I'm Done

[LeafsFan]

SH3 is now gone off my computer.

I had always found the game buggy since I started playing it last fall, but for the longest while mods like GWX have kept me going on the game. Over the last few weeks I was finding I was getting so many CTD's it was driving me to distraction. I deleted all the files and upgraded the copy to the newest version of GWX, and it seemed a little better. I went to load the program yesterday and now the copy protection is not recognizing the disk as being an original. I checked the disk, and there are a few minor scratches on it. I am just at the point where the whole enterprise is now more like work than entertainment. I am so pissed with UBI for producing a game which is so buggy. Not to my surprise SH4 seems if anything to be a step backwards, and I'll not support the company by spending a cent for it. In a fit of pique yesterday evening I uninstalled the game and will not re-install it.
I have to say I long for the days of AOD. Dynamix understood quality control

HB

[danlisa]

I went to load the program yesterday and now the copy protection is not recognizing the disk as being an original. I checked the disk, and there are a few minor scratches on it.

There are ways to correct that.

However, if you are trully done with SH3 then please enjoy whatever game you decide to move to.:up:

[LeafsFan]

I am pretty pissed right now, but will probably change my mind in a few days. How do I fix the problem?

HB

[danlisa]

You can (quite cheaply) purchase a CD/DVD cleaner which will remove minor scratches. They are very easy to use.

@ The MODS. pbbbllffftttttt!

Bet you didn't see that answer coming.:arrgh!::rotfl:

[ReallyDedPoet]

In my years playing SH2, 3 and now 4, ( played 1 a bit to ) I have CTD maybe 10 times:yep:

Hopefully at some point you can get your prob fixed and come back to the fold

RDP

PS. Don't believe all of the crap about SH4, it is to early yet, with time it is going to be one hell of a game:yep:

[Platapus]

I am pretty pissed right now, but will probably change my mind in a few days. How do I fix the problem?

HB

Take a break from the game. That is the great thing about single player games.. they will wait for you.

You also might want to upgrade (<$30-50) to a higher quality CD-ROM drive. Not all drives are the same and the higher quality seem to take care of the disks better in my opinion. The good news is that CD-rom drives are so low in price that upgrading is a piece of cake.

Hope that works. But in any case, take some R&R, get rid of your combat fatigue and come back to the fight.

Don't worry, England will still be there when you get back :know:

[gord96]

very strange. I have never had a CTD in SH3. It is most likely your computer.

[Kingcobra24]

1.) Do an uninstall of SH3. When the uninstall is complete, go into your control panel and verify that all files and folders have been removed from your C:/Programs/Ubisoft/SH3 area. Delete manually anything that may remain.
If you leave any residual files, it won't properly install the game.

2.) From the control panel, go to your My Documents and Folders folder, look for SH3 and delete any and all files remaining there. Again, residual files will block a proper install.

3.) Click on RUN, type in REGEDIT and hit ENTER.
Scroll to HKEY_CURRENT_USER, highlight and expand the tree, scroll down to SOFTWARE, highlight and expand the tree again, scroll down to UBISOFT, expand the tree and scroll down to SILENT HUNTER III, scroll down to KEYS and highlight it. Now, on the right hand side, you should see two items, one is 'default', and the other should be called DiscKey_SH3...and to the right of that one should be your 25 character DVD code. Delete that entire line. Leaving that keycode in place will many times return a message that the game is not original, etc.

4.) Back up and find HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, and once again, scroll down to SOFTWARE, scroll down to UBISOFT and delete the entry.

5.) Delete the desktop icon/shortcut. Since this points to an old install, that pointer should no longer exist.

At this point, you SHOULD have all pointers to the original game installation(S) removed. NOW try a complete, fresh, clean install of SH3!

After installation, patch it to v1.4, making sure you have the correct patch, since there are four versions, depending on which game version you have.

