Zuul

quote:Originally posted by Eric: I have updated the driver to NVIDIA ver 4.13.01.2280 The game still randomly crashes, almost always when I try observing the moon... [ 11-23-2001: Message edited by: Eric ] Eric I would get the Official WHQL 21.83 drivers. Only reason I was using the 2280 drivers was because we were testing out step by step why I was crashing in the debris field, moon, etc... [ 11-23-2001: Message edited by: Zuul ]

quote:Originally posted by Melanie650: Dang this Debris field bug I totally don't understand. I was in the debris field, Yes the distance counter thingy read 0. I ordered my NO to shuttle 1. Launched it, ordered it to cargo sweep and she did her duties and stated going around looking for cargo. Gotta say I was unable to repeat this one. Sorry I couldn't help yah =). Just be HAPPY that you don't have this problem, lol. Cmdr Nova and myself indefinitely have the debris field / cargo sweep problem as we can reproduce it 100% of the time. Same with the Tacops/Observe moon and several other planets. Although these may be seperate type of crash problems they are both critical. I've had other scattered crashes, but none that were 100% reproducible like these two except for the Navitron CTD which has already been addressed.

Ok, just got done playing the game for over an hour (mostly just testing game stability). I did a simple mission to Pluto. Hyper spaced there. Sent SC1 to the surface, Tacops and Observe was working great. Had SC1 drop off a drone to do a little mining. Meanwhile I beamed down an away team to check it out. Was using many different actions, setting waypoints, assigning orders. Only reason the game ended this time was because my CC got blown away by some Raiders while I was doing all of this. Of course Pluto has been the only planet I've had this much stability on so far so I'm not gonna celebrate just yet. To get back on subject, I am going to have to assume there is something extremely wrong with cargo sweeping in a debris field and observing certain planets/moons in Tacops/Observe mode, namely Earths moon. I can CTD/lockup the game at will if I do these actions, 100% of the time, no matter what drivers I'm using. We have all pretty much the same kind of problems it seems. Of course I'm not saying there aren't random crashes and lockups still that cannot be accounted for as of yet, but if you want your game to last much longer; Don't cargo sweep anywhere near a debris field and don't Observe the earths moon among some other planets like Mars. And I do believe this all has something to do with Windows ME, but I'm not gonna hold my breath on that one since I'm not a software engineer nor a programmer. And btw, I am still using the Unofficial 2280 Detonator drivers which don't seem to affect anything at the moment. I was also in 800x600 @32bit the whole time I did my Pluto mission.

quote:Originally posted by Cmdr Nova: Hm.. The moon froze, pre-patch and post patch. The Earth didn't freeze at all. Guess I was somewhere else, after all. (Centris looks similar from Tacops. ) But observing the Moon (Earth's Moon) does cause a CTD. So the patch didn't seem to fix that problem in particular. (Was it that problem it was supposed to correct? I might be wrong. I've got such a short term memory...) You and I are experiencing almost the same exact problem if not THE same exact problem. I have always been able to do Tacops and Observe the Earth before and after the patch. But I cannot Observe the moon at all or it will CTD or the game will lockup every single time. This is post patch, not sure if I was able to observe the moon pre patch. Anyways you have ran into the debris field / Cargo Sweep CTD/lockup and you have ran into the Tacops/Observe CTD. I knew I wasn't crazy, . I was also experiencing the Navitron/exit CTD, but the last patch may or may not have fixed it for me. Hard for me to tell since I can't get 5 minutes into the game! Well at least not the way I want to play. Gonna try avoiding the debris field and the moon and see if I CTD or lockup anywhere else. [ 11-23-2001: Message edited by: Zuul ]

