access violation problem solved!!!

edited April 2007 in Game Support
To make a short story long...

For some time I have had the problem of Episode 2 crashing on me a couple of seconds after entering the game. I always get an access violation error.

Im running the game on Japanese Windows XP SP2.

I stumpled up on an old thread in this forum and they were talking about DEP on Windows Vista.

Funny enough I recently got some message about "DEP has been disabled for the application DLL as APP" or something like that when I started the game. I dont know why it poped up but the word DEP rang a bell.

So, even though I don't have Vista but XP I though I'd fiddle with the DEP just to see what would happen.

I went into the control panel -> system -> performance -> settings, added Sam & max exe to the list of apps and ticked the box.

Voila! Game is working like... a working game!

Some people solved this problem by updating to SP2. Could it be that the DEP settings are reset when doing such an installation? Was it all about DEP from the start?

Can more people please try this?

If it works please post the solution on the FAQ page so people dont have to wade through the forum to find the answer.

Good Luck

Comments

  • edited April 2007
    this is what it looks like in my settings since I added Sam & Max and got the game working

    its all in Japanese but I dont think the window would look that much different on your foreign editions of Windows XP
  • EmilyEmily Telltale Alumni
    edited April 2007
    Thanks for posting this. I'd love it if DEP turned out to be the cause of all the problems. :D

    My DEP is set to the automatic setting and I've never had trouble with access violation errors so I can't test this on my machine, but I will definitely start recommending it to people write in and see if it works for them.
  • edited April 2007
    I thought there was no DEP before XP SP2
    Anyway, I don't have the option to disable it on my SP1, and I get an Access violation as soon as I launch (I have a 6600 GT too btw).
  • edited April 2007
    Upgrading to SP2 and adding it to the DEP list thing fixed the access violation messages when starting part 4 for me too :)
    Finally got the game running, thanks a lot

    I didn't try running it in sp2 at all before I added it to the list so might aswell just have been the sp2 upgrade?
  • edited April 2007
    I just wanted to add that all the sam & max episodes work perfectly on my Windows XP with SP1 :)
    (just in case anybody was in doubt that it can work on sp1)
  • EmilyEmily Telltale Alumni
    edited April 2007
    I didn't try running it in sp2 at all before I added it to the list so might aswell just have been the sp2 upgrade?

    Upgrading to SP2 fixed one of these errors on my home machine, too. Marsan, thanks for the info about SP1. :D

    There are so many different things going on here... that's why this has been so hard for us to nail down.
  • edited April 2007
    I have upgraded my machine to SP2 and have no problem with episode 3 (with or without DEP) but I can't play Episode 2 at all without the access violation error.
  • EmilyEmily Telltale Alumni
    edited April 2007
    A change was made between eps2 and 3 to fix some of the access violation errors, so I suspect if ep3 is working for you now, then ep2 will too when we finally have a chance to update it (which should be fairly soon after Season 1 wraps, along with the Vista-compatible Culture Shock and the memory leak fixes in eps2 and 3).
  • edited April 2007
    I just finished Episode 3 (excellent as expected :)), and I just installed Episode 4..... unfortunately I am getting the Access Violation Error.

    Episode 5 just finished installing, and it too is getting the Access Violation error. Sometimes though, the game window flashes open and then disappears without any error at all. This happens maybe two out of three times I click Launch Game.

    I tried putting both executables in the DEP disable list with no change (still Access Violation).
  • edited April 2007
    I upgraded SP2 but after that my computer was too slow. The game in itself worked whereas I have the violation problem. However, I remove SP2, it was unusable.
    Now that the origin of the problem is known, does anyone how to make work the game without upgrading to SP2? Or does anyone know how to make my computer work faster with SP2?
  • EmilyEmily Telltale Alumni
    edited April 2007
    Hi guys,

    Sorry you're having these problems. We still don't have a solution for this so I'm afraid I don't have any suggestions right now. Just didn't want you to think we were ignoring you. ;)
  • edited April 2007
    machin24 wrote: »
    I upgraded SP2 but after that my computer was too slow. The game in itself worked whereas I have the violation problem. However, I remove SP2, it was unusable.
    Now that the origin of the problem is known, does anyone how to make work the game without upgrading to SP2? Or does anyone know how to make my computer work faster with SP2?



    Which Version do you have, home, or pro?
    Don't know about the home Version, but in the Pro version you just have to disable some services you don't need(an set them to manual instead of Automatic), but yes it's not so easy if you don't know which services you need, and which you don't need. ;)

    But i believe there are some tutorials out there, which explain how to let slim XP down. (advanced system management)


    Just one example, if you don't have a Printer connected to your machine, you don't need the spooler manager.
  • edited April 2007
    I don't want to try again installing SP2 again. I had problem when I removed it.
    But there is a good news. I tried all the free demo from episodes 2 to 4, I have the violation access but with the demo. But, for the others, I have no problems.
    Is there anyone who had the violation access for episodes 2 to 4 and tried the full Ep 5 without upgrading SP2?
  • edited April 2007
    machin24: Are you currently running Windows XP without any service packs, or are you using Service Pack 1? start - run - type in "winver" - ok - it will say Service Pack 1 after the build number if you have installed Service Pack 1.

    Service Pack 1 brings practically no slowdown on older PCs, and upgrades a lot of vital and important components in the operating system. Service Pack 2 on the other hand got a lot of new features, so it causes major slowdowns, especially if one doesn't have that much memory in the PC. If SP2 ain't working out for you, and you are running without any service packs, I would give SP1 a go. I have used SP1 for a long time, and I wouldn't change it for the world.
  • edited April 2007
    Now, I don't have SP1 but before trying SP2, I tried SP1 and it changes nothing.
  • edited April 2007
    you could try running: sfc /scannow
    it will scan your system for damaged or modified files, and replace them with propper files from the Windows CD. It's all I can think of right now.
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