WOW seriously great thread guys! This will come in really handy knowing how many bugs the forgotten realms guys love to put into their software.

I saw this in shop for few euros so I decided to buy it only to find out that it doesn`t work. Lucky as I am, I found myself here so you can help me. I read most of the posts in this thread but didn`t see any of them fitting for me.
I have Athlon 2600, 1G Ram, Radeon 9600 and Win XP, DirectX 9.0c
The problem I have comes right in the beginning, I start the game, it goes to the beginning screen and then just crashes and gives me this memory error:
The instruction at -insert numbers and letters- referenced memory at -more numbers- The memory could not be written.
Music continues to play. Now... even though I like this music very much, I`d like to play too =D
And I did run it in win95 mode so shouldn`t be that.

hey, I got a problem: in bug fixer 5.1? i think the one that fixes the buildings not been able to be entered, i downloaded virtualdub and tried using it on my XP computer i haven't managed to get it work. I downloaded it straight to a disc because the computer i have w&w in doesn't have internet. Please help I cant continue on from i'shad 'na (some of my buildings work and some don't ish gates, temple and samurai place don't work) the games to good to stop there.

Wow! A couple of folks snuck in here when I wasn't looking! Sorry for the delayed responses here... in any case...

FlameousFire, have you done all the fixes listed for XP in the beginning of this thread? Whether they seem important or not, they should be done. Specifically, I'd look at anything else running while you're running W&W, and also consider applying the patch if you haven't already. Sometimes it just fixes things... ;)

And Shanomo, I'm not familiar with Bug Fixer 5.1. I hadn't heard of any utilities for fixing the bugs in W&W. You will need to use virtualdub... let me see... ah, yes... from the other page...

</font>

• First, copy each townmskn.avi file to townmskn_orig.avi in the W&W\townavi folder. This takes about 4.5 MB of space, and will let you put the original versions back if you need them.</font>
• Next, delete the original townmskn.avi files.</font>
• Third, use virtualdub to open one of the townmskn.avi files... say townmsk1_orig.avi.</font>
• Save townmsk1_orig.avi in Vdub with the "Save old-format AVI" option with a new file name (townmsk1_new.avi).</font>
• You should see some strange graphics appear; you will get back a large 32MB file.</font>
• Repeat the previous steps for townmsk2.avi and townmsk3.avi</font>
• Exit Virtualdub.</font>
• In Windows Explorer copy each new file from townmskn_new.avi to townmskn.avi.</font>
• Try to play the game at this point; if it works, stop here.</font>
• If it doesn't, repeat the process with the three townhubn.avi files.</font>

*edit* I don't know why the list feature isn't working, but it's a list... trust me [img]smile.gif[/img]

*edit2* there it is... silly typo!

[ 02-06-2006, 09:22 AM: Message edited by: Bungleau ]

Ok, I'm new to this board. I've read all the posts related to W&W technical problems, but I've not seen my particular problem addressed yet. Before I get into it, here are my specs:

OS: Win98 (4.10, build 2222, if that matters)
Vid card: GeForce 5200
Direct X: 9.0
Memory: 318 MB

This is going to be long, but I want to be thorough. This problem is seriously driving me up the wall! Ok...
When I got W&W back in 2001, it worked fine, and it has worked fine since... until now. I'm running the patched version of W&W. I don't know why, but the speech, sound, display, town scenes, are all perfectly fine. I don't have any of the town display or speech problems that anyone else has had. However, if I leave town or load a saved game, the game runs fine for about 45 seconds to 1 minute, and then it abruptly hangs. It doesn't seem to be triggered by anything specific (e.g. no problems with speech, maps, animation, combat, or whatever), it just stops and does not respond to anything, not even CTRL + ALT + DEL (I have to hit the power button to get out). The cursor still animates, but it does not respond to the mouse. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling clean, but the result is always the same. Seriously, it was working fine about a week ago, and I can't think of anything I might have installed to cause a problem. My virus scanner and firewall are up to date, and they claim my computer is clean. I defragmented my hard drive, ran the DirectX diagnostic, and tried everything suggested for other peoples' crash problems, but nothing seems to be working. And of course, everything else on my computer works fine, it's just old (hey, I'm still runnin' Win98, after all).
Any ideas, ladies and gentlemen? I hope that's enough info, but let me know if you need more. Please, please, please, guys! If I can't fix this, I'll have to go back to Wizardry 8 for a while.

