Intermittant Save Game crash to desktop

[Wold]

Okay, every ensign put's their foot in it sometime so here goes. I've done extensive reading but I must have missed something. Here's my system:

I'm running v 2.09 with mappak and no mods.

I have an AMD 500mhz, 128mb ram, 1gig free drive space, SB Live Value, ATI all-in-wonder pro 8mb, MS Force Feedback, and win98.

Here's the problem:

Intermittant crash to desktop when saving a game. I can select save, then the slot, and type the info into the space. It crashes when I click on the accept button. The only other time I get the intermittant crash to desktop is when I select quit/main menu from the bridge of the Battle Cruiser.

What I've tried and the results:

I tried running BC3K with the /v1, no change.

I used ctrl-alt-del and disabled all background tasks except systray and explorer, no change.

I un-installed BC3K and deleted the folder and reinstalled using all defaults. (I have V2.0 with the mini manual). Copied update 2.00 to 2.08 update to c:Bc3000ad and ran the patch, monitoring the dos window - no errors, update successful. Repeated same for 2.09 patch and then the mappak, in that order. One benifit since I reinstalled is that my shields automatically come on when tractoring an object such as Diplomat 1, when jumping into a hostle area. Note: The tractor beam STAYS engaged! I thought this was a fluke. I went to save the game and it crashed to the desktop. I reloaded and ran the scenario again and my shields automaticly came on again with dip 1 still tractored. BC is running in direct mode both times. Due to Cmdr. Rattler's comment I used the 2nd commander slot when I started after reloading BC3K. MIDI is disable. I use the BC3K.PIF shortcut. Properties are as follows:

Memory, Conv. auto, 4096 not protected, ems auto, xms auto and uses hma on, DPMI AUTO.

Screen, full, Dynami mem allocation off.

Misc, Mouse exclusive mode, idle is all the way to the left for low sensitivity, and Other fast pasting is off.

I tried the following settings to the pif with no changes in results:

Memory, conventional- protected mode on

Screen, fast rom emulation off

Misc, other- fast pasting on.

I also made sure that my config.sys and autoexec.bat files are set to specs. (before starting any games after the reload)

Here is the config.sys

DEVICE=C:WINDOWSHIMEM.SYS /NUMHANDLES=64

DEVICE=C:WINDOWSEMM386.EXE RAM

SHELL=C:WINDOWSCOMMAND.COM /E:4096 /P

DOS=HIGH,UMB

FILES=50

BUFFERS=40

STACKS=9,256

and the autoexec.bat

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6

SET CTSYN=C:WINDOWS

C:HARDWARECREATIVESBLIVEDOSDRVSBEINIT.COM

And the results from the mem /c

Modules using memory below 1 MB:

Name Total Conventional Upper Memory

-------- ---------------- ---------------- ----------------

SYSTEM 41,136 (40K) 10,672 (10K) 30,464 (30K)

HIMEM 1,168 (1K) 1,168 (1K) 0 (0K)

EMM386 4,320 (4K) 4,320 (4K) 0 (0K)

DBLBUFF 2,976 (3K) 2,976 (3K) 0 (0K)

WIN 3,696 (4K) 3,696 (4K) 0 (0K)

vmm32 44,448 (43K) 1,408 (1K) 43,040 (42K)

SBEINIT 4,480 (4K) 4,480 (4K) 0 (0K)

COMMAND 11,136 (11K) 11,136 (11K) 0 (0K)

IFSHLP 2,864 (3K) 0 (0K) 2,864 (3K)

Free 615,264 (601K) 615,264 (601K) 0 (0K)

Memory Summary:

Type of Memory Total Used Free

---------------- ----------- ----------- -----------

Conventional 655,360 40,096 615,264

Upper 76,368 76,368 0

Reserved 0 0 0

Extended (XMS) 66,966,960 ? 132,866,048

---------------- ----------- ----------- -----------

Total memory 67,698,688 ? 133,481,312

Total under 1 MB 731,728 116,464 615,264

Total Expanded (EMS) 67,108,864 (64M)

Free Expanded (EMS) 16,777,216 (16M)

Largest executable program size 615,248 (601K)

Largest free upper memory block 0 (0K)

MS-DOS is resident in the high memory area.

I hope this came out readable.

Since none of these things have made a difference in the crash problem I also loaded and ran cacheman. I still get the crash. I had the close screen on exit disabled in the pif so here comes the error:

This crash occured when trying to save the game:

DOS/4GW Professional error (2001): exception ODh (general protection fault) at

127:0000080F

TSF32: prev_tsf32 6B20

SS 1EB DS 0 ES 0 FS 127 GS 0

EAX 8391D840 EBX 217 ECX 84C17A78 EDX 0

ESI 217 EDI 127 EBP 217 ESP F9C

CS:IP 127:0000080F ID 0D COD 0 FLG 10206

CS= 127, USE16, byte granular limit 5F8F, base 831BEC90, acc FB

SS= 1EB, USE32, byte granular limit FFF, base 831BEC90, acc 40F3

DS= 0, USE16, byte granular limit 0, base 831BEC90, acc 0

ES= 0, USE16, byte granular limit 0, base 831BEC90, acc 0

FS= 127, USE16, byte granular limit 5F8F, base 831BEC90, acc FB

GS= 0, USE16, byte granular limit 0, base 831BEC90, acc 0

CR0: unavailable

This crash occured when I selected quit/main menu from the BC Bridge:

