Sam and Max Error when I try to run the games (disc version) - now with patch!

tim1986

Hello. I purchased the Sam and Max DVD and installed the game. I get this error:
"SamMax101.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

If you were in the middle of something, the information you were working on might be lost.

For more information about this error, click here."

When I click "click here." it says:
"Error signature

AppName: sammax101.exe AppVer: 0.0.0.0 ModName: sammax101.exe
ModVer: 0.0.0.0 Offset: 08f0b16

To view technical information about the error report, click here."

When I click "click here" it says:
"The following information about your process will be reported:

........(the error info, I'm not going to write all that)

The following files will be included in this error report:
C:\DOCUME~1\HP_ADM~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\b13f_appcompat.txt"

The contents of that file is:
"<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16"?>
<DATABASE>
<EXE NAME="SamMax101.exe" FILTER="GRABMI_FILTER_PRIVACY">
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="SamMax101.exe" SIZE="11280384" CHECKSUM="0xA8700462" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0x0" LINKER_VERSION="0x0" LINK_DATE="05/17/2007 04:59:56" UPTO_LINK_DATE="05/17/2007 04:59:56" />
</EXE>
<EXE NAME="kernel32.dll" FILTER="GRABMI_FILTER_THISFILEONLY">
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="kernel32.dll" SIZE="984576" CHECKSUM="0xF0B331F6" BIN_FILE_VERSION="5.1.2600.3119" BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="5.1.2600.3119" PRODUCT_VERSION="5.1.2600.3119" FILE_DESCRIPTION="Windows NT BASE API Client DLL" COMPANY_NAME="Microsoft Corporation" PRODUCT_NAME="Microsoft® Windows® Operating System" FILE_VERSION="5.1.2600.3119 (xpsp_sp2_gdr.070416-1301)" ORIGINAL_FILENAME="kernel32" INTERNAL_NAME="kernel32" LEGAL_COPYRIGHT="© Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved." VERFILEDATEHI="0x0" VERFILEDATELO="0x0" VERFILEOS="0x40004" VERFILETYPE="0x2" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0xF9293" LINKER_VERSION="0x50001" UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION="5.1.2600.3119" UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="5.1.2600.3119" LINK_DATE="04/16/2007 15:52:53" UPTO_LINK_DATE="04/16/2007 15:52:53" VER_LANGUAGE="English (United States) [0x409]" />
</EXE>
</DATABASE>"


My system specs are:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600+
1.80 GHz, 2.00 GB of RAM
Physical Address Extention
Windows XP Media Center Edition

Kedri

Heh, I like how in the middle of all that programming garble, there's:

"© Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved." XD

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll depart from this thread, as someone more knowledgable can arrive to tell you just what's wrong.

Emily

What service pack are you using with XP? Also what video card do you have?

Do you get the error if you launch any of the other episodes, or just Culture Shock?

tim1986

I'm using XP service pack 2. I have an NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE. None of the episodes are working for me.

Emily

Okay, Service Pack 2 is good, and the video card should be okay too.

Could you try downloading one of the episodes from our website and see if that works or if you get the same error? That might help us narrow down what's causing the problem.

tim1986

The Culture Shock demo works. So, what is the problem?

AdamG

Hmm, well, apparently there's a difference in the coding between the demo version and the DVD version of Culture Shock that's causing the error. What this difference could be, I haven't a clue. But as a first step I would recommend closing as many open applications as possible using taskmanager, and seeing if that helps. It's not much, but it's a start.

Emily

Tim, now try launching episode 2 (or another one) from the DVD launcher. Do you get the same error then?

I'm lame, you already said this didn't work.

Well, the problem is either changes we made in the new versions or that your computer's having trouble with the SecuROM activation. At this point I'm not sure which is more likely. Next week I will try to get you access to an updated version of the game that does not use SecuROM so we can figure out what the culprit is. (We are moving out of the office today, so it's really hectic.)

Jiaz

Hi,
I'm using Linux and had a lot fun playing Sam&Max with Wine!
I bought the Season One DVD but now I'm not able to play it, because Wine does not support Securom Games Is it possible that I can also get a *non Securom* Version of the Binary?

PS: sorry for my bad english

AdamG

Yeah, I searched on Google about SecuROM and many people seem to be having some problems with it. But it's hard to say how many really are having problems, and if they're really having a legitimate problem. But, if what I saw was any indication, you're definately going to need a version without SecuROM to give out in special situations.

square721bt

I'm having the same problem.