Thanks in advance. I love this website, by the way! Thanks to you guys's game tips, I had Cet quakin' in his boots before I had this crash problem. It seems he finally found a way to beat me after all this time... by cursing my friggin' computer! [img]tongue.gif[/img] Damn, that bastard fights dirty! :(

Welcome to the boards, the Dark Neighbor! [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img] I hope you'll be back about the Gael Serran soon...

A couple of thoughts come to mind... and while you may have done these, you didn't say so specifically, so you can skip over any you've already done :D

First, any chance you can add more memory? 318 is pretty sparce, and sounds like you've got a 256 stick with a 64 stick. Swap that 64 for another 256, and you should be much happier in general ;)

Second, what are your virtual memory settings? Basically, you'll want to set it to a fixed amount that's around 768MB. And when you've got that other stick of memory, set it to a gig. It has to be fixed, too... none of that "let Windows manage it for me" garbage.

Third... head over to www.trendmicro.com and have them do a full system scan for you. You have to do it in IE (last I recall), but even though you've checked for virii and malware, they can often find something more. I still do it...

Fourth... what version of DirectX? I had issues on XP when I moved up to 9.0C, and there's no good way to bust back to an earlier level.

Fifth.... what other programs do you have running when you play? There are a lot of things that run automatically that just cause grief... various helper programs and such. Use the task manager to eliminate anything you don't absolutely need. That means save Explorer, Systray, and your firewall or AV programs if you're always on-line. Maybe a couple of other things, but not much.

Give that a shot, and then post your results in another new thread. That way, everyone will see them and we'll get a shot at fixing it up for you.

Thank you, Bungleau! It's good to be here!

Sorry I haven't checked back sooner; life outside the Gael Serran can be just as tedious as "doing the Rumphy!" :(

Okay, here's what we've got:

First: Yes, that’s right.

[Scabban impersonation]: “Good! Let us add more memory, yes, yes, yes...”

However, If I could afford to, I’d just buy a new computer instead of spending any more money on my current dinosaur of a PC. [img]tongue.gif[/img] I’ll head over to CostCo, and see what they have in terms of memory sticks.

Second: Okay, I’ll try that. And that, too. Like I said, everything was working fine before, even without the 256 MB add-on. Prior to 2002, I only had the 64 MB stick the computer came with when I bought it in 1999, and then I added the 256 MB stick just so my computer could handle Heroes of Might and Magic IV.

I’ve already manually set my Virtual Memory to 300MB, as per Willow IX’s suggestion from the Nov. 2002 post, but I’ll bump it up to 768 MB, like you said.

Third: Can’t do it. I can’t run other virus checkers while McAfee is running, and I dare not surf online without my firewall enabled. I’ll make sure I run another update and check my system again. I’ll keep everyone posted on this.

Fourth: According to dxdiag, my current version is DirectX 9.0 (4.09.0000.0900). How do I check if I have 9.0C? I’m running Win98, not XP, so that shouldn’t matter, should it?

Fifth: Nada. I use CTRL + ALT + DEL to close everything except Explorer and Systray, as per Willow IX’s September 2002 post. I even unplug my internet connection and turn McAfee off, just in case. It eats up a ton of memory, and as you know, I don't have much to spare.

I’ll do the memory thing and buy more of it, just in case, then I'll post my results to a new thread. Thank you so much for your help, Bungleau!

I'll respond in your other thread... but in brief...

3... go to TrendMicro anyway. McAfee shouldn't prevent you from running it... the worst you'll get is the two of 'em detecting each other. I never shut off my AV when I go there, and I've used McAfee, Norton, and AVG (my current preferred choice)

4... You're 9.0 flat. 9.0C is the current... the string of numbers would end with .0904. If it's still not behaving, consider bumping it up... but you can never go back :(

5... If you're unplugging your internet, see 2... you don't need firewall or AV then.

More thoughts on your other thread... ;)

Has anyone ever experienced a problem with I/O? I've only experienced this with the 'movement' keys (i.e. up, down, left, right, or whatever I have assigned to those respective functions), but after I've released a key, the game doesn't seem to recognize that I have; I'll continue moving in that direction. The only solution I've found is to use the mouse, but as I'm sure most of you know, the mouse only allows you to move forward.

Any ideas as to what might be causing this? I'm running under XP with an unpatched copy. I've tried compatibility mode, but I don't think that's helped any.

I've not experienced that... but one thought that comes to mind is the keyboard itself. Can you swap a different keyboard in to see if you get the same results?

