101 replies to this topic

[Catamount]

I really don't get the MW4 trouble people are having. It seems like everyone but me has these problems, and yet no computer I've ever owned has had them.

My only problem in MW4 is that it refuses to connect for multiplayer in Windows 7

[Threat Doc]

Alistair Steiner, on 15 November 2011 - 02:45 PM, said:

Aye, same here.

Okay, I'm running a Compaq Presario CQ56 special laptop I picked up from Wal-Mart for about $350, and it's an amazing laptop, so far, so I have nothing against it. I have Windows 7 x64 Home Premium, and it cooks.

I put the MechWarrior 3 CD into the drive and it opened up the AutoRun menu just fine, loaded everything up just fine, started up the game and it runs like a raped ape, no worries. I played through the first training mission just fine, trying to ensure everything's working. I loaded up training mission 2, however, and I've got this strange clicking noise, interrupting the instructors speech and the music, and the yellow directional arrow that runs around the screen for your waypoint marker has a twin that sits in the lower-left corner and flashes, in unison with the stuttering of the music and the instructors speech, oddly enough. Also, when it gets to the point in the mission where I'm supposed to zoom, the mission glitches, locks up, and won't let me continue on. I can get out to my menu's, I can turn the objectives listing on and off, I can move around, shoot, etc., but the mission glitches. I tried to drop out of the game, reload it, and go in again, same thing; tried to reboot the computer and go back in, same thing. On the third try, I got bored and fired on the instructor, nothing; went to run into the instructors 'Mech to see if he would wake up, and the game dropped me back to the desktop.

Any ideas, guys?

Edited by Kay Wolf, 15 November 2011 - 03:57 PM.

[omegaclawe]

Catamount, on 15 November 2011 - 08:54 AM, said:

Also, I just tested, and I do not get the BSOD on MW3 OP1 Mission 3.

My guess is that that's a video driver issue.

North Bridge, actually, according to windows. Suffice to say it's hardware related, and shouldn't affect too many other people.

Error summary, for those interested:

Spoiler

A fatal hardware error has occurred.<p>Component: AMD Northbridge<br>Error Source: Machine Check Exception<br>Error Type: HyperTransport Watchdog Timeout Error<br>Processor ID: 0

</p>

[Catamount]

All I can say is try compatibility mode first and foremost.

It's kind of a rough, hit or miss setting, but sometimes it does work. I run MW3 in XP SP3 mode, and it runs great.

[Catamount]

omegaclawe, on 15 November 2011 - 08:20 PM, said:

North Bridge, actually, according to windows. Suffice to say it's hardware related, and shouldn't affect too many other people.

Error summary, for those interested:

Spoiler

A fatal hardware error has occurred.<p>Component: AMD Northbridge<br>Error Source: Machine Check Exception<br>Error Type: HyperTransport Watchdog Timeout Error<br>Processor ID: 0

</p>

You're getting an MCE error from a game?! I have to admit, I've seen a lot of BSODs from games over the years, but never that one.

Usually it's either the video driver has stopped responding, or the dreaded driver IRQL not less than or equal error. I've never seen software of any kind cause an MCE error (by design, it's supposed to only occur in response to a hardware problem).


I don't have much experience with that error, and limited experience in general, but if you want to send me one of the crash dump files, I can try and take a look at it.

[Threat Doc]

I did compatibility mode, but I was working with XP(SP2). Think I should try 98SE instead?

[Catamount]

Kay Wolf, on 15 November 2011 - 08:32 PM, said:

I did compatibility mode, but I was working with XP(SP2). Think I should try 98SE instead?

I don't think that'll make a bit of difference. Are your video and sound drivers up to date?

For that matter, what does your laptop have for a video card? Are you running a bobcat APU (AMD C-50/E-350)? I ask because AMD cards need a patch for MW3 to work correctly, and if it's an Intel gpu, their video drivers are pretty much terribad to begin with, which means a simply update might help in that case.

[Threat Doc]

Catamount, on 15 November 2011 - 08:37 PM, said:

I don't think that'll make a bit of difference. Are your video and sound drivers up to date?

For that matter, what does your laptop have for a video card? Are you running a bobcat APU (AMD C-50/E-350)? I ask because AMD cards need a patch for MW3 to work correctly, and if it's an Intel gpu, their video drivers are pretty much terribad to begin with, which means a simply update might help in that case.

Sorry I hadn't answered for a bit, was rearranging my controls, setting... well, settings, and I did change the compatibility mode to Windows 98 and, with the exception of the continued clicking noises (now with no accompanying second yellow arrow at the bottom right of the screen) it's running absolutely beautifully.

Had to try out some instant action, got my people set up, launched into the game, kicked ***, took names, was able to do everything I should have been able to do. Bea-utiFUL!!! hehe. I'll start out on the campaign tomorrow and see if the red target triangle continues to give me issues, or if the jumping vehicle bug is still bugging me, and I'll let you all know.

