having trouble with SH4, game crashes when loading saves.

[rditto48801]

I have suddenly run into a problem that ruins my interest in playing SH4.
Whenever I go to load a save, I see the loading bar, then I stare at the annoying 'please wait' message, and then the game simply gives me an error and the option to send a report, and I then find myself staring at the desktop afterwards.

I am still using stock, SH4 gold edition (SH4 + UBM on one DVD).
I had this problem once before, a day or so ago, but it was just a single save, one immediately before it loaded fine with less than a half hour of time lost. I deleted the save that didn't load.
This time, I have gone through a half dozen saves, and all of them basically cause an error and CTD when trying to load them.
It's looking like a good half of my patrol might be down the drain, including a lucky find of a pair of large transports (including a huge European liner) in an unescorted 'convoy'.

Here's what the error message basically says.
Error signature
AppName: sh4.exe AppVer: 1.5.0.0 ModName: messagenet.dll
ModVer: 0.0.0.0 Offset: 000037f9

AFAIK, I don't have any mods installed, the game should still be stock.



I doubt it is hardware issues, since I have had no real trouble with SH4 before now.
Windows XP
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+
4GB RAM (2GB x2 800mhz Dual Channel, only 3328MB registering due only having Windows XP)
Radeon HD 4670 w/ 512 DDR3 RAM
Combo CD/DVD ROM Drive (x44/x8 speed iirc) with CD/DVD burner (rarely used, I don't know if the burning software is even installed anymore)
Very new MB with RealTek HD onboard audio

One possibly related bit of info.
I installed an expansion for another game before I had the problems, and said expansion (from EA) installed more than the expansion, it also installed SecuROM...

Have I run into some known issue?
Could SecuROM be a factor?
Or am I basically up a creek without a paddle and a possible patrol that just had many hours of work sent to be permanently filed in Davy Jones' Locker?

Edit:
I found a good save, I got maybe 2 hours of work lost.
I still have the 'bad' saves, and I made a secondary save of the one that loaded successfully.
Now I just need to figure out what is causing my saves to get corrupted, so I can prevent it from happening again.

edit 2:
Just for kicks, I quit SH4 after I found the good save, restarted SH4, and I loaded the save I made after the other save loaded. The new save also crashes SH4 when I try to load it. The working save I found still works when I went to load it again.
Whatever is going on, something is possibly corrupting my saves, or causing SH4 to not want to load saves made after some point.

edit 3:
brief trouble shooting has shown something odd.
I reloaded the 'good save' again, made a second 'new' save, and I went to load the second new save, and it loaded alright.

[Armistead]

You have patched the game, updated drivers, ect.?

Have you tried deleting and doing a fresh install. Regardless, if you find the answer corrupt games are probably toast.

I did a search and found someone else complaining..check it out, I didn't read it all, but same problem related to the game.
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom//arc.../t-115643.html

[rditto48801]

Originally Posted by Armistead

You have patched the game, updated drivers, ect.?

Have you tried deleting and doing a fresh install. Regardless, if you find the answer corrupt games are probably toast.

I did a search and found someone else complaining..check it out, I didn't read it all, but same problem related to the game.
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom//arc.../t-115643.html

As I said, I have SH4 Gold, it is Silent Hinter 4 with U-Boat Missions, no patches needed as it is 1.5 from the start. I don't even think I can install just SH4, since I think the installer installs the whole thing at once, SH4 and UBM.

I have not tried a fresh reinstall.

I am unsure about drivers, but I have had the game for a few weeks now, so why would drivers suddenly be an issue?


I did notice one thing of interest from the thread linked in your post.
A mention of not saving when near units. I have not had any such problems before, but the 'bad' saves are one right after I detected a small convoy via hydrophones (2 transports), and the rest when I was going through the air hell near Japan with 4+ aircraft detected each hour.
I have saved near larger convoys before, and had no trouble with loading, so I don't know why it would be a problem now.

I do recall one other thing that I just remembered that occurred around the time I made the saves that seem corrupted.
The watch crew suddenly became my main method of detecting aircraft, as it seemed the Improved SD radar was suddenly not functioning at all.
I had a sudden lack of air contacts via radar, and 2 aircraft sighted by the watch crew, which gave me the impression the Improved SD Radar had simply stopped functioning.


Another thing I do wonder about.
The 'new' saves I mentioned, let me give a little more detail.
After loading the good save, I saved again with a new save name. If loaded, the new save crashed.
I loaded the good save again, played a few minutes, used external camera to look for anything out of place, seeing if there was anything nearby, waiting for reports of contacts on radar or sonar, etc. I saved the game again, in a new save slot, and if that second new save was loaded, it loaded alright, but if again trying to load the first new save, it would crash the game.

If I do have to reinstall, will I be able to backup my saves?
Or would I have to restart the campaign from scratch?

[Armistead]

Your correct, I misread, you have the uboat additions which means you are patched.

Most agree it's best advice not to save near ports, ships, ect. Just simple logic, your file has to take in a lot more info. Also takes longer to load the save if you saved during lots of action. The other issue is the AI may at the second of your save be doing something, when you come right back it can get screwy....Also, I've had several careers failed right near the end. Talk about furious. I found when I stopped saving so much over and over the same save the probleme stopped. Still, it's a rare issue and I doubt is your problem.

If you do a fresh install I would start over and not backup the saves. Why take the chance or corrupting another install.