A second thought is the Accessibility settings in Windows. They may enable or disable automatic keystroke repetition.... I turn all those features off because they get in my way.

Give that a shot, and then make a fresh post. Not everyone looks for new posts in this thread [img]smile.gif[/img]

I get this when playing on my laptop (IBM ThinkPad, XP Pro, game unpatched). Since it seems time-dependent, I mapped Forward to right mouse button and Run to W. I've never had a left/right strafe stick, but forward used to stick all the time.

In fact, I liked the key combo so much that I always play this way now.

(It's almost like after a set number of cycles the game defaults to whatever the input has been rather than resetting to zero, in the absence of other input. Have you noticed, Nanobyte, that you can stop a forward stuck by pressing backward? :D )

[ 12-16-2006, 05:56 PM: Message edited by: aleph_null1 ]

Yes, but only temporarily.

I figured out what the problem was. The game must have crashed to desktop due to some internal error (at some point, I must have left the game running to go do something), and I hadn't noticed that it was still running in the background. So when I tried loading up another game, I'd encounter that problem.

It's been working fine since then.

This is frustrating. At first, my game worked perfectly, then it started crashing when I approached chests, going to Win 95 compatability mode helped this.

Now, though, I've started having random freezes while going through the Ishad N'ha/Valeia tunnel, the one with the oracles. I had to go back and fetch a skull so I could get my Monk up to a Warlock, and it's bloody annoying. The music keeps playing when it happens, but everything else freezes except for the cursor(I can't move it, but it's still animated.). Anyone got any solutions?

I'm mostly interested in case it starts happening other places, I don't expect to return to Valeia much. It's also worse than just crashes because when it crashes, I can just fire up the game, these freezes lock up my computer entirely so I have to reboot it.

Hmmm... I just happened to notice this, Purple. Why don't you start a thread on it... and take a look through the Tech Tips thread as well. We've covered a few things related to crashing during the game.

FWIW, my current settings (for XP Home) are Win2k mode with 640x480 resolution.

Let's see what we can do to get you going. I know it works... it's just a question of getting things addressed.

So far I had no further crashes going through the Serpent Cult Temple or taking the first few steps out of Ishad N'ha towards Shurugeon Castle.

I'm thinking that either it's the tunnel with the oracles or it's water that does it.

I also checked out the Tech thread, but it's not related to spells, chests, talking or Valeia, which appear to be the only things addressed in the "index."

There are other things, such as other programs running, defrag status, and virtual memory settings. Even though they may not seem to apply, they're still worth doing.

And there's always the patch, if you're not running with it yet... [img]smile.gif[/img]

I have patched, trust me, if I'm playing anything pre-Win XP my first action is to patch that bastard up.

However, I've never experienced any background programs causing a lock-up for any other software, it would strike me as odd if W&W was any more touchy. Additionally, I never let anything more run in the background than is absolutely necessary, I like my task bar and my Process Explorer uncluttered.

Don't bad virtual memory settings generally result in a crash rather than a freeze?

Re: Tech Tips (game not working? Read this!)
 

OS: Windows XP professional
Video Card: NVIDIA Geforce 4 MX 4000
DirectX: 6
memory: 685.93 MB (i think)

Wizards and Warriors has been working just fine up until i got to the Naga Queen. Then as soon as i kill her... BAM... the game crashes. The error message that comes up says: "Instruction at 00420d1b referenced memory at 00000730. Unable to read from memory" or something like that. I have looked and looked and i could not find any solutions for this problem. Please help

Re: Tech Tips (game not working? Read this!)
 

This is a long shot.

Download and install act20.exe. At the start menu run AFixApp. On The application for which to apply the fix, browse for Deep6.exe on the W&W folder. After that, in Select an existing layer to apply to your application select Win98 and click run.

Hope that helps.

Re: Tech Tips (game not working? Read this!)
 

Welcome to the boards, Laughing Rogue :happywave: May life in the Gael Serran soon move forward...

Are you really running DirectX 6? I didn't think that XP came with anything less than 8... or perhaps 9. Run dxdiag and see what it says.

Following on that, are you running patched or not? The patch fixed a perpetual glitch for me in Shurugeon Castle... not the same one you've got, but I couldn't leave it.

And have you done all the things in the first page of this thread? Setting virtual memory, disabling non-essential programs, defragging, and such?

You might want to post this as a separate thread so everyone notice.... and write back, soon! :D

BTW, nice new tip, Kakero! I may have to try that one...

