CTD on Sound Contacts

[scudder]

Ok experienced Kaluens...here's a problem:

After running into overheating problems on my laptop, I fired up the old desktop (that I almost never use) and loaded SHIII on there. All goes fine right up until I pick up a sound contact. The message bar at the bottom of the screen pops up "Sound Contact!" or what have you, and then I get a CTD. Happens every time like clockwork. Otherwise the game runs without a hitch. My system specs follow:

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (1.8 Ghz)
1 GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce 6200
Windows 7

Should be plenty of computer for this game, so I'm not sure where the problem is. I did a quick forum search but didn't come up with anything similar. Anyone ever heard of this type of problem before?

[Jimbuna]

Your correct, your system specs should run stock/vanilla....have you added anything in the way of additional ships or adjusted any of the campaign layers?

[scudder]

No, right now I'm running the game stock, except for changes to basic.cfg to make crew fatigue more realistic.

[scudder]

So, I installed SP1 for Windows 7 tonight (just did a clean Windows 7 install a couple days ago, so I'm installing updates as Windows makes me aware of them), and I thought I'd fire up SH3 and see if anything changed. This time around the game didn't crash on a sound contact (progress!), but did crash as I was attempting to return to Wilhelmshaven. (After sinking a C Class Destroyer ) This time the crash occurred just after I ramped up the time compression a few notches, while I was looking at the nav map. After the crash Windows provided the following, which is typically unhelpful:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: sh3.exe
Application Version: 1.4.0.1
Application Timestamp: 00000000
Fault Module Name: sh3.exe
Fault Module Version: 1.4.0.1
Fault Module Timestamp: 00000000
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 000946a0
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.4
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: cda8
Additional Information 2: cda8483c32154a9f3a892cb29fc2293d
Additional Information 3: 7e37
Additional Information 4: 7e37e074d90e8533915c18ce725512e6

I assume since the .exe itself is what crashed that there's a memory issue somewhere. My guess at this point is that I need to throw another stick of RAM in (which I was planning on doing anyway) as I only have 1 GB, which is the minimum recommended for Windows 7. Since I was looking at the nav map as opposed to one of the 3D rendered views, I'm leaning toward ruling the video card out. It seems to run well, though there is the odd stutter here and there as I pull out of port.

If anyone can shed some light on the error reporting above feel free to enlighten me. After all, that's why I'm here.

[Jimbuna]

Try the extra 1GB stick of RAM, it may well do the trick.....good luck.

[Fish In The Water]

Originally Posted by scudder

I assume since the .exe itself is what crashed that there's a memory issue somewhere. My guess at this point is that I need to throw another stick of RAM in (which I was planning on doing anyway) as I only have 1 GB, which is the minimum recommended for Windows 7.

I'd say you're on the right track here. Windows 7 is such a memory hog that with just the minimum amount of RAM, (1 GB), there'd be precious little left to actually run apps with.