Help, Crash to Desktop!

[Maraz]

My SHIII+GWX install worked like a charm until I lost my HD (I had all backed up, including my careers, luckily) and I had to reinstall everything from scratch on a new HD.

I installed the same OS (Win2000 SP4) and the same software (anti-virus, firewall, etc) and then I installed SHIII, GWX and the same mods I had before, in the usual way.

From that time I am experiencing frequent crashes to desktop, in particular when action becomes hot, there are many ships around, etc. Very often the crash happens few seconds after the "She is going down" message.

I tried first disabling all mods, then reinstalling SHIII+GWX, then disabling all programs running in the background (internet connection, firewall, antivirus, etc), then I thought it could be a sound problem (I have an onboard audio device) and I reinstalled the drivers and disabled audio HW acceleration. Nothing helped.

I just put up a small mission with two corvettes and three merchants, when I go on the surface to engage the corvettes (it's just a test, would not do that in my career) I _always_ get a CtD within few minutes, during the engagement, usually just after I sink the first corvette. This also happens with no mods installed (only GWX).

I saw that when the CtD happens, often the "Dr Watson" application starts running, can I get some information about the reason of crash from this program (I know it's a sort of a debugger)? How?

What I am sure about is that my system can handle SHIII+GWX (I have an AMD2800, 1 GB RAM, GeForce 6600 GT video card). I think it's impossible that a new HD has caused all these problems.

Any chance that I can overcome the problem without a complete reformat and Windows reinstall? Unfortunately I am not very good at this and I would have to take the PC again to the repair shop...

I must say that other programs and simulators (e.g. Ubisoft's IL-2FB) are showing no problem.

Thanks to all those who will try and help...

Maraz

[Brag]

Have you deleted your old careers?
I deleted mine and the problem stopped

Good luck with your machine

[Maraz]

I did delete everything when reinstalling (including the registry) but recovered my current career (I did not want to lose it).

But the problem is not only when playing in career mode, but also in single mission only.

Anyway I will follow your advice, I will initiate a new "career" and play under that name the single mission, to see if the problem appears again.

Thanks
Maraz

Your rig is perfect to windows xp, make a "switch"...
As for the crash, do a complete uninstall, manually delete all files/folders from the Ubisoft folder in program files, cleanup registry, install sh3, patch it and mod it in this order....
Install latest direct x.
Fire up gameshadow program and patch video drivers and major fixes if available...

[Maraz]

Originally Posted by GakunGak

Your rig is perfect to windows xp, make a "switch"...
As for the crash, do a complete uninstall, manually delete all files/folders from the Ubisoft folder in program files, cleanup registry, install sh3, patch it and mod it in this order....
Install latest direct x.
Fire up gameshadow program and patch video drivers and major fixes if available...

Hi,
I followed you procedure for the clean reinstall.
Then I also thought that some files my DVD could be corrupt and made another reinstall by copying the files from another install I have on my laptop. Result did not change, so at least my DVD is not corrupt.

I have DirectX 9.0c installed, is there a newer version around?

Yes I could switch to XP, but I have an old game peripheral (Saitek PC Dash-2) that is said to have some problems with XP, infact I could not install it on my XP laptop. So I am staying with 2000 for the moment...

I don't have gameshadow installed.

So next step would be checking all the drivers, though maybe I should look for older drivers (cause they did work with my old system before reinstall).

Thanks for your support
Maraz

Install only latest drivers...
Now try this:
try to run SH3 WITHOUT ANY MODS OR ANYTHING, just patch it t 1.4b and thne give it a go.
Post back results...

[Maraz]

Latest news is that I am experiencing exactly the same crash in the single mission with the corvettes in my other PC, a laptop with XP and ATI video card, so a completely different system.

So after all this crash may be not system-related. I am thinking it may be GWX related: I am using GWX ships and when one of them is hit, disaster seems to happen. But I cannot affirm this before I make furter tests. I must still find the time to install a stock version and make tests in this configuration, of course I won't be able to reproduce exactly the same mission because I will not have the corvette, but I will try with a similar unit.

Maraz

[3Jane]

I am currently having a very similar sounding problem with SHIII GWX on my recently upgraded system. I used to have a socket A sempron 3000+ with sata HDD and 2 Gb DDR. I though it would be a great idea to upgrade to an AM2 system with DDRII 800. Unfortunately not as things turned out.

My system:
AM2 AMD 64 Athlon 3200+
X2 Gb DDRII
ATI X800 XT
Audigy 2
MSI MB
X2 Maxtor SATA 1.50 Gb/s HDD.

The dvd, GWX setup files, mods and patches are exactly the same ones I used when I installed the game on my old system on which everything worked fine. Now, after between 30sec and four minutes, the whole system locks up completely. I thought this might just be a problem with the GWX installation or possibly some of the mods, but I have tried the stock 'vanilla' game with and without the 1.4b patch, sadly with the same result.
I have replaced all the GXW and mod files from different download sites incase they were corrupted. Both the HDD which I have tried the game on have been reformatted. I even went to the extent of stripping the system down and reassembling it and replacing the sata data cables. No improvement.
I thought possibly my Zone Alarm might be responsible, but it had caused no problems on my socket A system, so I couldn't see why it would start now. But I tried a fresh SHIII/GWXC installation after first uninstalling and stripping out any and all ZA files. With no improvement either. I have updated my MB chipset drivers, tried eight different versions of the Omega drivers, even though they worked fine on the old system. All my other games work fine such as Tomb Raider Legend, Myst 4 and 5 and others, no problems at all. The rest of the time my system works fine, no issues at all with any other applications or software. The O.S has been reloaded three times just in case.
Right the way through from vanilla to fully patched and modded GWX 1.03 the lock ups continued.
Is it just that SHIII/ GWX is incompatable with my system somehow or is there any way of fixing this. Please.......anyone

[bigboywooly]

Do you have a 64 bit operating system ?

[3Jane]

As far as I am aware, it's 32 bit. Windows XP Home with service pack 1. Thanks for the swift reponse.

[bigboywooly]

No worries
I know starforce wont work on a 64bit OS
The only way to get the game to play in that case is remove starforce