Intel Celeron CPU 900 ~ 2.2GHz
2 Gigs RAM
HUGE page file
DX 11
Mobile Intel 4 Series Family Chipset
Direct Draw, Direct3D, and AGP Texture Acceleration all enabled
Latest driver for video is 2/20/2010 and I'm pretty sure it's all as up-to-date as possible

And, all I know is, I'm SUPER-HAPPY because under Windows 98 this thing is running like a charm, not a single glitch. I think more testing is in order, but there's a full-on robot chubby where I'm sittin', now. YAY!!!!

[Threat Doc]

Alright, nevermind, I'm still having a problem when I get too close to another 'Mech. It's funny, though, it only seems to happen when my target triangle resets and I'm too close to a 'Mech. Other than that, this is a thing of beauty. Any ideas?

[Alistair Steiner]

Kay Wolf, on 15 November 2011 - 09:52 PM, said:

Alright, nevermind, I'm still having a problem when I get too close to another 'Mech. It's funny, though, it only seems to happen when my target triangle resets and I'm too close to a 'Mech. Other than that, this is a thing of beauty. Any ideas?

I don't know what I did, but I got MW3 running (the good MW3). I tried installing it. I tried compatibility mode. I even made a new folder (titled "The REAL MW3") and just copied everything into that. Still nothing. So I took out the CD and played some mindless flash game to drown my sorrows. Suddenly (after 5-10 minutes), the install screen for MW3 came up. I popped the CD back in, told autorun where to shove it, then went ahead with the install, and everything works fine. Played through training, and the only issues I had was a weird bouncing thing at one part (may be what you're talking about. Too close to a 'Mech), and choppy music after the last training session booted up. Ran an instant action just to give it a shot, and everything seems to be working. Gonna try the campaign soon, if I have a chance.

In unrelated thought, how mad do you think people who got MW3 back in '98 were when the Atlas never showed up in-game? I mean, it'd be like the Uziel or Nova Cat not making an appearance in MW4. Sure you got "Big Al" in Pirate's Moon, but still... Anyway, that's my off-topic rant. All I can think to tell folks is try just making a folder and physically dragging everything from the CD to it and see what happens when you try to run the program from there. And if it's anything like my PC, give it a few minutes to realize you wanted it to do something. I'm not used to that anymore with this gaming machine I've got, but Windows will be Windows.

[Hawk819]

ok, I have a 32-bit system under Win7. How do I get MW3 to work? The same with MW2 and MW2 Mercenaries?

[Adridos]

Catamount, on 15 November 2011 - 01:26 PM, said:

Exactly

MW3 installs that DLL file, so it'll only exist in your old computer's Windows\System32 folder, and only after install.


I've never been sure as to why sometimes DLL files get installed in the Windows folder, and sometimes they get installed to the game folder (maybe publishers who use the same file for multiple games stick them in \Windows for shared use?), but if you take that DLL from the Windows folder and just toss it in the game folder, next to the MW3.exe executable, Windows will still know to use it.

After that, it should run normally.

If you have a new Ati/AMD video card, you might get a weird flicker/draw error (trust me, you'll know if you see it). If that's the case, just let me know and I can send you the patch file or point you to the forum it was posted on.


After that, happy piloting

Thank you.

[Threat Doc]

Alistair Steiner, on 15 November 2011 - 11:29 PM, said:

In unrelated thought, how mad do you think people who got MW3 back in '98 were when the Atlas never showed up in-game?

Oh, I honestly don't know. It never bothered me; but, then, I'm not an Atlas fan, I prefer lighter multi-role machines.

[Adridos]

Ohh... I installed it by your instructions, copyied it to my new PC and tryied to run it, but after clcking continue on a report, that it isn't properly supported, game shows a problem window, where it says: "Rendering via the GameZ Engine is not supported because the 'Software Render Files' component was not installed during Setup." Problem is, that I'm 100% sure I ticked all the game files to install during installation, so there's no way it could be because of me banning something from the list of components. Any idea how to fix this?

[omegaclawe]

Catamount, on 15 November 2011 - 08:29 PM, said:

You're getting an MCE error from a game?! I have to admit, I've seen a lot of BSODs from games over the years, but never that one.

Usually it's either the video driver has stopped responding, or the dreaded driver IRQL not less than or equal error. I've never seen software of any kind cause an MCE error (by design, it's supposed to only occur in response to a hardware problem).


I don't have much experience with that error, and limited experience in general, but if you want to send me one of the crash dump files, I can try and take a look at it.

Yeah... I do have experience with similar errors, from when I was first attempting to achieve stable overclocks and wot on my older computer... though those were, yeah... hardware. Entirely.

This happens, without fail, near the beginning of the 3rd mission, at a time where it seems a mech powers up near spawn. It doesn't actually give the blue screen; it just restarts immediately... of course, it handles everything exactly as if it had given me the screen, so it might just be disappearing before I get a chance to read it. :/

I have no other hardware errors with this computer, and haven't for over a year. I did upgrade the ram a few months ago, but I've already been through a full memtest (86+) of that. Near as I can tell, my issue is entirely unique.