DOS/4GW Professional error (2001): exception ODh (general protection fault) at

127:0000080F

TSF32: prev_tsf32 6B20

SS 2A3 DS 0 ES 0 FS 127 GS 0

EAX 837734E8 EBX 217 ECX 83351526 EDX 0

ESI 87 EDI 127 EBP 0 ESP F9C

CS:IP 127:0000080F ID 0D COD 0 FLG 10206

CS= 127, USE16, byte granular limit 5F8F, base 83124210, acc FB

SS= 2A3, USE32, byte granular limit FFF, base 83124210, acc 40F3

DS= 0, USE16, byte granular limit 0, base 83124210, acc 0

ES= 0, USE16, byte granular limit 0, base 83124210, acc 0

FS= 127, USE16, byte granular limit 5F8F, base 83124210, acc FB

GS= 0, USE16, byte granular limit 0, base 83124210, acc 0

CR0: unavailable

End results: I have automatic shields when tractoring objects (they are down initially and if I raise them the tractor beam disengages) with the object remaining tractored. AND still the intermittant crash when saving games, or quit/main menu from the bridge of the Battle Cruiser.

Again, I hope that I didn't miss something and hope that I'm not wasting your time because I missed something in the other posts or faqs. I'm not using 3dfx or glide, and I think that my memory settings are correct. The game is DEFINATLY enjoyable and fun to play dispite this problem I'm having. I'll just save more frequently so I don't have to repeat as much if it does crash. Thanks again for you time and answers.

[Eclipse]

I used to get those alot. Usually when I was playing ACM. On your mem settings try this on the MS DOS protected mode memory put it up to 65535 see if that helps. of course I could be totally wrong about this. I'm still not sure what my problem was, Rattler helped fix it up at his place.

------------------

Cmdr. Antilles

Spectre Fleet

Spectre Starstation

ICV- Eclipse

Chief Security Officer

Learning is not compulsory... Neither is survival.

[Wold]

Thanks Cmdr. Antillies, I'll give that setting a try.

------------------

Cmdr. Wold

Spectre Fleet

Spectre Starstation

ICV Drakr

[Thomas Siemens]

Please check your drivers, too. Strange behaviour often results from bad/old drivers. Especially mouse drivers seem to cause lots of problems.

Btw., if the game recognizeds your ATI card, there is no need to use the /v1 option. Try the chipset info tool from the download section. If your ATI is recognized, play the game in native mode, not VESA compatibility mode (i.e. no /v1 flag).

With 128mb ram, you should not run into any memory problems at all if you leave the settings at auto.

Regards.

Thomas (a.k.a. Gudihl)

Official Tester, Battlecruiser Series

[Supreme Cmdr]

1. Check the memory settings and tweak according to the FAQ

2. Make sure the SAVE folder actually exists

3. Check your mouse driver

I would suggest that you uninstall and reinstall from scratch. For one thing, those patches are not DOS apps, so, I don't know how you got a DOS window when patching from 2.0 to 2.08.

[Charles Lindsey]

quote:

---

. One benifit since I reinstalled is that my shields automatically come on when tractoring an object such as Diplomat 1, when jumping into a hostle area. Note: The tractor beam STAYS engaged! I thought this was a fluke. I went to save the game and it crashed to the desktop.

---

Sounds like the game hosed itself one more time. That shouldn't be happening. When you engage the tractor your shields should drop and "mother" ought to give you a warning. If you then raised shields the tractor beam should disengage.

You also didn't mention re-configuring the sound but you didn't mention the game not starting with the hmi file problems so it seems you did that.

Sometimes I have to restart to get settings to stick. You can throw that in the mix with all the other good advice. Try it after deleting the old older.

------------------

Commander Chavik

Spectre Fleet

ICV Phoenix

Official BC3K Tester

"We Shall Arise From The Ashes"

[This message has been edited by Charles Lindsey (edited 07-10-2000).]

[Steve Schacher]

This problem has come up repeatedly. The solution has always been to upgrade your mouse driver to the latest version.

The clue was that the crash always happened when you clicked on the save button. Only once did I get an error message that vaguely referenced the mouse. When I upgraded the driver, the problem went away forever.

[Wold]

I thank you all for your input!

The save folder does exist and from what I can tell, the memory is tweaked per the faqs. The mouse driver is the one driver I haven't updated yet - I guess I spaced that one! I also set the ms dos protected mode memory to 65535 and havn't had a crash since, but I've only had about 3 or 4 saves since then. It'll be about a week before I can really test it.

Thanks again for the support!

------------------

Cmdr. Wold

Spectre Fleet

Spectre Starstation

ICV Drakr

[Wold]

Ha! No crashes!

Correct and updated mouse driver (windows in its "infinate" wisdom grabbed the wrong driver-didn't notice cause it worked at the deskgop...grrr) FIXED the save game and quit to main menu crashes...

Setting DPMI memory on BC3K shortcut to 65535 (I have 128meg) SOLVED a 2nd issue which I hadn't mentioned earlier... If I quit BC3K did anything at the Win desktop and then tried to play BC3K again I would sometimes (intermittant again) have a blank screen AFTER loading a saved game/continue game. Once it started I would have to reboot to clear that issue.

Thanks again everyone for your help!

------------------

Cmdr. Wold

Spectre Fleet

Spectre Starstation

ICV Drakr

"Do or do not, there is no try!"