[CTD] crash at startup apparently due ot missing files

http://pastebin.com/m1184428c
from Elemental Forums

The problem seems to be an installation problem, where several files that should be there are not. 

 

This problem occured after uninstalling and reinstalling elemental.  To solve what appeared to be a previous problem of elemental looking for nonexistant folders, I uninstalled the game, than deleted the documents and settings and My Documents folders related to elemental (So that Impulse could install them again, since the game appeared ot be looking in the wrong places for them).  The problem is, on this current install, it seems that the folders don't have any files on them.  (They have folder paths, but no files), but impulse says the game is completely installed, and using verify doesn't show anything missing.

 

What exactly should I have in these files, and does anyone have advice, apart from trying ot reinstall the game another time?

6,806 views 14 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Can you name those folders for us...there are some that are intentionally empty (with the main-engine 3d assets)?  With all other missing data, 'Verifying Installation' really should have done the trick.

ALso, can you post you degbu.err so we get an idea of what it's failing on.  Thanks!  :)

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

The debug.err is in the external link in the first post.  (Should probably have mentioned that.)

 

In "my documents/My Games/Elemental" :

The units folder has a "icons" folder.  Both of these folders are empty.

The "tiles" folder has a "shadows" folder, both folders are empty.

The "stamps", "Saves", "Race", "Items", and "Effects" folders are empty.

 

In "Documents and settings/All Users/Application Data/Stardock/elemental: War of Magic" folder, The "screens" and "images" folders are empty, the "Impulse Reactor" and "Temp" files have several sub folders with files in them.

Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Any more information needed  for this?

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling using Impulse, got the same problem.

 

debug.err

 

 

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Should I just ask this on impulse forums, since that may be where the problem lies?

 

More in general, are there any updates on this?  (More information needed, etc.)

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Tried again with an uninstall.reinstall, still have no files in the My Documents/My Games/elemental folder (apart from debug).

 

Steps taken:

1.  Use impulse to uninstall Elemental.

2.  The C:/Documents and Settings/All Users/Application Data/Stardock/Elemental-War of Magic and D:/My Documents/My Games/Elemental folders still exist after doing this uninstall, so I delete those.

3.  Reinstall using Impulse.  Reinstalling installs the game in C:/Program Files/Stardock Games/Elemental.  It does not install any D:/My Documents/My Games/Elemental folder.  It may also not have installed the C:/Documents and Settings/Application Data/Stardock/Elemental folder either, but unfortunately I've forgotted at this point.

4.  I move the elemental folder to D:/Program files/Stardock Games/Elemental.  The D: drive is where I keep all other stardock games (the folder paths are equivalent to what they would be in the C drive), but I did not see a way in impulse to install games directly here.  I move the folder to the D: drive, than use whichever impulse function (forget the name) it is where I select the folder location for an installed game.  I also update to the current beta (The game was installed at 0.0, or some other 0 number.)

5. I attempt to verify installation.  Verifying says that elemental is installed correctly.

6. I attempt to run elemental.  The game plays that "You travel north" video up tyo the "Press space bar" screen.  I press space bar, the game crashes to desktop.  A "D:/My Documents/My Games/Elemental" folder is created, with a bunch of subfolders, a debug.err file, and a prefs file.  All of the subfolders are empty.  The "C:/Documents and Settings/Stardock/Elemental" folder is also here, though again I have forgotten whether it was missing before.

7.  Verify installation again says that the game is installed correctly.

 

 

The pastebin link for the debuig file is here:

http://pastebin.com/RGWBiQy4

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Sounds as if you may have moved the Dir's but not told the Registry you did so.

Why move the BETA files to start with.

Try a unistall via WIndows, then a straight up (default) install, no moves, and see if it works.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

The Beta files were moved to go with the other Stardock games.  The stardock games in general were moved to clear up space on the C drive.

 

I'll try your suggestion and see how it goes.  I'm not sure what you mean by "not telling the rgistry...etc.", so what do you think is happening in more detail?

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Just tried uninstalling using the "add/remove program" control panel, cannot do so.

 

(It gives an "An error may have occured while trying to remove Elemental-War of magic.  It may have already been uninstalled" response.)

I also have demigod and Galactic civilizations 2 installed the same way (In the D drive), and they run fine.  (Demigod was also installed by downloading ot the C drive, than moving to the D drive).

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

Updating to the current patch did not help.

 

I just tried to remove the program using impulse, thinking that perhaps the "add/remove" program window might not have detected these uninstalls/reinstalls properly, elemental has been removed from there as well.  It seems ot have gone as before, where impulse doesn't remove the My Documents/My Games/Elemental folder or the Documents and Settings folder.

 

What would I need to remove from the computer to try and get rid of any traces of elemental?  (to try and get a completely fresh installation, like it was not there.  (I'm not sure whether this is the particular problem or not, in fact I'm not sure what the problem actually could be, a more thourough explanation above would be helpful, but if this is the problem I could at least go about trying ot fix it in this way.)

 

Edit:  Also just realized I forgot to change Impulse to direct files to the D drive (where elemental is).  changing this made no difference, the files are still missing.

Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top

I was able to use the "Add/remove programs" on the control panel to remove elemental, than reinstall it using Impulse  (as I think was suggested in the earlier post.).  The "My Documents/My Games/Elemental" folder was not uninstalled.  When elemental was reinstalled with impulse, these folders remained unchanged.

 

I tried deleting the "My documents/My Games/Elemental" folder directly, than using Impulse ot verify the installation.  Verification again said that the game was installed correctly.  The game CTDs as usual.  Pastebin

 

 

I'm also really fucking sick of the lack of responses here.  No pointers of what to look for except the post above, no descriptions of where I might find more information, almost no advice of any sort except the post above, which has not worked so far, and has no further explanations as to the details of what may happen that I asked about., no further information requests that may help solve this problem.  The issue I've been having is not occuring with other games downloaded using impulse, I have pretty much no idea what is going on here beyond the impulse installationmissing the "My cdocuments" folders, I could really use some more help with this.

Reply #12 from Elemental Forums Top

Having some number of "No files found matching mask" messages in the debug.err is completely normal.

The files in the My Documents folder are created by the game itself, not the installation, and are left upon uninstall as they may contain savegames, etc.

Please see the beta reporting sticky for details about obtaining a dump file from the crash which can help the devs isolate your problem.

Reply #14 from Elemental Forums Top

Tried again a few days ago, while deselecting the "protect user from unauthorized program activity"  same thing happened.  I haven't been able ot run it as an administrator (since other people have used it for other bugs) to see if that would do anything. (The computer was given by someone else, and I am not sure what the password is.)

debug.err: http://pastebin.com/FAt7j8WE

dump file: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5070559/Elemental0_291-2010-03-05T20-58-07-733.zip

 

 

Is this really a wierd problem that no one ese has had?