My system is an IBM ThinkPad T60 w/Dual Core Centrino 2.0, 2GB of RAM, and a Mobility Radeon X1400.

Emily

The download versions don't use SecuROM, and anyone who bought the Season One DVD from us has access to those already. It's not the best solution if you really wanted to play off the disc, but it is a solution.

I'm afraid I don't know what's causing this error. It could be SecuROM, but there are other game updates that have been made since the downloads were released, and those could be related too. We are going to be getting a new QA guy in soon who should be able to help troubleshoot this sort of problem, but in the meantime my suggestion is to use the download versions instead of the DVD if the downloads are working for you.

tim1986

Where do I go to get the Full download versions?

square721bt

The download versions appear to be working - I've now beaten episode one! So, unless you did something very creative between the DVD and the download, I'm content to lay this at the feet of SecuRom - I know I've had a problem with them once before. (I had to delete and reinstall some driver I didn't even know I had.)

By the way, Kudos to the music guy. The games great, but the music really is way, way above the bar.

Jake

square721bt wrote: »

By the way, Kudos to the music guy. The games great, but the music really is way, way above the bar.

Jared is indeed awesome! The stuff he's writing for season two is possibly cooler than the season one stuff! If you're interested, there are many MP3s from the season one episodes available to download from the Sam & Max page, and there's also the full soundtrack CD set which I cannot plug often enough around here.

Kurdt

I'm pretty sure this is a common error encountered but I can't seem to find the solution through a forum search so I'll ask it again to keep you regulars on your toes.

I've got the Season 1 DVD and the games have installed just fine. However, when I try to play any of them it just gives me the standard "SamMax101.exe has encountered an error and needs to close" Windows message with the option of sending off an error report to Microsoft. Is there some step of verification I'm missing here?

Mel

The person who started this thread had the same problem as you. They're still trying to pin down what's causing it. I think you'll want to email support@telltalegames.com as well so the error will be in their database and the support team will definitely see it.

Emily

Please tell us your system specs so we can see if you have something in common with the other person experiencing this problem.

Kurdt

Hey, sorry for making another thread and in the wrong place. I guess I didn't scroll down far enough on the forum list, heh.

I've got XP Service Pack 2, a Pentium 4 2.27GHz Processor with 512Mb of RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce 6200 video card. An old HP Pavilion. Damn I need a new computer. Now that I've seen this thread I'll go ahead and download the games. Thanks for the help.

Emily

Let us know how it goes with the downloads.

Seg

Trying to figure when exactly the crash occurs, do you at any point when launching the executable have your cursor turn into a spinning CD icon?

Anubis67

I'm having the same problem as everyone else in this thread. The dvd installs fine but when I try to start one of the episodes I get the error message:
SamMax10x.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. etc.

I have played all the downloaded episodes so it has to be something wrong with the dvd.

And to answer AnimanFan: No, the cursor never turns into a spinning CD icon. Just a cursor with an hourglass for a sec or two and then the error message.

My specs:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+
XFX GeForce 8800 Ultra
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi ExtremeMusic
Corsair 2 GB DDR2 800 MHz RAM
ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe Motherboard
Western Digital Raptor 150 GB
Windows XP SP2

Seg

ATTENTION EVERYONE HAVING THIS ISSUE:

We're talking to the SecuROM people to try and get on top with this issue, but we need some help. They need an analysis file from the people having problems. Below are the instructions on getting the file and where to send it. For the sake of unified reports, we're going to stick to Episode One. The problem is effecting all the episodes, so if we get one we should get them all.

1. Make sure the original "Sam & Max Season One" disc is in a physical, local CD or DVD drive.
2. Re-start your computer (the reboot is to assure that there are no additional instances of the software running when generating the file).
3. With your mouse, right-click on the start menu shortcut for Episode One. (Start -> All Programs -> Telltale Games -> Sam and Max - Season One -> Episode 1 - Culture Shock). A menu will appear.
4. Choose 'Launch Analysis' from the menu.
5. A disclaimer window may appear on your screen. To proceed click 'Yes'. Another window may appear stating that an analysis log will be generated, if so click 'OK'. If any error messages appear, click 'Cancel' to continue.
6. After a period of time, the program will generate a file named 'AnalysisLog.sr0' and place it at the root of your hard drive (usually C:). When the file has been generated, a dialog may appear stating it has finished. Click 'OK' to complete the process. To locate it go to 'My Computer' and open your hard drive (usually C:).
   Vista Users, see note below.
7. Please compress the file using a program such as WinZip, WinRAR, or WinAce (to avoid email corruption), and attach it to your email to support@securom.com.

