Odd Problem: I can launch and play MVP 2005 once...

[Mistawho]

Ok, first, my system specs that I play the game on:

* Asus P4S800D-X Socket 478 mPGA motherboard w/ SiS 655FX chipset

* Intel Celeron (Northwood) 2.7GHz CPU (100MHz bus/400MHz rated FSB)

* 1 gigabyte of 64x8 (I think) DDR 400 (PC-3200) in 2x512 chips

* Weak butt nVidia FX5500 128MB AGP video card

* Onboard AC97-driven audio

* Enlite TV tuner card

* 200 gigabyte ATA-133 hard drive

* Plextor DVD-RAM (sweet)

* Externally connected devices: HP DeskJet 952C printer, Logitech Dual Action (Dual Analog) USB gamepad

I think that covers most of it.

Anyways, here's my weird problem with a lot of digressing.

I'm using Patch #5, no mods, no rosters, just good old MVP 2005 with Patch #5. My video drivers, sound drivers, chipset drivers, hell, just drivers in general are one step behind recent, as I am of the method that the most current drivers usually cause problems. Before anybody points out that this could be my problem, it is not, I temporarily upgraded to the most recent pertinent drivers and still experienced the same problem step-for-step.

When I am from a cold or warm reboot, the game launches and plays just fine. I can play as many games as I want for as long as I want without any hiccups or other problems. However, when I quit MVP 05, I cannot re-launch the game, as it will crash. Here is the error and then the verbose details:

If I do a cold or warm reboot, I can launch the game fine. If I just logoff, the game will still crash when I re-login.

I tried finding a problem that was like mine, and while some seemed similar to mine, they all were using some sort of modification beyond an officially released patch.

I have modified nothing on my MVP 05 installation. I installed Patch 5 but never the previous ones. My system is table, I'm a MCSE/MCSA, CCNP/CCNA who just happens to like his crap computer and all it's quirks; otherwords I am very competent in these matters (usually. Until this game I've never, honestly, had a game crash on me during launch. Even Oblivion would launch and play fine while reporting -1 FPS!

If I am repeating a problem that was posted here, please accept my sincerest apologies. I tried to hunt this down with Search but could not think of the keywords and/or phrase to yield any results.

[MarkB]

I really hope this issue gets resolved, because, quite frankly, this is the best support post I've ever seen on this site - it is perfect. System specifications, good, thorough explanation of the problem with screenshots and information on testing performed already. Every thread requesting support should look like this.

I'm tempted to guess it could be a Windows hook or DirectX problem because it plays fine after reboot then doesn't work after quitting, but, to be honest, I'm not too sure. The fact that it doesn't work from a perfectly fresh install is strange, but the hardware is almost totally ruled out by the fact that it works normally when first run after the reboot. It's almost as if something is being changed or written to memory when you quit the game the first time, which then causes a crash when you try to launch the game again.

Couple of ideas - do you have a memory cleanser on your system that can remove unused data from RAM? I'm wondering, if you run MVP, play a couple of games, then quit and run the memory cleanser, then try running the game again and see if it's crashing, that would rule out something being placed in memory that's causing the crash. If it's not that, maybe try something like CCleaner after running, playing then quitting, and again, if it's not that, try running, playing, then quitting, then deleting *.tmp from the drive, then run again.

Also, is it XP Pro or Home you're using?

Thanks for a top-quality post, and welcome to the site. :)

[Mistawho]

My best guess is that some stack in the program on exit locks into upper memory and it's address specific. So when it tries to load that binary stack into that specific upper address, it's locked so it just craps out.

Either way, it's DirectX related. I'm sure of this. I have fifty some-odd OpenGL and Direct 3D games (e.g., Neverwinter Nights, Madden, etc.) and I can run them just fine after exiting MVP 05 so it's definitely some sort of hook, you pretty much hit the nail on the head.

Unfortunately, the farthest I ever got with debugging was when I worked at Microsoft on the Xbox 360 software/OS testing so I don't have the skills to actually hunt it down in some ASM program .

