W&G 102: very slow to start

Grimlock

I just downloaded and installed W&G episode 2. This episode takes a very long time to start: more than 5 minutes. Task manager shows that the CPU usage is constantly close to 50% (probably because I have dual core) and the memory usage slowly rising to more than 250,000K. Once it started it is kind of okay except when restarting the game, for example. This was not a problem for episode 1. Any ideas?

Emily

Is this before or after you press the Launch Game button in the launcher?

Harald B

While nowhere near 5 minutes, there was a pretty big lag (about 20 secs, I think) for me too, both before the launcher even showed up and after it disappeared to start the game proper. I thought it was just me, but maybe it's relevant. The game itself seems to run fine (some of the cutscenes may have lagged just a bit longer than usual, not sure).

byayoi

Hi!
Same problem here.
It took more than 20 seconds for the "launcher" to appear, and after clicking the "launch game" button it took another minute and a half for the screen to become black.
After that, the game started after another 2 minutes.

And while the screen was in the darkness (all black, I mean), the CPU use was at 50% (my laptop is also dual core), and the memory usage was 250,000 Kb.

Emily

Are you guys connected to the internet when you're launching the game?

Grimlock

Emily wrote: »

Is this before or after you press the Launch Game button in the launcher?

It took a while to get the Launch Game button to show up, but after I pressed it, it took a very long time to load.

Also, using Alt-Tab to switch out of the game and then back seems to hang the game. I was able to do this in previous games (W&G ep 1 and Sam & Max)

Grimlock

Yes, I am connected to the internet and the game launcher managed to connect to the internet to get "news"

byayoi

Emily wrote: »

Are you guys connected to the internet when you're launching the game?

Yes, I was connected to the internet. And the "news" did appear.

Now, aside from the long long long time that launching the game takes, I have another problem.
The game freezes and then shuts down after Gromit gets thrown out of the house in the third part of the game. Should I ask about this in another post?:o

Will

Hey byayoi, try redownloading the game. Keep your save files and stuff, just reinstall everything else.

Sam & Gromit

My game freezes after hitting the launch button. With a black screen. Each time I try. Though being connected to the internet and though getting the news in the launch window.
I'll try redownloading and reinstalling it. I just already wanted to inform you so that you know that there are more users experiencing such problems.

EDIT:
It does start now. Well, not when I want it to start. But some time after that. It took about 9 minutes from the launch button to the telltall logo in fullscreen (after rebooting and on a pretty new pc). And it took even longer(!) from the exit button to my windows desktop. What the? I can't and won't spent a total of 20 minutes of just sitting there and waiting each time I want to play it (and after that)!
Part 1 worked perfectly fine for me, but this one...

Will

Hey Sam, I'm wondering if something else on your computer is interfering with the game, because clearly it shouldn't be taking that long to boot. Let's try turning *everything* off and seeing how it goes from there. Some cut and paste steps below for maximum thoroughness:
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 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

If that fixes the problem, then it's likely that something else is screwing with the game. Then it's a case of tracking down which program is the culprit.