Really specific crash to desktop

[skido85]

I've installed SMAC and Crossfire, a well as the SMACXv2 upgrade and the XP patch on my XP SP2 computer. I've change the ForceVoxelAlgorithm to 1, and SMAC works fine. The problem is in crossfire: when I try to start a new game in Alien Crossfire I don't get past the panel where you choose your rules before it crashes. Quickstart works, scenarios work, saved games work. Has anyone else had this problem, or knows what's going on?

[Verrucosus]

For temporary workarounds, please have a look at this thread:

http://www.apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=173019

I'm afraid the root problem was not solved at the time.

[Petek]

This problem is very interesting. AFAIK, it has never been reported in the past. Now, it's been reported twice on our forum in the past few months. I also found the same problem reported just yesteday on a German Alpha Centauri site. (Don't ask how I found it!) No solution was offered there, yet.

This suggests to me that some recently-issued software is causing the problem. IMHO, the most likely candidate is some recent XP patch. OTOH, the problem must be specific to certain systems. I automatically download all XP patchs/updates/etc. and don't have the problem.

Where to go from here? You could try uninstalling, one-by-one, all XP patches from the last few months. Not a very appealing option.

As you can see, no one seems to know the cause of this error. You also might want to try standard troubleshooting techniques (uninstall, reinstall, etc.). I have some suggestions along these lines, if you're interested.

Petek

[Mart]

Might be corrupted ini file. How about you attach it here, we could try it and maybe see what's happening.

[Petek]

The poster on the German site linked in my previous post appears to have solved his problem. He was experiencing the crash on a laptop. He installed the game on a desktop PC and the game didn't crash after the rules screen. He then copied the desktop installation to the laptop and this fixed the problem.

@skido85: Can you do this?

Petek

[Mart]

yes, Alpha Centauri.ini post it here, before reinstall

[skido85]

It's already on a desktop, I'm afraid, Peter. Maybe the German fellow had a different maker or OS for his laptop than the PC?

What ini are you talking about, Mart? alphacentauri.ini or something in Windows?

Thanks for trying to help, guys. I'm going to try a reinstall and see what happens.

[skido85]

Reinstall worked! I guess it must've been the order I installed the patches. I did it differently this time. Thanks again for the quick help.