Ok, I'm going to start from the begining here. I followed the steps exactly. Uninstalled BCM and deleted its folder. I uninstalled the Detonator 2183 drivers. I switched to standard PCI graphics adapter and all that. After rebooting I proceeded to install the 22.80 drivers. Rebooted. I then installed Dx 8.1 the 12 meg file from Microsofts Dx page. Rebooted. I reinstalled BCM. Copied a new download of the patch to the install directory. Executed it. Patch succesful. Keep in mind that I left the default resolution and screen depth of 800x600 @16bit. Also the sound card and graphics card hardware accelerators are both at the 2nd notch from the left. I ran BCM now. Its starts no prob. I left all the settings alone. It started in 640x480 @16bit so I left it that way. Started a new game. Chose Terran Explorer starting near Earth at Galcom HQ in the 1st available CC. Game starts off smooth, everything is running nice. So I set a course to our good old debris field located next to Earth. After hyperspace, the CC stops at about 150 Range from the field. I go into Tactical and assign the NO to goto SC1. He finaly reaches his destination. I then proceed to give the order for SC1 to launch. I then give SC1 the order to Fly to Hazardous Area / Debris Field Earth. It flies there, everything looking good. SC1 gets to about 0 range from the debris field. I then proceed to give the order to SC1 to Cargo Sweep. As soon as I gave the cargo sweep order the game froze completely. No error messages. Mouse stops working and no movement. Cannot even alt-tab out or Ctrl-Alt-Dlt, have to pull the plug on the computer to reboot. This is as detailed as I can get about what is happening. Sigh After all that work I realy thought this was gonna work too. PS: Advil thanks for the good advice, but my cpu is actualy underclocked by about 3MHz, lol, [ 11-22-2001: Message edited by: Zuul ]

Ok, thankyou SC, greatly appreciated! This is going to take me a little bit so I will keep this post updated. Update: None of the download links worked for me at the Reactor Critical site. So I re-downloaded Dx8.1 Runtime directly from MS, and am now downloading the 22.80 drivers from here. Will keep this updated. [ 11-22-2001: Message edited by: Zuul ]

Yes, patch is installed. I downloaded and installed right from the BCM main folder. I even re-downloaded the patch and uninstalled BCM completely and started from scratch.

Hiya Cmdr Nova. That sounds close to what is happening to me as well. I would send my CC near the earths debris field via hyperspace. Get within range. Send the NO to SC1. Wait till he gets on board. Give SC1 the command to launch. Everything is great so far. Then I give it the orders to Cargo Sweep. The mili second I press the cargo sweep button the game will A) drop to desktop without a trace of BCM running, or game will freeze and only thing I can do is move the mouse cursor around the screen with it leaving trails behind, forcing me into a complete cold reboot. On a side note though, I am experiencing the same exact problems when I try other actions, such as flying the CC to the moon, go into Tacops mode, and the second I hit the Observe button BAM! Same exact results. Anyways I sent the files to SC along with system specs and CD Key. Hopefully we can work this out and isolate what is going on.

K, sending the Dxdiag file along with system specs. I managed to open MSCONFIG but I couldn't figure out how to export the settings to a file, you may shoot me for that. ;P Anyone know how I can export settings to a file before I send SC all the info? Thanks in advance... Edit: Nevermind. I went into Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Diagnostics. It opened up the Help Spot (common gateway help program) and from there I was able to export the most detailed system spec file I ever saw, ;P Ok, zipping em up and sending them in to ya SC. [ 11-22-2001: Message edited by: Zuul ]

quote: Really? So how do you know this? I'm waiting. SC, I said that because in theory someone out there might have the same exact system setup that I do that is also trying to run BCM as we speak. If I am the only person there is that is having these problems then so be it. I assure you I have not been able to play for more then 15-20 mins without the game either freezing up (resulting in a cold boot), or getting kicked to the desktop without warning. I understand there can be a myriad of problems concerning my hardware, drivers, and OS. But I have updated every driver possible, the correct way also. I have tried messing with the video BIOS options as listed in the FAQ one by one. I have disabled Intelipoint and all TSR's in the background except for Volume Control. And as being an owner of a Gateway computer, I uninstalled Gateway GoBack a long time ago (a program that interfered with many games). I have also turned the sound accelerator to the 2nd notch from the left as specified as well as the hardware accelerator for the GeForce2 GTS. I have the latest patch and installed it directly from the BCM folder. I don't know what to say, honestly. Is there some steps I am missing? Why is it every other game works well on my system and not BCM? Maybe it can be isolated from all this information, I just don't know. Gateway computers are famous for strange and unkown problems, maybe their configuration is garbage. All I am asking for is help concerning this issue. I love your game and am dying to play it. I am looking for more suggestions on what to do here, and please don't tell me just to return the game and forget about it. If there is something I can do to help you figure out what the problem is, please tell me and I will give you any information you want. Thanks...