Once properly patched, add any and all mods that you want, making sure you get them installed in the proper sequence. Some mods prefer to be loaded before others in order to work properly. They've been known to crash systems if improperly installed.
:lurk:

[Foghladh_mhara]

Copy protection is a bit of a pain in the ass alright. My CD got a few scratches the day after I bought it and its become part of the start-up procedure now, load hit retry 3 times and I'm away. Has never crashed in game on me though

[It762]

What CTD do you have?

You'll need the STOP code (0x000.... whatever number that is) and the file it's related to.

You can either post here and hope for help, or google around.
Also the MS knowledge base might help you with that.

[Jimbuna]

I'm not a gambling type of person,:nope: but I reckon if your a subsim fan you'll soon be back matey :yep: good luck in your endeavours :up: :arrgh!:

[irish1958]

Kingcobra24,
In addition, I have found that the installShield folder may contain the registry key and keeps reinstalling it into the registry. I had to delete it from the installShield folder before I could get the game to reinstall properly

[q65]

Leafs fans can never give up. We must always have hope that things will be better tomorrow. Only 3 games left. Do not give up!!!!!!!! We will beat the Canadiens and make the playoffs. Life will be good again. Have faith.
What about the poor guy that had the heart attack when the hurricanes scored the tying goal with 4 secs left. He would be hurt to hear a Leafs fan gave up!!!!!!!!

[CaptainNemo12]

Leafs Suck:down:

[robbo180265]

You can (quite cheaply) purchase a CD/DVD cleaner which will remove minor scratches. They are very easy to use.

@ The MODS. pbbbllffftttttt!

Bet you didn't see that answer coming.:arrgh!::rotfl:

Well at least I found your answer hillarious Dan:rotfl:

[Spin Doctor]

Unfortunately, I have nothing to add that's helpful, except that it has to be a probem with your comp. I've had SH3 since day one and it has never crashed. Not once. It's the most stable program I've owned.

[TarJak]

The only time I've ever seen CTD's is when I've tried to add a mod that conflicts with something else. Since reading the posts on this board about how to set mods up correctly using JSGME I haven't seet a single CTD.

Simple way to avoid problems is to keep your HDD defragged as well. Performance improves immensely if you do this regularly.

Good luck with your next challenge.

[Steel_Tomb]

I noticed that if you manage to activate sticky keys by pressing shift too many times that causes the game to crash, same with any alt + tab kind of thing. Apart from that its NEVER ctd'd me.

[codmander]

SH3 is now gone off my computer.

I had always found the game buggy since I started playing it last fall, but for the longest while mods like GWX have kept me going on the game. Over the last few weeks I was finding I was getting so many CTD's it was driving me to distraction. I deleted all the files and upgraded the copy to the newest version of GWX, and it seemed a little better. I went to load the program yesterday and now the copy protection is not recognizing the disk as being an original. I checked the disk, and there are a few minor scratches on it. I am just at the point where the whole enterprise is now more like work than entertainment. I am so pissed with UBI for producing a game which is so buggy. Not to my surprise SH4 seems if anything to be a step backwards, and I'll not support the company by spending a cent for it. In a fit of pique yesterday evening I uninstalled the game and will not re-install it.
I have to say I long for the days of AOD. Dynamix understood quality control

HB


hmm sounds like a pc issue try thr folks over at techimo they know all:smug:

[codmander]

Unfortunately, I have nothing to add that's helpful, except that it has to be a probem with your comp. I've had SH3 since day one and it has never crashed. Not once. It's the most stable program I've owned.

I'll second that never a crash :know:

[XanderF]

Unfortunately, I have nothing to add that's helpful, except that it has to be a probem with your comp. I've had SH3 since day one and it has never crashed. Not once. It's the most stable program I've owned.

I'll second that never a crash :know:

Same here. I play a LOT of games - I mean, LOTS, and every one is far more unstable than Sh3. (Well, not EVERY one. The 2d adventure games like 'Syberia', et al, are rock-solid stable. And I've never had anything from LucasArts crash. That puts them on the same league as Sh3, though - never crashed once. 'Oblivion' is freaking BUGGY, though, in comparison.)

