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View Full Version : Random Crashing on TMO


f4wildweasel
06-30-11, 02:01 AM
Alright so let me just say that if there's another thread about this where the problem has been solved, please give me the link to it and that would be that. I tried searching for this (with varying levels of details) and didn't seem to find any threads describing this problem.

Ok so here's my issue: I recently downloaded and activated TMO 2.0 and the 2.1 patch. Everything looks good: game menu opens and is clearly no longer stock SH4, I start a new campaign and I see the new rendering on the water and the increased radio traffic that's fun to read (no longer 5 billion contact reports a minute), and I start my patrol. A few minutes in, as I'm approaching a task force, the game freezes, the audio cuts, the screen goes black, and then it resumes to my desktop and it says "SH4.exe has stopped working" etc.
So I boot it up again and a similar thing happens (Asiatic Fleet December '41, fyi, but this problem is also happening to me out of Pearl, Midway, and Mare Island). It is infrequent enough that as long as I save regularly, I'm still able to complete patrols (a couple rather successful ones, I may add. There are a couple prime SCUBA spots that were once aircraft carriers in the Bismark Sea, if you catch my drift) but there are usually two or three CTDs by the time I get back to base. Like I said, infrequent enough that it's still playable if I save regularly, but it's also a bit annoying, and I hope it can be fixed.

My hypotheses: I'm pretty sure it has to do with my computer, and not a bad download. The crashes are sometimes triggered by certain events (such as deploying a raft full of supplies or docking at a port to refill on diesel. Other times I can perform these actions just fine... except the raft suddenly explodes...) while other times the game will crash when I'm out on the open sea just cruising (though it is possible that there was a ship or aircraft that was about to pop up on radar or sonar, and this could have acted as a trigger). I set the game to "run as administrator" (yeah, yeah Vista I know) and that seemed to lessen the frequency a little bit, but not a whole lot (perhaps one or two crashes per patrol instead of two or three). It might also be a hardware problem. My computer's moving on in years and my video card likes to go hiking every now and then. I hope it's the former and not the latter, as software and OS problems tend to be easier (and cheaper) to solve.

Alright, so here are some details about my machine and the game.
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz (2 CPUs)
RAM: 2GB (maybe not enough for TMO to run properly? It runs perfectly smoothly in the time between launch and crash.)
OS: Windows Vista, SP 1 I think
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT (though it also has the infamous "nvlddmkm" problem...)
SH4: Version 1.5 (U-Boat Missions add-on)
TMO 2.0 activated with JSGME followed by the 2.0-2.1 patch. No mods active on the game before TMO.

So I think I covered all the bases here... if I forgot anything, please let me know and I'll provide it ASAP!
Thanks in advance,
f4

Ducimus
06-30-11, 02:17 AM
:hmm2:

All i can think of is to make sure your SH4 install has the Uboat mission expansion (this updates the game to version 1.5), and maybe make sure your drivers aren't too far behind. Maybe you have a driver conflict somewhere?

For what it's worth, My system is:
Intell Dual core E4500
2 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800GT (1024 RAM)
WinXP SP3.


The only crash's i see from SH4 with TMO, are the ones i deliberately cause through experimentation while modding.

Armistead
06-30-11, 09:42 AM
Lil weak on the video card, but that shouldn't be it, I use to play TMO with a 7800, just lagged badly.

Have you updated sound drivers?
Are you using DX9 from your disc?
Have you cleaned all your fans, even mild overheating can cause this and it's happened to many.

Course it helps to have as many programs and services cut off with 2mgs, so cut all unneeded off, defrag, all that crap..

f4wildweasel
06-30-11, 10:44 AM
thanks for the tips guys, I'll look into it.
It might be overheating, but this has plagued me before with stock SH4, and it lead to an immediate computer shut-off, not a game crash. Did TMO put in a new failsafe? Anyways, I recently cleaned out my fans, but I'll keep it in mind.
Yes I have to U-boat missions add-on (I played it a little bit as stock, but I never really got into it, having SH3 sitting on my desk looking at me like an abandoned child).
I'll check the sound drivers, but I think they're up to date.
My computer has DX10. do I need to downgrade it for increased stability?
I'll also look into the background programs and see what disabling them does.
Thanks again for the help!

edit: changed to remove minor grammatical redundancy.

Daniel Prates
06-30-11, 12:41 PM
Someone had a similar problem just a couple of weeks ago.

kylesplanet
06-30-11, 05:27 PM
thanks for the tips guys, I'll look into it.
It might be overheating, but this has plagued me before with stock SH4, and it lead to an immediate computer shut-off, not a game crash. Did TMO put in a new failsafe? Anyways, I recently cleaned out my fans, but I'll keep it in mind.
Yes I have to U-boat missions add-on (I played it a little bit as stock, but I never really got into it, having SH3 sitting on my desk looking at me like an abandoned child).
I'll check the sound drivers, but I think they're up to date.
My computer has DX10. do I need to downgrade it for increased stability?
I'll also look into the background programs and see what disabling them does.
Thanks again for the help!

edit: changed to remove minor grammatical redundancy.