Re: Tech Tips (game not working? Read this!)
 

Yup im using DirectX 6. i knocked it down to 6 in order to get some old Might & Magic games to run.

I appeared to solve that naga problem but i still dont know what caused it or why what i did fixed it.

I ran dxdiag and it all turned up fine. I changed it to run on win 95 that didnt help. i also done all the things in the first page of this thread. Setting virtual memory, disabling non-essential programs, defragging, and such. I reinstalled the whole game a few times. I even instaled Wizards & Warriors on another computer and transfered my saved games over and even that didnt fix the game from crashing after i killed the Naga!!

So i decided to reinstall it 1 more time. Delete everything i had done preivously including reinstalling the patch and town mask avi things that are messed up cuz of XP and started a new party of character from scratch.... that eventualy did it. I would still like to know if anyone has any idea why that happened.

So im good for now up until i come across the next game crashingly devastaing bug! Cya, im off to Shurugeon Castle!!

Re: Tech Tips (game not working? Read this!)
 

Greetings.

I recently found W&W again(I really like classic RPGs and palyed it before) and so far it won't run.

I always get the error: 'the instruction at 00423dba referenced memory at 02750000. The memory could not be written.

here is my spec:
Core2 Quad @3.0GHZ
2048MB Corsair RAM(Dual Channel)
GeForce 8800GTS 320MB (graphics driver is the newest ^^)
Wnidows XP Prof with SP2
directX 9.0c


I already tried the following things:
compatibility mode: win95, 98, 2k
run in 640x480
reduced color quality to 16bit
decompressed the townhub and townmsk videos with virtualdub
starting in administrator mode

same error every time.

I hope you have some more ideas of what I can do to get this game running.

Edit: Also did full installation

Re: Tech Tips (game not working? Read this!)
 

Hi Dread,

One of our forum member, skaven had the similar problem as you. As seen on this thread. http://www.ironworksforum.com/forum/...ad.php?t=97912

According to him, he fixed his problem using Virtual PC, now I'm not sure which version he used. But maybe you could fix yours using that as well.

Re: Tech Tips (game not working? Read this!)
 

Greetings again.
Finally came around testing this.

Seems to be true. Works both with virtual pc and on my single-core notebook.
Honestly, I wonder how bad the programmers were. Not only does this game have problems with xp, quite unusual for a game released in 2000, but that it simply refuses to run on a multi-core processor is just a joke, must be the only game in the world with such a behavior.

However, the game crashes roughly every 30 minutes. Any ideas about that?


The bigger issue is: where the hell is the save-button? I only find load game. Does this game only save automatically at certain times? Can't find the manual anymore.

Re: Tech Tips (game not working? Read this!)
 

you can save at any time outside the cities.

Re: Tech Tips (game not working? Read this!)
 

Is there an updated link for virtualdub? running windows xp and i cannot get out of the second city, and i cannot enter some town buildings.

thanks :)


EDIT:

kk, went through soulforge, and went through the instructions on changing around the townmsk and townhub files, and ended up not doing anything but giving me a black screen. are those instructions outdated for xp?

Re: Tech Tips (game not working? Read this!)
 

ok, found out the difference is xp already knows the file is a .avi file. so if you rename the file townhub1.avi it thinks of it as townhub1.avi.avi and doesn't work. so... when you rename it don't call it .avi and it works perfect.

Re: Tech Tips (game not working? Read this!)
 

Welcome to both Dread and Regonaw :happywave: May the beasties of the Gael Serran soon feel the power of your frustrations... ;)

Windows (XP and Vista) both have that habit of not showing you the full file name... irritates me to no end! I usually rename things at the DOS level just to get past that... it's impossible to change an extension otherwise!

I'm glad you got past it, in any case. As for the status of W&W... there are a lot of things that many of us wish they'd done. Unfortunately, the pressures to get games out sometimes mean shortcuts are taken :(

For the save button, Dread, click on the disk icon when you're in the game. The same interface saves and loads... just which one depends on where you are.

Re: Tech Tips (game not working? Read this!)
 

uh guys, you can simply start your explorer, select tools->folder options->view
in this menu you uncheck the option 'hide extensions of known file types' and you'll be shown the file extension everytime. works on XP, should be doable on vista, too, but I'm not sure, since I don't use it.

Strange, I was sure, to only have the option to load a game. Must look into it again, when I have time to play.

Re: Tech Tips (game not working? Read this!)
 

