W&G: 'Muzzled' won't start on Vista

3-Headed-Monkey

Hi,

This is the first time I've run into a problem from Telltale products. I've played the entire Sam & Max series (both seasons) and the first two W & G episodes just fine.

I've installed Muzzled -- but when I run it -- the process kills itself about 15 seconds after execution (I watched it in Task Manager.) The file which kills itself is the all important 'WallaceGromit103.exe'.

I've uninstalled and re-downloaded the setup file and installed it again and the same problem occurs. I've also made SURE that all the permissions are set correctly for both that file and the shortcut to it (administrator has full permissions, as do all users.)

I'm not sure how to fix this. The launcher doesn't even show. I've run all my previous TT games on the same Vista OS -- btw. I've really changed nothing with my system (except updating my graphics drivers) since W & G: The Last Resort.

Any advice?

Thanks!

Will

The graphics drivers may be the culprit. Can you currently go back and play the Last Resort without any problems?

3-Headed-Monkey

I need to redownload The Last Resort to try that. I'm re-downloading the most current Nvidia graphics drivers again first...

3-Headed-Monkey

Hi,

I rolled back my graphics driver but the problem is still occuring. Must not be related to the graphics card. I also re-downloaded The Last Resort and I can't get that one to load up either...

Have you noticed this behavior before with anyone else?

Any other tips?

Thanks.

P.S. I'm also working with Alex from TT via email.

Will

Well if Last Resort is no longer working, then something has changed since you played it. Try updating DX: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=2DA43D38-DB71-4C1B-BC6A-9B6652CD92A3&displaylang=en

3-Headed-Monkey

Hey Will,

I tried updating D-X last night. Everything checked out.

I just wish I knew what was making the process crap out. Is there any debug tool I can use to see when it crashes? IE -- when it tries to load D-X or the graphics driver?

Thanks

greybeard

I think I'm having a similar problem. I have been playing W&G 3 and I am now at the fair. I left the game. Had some lunch. Came back to the game and now it won't launch. I rebooted. It still won't launch. I thought it might have something to do with where I was in the game but it sounds like some folks can't even get started. I think I can confirm that I didn't update or install anything on my computer while I was having a sandwich. _all_ my other TellTale games worked fine. It would seem that I am simply out of luck and can't play this version.
Joe

Will

Hey Joe, if all of your other games work fine, you may be best served by just redownloading the game. Don't delete your saves or anything.

skicamel

Any luck fixing this? I've hit the same snag. None of the previous W&G episodes play either (though they did not long ago). I'm leaning towards the latest batch of Windows Updates(?). DX update did not update, as I was already up to date. SecuRom won't let me run Procmon or Filemon to see where this fails on load. Currently attempting to install in an XP Virtual PC. Another 20 minutes for DX to do it's thing there. Also attempting to re-download Muzzled (another 3 hours there). Bloody good waiting for the weekend to play this.

Late note: quick check shows Strongbad loading fine, and the splash loader for W&G3 IS created in the %temp% directory on launch.

Latest note: Still downloading W&G3 & Virtual PC does not like DX... No go on the Virtual PC.

lepel

Hi,

I have a similar problem. I have played many telltale games without problems so far, but when I try to run Muzzled I immediately get an error message saying that "the application failed to start because d3dx9_41.dll was not found". It suggests re-installing the application, but that doesn't help. Redownloading doesn't help either. I made sure to tick the "check for DirectX" option during the installation, but it doesn't do anything noticeable. I can still run the Last Resort without problems, so there seems to be something different in this new game.

I'm using Windows Vista Business 6.0.6000 with DirectX 10.

