big battles (several dozen or hundreds of ships).

There are some known sticking points, such as:
- If a ship tries to fire a beam weapon against a target in the same square (such as a missile, or a ram-survivor) then there will be an invalid floating point operation (Probably related to a div by zero, when trying to figure out which direction the beam should be drawn travelling in)
But that only affects combat replays, and if you look away from the ship as it happens, the animation dosen't get drawn and there is no crash.

Yeah, it's not replays. I never watch replays.

[Renegade 13]

He's already said he's using TDM mod 3.40.