Also, just in case, have you pointed your game to load to SH4 and not to gu.exe. Just right click on your game starting shortcut, properties and make sure the line reads this.

"C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\Silent Hunter Wolves of the Pacific2\sh4.exe"

I had many CTD, but most were in game and correcting this fixed it. Just stops the game from going to the gamesite and checking patches, ect. It caused many crashes for lots of people. I can point you to more info if needed.

You may want to disable the messagenet service and see if that helps.



I would try a fresh install and try these things. Maybe someone smarter will come along so hang in there, someone will figure it out for you.

[rditto48801]

I learned about the down sides of overwriting saves early on, around my second or third patrol. (I am on patrol 6 or 7 iirc)

I now make sure to make each save with a new name, usually a single name with something like 1A, 1B, etc, at the end, to differentiate them and make them into separate save files. It results in a long list of saves by the end of a patrol, but it means none of the saves have been overwritten.
At the end of a patrol, after I make a new 'in office' save, I will go and delete all of the saves I had made while on the last patrol, in order to free up disk space, and so I can use 'familiar' save game names for the next patrol.

I have had saves near convoys before, without any trouble while loading or saving (except once I could have sworn two ships dead in the water had 'swapped' places from where they were when I had saved previously.)

I edited both my desktop and start menu shortcuts to replace the gu.exe with sh4.exe
Not like the darn thing needs to always check for new patches that will likely never come.

I spent maybe a half hour digging through google and whatnot to find updated drivers for my video card and the latest motherboard specific audio driver for my on board audio.

If there is one thing I hate, it's when a lot of effort goes into something, just to have said effort be effectively flushed down the toilet.
I do not like the idea of having to restart a patrol, and I definately do not like the idea of having to wipe the slate clean and start out from the start.

Edit:
A bit of an update.
I decided to get back to SH4 after a very brief break, and now it seems even the 'good' saves won't load.
Talk about discouraging.

[TexanInSoFL]

Any progress figuring this out? I'm having the same problem.

[MK2]

I had this problem and it went away as mysteriously as it showed up. I simply started a new career and it did not happen again.

[creativeballance]

Had this happen to me....
Unfortunately right AFTER I sank 2 Fleet Carriers and a armored cruiser..... (on 100K + for this patrol.)



Tried loading earlier save to find the task force, but every time I save around this group, I get a corrupted save file.

[fireftr18]

Welcome aboard creativeballance.
We need you to check the keel, make sure it's straight.

Your problem is a known bug. I bet you overwrote your saves. The save files in sh4 are actually a bit complicated and there is a lot of information that is saved. Continual overwrites will cause the files to become corrupted.
Save each time in its own file. What I do is make a master save with my name while in the office. Then subsequent saves are my name then a number. For instance, "fireftr","fireftr1","fireftr2", etc. That works successfully for me. To keep from making an unmanageble list, I delete save files regularly. Every time in port, I start over.
The standard recommendation for saves:
The best time to save is while in port, it has the least information to save.
When not in port, try to save during the day, clear weather, nothing in sensor range, and on the surface.
I will tell you, once I started saving new each time, I didn't have any trouble no matter what the conditions were.

[BigWalleye]

Originally Posted by fireftr18

I will tell you, once I started saving new each time, I didn't have any trouble no matter what the conditions were.

I will second that, but I'd add one more caveat: Only change the mod load when your game has been saved in port. This is an autosave, of course. You don't have to save again. But add or remove mods only when your career is saved in port. And that includes removing and replacing the exact same list of mods, even in the same sequence. Do it only when saved in port.

One consequence of this second rule is that you can not have two active patrols with different mod lists. For example, you shouldn't start a patrol using RFB, save during the partrol, and then change to TMO and start another patrol. If you do, when you change back to the RFB mod and restart that patrol, you may see unpredictable and undesirable behavior. The best way to avoid this is to make copies of the clean, unmodded game folder and use one copy for each set of mods you want to use. Then you can go from one to the other with no problems. Copying the game folder is easy, because SH4 makes no registry entries. You just use Copy and Paste in the file Explorer.

Following those two rules, no overwriting files and mod changes only in port, has eliminated corrupted saves for me. As in absolutely zero occurrences. YMMV, but I have saved at night in the middle of a convoy while submerged and under depth charge attack by multiple destroyers ("Honey, dinner's ready!") and restarted later with no problems.

[KaleunMarco]

i found this on the ubisoft site. credit should go to "stelr".

when you encounter the now famous messagenet crash, restart SH4. Load a saved game that you know will be ok. for example an autosave. when the game starts, go ahead and load the saved game that you received the messagenet crash. this has worked every time.

[thegrindre]

Thank you. I edited my .exe file from gu. to sh4.

[fender2610]

I had similar issues, until I reinstalled the game to my E: drive. The problem, for me at least, was having it in C: Program Files (x86).
Since then, I have not had an issue of any kind.

[izetosmanovic]

I found a fix guys don't panic .. go to your app data documents where you will find your sh4/data/cfg/save games. now what you want to do is find the folder with the highest end number .. note that this is your latest corrupted save game. now if you go to another non corrupted save file you will see the 5 required files there .. NOw GO to your corrupted file and Delete all files not resembling those in the non corrupted files .. all!.. now just start the game and load your save.. should be all set.

[Aktungbby]

izetosmanovic!