You can see one of the minidumps at http://www.omegaclaw...11-36800-01.dmp

[Threat Doc]

Adridos, on 16 November 2011 - 07:57 AM, said:

Ohh... I installed it by your instructions, copyied it to my new PC and tryied to run it, but after clcking continue on a report, that it isn't properly supported, game shows a problem window, where it says: "Rendering via the GameZ Engine is not supported because the 'Software Render Files' component was not installed during Setup." Problem is, that I'm 100% sure I ticked all the game files to install during installation, so there's no way it could be because of me banning something from the list of components. Any idea how to fix this?

I'm afraid I don't have any experience with this, except maybe it sounds like a reinstall to me. It's a long way around, but it may be your only way with this ancient game.

[Catamount]

Adridos, it sounds like you just forgot to install the 1.2 patch. That should solve this problem for you; it has for me.

[Catamount]

Well, I see your dilemma, omegaclawe


The Windows debugger doesn't give much to go off of that I would know enough to make use of.

All it gives is the following:


*******************************************************************************
* *
* Bugcheck Analysis *
* *
*******************************************************************************

WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR (124)
A fatal hardware error has occurred. Parameter 1 identifies the type of error
source that reported the error. Parameter 2 holds the address of the
WHEA_ERROR_RECORD structure that describes the error conditon.
Arguments:
Arg1: 0000000000000000, Machine Check Exception
Arg2: fffffa8007d78038, Address of the WHEA_ERROR_RECORD structure.
Arg3: 0000000000000000, High order 32-bits of the MCi_STATUS value.
Arg4: 0000000000000000, Low order 32-bits of the MCi_STATUS value.

Debugging Details:
------------------


BUGCHECK_STR: 0x124_AuthenticAMD

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT: 1

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: VISTA_DRIVER_FAULT

PROCESS_NAME: System

CURRENT_IRQL: 0

STACK_TEXT:
fffff880`033bd6f0 fffff800`03518c59 : fffffa80`07d78010 fffffa80`06a34680 00000000`00000010 00000000`00000000 : nt!WheapCreateLiveTriageDump+0x6c
fffff880`033bdc10 fffff800`033f8f57 : fffffa80`07d78010 fffff800`034732b8 fffffa80`06a34680 00000000`00000000 : nt!WheapCreateTriageDumpFromPreviousSession+0x49
fffff880`033bdc40 fffff800`033605d5 : fffff800`034d4ae0 00000000`00000001 fffffa80`07b9b860 fffffa80`06a34680 : nt!WheapProcessWorkQueueItem+0x57
fffff880`033bdc80 fffff800`032dd001 : fffff880`00fcce00 fffff800`033605b0 fffffa80`06a34600 00000000`00000000 : nt!WheapWorkQueueWorkerRoutine+0x25
fffff880`033bdcb0 fffff800`0356dfee : 00000000`00000000 fffffa80`06a34680 00000000`00000080 fffffa80`06a22890 : nt!ExpWorkerThread+0x111
fffff880`033bdd40 fffff800`032c45e6 : fffff880`03164180 fffffa80`06a34680 fffff880`0316efc0 00000000`00000000 : nt!PspSystemThreadStartup+0x5a
fffff880`033bdd80 00000000`00000000 : fffff880`033be000 fffff880`033b8000 fffff880`033bd2c0 00000000`00000000 : nt!KxStartSystemThread+0x16


STACK_COMMAND: kb

FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: hardware

IMAGE_NAME: hardware

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 0

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: X64_0x124_AuthenticAMD_PROCESSOR_BUS_PRV

BUCKET_ID: X64_0x124_AuthenticAMD_PROCESSOR_BUS_PRV

Followup: MachineOwner



Even with as little as I generally know, there's usually more to go off of than that. "Hardware" doesn't say much about what failed, since that clearly isn't the problem.

If it's identifying the problem as a driver fault, I guess the only thing I'd know to suggest is trying to update drivers.


Beyond that, maybe someone with more knowledge than I could make more of this.

[Adridos]

Catamount, on 16 November 2011 - 10:41 AM, said:

Adridos, it sounds like you just forgot to install the 1.2 patch. That should solve this problem for you; it has for me.

Ok, I'll try it out. Thanks for helping me out.

EDIT: It doesn't evide my installation on new computer, so I'll have to take it to the old one again, apply the patch there and then bring it back to the new one. Sounds like a lot of boring work, so I'll try it out tomorrow (it's too late now).

Edited by Adridos, 16 November 2011 - 12:59 PM.

[RogueMae13]

I can only speak for MW3 as I don't have MW2 for my PC. Now, I managed to install it and it played very well all things considered. For a time. Whether or not it's just the copy that I have, I don't know, but after about 30 minutes of gameplay, it will 'stop working', as Windows 7 puts it. Just a heads up.