Help Getting TOAW:CoW to Run Again

[Buford]

As a new member of this forum, I need to appeal to more experienced (and computer literate) members to help me get TOAW:CoW to run on my machine. It was running normally until Nov. 3, when some sort of gremlin intervened.

I installed TOAW:CoW on my PC in August 2002, and updated it to version 1.04.01 that September. It ran without any problems through 11/2/04, when I played a few turns of a saved scenario (Tannenburg). Then, on 11/3/04, when I tried opening that saved game again, clicking on the "open saved game" button on the start screen produced the dread "this program has attempted to perform an illegal operation" alarm. I've tried several fixes since then, with no success, as I'll detail below.

First, my system specs follow:
System specifications: Dell Dimension XPS T500
CPU: Pentium III 500 MHz
OS: Windows 98
RAM: 512 MB
HD: 12.76 GB (3.92 GB used)
Video card: 3Dforce2 MX/MX-200/MX 400 Series,
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400 (installed 4/16/02)
Sound: Yamaha DS/XG
MS Internet Explorer v 6.0
DirectX v.9.0c

The first two error messages below are from my first two efforts to get past the start screen on 11/3/04. The third example, from 11/6/04, came after I had deleted all TOAW files I could find and reinstalled the game program (without updating it). The Norton CrashGuard message is indentical to that in example#2.

Example #4 is a Windows alarm message from 11/10/04, after I had used Norton Registry Editor to delete all the Talonsoft folders I could find in the Registry and then reinstalled the game program. Nearly identical to the first fault message from 11/3/04, with some minor variations in the "Registers" indicators.

Finally, example #5 is from 11/17/04, after I had upgraded my DirectX to version 9.0c, reinstalled TOAW:CoW, and upgraded the game to version 1.04, using the patch from this Website. I made three efforts to start the game. Each time, the introductory SmackPlay film produced the same Windows error message. Having gotten past that, the Norton CrashGuard alarm message was produced by one effort to "set game options" and two efforts to "start new game." In any case, I cannot get past the start screen into the game itself. The fault messages all identified the problem generally as an "access violation."

It occurs to me that there may be some problem of incompatibility with my DirectX program. Prior to 11/2/04, I had upgraded DirectX from v.7.0 to 8.0 and then to 9.0 without any apparent problem - until 11/3/04. I'd be very grateful for any better ideas/suggestions anyone might have.

Error messages:

Example #1 – 11/3/04:

OPART CW caused an invalid page fault in
module OPART CW.ICD at 0177:00413831.
Registers:
EAX=00000000 CS=0177 EIP=00413831 EFLGS=00010246
EBX=00000001 SS=017f ESP=00b1fa34 EBP=00b1fa58
ECX=009f0134 DS=017f ESI=014a0b50 FS=3bef
EDX=014a0b68 ES=017f EDI=014a0b54 GS=3bd6
Bytes at CS:EIP:
8b 08 ff 51 0c 85 c0 75 67 8b 46 10 85 c0 75 2b
Stack dump:
00000000 014a0b68 014a0b54 00000000 00549959 00549634 00b1fb6c 004d9acb ffffffff 00b1fa74 004b6b15 00549959 014a0ae0 00000019 00000181 00000019

Example #2 – 11/3/04:

OPART CW.ICD caused fault #c0000005 in OPART CW.ICD at address 0177:00413831
To date, CrashGuard has recorded 2 fatal error(s) in this program.
Reported By:
CrashGuard v3.03
Report Date:
11/3/04 6:22:21 PM

Example #3 – 11/6/04, after reinstalling TOAW:CoW:

OPART CW.ICD caused fault #c0000005 in OPART CW.ICD at address 0177:00413831
To date, CrashGuard has recorded 9 fatal error(s) in this program.
Reported By:
CrashGuard v3.03
Report Date: 11/6/04 2:31:39 PM

Example #4:
Report: 11/10/04 c. 7:28 PM
(after editing all Talonsoft folders out of the Registry with Norton Registry Editor
and reinstalling the TOAW-CW program.)

