SH3 crashes with Vista and you have no clue? At least I got the error data now!

[Amiral Crapaud]

Okay people.
Sorry to spam, opening a new thread again about that stuff - but considering it's new stuff I never saw before, and that it has nothing to do with the updating issue, well I thought it may be interesting to have a dedicated discussion about it.

Ok. Remember (or whatever :D) Ive got Vista, with all user limitations/admin stuff removed (whatever I do, I am the admin). SF is updated. Patching is fine. BUT, SH3 would always crash to desktop once the loading bar is full, the moment the main menu should appear. Whatever version I may use (1.0, 1.4, 1.4+GWX 2.0) it is always the same issue.

But just now I finally figured out where he was hiding the errors data. And Ive got a full report, for a change!

Here it is:
Signature du problème
Nom d’événement du problème : APPCRASH
Nom de l’application: sh3.exe
Version de l’application: 1.4.0.1
Horodatage de l'application: 32ce8647
Nom du module par défaut: Secur32.dll
Version du module par défaut: 6.0.6000.16386
Horodateur du module par défaut: 4549bdd2
Code de l’exception: c0000005
Décalage de l’exception: 000021f4
Version du système: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.256.6
Identificateur de paramètres régionaux: 1036
Information supplémentaire n° 1: e027
Information supplémentaire n° 2: 7ca034c5f54228c5d20e084e35159a90
Information supplémentaire n° 3: 7c42
Information supplémentaire n° 4: bdfde76c128bc8007795db177acd2a17
Which, put into english may read like something like this:

Signature du problème
Problem event name : APPCRASH
Application name: sh3.exe
Application version: 1.4.0.1
Time/date data: 32ce8647
Default module name: Secur32.dll
Default module version: 6.0.6000.16386
Default module time/date data: 4549bdd2
Code of exception: c0000005
Exception lag: 000021f4
System version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.256.6
Regional parameters identification: 1036
Additional information n° 1: e027
Additional information n° 2: 7ca034c5f54228c5d20e084e35159a90
Additional information n° 3: 7c42
Additional information n° 4: bdfde76c128bc8007795db177acd2a17

Ok. Now that's brand new for me, and maybe for others, because

We may have found the nasty boy, he's very well known to everyone who ever used Windows and his name is...
Default module name: Secur32.dll
and his version number is
Default module version: 6.0.6000.16386
and his usual job is, if I am not mistaken, to have the background stuff running
on your Windows OS.

Now i need to ask to any benevolent Vista user here if he may make a contribution. I am interested in SH3.exe non-operational AND operational cases.

I'd need him to go and look for Secur32.dll and tell us what is its version (properties of the file > details). Don't forget to activate the "include hidden files and folders" stuff before the research

If he could tell us what is his status this way (here is my data as an example)

OS version: Vista Pro 32 bits
Secur32.dll version: 6.0.6000.16386
SH3 version: 1.4.0.1
Does SH work? : NO

So we may quickly see if the issues of people like me have anything to do with Secur32.dll version number. If not, it has probably something to do with the local configuration then...


Well if anyone has any more clues around here he's welcome! For the time being, thanks in advance to the other Vista users who may accept to share their data.

AJ

[seafarer]

I can't check now, but this evening once I'm home, I''ll post what my version number is.

[danlisa]

Can you end proceses in VISTA like you can in XP?

Try ending the process before starting SH3.:hmm:

[Amiral Crapaud]

Well Secur32 can't be ended the same way as everything else, because it is specifically the process which manages ctrl-alt-suppr related processes :D

I may check in the activable processes if one can check it off, but I'd prefer not. It's really a vital aspect of the OS. But ultimately I may have to come to your solution Danlisa if the Secur32 version is a non-issue :damn:

Thanks in advance Seafarer :arrgh!:

[seafarer]

For one thing, I believe that starforce uses secur32.dll, so disabling it will certainly mean that SHIII won't work.

AJ - your starforce is Vista updated, right (just asking to be sure)

http://www.star-force.com/support/users/group3.php

[Amiral Crapaud]

yep yep, don't worry boss :)

SF is updated and running - SH4 wouldn't even start in the other case. Admin access is not an issue either.
Im stuck with the loading-bar bug: once the videos are over, once the loading bar is full, the game crashes the moment it tries to get into the main menu. I saw across Ubi boards that some people have the same problem, but so far no-one found a solution yet. I never saw any error log either, but well we're quite a minority in there having this issue, so I'd say it's normal we don't make that much noise usually :)

At first someone talked about a possible codec problem which may conflict with the main menu video loop - but I uninstalled all my codec packs, and it didn't help.

AJ

[ICZEOZN]

About two weeks ago I installed SH3 and the 1.4B update in Vista and had the same problem. I don't recall the error details, but my game was crashing at the exact moment you described.

I got the game to work with minimal effort, although I don't remember what I did. I believe I may have ran the update as the administrator by right clicking on the installer and selecting "Run as administrator."

I use an administrator user account, but I believe the "Run as administrator" command is superior. I may be wrong, but I believe Vista has both an "administrator" account and an "Administrator" (with a capital "a") account.

I suppose you could give that a try. When I did that, I think the 1.4B update was already installed and I had just installed it again with the "Run as administrator" command. A complete uninstall and reinstall of the game was not necessary. I wish I remember exactly what I had done to resolve the issue. The solution, at least in my case, was very simple.

