Troubleshooting

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firepowerjohan
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Troubleshooting

Post by firepowerjohan »

1) After I selected language and machine spec, those popups never came back again. How do i change language or system spec? Delete the Documents/CEAW and Documents/CEAW Fast Play folder and it will reset game into default setting again
2) Vista Problems, why does game exit after the language selection popup? Choose "Run as Administrator"
3) Why can I not use the inner zoom? Running game in low specification removes some performance demanding features in game i.e. hex tinting and inner zoom
4) I have trouble running the game in full screen? Try setting 1024x768 at 60 Hz before running games as some machines have trouble switching to full screen.
5) I get random crashes and there is some mentioning of "sound" dll files in my error log, what should I do? Some machines have sound compatibility issues, particularily the music. In Document/CEAW/settings.txt and Document/CEAW Fast Play/settings.txt you edit the NO_MUSIC 1 and save the file.
6) Game does not start up, sometimes I see a black window which immediately closes, what shoudl I do? Try run the game in windowed mode. To do this, go into BOTH Documents/CEAW/settings.txt AND Docuements/CEAW Fast Play/settings.txt find the row saying "WINDOWED_MODE 0", change it to "WINDOWED_MODE 1" save the file and rerun the game.
Last edited by firepowerjohan on Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:28 pm, edited 9 times in total.
Johan Persson - Firepower Entertainment
Lead Developer of CEAW, CNAW and World Empires Live (http://www.worldempireslive.com)
japatti99
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Post by japatti99 »

I cannot get this game to work. I have a laptop runing vista. after I select the language, I get bounced out of the program. no error message.
IainMcNeil
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Post by IainMcNeil »

Have you set the shortcut to Run as Administrator?
japatti99
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Post by japatti99 »

How exactly do I do this? when I log in, I am the only log in. Please elaborate.
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Post by IainMcNeil »

We dont have Vista so I can't tell you for sure but as I understand it you right click on the desktop shortcut and just say Run as Administrator.
firepowerjohan
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Post by firepowerjohan »

japatti99 wrote:How exactly do I do this? when I log in, I am the only log in. Please elaborate.
Can you right click the shortcut file and choose "run as administrator" ?
Johan Persson - Firepower Entertainment
Lead Developer of CEAW, CNAW and World Empires Live (http://www.worldempireslive.com)
japatti99
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Post by japatti99 »

thanks for the reply. There is no shortcut for administrator. Where exactly in vista do I find this shortcut? I have not seen anywhere to right click and run as Administrator.
pipfromslitherine
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Post by pipfromslitherine »

There will a shortcut icon which you double click to run Commander. If you right click that, it will bring up the option to run as Administrator (or it should).

Cheers

Pip
japatti99
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Post by japatti99 »

ah chha! Thanks, that worked. Now to change the dopey German flag to the real German flag used during the war. I guess the PC police had something to do with this.
Toner
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Vista

Post by Toner »

Near the bottom of one of the webpages it states:

"Vista: While we have tested Commander a number of Vista machines we have not tested extensively enough to guarantee we fully support Vista."

I was a huge fan of Panzer General and Panzer General II back in the day, and I really want to purchase Commander- Europe at War...

But only if I know it will fully work on my Vista laptop!

Has there been more extensive testing on Vista since the note above was posted on the website?

Thanks!
IainMcNeil
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Post by IainMcNeil »

Many people with Vista have the game running fine but Vista is a bit tempramental when it comes to games.
mauser
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Post by mauser »

MY game runs on my Vista but I am still getting the old graphics so I am asuming that I am not running version2.0 even though I have the 2.0 manual in my directory. Anyone have any ideas?
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Post by rkr1958 »

mauser wrote:MY game runs on my Vista but I am still getting the old graphics so I am asuming that I am not running version2.0 even though I have the 2.0 manual in my directory. Anyone have any ideas?
Note the version in the last screen cap (items 15 & 16) in the first post of viewtopic.php?p=229170#229170

What version do you see when you start the game?

Also, note item 12. Make sure you're using the correct desktop icon to start the game and not the one for the standard, or vanilla, version of the game.
ibafoo
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Post by ibafoo »

I think I have the problem for which this is the prescribed fix:

6) Game does not start up, sometimes I see a black window which immediately closes, what shoudl I do? Try run the game in windowed mode. To do this, go into BOTH Documents/CEAW/settings.txt AND Docuements/CEAW Fast Play/settings.txt find the row saying "WINDOWED_MODE 0", change it to "WINDOWED_MODE 1" save the file and rerun the game.

Problem is that when I try to change from 0 to 1 after windowed mode it won't let me save the file cause I don't have permission.

what do I do now?

