My Turn For CTD
 

I had to start my campaign over - yet again. It loads and starts just fine, but when I'm almost out of Wilhelmshave I get this:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ots/Image1.jpg

Any ideas?

That doesn't look like the standard CTD I get when I get them. That almost looks like you have a RAM problem. is this a sudden error? Have you changed any hardware or software? Has anything changed since the last time you were able to successfully run SHIII?

I've been swapping mods out and testing using the Navigation Training course. I haven't played a career in about three days, and haven't started one over (i.e. driven out of the harbor, where this happened) in about a week.

It sounds as if you might have a DEP (Data Execution Prevention) problem.

And what's that when it's at home?:doh:

This is straight from Microsoft:

"Data Execution Prevention (DEP) helps prevent damage from viruses and other security threats that attack by running (executing) malicious code from memory locations that only Windows and other programs should use. This type of threat causes damage by taking over one or more memory locations in use by a program. Then it spreads and harms other programs, files, and even your e-mail contacts.
Unlike a firewall or antivirus program, DEP does not help prevent harmful programs from being installed on your computer. Instead, it monitors your programs to determine if they use system memory safely. To do this, DEP software works alone or with compatible microprocessors to mark some memory locations as "non-executable". If a program tries to run code—malicious or not—from a protected location, DEP closes the program and notifies you."

Try this (which is again from Microsoft):

You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group in order to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings might also prevent you from completing this procedure.

1. To open System Properties, click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click System.
2. Click the Advanced tab and, under Performance, click Settings.
3. Click the Data Execution Prevention tab.
4. In the Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select list, do one of the following:
   • To turn off DEP for a program, select the check box next to the program name and click OK. (If the name of the program doesn't appear in the list, click Add, navigate to your Program Files folder, select the program's executable file which will have an .exe file extension, and click OK). – or –
   • To turn on DEP for a program, clear the check box next to the program name, and then click OK.

I hope this helps. If not, I'll do more research.

Interesting! I'll check that out now!:sunny:

[edit] It's already set for 'essential Windows programs and services only.'

Select the Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select radio button. The click add, navigate to the folder that has SHIII.exe and click on that file to add it, then once it's added click the checkbox to turn DEP off for SHIII.

Okay, I did all that. It wants me to restart for it to take effect, and it's late and I need to get to bed. I'll report on how it goes tomorrow.:yawn:

I tend to agree. You should try to download MemTest and give it a shot. In my case it has already found bad memory stick in the past.
You can PM if you'd like and I will email it to you (it's tiny 24 Kb file).

I downloaded MemTest and ran it for two hours. It found no errors. I'm about to try the game again and see if schlechter pfennig's suggestion worked.

Okay, none of that worked. It just happened again.:-?

Steve, your answer lies somewhere in those links I reckon.

I'd also suggest you type the full error message into a Google search and see what comes up.

http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/memor...ten-t4911.html

http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-1791192.php

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/The_instru...not_be_written

Good luck mate http://www.psionguild.org/forums/ima...s/thumbsup.gif

Thanks for the suggestion, Jim. What my search turned up was a variety of different problems, all with the same 'instruction' but all with different locations for the referenced memory. Most of them related to the internet connections, and the rest were for problems unrelated to mine except for the same 'memory instruction' address.

Several of the people trying to help suggested uninstalling and reinstalling whatever program was affected. I really don't want to do that, since I have so many mods installed currently and don't want to start over again.

I'm going to kill that career and see if that helps. If not, I guess a reinstall is the next step.

Okay, I dumped that career and created a new one. So far it seems to work. I did suffer a crash, but it was a normal one which I think was caused by me going through the lock too slow and getting caught at the very stern. There was no report of damage, but the lock gates hit my stern and backed up and did it again about three times, then it went black and crashed. Too much for my graphics card I think, especially since it does that when I run the GWX special damage mod and a ship blows up.

So I think I'm okay. I'll try it again later tonight.