[seafarer]

For the record, my machine:

OS version: Vista Home Premium 32 bit
Secur32.dll version: 6.0.6000.16386
SH3 patched to 1.4
Does SH3 work? : Yes

[johnno74]

Well Secur32 can't be ended the same way as everything else, because it is specifically the process which manages ctrl-alt-suppr related processes :D

I may check in the activable processes if one can check it off, but I'd prefer not. It's really a vital aspect of the OS. But ultimately I may have to come to your solution Danlisa if the Secur32 version is a non-issue :damn:

Thanks in advance Seafarer :arrgh!:
Secur32 is a dll, not an executable... It can't be exited or disabled because it isn't a complete program that runs in its own process, its a library that is loaded by pretty much every process. It is a core part of the OS, and it provides most of the security & user account functions in windows.

Just because this is where the crash occoured, doesn't necessarly mean this module caused the problem. For example, sh3 might have called secur32 with bad parameters, so the module threw an exception. The module that called secur32 process should caught that exception, and dealt with it somehow.
In this case there was nothing to handle the exception so windows had no choice but to kill the process.
The version you have listed (6.0.6000) is the version number of all of the DLLs in stock windows vista. I have v6.0.6001, which is vista SP1.

Because this DLL is used pretty much everywhere its not necessarily a starforce issue either (but it might be).

I use an administrator user account, but I believe the "Run as administrator" command is superior. I may be wrong, but I believe Vista has both an "administrator" account and an "Administrator" (with a capital "a") account.

I suppose you could give that a try. When I did that, I think the update was already installed and I had just installed it again with the "Run as administrator
There is still only one administrator account, but what happens is with UAC on vista if you are an administrator it doesn't give you all of the administror privildeges initially. Your logon has the same rights as a non-admin user account. If you right-click on a program and select "run as administrator" then it runs the program with full administrator priviledges.
Some other stuff happens with file & registry virtualisation which means stuff that writes to restriceted areas of the registry and filesystem looks like it works, but doesn't really. This is what causes most problems for people with updates not getting applied etc. (I have turned this off)
If you use "run as administrator" to run a program the filesystem and registry writes aren't virtualised, and go to the real thing.

To make sure SH3 is sorted out, find SH3 and "run as administrator". This will ensure starforce gets a chance to install properly. Then run the starforce update with "run as administrator" to let it sort its thing out... then try SH3 again. If that fails, try SH3, with "run as administrator".

If it still doesn't work at least we know most likely it isn't starforce causing the problem.

I have been running SH3 on vista for 12 months now, and I have had zero problems. I have avoided the whole starforce problem... (shh...)

Hope this helps.

[Amiral Crapaud]

Hello Johnno

Thanks for the help but it really didn't work, even with the "run as administrator" administrator stuff.

I definitely start to believe the issue has something to do with my local configuration. There must be a program running up somewhere that doesn't like the idea of having SH3 running at the same time. Either that or something to do with the screen resolution (what is yours by the way, if I may ask?)

By the way I am gonna try some selective start, stopping unneeded application one per one to see if it has any effect at all.
Anyway, that's definitely not a Starforce issue. If Starforce was involved, I suppose I'd have problems during Starforce execution, prior to the intro and the game loading bar sequence...

Last error log still show the same kind of stuff

- (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/#) <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/#) <System>
<Provider Name="Application Error" />

<EventID Qualifiers="0">1000</EventID>

<Level>2</Level>

<Task>100</Task>

<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>

<TimeCreated SystemTime="2008-01-26T23:05:00.000Z" />

<EventRecordID>20003</EventRecordID>

<Channel>Application</Channel>

<Computer>Ordinator</Computer>

<Security />

</System>


- (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/#) <EventData>
<Data>sh3.exe</Data>

<Data>1.4.0.1</Data>

<Data>32ce8647</Data>

<Data>Secur32.dll</Data>

<Data>6.0.6000.16386</Data>

<Data>4549bdd2</Data>

<Data>c0000005</Data>

<Data>000021f4</Data>

<Data>1598</Data>

<Data>01c8606fbecf9aab</Data>

</EventData>


</Event>

[ICZEOZN]

...something to do with the screen resolution (what is yours by the way, if I may ask?)

My screen resolution is 1280 by 1024. I can't imagine any reason why this would be the cause of your problems. Are your graphics card driver's up-to-date? During the install process, you are asked to install codecs required to play the game. Did you install those?

I was hoping that I could help you resolve your problem since I had the same issue. I am afraid that I can't offer much help.

I wish you the best.

[Amiral Crapaud]

Yep, I specifically checked the codec box just to make sure. The codec issue had been raised earlier, but so far tweaking doesn't seem to affect them. But I wonder if there's anyway I can disable the main screen loop video and neutralize it for good, so I can check for sure if this problem isn't codec-related...

Video drivers are up to date too, and I tried several ones with no luck.

But thanks anyway, your recovering gave me some little hope :) Im sure I must have some problem related to yours, I just have to find the right thing to disable so I can have some happy kaleun time again :)

AJ

[johnno74]

I'm running at 1680x1080. Don't bother worrying about other apps running on your system, its highly unlikely to be them causing problems, unless you are running some really really weird/dodgy stuff.

You could be onto something with the codec issue though. I don't know where the main menu movie file is...

Have you installed any codec packs? Some of them are pretty crappy, and can leave behind a mess even when uninstalled. I generally stay clear of them.