Having problems loading game
Greetings all!
I've currently downloaded the demo of "Abe Lincoln Must Die" to see if my system can run the Seasons before I buy them (something I try to do as often as possible to avoid wasting my cash, you understand). Therein, however, lies the problem.
After downloading it, installing it, and running it, after pushing the "Play Now", the screen flashes, and returns me to the Desktop, and no error message is displayed. This concerns me. Could this be a fault of my own (Before posting this, I searched for other issues similar, but could find nothing. I also redownloaded the latest DirectX files, and checked to see if I was behind in driver updates. I wasn't)?
My computer stats :
Processor : AMD Athlon 64 x2 4400+
Video Card : Nvidia Geforce 6150SE
OS : Windows XP SP3
HD : 300GB
RAM : 2GB
I am ready to give any information necessary in order to help me solve this dilemma, as I really enjoyed the older Sam & Max and have only heard good things about the episodic version.
Thank you.
Dex
I've currently downloaded the demo of "Abe Lincoln Must Die" to see if my system can run the Seasons before I buy them (something I try to do as often as possible to avoid wasting my cash, you understand). Therein, however, lies the problem.
After downloading it, installing it, and running it, after pushing the "Play Now", the screen flashes, and returns me to the Desktop, and no error message is displayed. This concerns me. Could this be a fault of my own (Before posting this, I searched for other issues similar, but could find nothing. I also redownloaded the latest DirectX files, and checked to see if I was behind in driver updates. I wasn't)?
My computer stats :
Processor : AMD Athlon 64 x2 4400+
Video Card : Nvidia Geforce 6150SE
OS : Windows XP SP3
HD : 300GB
RAM : 2GB
I am ready to give any information necessary in order to help me solve this dilemma, as I really enjoyed the older Sam & Max and have only heard good things about the episodic version.
Thank you.
Dex
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Hi Dex,
I love the episodes too. It would help to have more detailed information on your system as provided by dxdiag this way:
Please start dxdiag:
Windows XP: Go to your start menu and click on run. Type in "dxdiag" and hit enter
Windows Vista: Press the windows key on your keyboard or click on the start menu. Type in "dxdiag" and hit enter.
Now click on the button that says "save all information".
It will prompt you to save a file. Save it where you can find it.
Now you have two options to make it accessible for us. Pick the one that works best for you:
Note : It was zipped into .ZIP w/ 7zip's LZMA format. I don't know if that might cause problems?
Not at all. I'm using 7zip too.
Your graphics card drivers are up to date, but you could try updating your sound drivers.
How about installing the latest DirectX?
EDIT: Sorry, i missed you did that already, or did you download it in a different way?
Have you tried a clean boot?
Msconfig for Windows XP:
To Boot Clean in Windows XP
1. Click Start --> Run --> Type MSCONFIG --> Click OK
2. On the General tab, choose Selective Startup
3. Uncheck Process SYSTEM.INI file
4. Uncheck Process WIN.INI file
5. Uncheck Load Startup Items
6. Click on the Services tab
7. At the bottom, check Hide All Microsoft Services
8. Uncheck all boxes in the window or click the button labeled Disable All
6. Click OK
7. Click Restart
8. After reboot, run the game to see if it works.
After performing the necessary steps, restore your system by doing the following:
1. Click Start --> Run --> Type MSCONFIG--> Click OK
2. On the General tab, choose Normal Startup
3. Click OK
4. Click YES, when asked to restart your computer
Based on Will's post
On the first reboot after doing the first steps, it loaded up to the second logo screen (I'm not sure what to call those, heh), but then dumped me back to desktop. And upon restoring normal boot, it did the same, but the second time I ran it for bother steps, it just did the 'flash and dump', as I'm starting to call it.
Oh, and I originally installed the latest DirectX from here :
http://filehippo.com/download_directx/
And yesterday, I used the runtime installer from Microsoft's homepage.
At the Moment I am running out of good ideas. But after these there's still some insane stuff to try.
What Version of Internet Explorer is installed on your system?
The game launcher uses it.
Does it work when you disconnect from the internet?
Have you tried a fresh download?
Fresh Download
Uninstall the game and choose not to delete your save games.
Then make a clean download as described below, and install it.
Deleting temporary internet files:
Before downloading it again it is generally recommended that you
delete your browsers cache/temporary internet files so that it is not loaded from there:
In recent Firefox and Internet Explorer you can delete the cache/temporary internet files with CTRL-Shift-Del.
In Firefox you would only select "Cache".
In Internet Explorer only select "Temporary Internet Files".
Uncheck all other boxes in each case.
After installation check if the error still occurs.
It doesn't work when I d/c my connection.
I had deleted it (it being S&M:ALMD) last night after 2 hours of searching for ways to fix it, and reinstalled it this afternoon when I saw you replied, so it's a fresh install.
Aaand, I clear my internet cache and temp. files with ccleaner at least once every 6 hours.
