TERRANX.ICD error message

[KeyOrion]

=^o.o^= Greetings:

I'm more than sure that this has come up in conversation before, but it's a little daunting trying to find the information from so many posts over a period of three to four years.

But I have recently purchased a comlpetely new computer system.

Windows XP Home edition running on a P4 3.0 GHz board. Now on my old system I was able to play Alpha Centauri and Alien Crossfire with little to no problems, that was an original pentium 133 with Windows Millenium. But since my new system has been installed, I am now unable to play the game.

I have reinstalled the game several times in different ways...

1. Alpha Centauri
2. SMAC patch v4.0
3. Alien Crossfire
4. SMACX patch v2.0
5. 2000/XP compatibility patch

I get a message roughly stating that "A problem has occured with TERRANX.ICD...do you wish to report error now?"

I have installed it in different ways...

Steps 1,3,4,5
Steps 1,2,3,4
Steps 1,3,4

In all cases the message was always the same, except for once, where I did get the CPU not supported error message. But even with pressing the OK, it just closed the error message window and nothing else occured.

Any suggestions?

[Dis]

hmm.

I remember this game had some sound issues. Since you can't get into the game, you could try to mess around with the ini file.

How about just installing regular SMAC (no patch) and see if it works. And then later try to install the expansion.

Another thing you could try is a dual install of windows. Say by putting windows 98. Although I'm running XP (pro) and haven't had any problems.

[KeyOrion]

I had sent the problem into EA support, here is the reply so far....




Recently you requested personal assistance from EA Technical Support.
Below is a summary of your request and our response.

We will assume your issue has been resolved if we do not hear from you
within 48 hours.


Subject
---------------------------------------------------------------
After installing Sid Mier's Alpha Centaru & the Alien Crossfire add on,
then ...


Discussion Thread
---------------------------------------------------------------
Response (Box Alex C.) - 04/13/2004 01:12 PM
Hello,

Thank you for contacting EA Technical Support. We will be happy to
provide you help with the troubles and concerns you have.

In order to best troubleshoot your issue, I'm going to need some more
system information. Can you send me the information from a program
called dxdiag.exe. To do this:

1. Go to Start -> Run.
2. In the box, type the following: dxdiag
3. Hit "OK"
4. Click the "Save All Information" button on the first screen of the
application.
5. Then on top of the "Save As" box that pops up, click the arrow just
to the right of the "Save In" box, and select Desktop, then click Save.
6. Finally, attach the dxdiag.txt to your email reply.

After we receive this file we can continue troubleshooting the issues
at hand and hopefully come to a solution.

_________________________________________

Hopefully if I do hear anything back, I'll have to come back and share it.

Did try just the Alpha Centauri game itself, without the add on and without any patches. Still the same problem, except a different file name. I'm beginning to think it's a hardware incompatibility problem and not just a Windows problem....but you never know.

[Barinthus]

Re: TERRANX.ICD error message

Originally posted by KeyOrion

In all cases the message was always the same, except for once, where I did get the CPU not supported error message. But even with pressing the OK, it just closed the error message window and nothing else occured.

Hey there, welcome.

We have a similar machine, and every single time I load up the game I get this CPU not supported error message but the game itself's fine. Alto once in a long while I do get a flickering on the screen.

If you do find a solution how to remove this error message, great, do let us know... especially me!

[KeyOrion]

=^o.O^= Rats. This is what I just recently received from those fubars.

"Discussion Thread
---------------------------------------------------------------
Response (Box Alex C.) - 04/14/2004 11:54 AM
I'm sorry, but this game is just not officially supported for Window XP
and so you there may be compatability issues. Here are some things you
can try, but are not guaranteed to work:

Make sure you have updated all of your hardware device drivers.

There are programs running on your system that may be interfering with
the game. These programs are called processes and are not the same as
background applications and tasks. These programs will come back next
time you restart your computer but by ending them, we can determine
wether or not the issue lies with a software conflict.

Hold down the Ctrl, Atl, and Delete keys at the same time. This will
bring up the "Task Manager", follow the steps bellow in order:

1) Click the "Processes" tab.
2) Click on the gray bar that says User Name, this will sort the
processes by user name.
3) DO NOT select anything for SYSTEM, LOCAL SERVICE, or NETWORK
SERVICE.
4) Close every process running under your user name EXCEPT "taskmgr.exe
and explorer.exe".
5) Simply highlight the process and choose "end process". (*note* You
can only end 1 process at a time)
6) Once all processes are closed under your user name EXCEPT
"taskmgr.exe and explorer.exe" then you're done closing background tasks.

Try cleaning out your C:\Windows\Temp directory. Do not delete the
folder itself, rather open the folder, select all of the contents, and
then delete them. Don't worry that you will erase something that you'll
need, the system will tell you if you are about to delete something that
your computer is currently using.

You can also try uninstalling the game, delete the game folders, and
reinstalling the game."

Basically what their saying is...they don't know. I remember when I first got the game, and they said there was some problems running the original game, when you had items up on the desktop. One of the most common problems they had was the desktop screensaver. Originally all you had to do was turn off the screensaver or any background that you had got from the internet, and that usually ran the game afterwards. Though it tended to play for 20 minutes exactly before the game kicked out.

Heavy is the burden of being us.

[Barinthus]

Ah well. I've pretty much gotten used to that CPU not supported error message.

One thing that annoys me alto is that I can't play SMAX without the CD in the drive. Perhaps I should find one of those what it's called... nocrack cd thingie? Anyway off the track here.

[KeyOrion]

I bet anything it has something to do with the processor. To much machine. Faster, stronger, better...maybe we shouldn't have rebuilt?

[Barinthus]

Yet one more reason to come out with SMAC 2

[Frankychan]

Can't you just go into the Alpha Centauri file and change it to

ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=1

If it's 0, you should change it to 1 and vice versa. That's what I did that things worked out ok in the end for me.

[Barinthus]

I did that and it didn't work.

[Frankychan]

Damn, I had the same error a while ago (I'm running Windows XP on my laptop).

It just took me a while for the game to instal correctly, but once I made the changes and d/l'ed the patches everything worked out fine.

[Barinthus]

I tried changing that forced thing and the game simply didn't run. So I changed it back and the game ran but with that error message.

Frankychan, I hope you remember what order did you install your software?

[KeyOrion]

Actually the game still works on my old system I think. What I'm going to do is wait for when my friend gets back into town, he's the one that built my new system, and have him bring a cable to connect my new/old system. Then I'll transfer the game. If it works, then it's not the processor, as so much as the settings.

I'd laugh if it works. If it don't, well i'll be rattling their cages about making a SMAC2 myself.