I have to say, this game is a bit of a PITA to get to run.

thanks in advance.
IainMcNeil
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Post by IainMcNeil »

The issue is that Java (the language the game was created in) is not supported in the same way in Vista as it was on the OS the game was developed for 6 years ago. Vista didn't exist then. There is not much we can do about it as the developer no loger makes game so all we can do it try and find workarounds to get your game up and running.
ibafoo
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Post by ibafoo »

Perhaps I was unclear in my previous post. I'm running Windows 7.

And I just bought the game online, for the third time I might add because when I try to reinstall it that does not work.

Anyway, I bought the game again. The original version of CEAW runs fine, but the Grand Strategy 2.0 mod does not work. It loads all the way to the point where a small black box, looks sort of like a DOS box I think, opens on my screen and then closes and the game disappears and won't run.

So how can I get GS 2.0 CEAW to run on Windows 7?

thanks again
IainMcNeil
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Post by IainMcNeil »

The DOS box is part of the installer. It needs to run to set up all the files correctly. GS is a free expansion by a team of volunteers and while they do everything they can to help people get up and running there may be issues they can't resolve. There is no reason it should not work on Windows 7 but every PC is different and something seems to be stopping it installing on your PC. It might be a setting or permission issue. Have you used all the default install options when installing the base game? Is there anything unusual about your setup? Have you got multiple accounts on the PC?
ibafoo
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Post by ibafoo »

The DOS box is part of the installer. It needs to run to set up all the files correctly. GS is a free expansion by a team of volunteers and while they do everything they can to help people get up and running there may be issues they can't resolve. There is no reason it should not work on Windows 7 but every PC is different and something seems to be stopping it installing on your PC. It might be a setting or permission issue. Have you used all the default install options when installing the base game?

yes




Is there anything unusual about your setup? not that I am aware of




Have you got multiple accounts on the PC?


I just have myself set up as the administrator and it set up a "guest" account by default, but I'm the only person who uses it.

thanks
Peter Stauffenberg
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Post by Peter Stauffenberg »

Have you installed GS v1.06 before on your computer? There were some files there that prevented the compilation of the scenarios. Those files were in the data/scenario folder and ended with ai. If you have them then you should remove them all.

Do you have a chance to catch the content of the dosbox window just before it closes? The content there may tell where the game crashes.

Have you tried installing the latest Java version from the internet? Are you running GS v2.0 just like it was when you installed CeaW or have you modified any files? One thing you could do is to delete the entire folder structure from Grand Strategy 2.0 and below in the My Documents folder.

When you restart GS v2.0 you will be asked to select language and other options. It will then create a file called gs2_settings.txt plus scenario files etc. You can manually try to edit this file and change settings to:
NO_SOUND_EFFECTS 1
NO_MUSIC 1

I've heard that some people had problems with getting the sound settings to work so disabling sound can be a good start if you have issues.

Are you using an ATI or Nvidia graphics card? What graphics resolution are you running? You could try to set it to 1024x768 to check if you get the same problem. If that cures the problem then you need to fix graphics settings. I'm running Windows 7 myself and I know that you need to enable 60 hz for your monitor instead of using the default 59 hz. There is a thread on this forum describing this issue. For me I got a small window when using 1920x1080, but with 60hz as default I got the game to automatically set the resolution to 1024x768 and back to default when exiting the game.

When I look at my DOS box when starting GS 2.0 I see that it shows some text about screen resolution before it blanks the screen and loads the Slitherine load screen. Then it shows the firepower load screen because the menu is shown.

So it seems to me that the game crashes before you even get to the menu. During that phase it sets the screen resolution and compiles the scenarios.

Can you please tell me the content of your Grand Strategy Mod\data\scenario folder. Tell me both the name of the files there and the dates. Just to test if any of the scn files are corrupt you could move all the scn files except 1939.scn to a different folder. If it then loads then you have a corrupt scenario file and we can send you working ones.

What you can also do is that after the game has crashed you can enter My Documents\CEAW Grand Strategy 2.0\data\scenario and tell me which .data files you have there. You should have 1939.data, 1940.data, 1941.data, 1942.data, 1943.data and 1944.data. If you don't have them all then the first one you're missing is corrupt or invalid.
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Post by rkr1958 »

ibafoo wrote:Perhaps I was unclear in my previous post. I'm running Windows 7.

And I just bought the game online, for the third time I might add because when I try to reinstall it that does not work.

Anyway, I bought the game again. The original version of CEAW runs fine, but the Grand Strategy 2.0 mod does not work. It loads all the way to the point where a small black box, looks sort of like a DOS box I think, opens on my screen and then closes and the game disappears and won't run.

So how can I get GS 2.0 CEAW to run on Windows 7?

thanks again
First ... I recommend that you try this. Go to

*:\My Documents\CEAW Grand Strategy 2.0\ and delete everything that's in the folder. Try running the game again.

Also, if you've previously installed GSv1.06/1.07 before then you need to follow the instructions in this thread: viewtopic.php?p=228289#228289
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