Edit: ok, manually downloading that file from the microsoft website as suggested in the sticky thread that I missed, solved the problem.

skicamel

This is not a directx issue. When attempting to start the application, the executable shows up in the task manager, works it's way up to around 45 MB memory, then disappears. I finally was able to start procmon when it reached around 25 MB. It may be irrelevant, but it hit a bunch of registry entries for securom. After uninstalling all Telltale games, the branch was still there. Re-installed with the installation I downloaded last night. Same behavior. Disabled all firewall & AV software, same result. If I had to guess, I'd say either Windows Updates in the past few weeks, or some anti-malware maybe corrupting the securom(?). Nothing in eventvwr, AV, AM, or firewall logs that I could find though.

Virtual PC isn't going to cut it. Unless someone has an answer, the next step appears to be 1. Vista Windows repair (though I'm not optimistic, as this is a pretty recent clean install), then 2. Dual Boot into XP.

Later note: Also attempted to run as Administrator, and in the various compatability modes. Same result.

Will

Hey Ski, I've been working with Monkey in support emails, but it very well could be the latest round of windows updates (lord knows we've tried everything else.) Anyway, here are some of the things we've attempted :
Updating windows (again)
Restoring IE to all default settings (the wrapper uses IE and javascript)
Fiddling with java
playing without network access
Disabling virus/firewall
clean boot
updating every driver under the sun

3-Headed-Monkey

Hey everyone,

Here's what I have tried so far (Will knows this.)

I have completely uninstalled Java, my network drivers, my sound drivers and my video drivers. I deleted all of their registry entries and started fresh. The problem STILL occurs.

What's interesting is that I downloaded Sam & Max: Ice Station Santa and the splash launcher loads up. When I try to run the game, I get the message "SamMax201.exe has stopped working." I re-downloaded Strong Bad: Homestar Ruiner and tried that one also. The launcher loads up but when I try to launch the game the process just disappears. I also tried installing W&G: Fright of the Bumblebees and the launcher won't even show up either, like the Last Resort.

So, some of the older TT stuff loads the launcher but the programs won't execute.

I wish I could get Process Explorer to work while launching one of those games but the SecuRom freaks out if Process Explorer is running and I can't get to the launcher window. I wanted to see if I could figure out what was making SamMax201.exe crash -- these all have to be related somehow.

My guess it's Windows Updates. I really don't think it's Java, a graphics or sound issue (or Direct-x.) What is the most interesting is that the older episodes load up. If it is an update for Vista -- how can we ever figure out which one it was? I just got about 17 updates recently.

Any ideas?

d025477

All,

Even though I tried several compatibility modes, in the test version of Windows 7, the same issue occured. I played the game, saved it, and now it won't restart!
The first time, I recognized the issue, I thought that it was caused by the demo which was still installed on my PC. I deinstalled the demo and reinstalled the full game episode. This helped me for the first time, but then, I could not continue the game.

Hey, this is frustrating! I want to complete the game!!!

Thanks and Regards,
Axel

3-Headed-Monkey

Just an update here. I made a new partition on my hard drive and re-installed Vista on it. I only updated my graphics, sound and network drivers and left everything else pretty much alone. Even after all the Windows Updates, THE GAME WORKS!

So, clearly there is something wigging out TellTale products on my normal Vista setup. I guess I'll just keep this new partition just to play TellTale stuff until I can figure out the cause on my usual setup.

It's easy to re-partition and re-install Vista. It only took me about 45 minutes, much quicker than all the things I've tried to get Muzzled to work on my normal setup.

Here's a good link about how to re-partition in Vista: http://www.vistarewired.com/2007/02/16/how-to-resize-a-partition-in-windows-vista

Good luck! I'd recommend this option if you've been having issues getting ANY TT products to run.

greybeard

Hmmmmm...just on a whim, I launched W&G as administrator and it seemed to run. While playing the game, my PC died (I hope unrelated to running the game as administrator). That is my only update. I will probably have to move to another PC. I can run Windows in Safe Mode to access my hard drive but I don't know where to look to get my saved games. I have another post asking this same question about where to find my saved games.
---greybeard

JeffOrt

Just a suggestion, as it worked for me- I tried running the game in Win 95 compatibility, and it started right up after having the same issues... I can't guarantee it, but it worked for me!