EU2 stops responding

[jpd]

Just found this curious problem, while I was working on my cosmetic changes project. I wanted to select a different tag with one of my save games, but found out I couldn't do that just yet, because the tag was a major power, and thus grayed out.

Anyway, that might be considered WAD, although it's a bit annoying, because it entails editing the save game to ungray the major powers. So I pressed back, then exit, and then nothing. EU2 froze solid. Not my PC, not my OS, just EU2.

I've tried this a couple of times since then, and it's 100% reproducable.

- Start EU2
- Select single player
- Select a save game, any save game will do
- Don't start the game, but press back instead
- In the main menu, select exit.

Result: EU2 frozen solid.

Jan Peter

 

[Peter Ebbesen]

I cannot reproduce it on my machine. (Currently running the FEB7 beta)

If you can still reproduce it with the latest patch, it sounds as if it might be hardware specific.

 

[jpd]

I will upgrade to the feb 7 beta, and try again. (Downloaded it already, but had to hunt down a prog to deal with the .rar files. What happened to good old WinZip).

Then again, I don't exclude a weird interaction with my machine. After all, I am still one of the unhappy few that have the 'failure to shutdown directX correctly' problem. The frozen EU2, however, was never among the types of failures belonging to the 'failure to shutdown' problem. And when I simply start a game, and then exit again without actually playing a single day, EU2 doesn't freeze.

Jan Peter

 

[AndrewT]

I can't repro this one either, with Feb 7. I'm afraid this is a "just you" problem

Do I remember correctly you're still on win98?

 

[jpd]

Yup. Still a very content Win98SE user.

Game wise, the platform is solid as a rock, and boots up noticibly faster than win2K (which I also have installed, on a separate 'C' partition).

The only thing that can bring it down is resource leaks from applications (like games), because the win98 kernel doesn't monitor those as vigorously as the win2k kernel. But, if an application doesn't leak, there is no problem.

Having touched the resource leak subject. EU2 does leak sound resources. Granted, it's not much, but it leaks nonetheless. Found that out last sunday, while working on my cosmetic changes project.

I have started and exited EU2 I don't know how many times in that particular session. Mind you, I never let the clock advance a single day, just loaded up a save game, and observing how the new coordinates turn out. Nevertheless, sound performance degraded slowly, to the point where even the desktop's sound became distorted, even with EU2 not loaded up. When in EU2, click response to select armies etc became slower and slower, caused by ever increasing initialisation time for the sound effects that accompany item selection.

Never had that before, not even with the sometimes very intense play sessions of Diablo, NeverWinter Nights, the various General games (panzer/pacific/etc), Rise of Nations, Age of xxx, you name it.

Jan Peter

 

[AndrewT]

Certainly due to the known problems with EU2 terminating DirectX properly, which is much worse under win9x. I can recommend win XP, as it seems as stable as win2000 but boots up much much faster.

 

[jpd]

See my various posts regarding Infinite Loop problems, AGP and VIA chipset.

Due to the above, I cannot now, nor for the forseeable future, install XP on my current hardware. First, I will have to buy a PC without a VIA chipset installed. And, for the short term future, that is not likely to happen.

Jan Peter