Crashes while saving

Atomic_Ayatollah · Post by **Atomic_Ayatollah** » Jun 29 2005

Hi,

I have had this game for a few weeks now but in the last couple of days the game crashes to desktop. At first I thought it was quite random because it would occur while I was playing and while I was saving. However when I turned the autosave off it stop crashing in-game. But it still crashes about every other time that I try to save it.

The scenario is Europe (with 14 countries), single player, I am playing as the UK, complete victory condition and it is to last 10years. This is my 3rd game and it didn't crash for any of the other scenarios. I have been playing this scenario for over a week now and the crashes have only occurred in the last 2 days. I have even reinstalled the game and updates but it didn't make a difference. As far as I can remember this save has always been played with update 2 installed.

In game I have taken over the Nordic states and the first crash occurred while I was finishing them off (I had Norway and Sweden and was occupying Finland).

I am happy to send you my savegame file (it zipped to 1.4MB). Thanks for your help,

Ollie

P.S.
I have Windows XP SP2
768MB ram
2.6GHz P4

Post by **George Geczy** » Jun 29 2005

That's very, very unusual. We do not have any reports of reproducable crashes in saving games.

Feel free to send your save game to support@bgforums.com and we'll take a look at it, though I'm not sure that will shed much light on the problem.

Check to make sure you're not running low on hard drive space. Also, are you running a background virus checker? Could be interfering with the saves in some way - again, we don't have any other reports of a problem with background virus checkers and SR2010, but anything is possible.

-- George.

Atomic_Ayatollah · Post by **Atomic_Ayatollah** » Jun 29 2005

Thanks for your prompt reply,

I tried the save again today and I was able to save twice before it crashed. It is quite annoying. I dont know whether I should save often so I don't lose too much or to save infrequent and run the risk of losing a lot.

It is very odd because the game has been running perfectly for the past 4 weeks or so and then in the last 2 days this has been happening. It is installed on a drive with over 50gig free space and my windows drive has 8+Gig on it. So I dont think it is low on virtual memory. Also I am not getting any windows errors about lack of memory.

I have the same programs that I have had running in the background for last 4 weeks and dont think anything has changed. Norton is running but it hasnt interferred before.

Not sure if this is significant or not. The game is a bit choppy due to all the units visable because of my allicances and line of sight treaties.

Anyway I will email the file now.

I really appreciate your help,

Ollie

3iff · Post by **3iff** » Jun 30 2005

One possibility, have you installed any new programs recently. I did have a program that worked happily and then spent ages unexplicably crashing. I eventually found that something I had later installed had altered a system file (or DX9) that sent the first program loopy.

Just a long-shot...

Legend · Post by **Legend** » Jun 30 2005

Have you check your system for "spyware"? extra spyware, that can be installed onto your system when visiting many web sites can add to what your program is running and cause conflicts such as what you are experiencing.

Have you tried to see if the autosave is working ok or do the crashes only happen when you manually save?

Atomic_Ayatollah · Post by **Atomic_Ayatollah** » Jun 30 2005

I had the same thought last night. So I ran Adaware and it didnt find anything except for the usual unwelcome cookies. I will run Spybot tonight and will disfragment my hard drive as well.

Am I right in thinking that if i disconnect my network adapter (and therefore have no internet connection) and spyware is the cause, that the the spyware will stop interferring with the game?

With regards to the autosave. As far as I can tell it was crashing the game because before I switched the autosave off it would crash during the game as well.

I started a new campaign today as Ontario and I have saved multiple times without any problems. Therefore I guess that the Europe save game talked about at the beginning might be corrupt or my computer cant handle the hundreds of units fighting each other when I save. I have 768MB, 128MB 4200Ti, 2.5GHz P4 and windoes XP SP2.

Anyways I emailed the save game last night. Thanks again for your help and take care,

Ollie

tkobo · Post by **tkobo** » Jun 30 2005

Dont know if this is relevant to the issue or not. But ive noticed that i can cause a game crash by saving IF i have ordered a large amount of units to move to someplace and try to save while the game is assigning the "true path" for the movement of those units IF the amount of units is fairly large.

3iff · Post by **3iff** » Jul 01 2005

Some spyware is set running when you boot up and can cause system problems even if you're not connected to the net.

Spyware (and other stuff like it) is something you really don't need on your system if you can possibly avoid it. Adaware and Spybot are two programs I use but there are lots of things that do complimentary jobs...

Using W98SE, I strip out any unnecessary programs before running SR2010 (and others) to ensure that as much power goes to the program as possible...it can be sluggish at times! So far, I get very few problems with programs and SR2010 has not caused any crashes or failed saves...I might just be lucky though

Atomic_Ayatollah · Post by **Atomic_Ayatollah** » Jul 02 2005

Thanks for all your replies.

3iff - What is W98SE? I am assuming it isn't windows 98 special edition

I would like to give it a go.

I have been doing some more testing. I think it must be a memory issue. I have many allies (therefore I can see all their units) who seem to have massive militaries. France has stacked up about 60% - 70% of their hexes with units and Switzerland has run out of space and is overflowing the hexes of its neighbours! There are also about 3 wars going on (none of which I am involved in... yet

).

Through the testing I have discovered that the game rarely crashes on the first save I make after booting the game (3 times it has). Therefore I can play by playing between 7 - 10 game days and then saving. After saving I shut down the game and run the game again and repeat the first steps. It is very annoying but at least I can continue my game! As far as I can tell disconnecting my internet and shutting down Norton makes no difference. I have a commitment charge of around 230MB (checked by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete) before running the game.

Also I ran Spybot which discovered some adware that Adaware had missed but this didn't seem to make much difference.

Not sure what else I can do. Suggestions are very welcome,

Ollie

Atomic_Ayatollah · Post by **Atomic_Ayatollah** » Jul 06 2005

Hi,

I am still unable to carry on this saved game (it seems to crash even when I have rebooted the game and try saving again). I was just wondering if you were able to look at the save file i emailed to support? And if you have any ideas on what I could try doing?

Thanks again for your help,

Ollie

3iff · Post by **3iff** » Jul 06 2005

What is W98SE? I am assuming it isn't windows 98 special edition

Yes it is...as far as I'm concerned anyway...