Have you tried if a different episode of S&M season 1 works, e.g. the first?
dxdiag said you mainboard was a "Biostar N61PB-M2S", but that model doesn't exist at biostars website.
Is your PC some brand PC such as Dell or HP? If yes, which model?
I was about to propose that you update all your mainboards drivers from the manufacturers website (except audio, we have the newest for that).
and :
I built everything from scratch. I don't like prebuilt systems. I've had too many problems in the past dealing with Acer and Dell.
Downloaded Ep.1, and same thing. White screen in the corner of my monitor, and then back to desktop. (my 1366x768 resolution can't be at fault here, can it?)
edit :
and, heh, it's strange that dxdiag is misreading my mobo. I can see the mcp6p m2+ written on the hardware :P
I see.
I doesn't hurt trying a different resolution. I've seen more absurd reasons.
But now that you mention it, you could try starting the game, after replacing the games prefs.prop by the one i attached. It's in window mode in a low resolution.
You'll find it in the installation directory of the episode, i assume "C:\Program Files\Telltale Games\something"
I fear i am running out of ideas now. you should try writing an e-mail to support@telltalegames.com and link to this thread. Maybe they have some more ideas.
Last thing i would do is hardware tests and trying if installing a fresh windows (on a different hard disk just for testing purposes) helps. In some cases it did and noone knew what was wrong. But that's only if you're willing to try everything to get it running.
If you're interested in hardware tests, i'll post them here.
Testing your memory:
Bad memory is often the reason for random crashes. In order to test your memory download http://www.memtest86.com/ and make a bootable cd or disk. Start your system from that medium to run the memory test.
It is probably enough to run it for one pass. Look at the lower table that looks like this after one pass is finished:
If there are errors they are showed in red as in this example:
Testing your processor:
You should monitor your processors temperature while running the processor test, just as a safety measure to prevent hardware damage by overheating. You can do that with core temp.
Now download prime95 for 32-bit or 64-bit Windows and run it. If you see a "welcome to gimps" window choose "just stress testing".
In the "run a torture Test" window just press ok.
Let the Test run for at least 5 minutes. If the temperature reaches 60°C before that, abort it. To stop it use "Test/Stop" in the Menu, but keep the window open because you need the results. Just closing the window would keep it running in the systray.
If there are no Errors listed until then, your processor should be okay.
Errors would look like the red worker thread in this Picture.
Testing your graphics card:
Open your PC and make sure the graphics card cooler is dust free and look whether the fan runs when the PC is running.
Download FurMark to stress test your graphics card. Start it, select "Stability Test" and "Xtreme Burning Mode" and press "Go!".
While running you should monitor the temperature at the bottom of the screen. Run it for 10 minutes or until the temperature seems to be stable for some minutes. If the temperature exceeds 80°C, abort with Escape.
You could try the Wallace & Gromit and Tales of Monkey island demos. They have a bit different engines than Sam&Max. Would be interesting to know if they work.
Well, I finished the five minutes, the first test completed without errors. I was wary, but I had alerts set for problematic temperatures, and they hit 63/61 just as the first test completed for the cpu. -phew-
Furmark ran for 10 minutes wihout issue. My core temp idled at 52/45.
Min.FR : 2 || Av.FR : 402 || Max.FR: 569
Wallace & Gromit Install :
No launcher pops up. No flashes. Nothing happens. Task manager shows processes being run, but then it shuts down. Nothing said, nothing done.
Tales of Monkey Island Install :
Same thing.
Yeah, it probably wasn't your particular card, just the Nvidia brand. Whatever it is, I hope you get it sorted, it'll be a shame if you can't play the games.
I'm sure a representative will join in the thread in no time!
I sent them an e-mail linking to this thread, so hopefully, something will come of it.
Yes, the Ubuntu Live cd usually has memtest on it.
Okay, so good news for CPU and GPU, and bad news for finding the reason.
Now that we knot ToMI and W&G are affected as well, we could have a look at similar problems with those games. There are more threads like that, but i didn't want to search for them all.
There were some really crazy solutions for some people.
- Users who had a Graphics Tablet once had to uninstall its drivers or connect it to the PC because DirectInput behaved strangely.
- Older Graphics Card drivers made it work. That's something you could try.
You find them in the Nvidia Driver Archive. You could start at the oldest, and when it works find the newest one that works.
Know about binary search (computer scientists) or bisection (mathematicians)? Would be a good approach for that.
- Some had more luck with the Omega Drivers.
That's a good idea. I would also try a different one from nvidia if available.
It's not supposed to be permanent, just to narrow it down.
If you have enough space on your HDD, maybe you could try a clean OS install. There may also be tools to verify the version of your core libraries, but I sadly don't know about those.
Good thinking. I suggested a fresh install for testing purposes earlier as a last resort.
Windows XP has a tool to check its system files, but i never used that.
There's some documentation here.
Sadly that's not the reason. I had checked it in his dxdiag already.
Also, if you have it set to 16 bit it usually gives a (useless) error message.