Hi all. Thanks to the tips here I was able to get W&W running on Windows XP. HOWEVER I can't actually PLAY the game because I can't target any creatures! When I mouse over any of them the cursor doesn't change to indicate that I'm targeting anything, and it won't let me click on the creatures to indicate they are the target of an attack or a spell. I've tried this on two different XP machines and both have the same problem. They're both running Nvidia graphics drivers, one a 8600M GT and the other an 8800 GT.

I'm running with the unofficial patch and the graphics patch (the graphics patch was required to get the game to run at all) and in Win98 compatibility mode. I'm using the gameopt.dat posted here (which was necessary to get the game to run). I tried letting the game do a full install and I've tried doing a manual full install. I tried reducing the hardware acceleration down in the display driver options. I tried switching to software rendering, and the game won't run at all in that mode.

Anyone have any ideas?

GW

Re: Tech Tips (game not working? Read this!)
 

Hmmm... that's very strange. The game *is*quite finicky about targeting... it's almost on a pixel-by-pixel basis, which can get quite frustrating when the beastie you want to bash is floating in the water (or flying in the air)...

Just to rule something out, you *have* selected attack or spellcasting mode, right? Can you cast spells on your party members?

Re: Tech Tips (game not working? Read this!)
 

Yeah, it's definitely not targeting. I was able to get the game to run (in software mode) using Virtual PC 2007 and a Win98SE image, but it's too slow (on a 3.0 GHz Core 2 Duo) to be enjoyable. Targeting works just fine under Virtual PC, does not work at all under XP. Very strange.

GW

Re: Tech Tips (game not working? Read this!)
 

Definitely. I know *I'm* running it on XP, but that's not going to help you much ;)

I do know that I'm running under Win2k compatibility instead of W98. You might try that... I'll get a look at my actual settings tonight and post them up here.

Re: Tech Tips (game not working? Read this!)
 

Success! The game runs perfectly and at good speed using QEMU! The graphics were a little jerky until I installed the KQEMU accelerator module for QEMU, and now with that combination everything works great! So anyone who has trouble getting it to run and has a reasonably fast machine, there's one more possible solution available. QEMU runs much faster and smoother than MS Virtual PC 2007 does.

GW

Re: Tech Tips (game not working? Read this!)
 

Cool! Glad to hear you were successful! Now get out there and kill something, wouldja? ;)

Re: Tech Tips (game not working? Read this!)
 

I downloaded QEMU and tried to use it but I couldn't figure out how to get it running. The documentation included was very sparse. Is there any way someone could try to explain it in a simple way?

Images flicker and go black...any suggestions?
 

hello. Im not sure how often this forum is checked, but here goes:

I installed W&W (full), and also got the Patch, set it to run in win95 mode, and fixed the town .avi files. My problem is that when Im moving around and looking at my equip and doing normal adventuring stuff, the graphics flicker on and off. fisrt it will be all the portraits, then the buttones on the left. when I mouse over the images, they re-appear, but then it happens again. It does not happen when Im in town. The game plays fine, but the graphics problem is making play very annoying. Any suggestions from the pros?

heres my stats:
------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 12/20/2006, 19:40:42
Machine name: COMPUTER
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Dell DM051
BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A00
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 502MB RAM
Page File: 408MB used, 818MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode

Thanks for your time.

Re: Tech Tips (game not working? Read this!)
 

Welcome to the board, Pennfarms! :happywave: May life in the Gael Serran prove fruitful and profitable!

Now, for your challenge.... it's been a bit since I've played in the Gael Serran, but it seems there's an option for software graphics mode. Have you tried that yet?

I've noticed some similar strangeness with parts of the screen going black. Gets very annoying, it does...

I'll be back in the home office on Wednesday and I'll see what else jumps up there.

Re: Images flicker and go black...any suggestions?
 

Try tweaking the graphics in the graphic option. Use software or hardware mode and some other stuff in there and see if that'll make a difference.

Re: Tech Tips (game not working? Read this!)
 

Ive tweaked some of the in-game settings, but with minimal success. The problem may be a bit better, but still no where close to fixed. Do any of you guys have a thought as to which settings may be my best bet to tweak? The screen goes black and flickers as well when Im in the in game settings screen, so its a real treat trying to adjust the settings. :)

Thanks for your help so far. This forum is the best ive been on...lots of great info AND a helpful staff of experienced people that don t treat newbies like pieces of shizzz. I love it!