Your game disk will ask you to install dx9. You have to do that or it won't ever work right. If you've not installed dx9, that is probably your problem.

WernherVonTrapp
06-30-11, 06:34 PM
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT (though it also has the infamous "nvlddmkm" problem...)
You have an 8600M? Is this a laptop computer?
If so, I'd tend to agree with Armistead. You may need to upgrade your card.
You may want to try and find a way to vent it more if it's a laptop. They're intrinsically hotter than their desktop counterparts.

f4wildweasel
06-30-11, 07:19 PM
yeah it wouldn't be the first time this hardware has let me down. I've had video card issues, and I've read that bad RAM could be responsible for other problems I've had with PC gaming. It might be a temperature thing, earlier I started a patrol right after booting my computer (i.e. it was cold when the game started) and I was able to go through the entire patrol (which mainly consisted of introducing fishing boats to my Bofors, but you take what you get) and only when I was about 2 seconds out of Midway to dock it froze and crashed. So I just rebooted the game and sailed four feet and docked. No biggie.

If it's a DX9 issue, I'm sure I clicked on "check for and install DX if needed" or whatever it said when I installed the game back in 2008 (yeesh, has it really been three years?). I left my disc at my rented property and probably won't see it again until August (quick question: does playing the game w/o the disc cause any potential problems? Sorry I forgot to mention it earlier!)

Yeah it's a laptop (a gift for going off to college/my desktop died) back from late 2007 and it's still chugging away, though as i previously mentioned it has seen better days. To use an SH4 metaphor, I guess you could say it's an S-boat I keep trying to get it into bigger and more ominous task forces and convoys. Upgrading it at this point would be too much hassle I think. I am considering buying a new computer (probably gonna build it myself and save a bit. Maybe a desktop now that we live in the age of the smartphone and mobility is no longer a prime concern of mine with computers) but that still probably won't happen until next year. So until then I have to keep this guy up and running. If that means playing TMO and having to save every time I come in contact with a ship and after I sink one, so be it, it's a good habit to have anyways... not to say that I save before I approach ships so I can try again if it hits the fan with the escorts!... who would do that?! So unrealistic... (sarcasm? who knows?)

Thanks again for all the suggestions! I'll admit my hope was I'd get a response like "What?! Oh come on! EVERYONE knows you just go to file 39678y546.cfg and change a 0 to a 1 you n00b!" but my gut told me that, like most of the time my computer has problems, it's a bit more complicated than that.

HowFar
06-30-11, 10:03 PM
:hmm2:
The only crash's i see from SH4 with TMO, are the ones i deliberately cause through experimentation while modding.

I concur with Ducimus. I've played an embarassingly excessive amount of time since installing TMO and the only crash I've experienced was attributable to the Captain Midnight radio mod. I uninstalled it (with feedback from the community) and all worked flawlessly. I've since reinstalled it and its working fine.

Here's the thread.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=183564

mrmertz
12-01-11, 11:21 PM
I have to uninstall TMO. : (

I have had 3 CTD's now just in the navigation training operations. Went down to 150 feet, did an emergency blow ballast, turned on the gramaphone after a few minutes of music - CTD. The other time I was in the nav mission again, did the exact same operation and it did a CTD right after hitting the emergency blow ballast button.

Too bad.
The gramaphone was put back into the game via the mod that was included within the folder. No outside mods installed whatsoever except with what came packaged with TMO 2.0 and/or TMO 2.1.

Running Windows7 64x Professional, TMO 2.1 Update installed v1.5 SH4, all drivers updated (new rig) GTX590, 16MB Corsair 1866RAM, Intel i7 2600k at 4.6GHz.

Argh. Seems like no rhym or reason to these CTD's, but obviously SOMETHING is causing it.

bobdina
12-02-11, 02:01 PM
Some of you guy's are going to hate me for this but I have windows 7 on a 2 year old $800.00 (at the time) computer with no upgrades and the only time I have ever had a crash is when my computer started to do some scheduled task that I forgot about. I use the Latest TMO and RSRD and 10 other mods. I installed the game using the default location and can save anywhere anytime. Last night I saved in 30 ship convoy (from RSRD I'm a computer dork and even with tutorials I have no Idea how to change settings except for the basic check the box) in the Celebes Sea as a test after seeing some of the threads saying there where problems with TMO reloaded without problems. After reading Rockin Robins talk about game booster I have installed that and now there are no crashes because all of the Auto stuff is turned off automatically while playing. I don't want to sound like I'm bragging I'm not. I'm just trying to say TMO is very very stable and I've never had a problem. Sorry I forgot to add a great big thanks to Ducimus (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/member.php?u=219224) for all his hard work on TMO , lurker_hlb3 (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/member.php?u=215688) for all his work on RSRD and Rockin Robbins for turning me on to Game Booster.