I seriously hope some genius comes out of the woodwork and helps a guy out because this is bar none my favorite game.

EDIT: I just rediscovered FileMon, RegMon and other such program monitors. I'm going to train them to only monitor and log MVP and the API and see what happens.

I really hope this issue gets resolved, because, quite frankly, this is the best support post I've ever seen on this site - it is perfect. System specifications, good, thorough explanation of the problem with screenshots and information on testing performed already. Every thread requesting support should look like this.

I'm tempted to guess it could be a Windows hook or DirectX problem because it plays fine after reboot then doesn't work after quitting, but, to be honest, I'm not too sure. The fact that it doesn't work from a perfectly fresh install is strange, but the hardware is almost totally ruled out by the fact that it works normally when first run after the reboot. It's almost as if something is being changed or written to memory when you quit the game the first time, which then causes a crash when you try to launch the game again.

Couple of ideas - do you have a memory cleanser on your system that can remove unused data from RAM? I'm wondering, if you run MVP, play a couple of games, then quit and run the memory cleanser, then try running the game again and see if it's crashing, that would rule out something being placed in memory that's causing the crash. If it's not that, maybe try something like CCleaner after running, playing then quitting, and again, if it's not that, try running, playing, then quitting, then deleting *.tmp from the drive, then run again.

Also, is it XP Pro or Home you're using?

Thanks for a top-quality post, and welcome to the site.

[MarkB]

Yep, that's what I'm thinking as well. Let us know how it goes.

[Mistawho]

Yep, that's what I'm thinking as well. Let us know how it goes.

Welp, it is a hook, specifically a locked memory address. I went through and open API using stuff, PowerDVD, media players, etc. Finally I opened Winamp -- after playing a game of MVP and exiting -- and this came up.

I reboot, open Winamp, exit, no error. I launch MVP 05 and exit then open Winamp and exit, and I get that error. I repeat this in a couple of varied ways, like opening MVP 05, tasking out, opening winamp, etc. and it's pretty much conclusive. Unfortunately, while I understand the problem I don't have the knowledge to hunt it down in an disassembler and code caving or forcing the hook to dump on exit.

But if someone out there does, this pretty much saves you all the debugging work HINT HINT.

Edit #1 I forgot to respond to your question regarding if I had the ability to clear the memory manually. VBS doesn't work on XP anymore, but I will find try Cacheman and some static 0 memory writers or something and see what happens. Either way, solved or not, I will gladly reboot every time I want to play another round of MVP. My obsessive compulsive disorder, however, is not having it. ;O

Edit #2 Excuse me for my lack of reading comprehension. I am running Windows XP Corporate edition, SP2, DirectX 9.0c.

[MarkB]

Yep, pretty conclusive there! The only problem now is finding someone that can do it...I don't know if there is anyone around here that has went into editing the .exe file at any great length other than changing existing values to allow widescreen resolutions etc.

Did you try one of those memory cleaning programs to see if that attempts to unlock it?

[Mistawho]

Yep, pretty conclusive there! The only problem now is finding someone that can do it...I don't know if there is anyone around here that has went into editing the .exe file at any great length other than changing existing values to allow widescreen resolutions etc.

Did you try one of those memory cleaning programs to see if that attempts to unlock it?

Here's a fix and it's completely hilarious but I'll explain how it works -- or what my theory is on why it works.

Simply take out Disc 2 (CD version), run the game, get the requestor asking you to insert Disc 2 and restart the application and click ok, insert -- or remount if you're a bad kid -- then re-launch the game and preso, no more exception error.

I believe it does this because it's considered a break -- as in the launcher runs, looks for Disc 2, doesn't see it, 0's the physical memory in panic and releases the hook.

Too funny.

[MarkB]

That's excellent. So it's grabbing memory and refusing to release it on exit, then, when you try to play without a CD, the .exe has a hissy fit when handling the exception, releases everything is has and demands the CD. Gotta love it!

Hey, it's a fix! :D