To whit, the problem is almost 100% certainly your PC. But I'm a techy by trade, so just saying "works here" isn't enough for me. :p

EDIT: And now, for some more grouping and helpfulness ;):

Section 1 - Make sure your software environment is not in trouble

Easily, the most common affliction of general use PCs is Spyware/Malware/viruses. Ad Aware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/) is free, and nabs most of them. It doesn't run interactively, though, so periodically let it run and do its thing, and use something like Windows Defender (http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx) for 24/7 use.
The most common software instability in GAMING systems is audio or video codecs that get into the DirectX decoders group. I have no idea how tweaks guides keep missing this (maybe because so many people who think they are 'smarter than Windows' tend to engage in piracy on the side, and a cornucopia of codecs are pretty much required for viewing of most torrent movies and audio). FFDSHOW, for example, causes an ENORMOUS amount of stability issues with games. So much so that the release notes for 'Oblivion' (http://www.elderscrolls.com/downloads/updates_patchnotes6.htm) specifically mention it. Run DXDIAG.exe in Windows and check the section "DirectShow Filters" especially - a lot of nonstandard CODECS in that list can cause issues. Try removing these from your 'Add/Remove' programs. FFDSHOW, the Nero Codecs (ESPECIALLY! - deleting the folder "C:/Program Files/Common Files/Ahead/DSFilter" breaks nothing in Nero and improved stability SUBSTANTIALLY for me in 'Oblivion')
Section 2 - Steps to verify and troubleshoot the component you need to fix:

Download Orthos SP2004 (http://sp2004.fre3.com/beta/beta2.htm). This performs rather intense formula computations and compares acquired results vs expected returns to determine single-bit errors in computing. Run the test for 'CPU and memory' overnight. Then try just maxing out the CPU for the following night. If either test fails or returns any warnings - YOUR CPU OR RAM ARE BAD. No exceptions. If these things are retuning math errors at ANY point, the system is in a disastrous state.
Download 3dMark03 (http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=576) (yes, there are two newer versions, but neither allows infinite looping of the test unless you buy them. Certainly, 3dMark06 is a more stressful test and better indicator of stability on higher-end systems. You should, in any case, ALWAYS be able to run all the way through either test with no issues). Select the first 4 tests to run, and set it to keep looping them, and just let that run overnight. This tests for video card hardware or video driver issues. Note that, if you have a higher-end video card - Radeon X800/GeForce 6800 or better - you will want to enable 4xAA to stress it more.
Finally, a PSU test. Basically, just try to use every part as much as possible. Run Orthos SP2004 (above) with a full-screen 3d app like RTHDRIBL (http://www.daionet.gr.jp/~masa/rthdribl/). Note that RTHDRIBL has an FPS counter, make sure you keep kicking the FSAA up (or down) until your FPS is averaging in the 20s. Let this run overnight.Not perfect tests, but these all use freely available products that ARE stable. If any of these crash, result in system reboots, blue screens, CTDs, etc...you have a buggy OS or hardware issues, and we can work on diagnosing them from that point.

Section 3 - additional reading

If you want more reading, there is a handy article on the 'Oblivion' forums that covers improving stability in some detail (http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=561101) (I keep coming back to that game because it's UNBELIEVABLY unstable. If you can get that game even more-or-less stable, then pretty much anything else will be rock-solid. Side note - that article mentions ScanDisk and Disk Defrag. These are ABSOLUTELY a good idea...once you know your CPU and RAM checks out. There is nothing that will completely corrupt an OS installation faster than running ScanDisk with a CPU throwing bit errors all over the place.

Let us know how this testing goes! Seriously, Sh3 - even with GWX, Sh3Gen, and Sh3 Commander (my set of mods) - IS one of the most stable titles I have (as in, 'in the list of 100% rock-solid games'), and I am confident we can get you to this point!