OPART CW caused an invalid page fault in
module OPART CW.ICD at 0177:00413831.
Registers:
EAX=00000000 CS=0177 EIP=00413831 EFLGS=00010246
EBX=00000001 SS=017f ESP=00b1fa34 EBP=00b1fa58
ECX=009f0134 DS=017f ESI=014a0b30 FS=37b7
EDX=014a0b48 ES=017f EDI=014a0b34 GS=32b6
Bytes at CS:EIP:
8b 08 ff 51 0c 85 c0 75 67 8b 46 10 85 c0 75 2b
Stack dump:
00000000 014a0b48 014a0b34 00000000 00549959 00549634 00b1fb6c 004d9acb ffffffff 00b1fa74 004b6b15 00549959 014a0ac0 00000019 000002eb 00000019

Example 5 (after upgrading DirectX to version 9.0c and
reinstalling TOAW:CoW and updating it to version 1.04:

SMACKPLW caused an invalid page fault in
module <unknown> at 0000:b00dc1d0.
Registers:
EAX=eec22000 CS=0177 EIP=b00dc1d0 EFLGS=00010206
EBX=00000004 SS=017f ESP=0064ef20 EBP=00647f3a
ECX=000010f0 DS=017f ESI=eec17f28 FS=016f
EDX=0064ef18 ES=017f EDI=eec24ae7 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
11/17/04 1:57 PM

OPART CW.EXE caused fault #c0000005 in OPART CW.EXE at address 0177:00414878
To date, CrashGuard has recorded 4 fatal error(s) in this program.
Reported By:
CrashGuard v3.03
Report Date: 11/17/04 1:58:16 PM

 

[Mantis]

Are you having any other signs of system instability? It may be your OS requires a reset.

 

[sardonicme]

This is bizarre. I stumbled onto this forum because I was researching the same problem. For all practical purposes I have the same machine as Buford (mine's a 550) and I'm getting the exact same error message at the same place. I'm also wondering about a DirectX 9 incompatibility. To answer Mantis' response, no, there are no other system instabilities - just this one. Baffling, since I've never had a problem before...like Buford, it just happened. (It had been a while since I'd last played, so I'm not sure of my timeline.)

 

[Siberian HEAT]

So you also have Windows 98?

Does anyone else out there have Windows 98 with 9.0c DirectX? It might help eliminate that as a possibility.

 

[Wolf]

So you also have Windows 98?

Does anyone else out there have Windows 98 with 9.0c DirectX? It might help eliminate that as a possibility.

I'm running Win 98SE with DirectX 9.0 (don't know about the "c" though)

 

[sardonicme]

Yes, Win98 SE with DirectX 9 (also don't know about the c)

 

[Dicke Bertha]

Maybe Direct 9.0 requires you to download the very latest drivers to your video cards? Check the graphic card producers webpage (NVidia in your case) for updates to your specific card... I know that has helped me at some point with some program....

 

[Buford]

Maybe Direct 9.0 requires you to download the very latest drivers to your video cards? Check the graphic card producers webpage (NVidia in your case) for updates to your specific card... I know that has helped me at some point with some program....

Thanks for the suggestion. I will try the Nvidia site and see if any driver updates are available. The other point I forgot to mention in my first post is that, on those occasions when I've encountered the error messages (either from Windows or Norton Crashguard), the same sort of "access violation" has cropped up when I tried immediately to load other games requiring that the game cd be in the cd-rom drive (e.g., any of HPS' recent naval games, SSG's "Korsun Pocket", and others. However, if I turned off my pc and did a cold reboot, this problem disappeared for any games other than TOAW:CoW. Thank you again, Bill Gates!

 

[Bdr.Mallette]

Hey,

Good site for drivers is;

www.drivers.com

select device drivers.

username: drivers
Password: All


Really good site for old drivers and chit like that.
Should still be there.

Can you play CoW without doing the update to 1.04?
Check your registry settings.
Iunno mon.
Have to have the machine in front of me to diagnose.

 

[Bdr.Mallette]

Forget it, it costs money now, I think.

Geeeeez, everybody wants their piece eh!?

 

[Bdr.Mallette]

Run from start menu,

dxdiag

it'll give ya a really good report.
Have to have at least dx7 though.

 

[sardonicme]

oh yeah, i forgot, i did a thorough run with dxdiag and it came back fine. so it's not directx 9 and my video card.

carry on, canada!

 

[Priest]

Did you install any other programs at about the same time that your TOAW stopped working? There might be a conflict with another program that you installed.

 

[sardonicme]

this is the problem. i hadn't run toaw in a while, it could be anything if that's the case. i don't think there's anything bizarre running in the background, though i admit i haven't checked that fully.