Vista Users:
Follow the steps outlined above through step 6. Using Vista the filed will be stored in the following path: 'C:\Users\?YOUR USER?\AppData\Local\Temp\AnalysisLog.sr0'. If by chance this folder is hidden, you may have to display hidden folders. To do so, please follow these steps:
1. Go to 'Start' and left-click on 'Control Panel'.
2. Left-click on 'Appearance and Personalization'. Then select 'Folder Options'.
3. Now select the 'View' tab, then select 'Show hidden files and folders'. You should now have access to the folder.

Thanks everyone for helping us out!

Emily

No need to copy support@telltalegames.com on these emails, but if you want to post here that you've sent your log to SecuROM, that'll help us keep track of how many people are affected by this problem. Thanks!

Anubis67

I sent a log to SecuROM and they sent me a new executable for one of the episodes that worked perfectly. The copy protection on the exe they sent me is version 7.00.00.0003 and the one on the dvd is 7.00.00.0016 so apparently there is something with the newer version that doesn't like my system.

I only received a new exe for episode five so the other episodes still don't work. But at least it's verified that the newer SecuROM protection is flawed.

I think I'll just download the episodes from your site again and burn them to a cd as a backup instead of this dvd.

Fonars

So now we know what the issue is with are Telltale going to issue a temporary patch? It seems to be affecting a lot of people, myself included, it's really unfortunate.

Seg

Still waiting on word back from SecuROM. We don't even know what the problem or solution is yet.

Anubis67: Could you PM me a copy of the e-mail SecuROM sent you? Just the text is fine. Thanks!

Seg

Good News: We got fixes back from SecurROM!

Not-so-good news: Everyone support and myself, are not in the state of California. This means we won't be able to test and package up the bits till Monday. Most are at PAX, I'm back home in Michigan for the weekend.

I'll need to test things when I'm back in the office Monday, then we'll be putting out a nifty little installer to patch things up. We should have it up by Monday afternoon (PST). Thanks for baring with us!

Narcos5

Ya i got same message too But mine is from a PC cd-rom disc bought from a store not the web site what can i do about it?

Fonars

That's great news, well done for getting on the problem so quickly.

Seg

So... we don't have a fix right now. The drop we got last Friday ended up not working, so the SecuROM folks are back to the drawing board to get the proper fix.

Believe me, everyone here wishes this fix was done as much as you all do. Again, thank you everyone for your understanding and I'll keep you updated as the situation progresses.

Seg

Good news everyone! Patch is here! Please read these instructions very very carefully!

Who is this patch for?

This patch is for users that fit the following situation. Do not use this patch unless all of the following apply to you:

• Installed the Sam & Max Season One disk (Telltale DVD or The Adventure Company retail box)
• When launching any episode, the executable will crash before seeing your cursor turn into a CD icon.
• A crash message saying something similar to "SamMax10*.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close." is displayed.

For users experiencing the 'blank disk' syndrome, please read this thread for more information. For some, these instructions there have cleared the situation. For the users who are still experiencing the 'blank disk' syndrome, we are still currently working with SecuROM on the fix and will have a solution soon!


What do I need to do to apply the patch?

1. Download the correct patch from the link below.
2. Run the installer and follow the steps.
3. Enjoy playing Sam & Max Season One!

What will the patch do?

• Install new game executables on your system for each episode.
• Move the previous executables into each episode's Pack folder and rename the file to SamMax10*.exe.bak
• Insert a few new registry keys that will identify you installed this patch. Look at \HKLM\Software\Telltale Games\ for these entries.

Don't worry about your save games and preferences! We don't touch them or change them. Course, if your having this issue, you weren't able to set these things to begin with.


How about a changelog?

• Updated SecurROM to fix rare crash on launch.

Where can I get the patch?

It's extremely important to use the right patch installer!!!

If you use the wrong installer, you'll get 'Insert the correct disk' errors as the executable is looking for the disk you didn't buy. If this does happen, come back here and download the correct installer.

If you purchased the DVD case from Telltale Games directly, download and install this patch (43.1mb).




If you purchased the 2-CD box published by The Adventure Company and sold at retail stores such as Amazon.com, Best Buy, Walmart, etc, download and install this patch (43.3mb).