Come on, I know there are some of you that are having the same problem I am! I'm dying to play this game. What happened to The Mule guy? Did re-alocating the memory help or not? Please, I need some answers. The game crashes to desktop or completely freezes for half the actions I try to perform. No error messages whatsoever. I can duplicate the lockups every single time too, so it is NOT a random occurance. Most specificaly when I cargo sweep the debris field near earth is when it is SURE to lockup the game. But it is not isolated to that as it happens when I do many other command specific tasks. Will installing the Windows XP upgrade help? Any advice is sorely needed. Thanks. Also if it helps any, all my other games run flawlessly on my system and they are all very graphic/memory intensive. BCM is the only game I have ever ran into these problems. I'm not indicating that there is something wrong with BCM whatsoever, just pointing out that it happens to be the only game that crashes/freezes on a regular basis. [ 11-22-2001: Message edited by: Zuul ]

quote: I remember reading that on Win Me, the file auto-backup (whatever it is called) is a bugfeast. Did you desactivated it ? I'm not quite sure what your talking about. What auto-backup feature? And how does it have anything to do with why I am crashing and freezing? And if it does have something to do with it, how would I turn it off?

I don't think this thread should be closed. I am having severe crash and lockup problems with the game and yet to have a solution. I've tried everything from the FAQ and I still cannot get the game to run longer then 15-20 mins. I made a topic about it earlier thinking it only had to do with when I cargo sweep the debris field, but it happens for just about anything I do in the game. Thread I started earlier. [ 11-22-2001: Message edited by: Zuul ]

I give up. I don't think its specific to the debris field and cargo sweeping anymore. The game either freezes or boots me to desktop for a lot of things that I do. For example the game will freeze or goto desktop almost certainly when I cargo sweep the debris field. It will freeze or boot to desktop if I go into Tacops and Observe the moon. It'l freeze or boot to desktop when I try and send a shuttle to a planet for mining operations. I've read all the FAQ's and all the posts regarding fixing the lockup and crash problems and I've tried everything. Even uninstalled and reinstalled game and patch. Maybe this is specific to Gateway cpu's!? I don't know but I love this game and I hope someone can figure out why I am constantly crashing or freezing. I havent been able to play a game for over 20 minutes yet without it crashing, uggh. Help! I would have posted this in the other thread about the game crashing every few minutes, but I did not realize that was my problem till now, sorry bout that... [ 11-22-2001: Message edited by: Zuul ]

Woops, yeah it was a drone, not a probe. Almost the same thing to me, lol. Anyways, I gave the exact steps I took. I don't know how to explain it any clearer then that. I have all background programs turned off except for the volume control too, so that probably isnt it. If no one else can reproduce it then there must be something screwed with my Win ME and/or hardware. So far though this only happens to me when I go to cargo sweep that damn debris field. I can reproduce it everytime too, it hasnt failed yet out of 7 tries now. Getting tedious now so I will not try and cargo sweep anything until I figure out whats going on. ;/

It has happened to me every single time which is what is unusual. All I want to do is sweep the damn debris field for cargo pods. I almost guarantee it has something to do with Win ME since there isnt even an error message when it drops to the desktop. Who knows, but it does drop to desktop 100% of the time when I do it.

Ok, I send my shuttle to the debris field near earth. It has the Navigations Officer and a drone loaded on board. Shuttle departs fine and awaits further orders. As soon as I give it the cargo sweep command the game crashes to the desktop with no error messages. I've been able to -reproduce this crash 4 times in a row now. I have no idea what cargo sweep does anyways, ;P, but I'm guessing there is something wrong there. -Gateway P3 866 -256MB RAM -SB Live! -Geforce2 GTS 64MB DDR (det v2183) -DirectX 8.1 -Windows ME Someone else try this please and let me know what happens. It happens every single time to me, the second I press that cargo sweep command it boots me to desktop instantly. Thanks... [ 11-23-2001: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

Just got back from EB with my brand new copy of BCM . They had to scuffle through a bunch of boxes to find it for me, I was the 1st one to buy it at that store. Now to free up some HD space and install it, I'll give my impressions later on for sure. I'm gonna run it on a P3 866, 256MB SDRAM, SB Live, Geforce GTS Pro. Hopefully that will cut it.

Hi, I live in NJ and called EB on Saturday. They said BCM would be in either Monday or Tuesday with Tuesday being the most likely scenerio.