 

[Buford]

I may have made some slight progress, thanks to posts in this thread by Dicke Bertha and sardonicme, but not enough to get TOAW:CoW to run again. Earlier today I updated the driver for my GeForce graphics card from the Nvidia website (for sardonicme: it's version 61.76 for Windows 95/98/Me, dated 7/20/04). I then reinstalled TOAW:CoW from the cd, without updating to version 1.04. The introductory graphics and the SmackPlay film ran OK (whereas the SmackPlay film produced an "illegal operation" alarm the last time I tried it, on 11/17). At the start page, I could access the "sound" options from the toolbar at the top of the screen. However, when I clicked on "start new game", I got the following very familiar Norton CrashGuard warning:

OPART CW.ICD caused fault #c0000005 in OPART CW.ICD at address 0177:00413831
To date, CrashGuard has recorded 12 fatal error(s) in this program.
Reported By:
CrashGuard v3.03
Report Date:
12/1/04 6:06:38 PM

Now, the CrashGuard window said there was a good chance the error could be fixed by CrashGuard, so I tried that and got the TOAW start page back. Trying to start a new game then produced a Windows "illegal op." alarm, announcing an "access violation" problem. The PC also froze, so I couldn't cut/paste the details. However, the initial detail text read: CG32EH caused a general protection fault in module NVDISP.DRV at 0003:00003abb". Looks like CrashGuard itself created a problem with the Nvidia display driver. It's still a tangled web with no solution in sight. Rats.

 

[Priest]

this is the problem. i hadn't run toaw in a while, it could be anything if that's the case. i don't think there's anything bizarre running in the background, though i admit i haven't checked that fully.

Have you tried to uninstall the game and then reinstall it?

 

[Buford]

I've uninstalled and reinstalled CoW several times, with no change for the better. In addition, I reinstalled TOAW:WoTY once from its CD and found I had exactly the same problem. So it's not a problem with the CD's.

 

[Priest]

I've uninstalled and reinstalled CoW several times, with no change for the better. In addition, I reinstalled TOAW:WoTY once from its CD and found I had exactly the same problem. So it's not a problem with the CD's.

I think that you have a software conflict, that's about the only reason that I can think that is causing your now it works, now it doesn't problem. Try to think of what you had on your computer qhen COW last ran. Restore it to that state by unistalling all software that was added after COW last ran right. Then reinstall the software one at a time and try to run COW this should tell you which program it is that's causing the problem. If it's your Nvidia drivers that's causing the problem then you would have to contact Nvidia for a solution. I don't think that it's the DirectX that's causing the problem. Keep us informed.

 

[Dicke Bertha]

Yes I agree it sounds like software conflicts. Actually, long ago I had Norton's CrashGuard installed, and had problems. If I remeber correctly, there was a program included in the Norton package which supervised installations. It would ask if I wanted it to monitor the installation of programs, sometimes I chose yes, but sometimes not. I do not exactly recall all turns there, but in the end I uninstalled that Norton package never to usi it again, probably did a fresh reinstall of the operating system, and the problems disappeared... :crosseye: I think either Priest is right and some other program is causing a conflict, maybe has overwritten or deleted some identically named .dll file or something, or the Norton installation supervisor might have done something with the registry... Have you checked with Regedit? You could perhaps compare regedit settings with someone running ACOW on the same system as you?

Otherwise reinstall operating system... After many years, it is a mess...

Oh, I should warn you - I know very little about these things! If you smell or see smoke, abort mission! :devious:

 

[Bdr.Mallette]

hmmmmmm

Out of the box or Jewel Case?

Could have a corrupt CD or other.

Hate to say this but....
If you have a very high performance Video card, try dropping down to 16bit or maybe 256 resolution. (reaching!!lol)

If not, start a fundraising campaign for a new PC, cheap one, just for playing TOAW! LOL

dO you GET ANY OTHER STRANGE INSTANCES when not playing toaw?, crashes, internet slow or other games giving problems.
It seems to be that if you have changed anything since you last played it, try to undo any changes then run Toaw till you find the problem.

Uninstall Video driver and card, plug back in.... IUNNO man!
Re-install V-C.

Do the 'Karate Kid' pose while standing on your chair and pray to the TOAW gods.
If that works, PM me immediately!!!! lol


:smoke: