bug:game crashes to desktop during multiplayer

[[HvK]Critical]

hi there.

after e-mailing tech support and having very little luck i thought id ask the forum viewers if they had experenced and/or cured this issue.

during the multiplayer i find my game crashing on me to the desktop for no apparent reason atall, with no error message or explanation given.

radeon 9700 pro
3000+ amd cpu
augidy 2

now i realise that ati and augidy bugs have been posted but ive never experenced these problems myself, mine seems to run perfectly fine up until any point in the game atall, and it decides to die. could this be a cd key problem? id of presumed if so it would of told me or simply booted me to the lobby.

cheers in advance guys

[Ballard]

Mine did that, found out it was spyware and registry keys screwing with the game, along with the drive not being defragged ever. I formatted the HD, installed all the anti stuff, and the games, then defragged. AOW hasnt crashed since :).

[[HvK]Critical]

i have to format?!?! surely not. ill try a defrag and spywear search now. tnx for your reply, i hope it helps

[Ballard]

Spyware and old/random registry keys really can mess up a computer. Hope it works after :).

[[HvK]Critical]

ok used ad-aware 6 and removed a faulty registary key but still get the same error. anyone else got any ideas?

[Warspite]

Crash to Desktop is an incorrect or out of date graphics driver, 9 times out of 10. If you look in the Event Viewer in Administrative Tools, you'll get an error code which will explain exactly what went wrong :tup:

[[HvK]Critical]

nothing, just the usual blurb in there except for a lot of cd errors. drivers are fresh in catalist 5.4. cheers for the sugestion though, its much appreciated.

right so ive tried the administrative tools and it lists no errors, except a lot of cd errors but im not sure thats act of war, could it be? if so what would sort this out?

any other sugestions? should i just wait for a patch?

after paying 32 quid for this i expect a game that is atleast near to playable, and from all the errors ive been seeing on every forum (id say 80%+ or topics are to do with bugs and/or wont run problems) id expect a fix pretty soon, or atleast a formal appology.

as ive said, thankyou to everyone whos given sugestions so far, anyone else got any bright ideas?

[Ballard]

Ok its a big problem, but you do have to realise the majority of players arent going to register on a forum to say "tip top game, working great", mostly the ones having problems will be seen on the forums.

This is why in just about every forum for a new game 70 odd % of the members have had/are having difficulty running the game. Your average joe with a working copy will just play :).

[Warspite]

Were the errors in Event Viewer just in System or in Applications? I just fixed a CTD in Total War that was caused by characters being misread by applications that were talking to each other - gave a very specific but apparently quite common error in event viewer for applications. I downloaded and installed the MS .NET framework with Service Pack 1 and now it works fine :tup: Definitely worth a try comrade

(The error might show up as a "perflib" or "perfnet", and the error ID would be 0, and you might see a reference to "AUXSOURCE)

[[HvK]Critical]

Ballard i realise this but even so, its well known that this game is bugged to the eyeballs, but i appreciate that these things happen.

Warspite - just system, and lots of them, but i didnt see any in application. ill try the framework for sp1 now.

thankyou to both of you for your speedy replys. ill be back to post any results within the hour i hope

[[HvK]Critical]

after installing .net 1.1 fix everything after 3 online games appears fine. im not saying its fixed, it just appears to be right now.

id like to thank both Ballard and Warspite for their very helpful sugestions, and quick responses. cheers guys.

[Ballard]

Can anyone give me a better jist of what .net framework is/does? When I read the description I thought it was just for creating software, which I saw no use for.
But if it helps make programs work with each other more efficiently...it worth getting even when Im currently error free?

And no problem critical, hope to see you in game.

[Warspite]

You get a very specific error code in Event Viewer that is explicitly caused by .NET and other windows stuff not reading characters correctly. It sually results in a CTD, but is fixed by .NET sp1. It fixed a CTD on Medieval Total War for me - which was the only application that had the problem.

Even if you aren't a developer, it will do no harm to your system, and may eliminate future problems, to install .NET sp1. It should show up on Windows update if you do not already have it installed - total around 30MB :tup:

[Ballard]

Oh I saw it, just it was under optional and didnt seem essential. If I ever get a problem I have no clue about though Ill give it a go :tup: .

[[HvK]Critical]

ok guys after 5 games i had the problem once, but i was running winamp in the background :P.

ill keep you updated.

[[HvK]Critical]

although the problem occours less now, the new patch has made it happen again : /.