Anubis67

Great! It works fine now! Still, out of curiosity, I would like to know what was causing this. I have more than 50 PC games and have never had any trouble whatsoever with copy protection. This is the first. Hopefully I wont see the second tomorrow when I receive Bioshock. A new game also with SecuROM :eek:

Thanks for the patch though, AnimanFan and others who worked on this.

Emily

As I understand it, the issue was due to a conflict between the version of SecuROM that was used and something on your system. The patched applies a different version of SecuROM to the executables. (Seg, correct me if I'm wrong...)

I hope you don't have the same problem with Bioshock, but if you do, at least SecuROM seems to be on top of what's causing it. It's a very simple fix -- basically you just replace the executable that was installed on your computer with a different one -- but since our game has six executables instead of one (one for each episode), and there are two different versions of Season One that use different SecuROM accounts (Telltale's for ours, TAC's for the retail version), creating the patches seemed like the most painless way to deal with it.

Seg

Anubis67 wrote: »

Great! It works fine now! Still, out of curiosity, I would like to know what was causing this.

All I know is that it was a problem with SecuROM. What that problem was I have no idea and I don't think SecuROM will ever tell us. They did update their software with this patch so any SecuROM eneabled executables in the future will have the fix.

As for Bioshock, it is a mystery.

First, we don't know when the fix was put it. It's possible it was done this past week, which means it would not be in Bioshock. It's possible that the fix was put in before we reported it, which then it's possible the the fix may be in Bioshock. The best case would be SecuROM fixed the bug before 2K Games made their release executables.

Can't speak for 2K Games, but if the same problem occurs again, I would figure it's a mater of running the executable though SecuROM again. You'll have to contact 2K if there is a problem, but you can refer to this thread in your report. It will save them the stress that we had!

Anubis67 wrote: »

Thanks for the patch though, AnimanFan and others who worked on this.

Thanks for the thanks! I'm proud to have made Telltale's first PC patch! Till now, all of the re-releases have been full reinstalls. We're a real game developer company now!

Anubis67

If anyone's interested, Bioshock works fine! This game has an newer version of SecuROM (7.00.00.0167) than the Sam & Max DVD (7.00.00.0016) and apparently they have fixed whatever the cause was, in newer versions.

I must say that both SecuROM and you at Telltale have taken care of this issue very well. This is how support should work.

Oh, and by the way, I love Sam & Max and I'm really looking forward to Season Two! You already have a customer here!

Greetings from Sweden

F_Slim

Hi,

I'm just here to tell you that I received my DVD today, and I had the same problem. The patch fixed it for me as well.
It's a bit of a bummer that I now have to keep a copy of the patch and don't have it all in that one litte package as I hoped to, but what the heck.
Thanks for your fast service though, I sure wish all companies/programmers would care for their customers as much as you do!! Gives me a warm, fuzzy ... max-like feeling inside

Greetings from Germany

csweet

I have a retail version of the game and am having the "blank disk" syndrome.

Tried the work around described and it worked once. However, once the game was saved, I can't get it to run again. (Really strange!)

I sent SecuRom an analysis file. Any help you can provide would be appreciated.

z3razerviper

Anubis67 wrote: »

If anyone's interested, Bioshock works fine! This game has an newer version of SecuROM (7.00.00.0167) than the Sam & Max DVD (7.00.00.0016) and apparently they have fixed whatever the cause was, in newer versions.

I must say that both SecuROM and you at Telltale have taken care of this issue very well. This is how support should work.

Oh, and by the way, I love Sam & Max and I'm really looking forward to Season Two! You already have a customer here!

Greetings from Sweden

If it was not for SecuROM this would have never been an issue anyway. Telltale is great however but I do hate Securom with a passion. Oh well off to play more sam and max thanks for the patch.

t_a_o

Hmm, I just purchased a RETAIL DVD box! (It's got the image from the 2-CD box, but is a DVD)
So if I experience this error, which patch should I use?

Seg wrote: »

Where can I get the patch?[/B]

It's extremely important to use the right patch installer!!!

If you use the wrong installer, you'll get 'Insert the correct disk' errors as the executable is looking for the disk you didn't buy. If this does happen, come back here and download the correct installer.

If you purchased the DVD case from Telltale Games directly, download and install this patch (43.1mb).



If you purchased the 2-CD box published by The Adventure Company and sold at retail stores such as Amazon.com, Best Buy, Walmart, etc, download and install this patch (43.3mb).

TelltaleTool

The second one:

http://files.telltalegames.com/support/SamMaxSeason1_SecurROM_1.0_TAC.exe