Sun Age black screen

Tested: windows 7 64 bit

When starting Sun Age you may run into the black screen issue. You’ll likely be able to hear the game music but will only see a black or flickering screen. There are a few possible causes for this including playing on Windows 7, using a dual monitor display, or having an unsupported video adapter. To get around this:

Download patch 1.10.0. According to the changelog, this issue appears to have beee fixed as of patch 1.10.0. You can download the patch from the official site.
Disable the intro videos. If you’re still experiencing the black screen issue after patching to the latest version of Sun Age, you can also try disabling the intro videos. To do this in your Sun Age installation directory, rename the videos folder to NoVideo, or simply move it out of the installation directory so that the game can’t find the intro videos when starting up.
Run the game in windowed mode. If the above two steps didn’t fix the black screen issue, run the game in windowed mode. See the following post on running Sun Age in windowed mode.

For more info on the Sun Age black screen issue check the following links:

If you’re still having trouble getting around the Sun Age black screen issue, please post a description of your problem, with as much detail as possible in the comments below. Any system information you provide (operating system, video card etc.) is also very helpful!

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Dead Space.exe has stopped working

Tested: windows 7 32 bit, windows 7 64 bit

If you’re playing on a machine with a lower level/unsupported video card (especially integrated graphics) you might run into the following error:

"Dead Space.exe has stopped working"

This problem first appeared for me in Chapter 1 in the maintenance bay. For some people it appears right away when the game is starting up. Because the causes of this error are so varying, I have listed all possible solutions below. The only two I would recommend everyone do is the following:

Run as administrator and with Windows XP compatibility. Right click on your Dead Space shortcut, select properties. Select the compatibility tab and run the program under Windows XP compatibility and select Run this program as administrator.
Make sure you have a settings.txt file. If your game is always crashing, and/or you installed it from origin it is possible you won’t have a settings.txt file. In this case download this one and place in in the following folder (make sure you create any missing directories):
C:\Users\<YOUR USER>\AppData\Local\Electronic Arts\Dead Space\settings.txt
NOTE: AppData is a hidden folder so you’ll have to enable show hidden folders to see it.

If you’ve tried the above mentioned recommended steps and are still experiencing crashes try combinations of the following suggestions below. Most of you will NOT need to implement all of these solutions:

Disable HID compliant devices and game controllers. Open the Start Menu > Control Panel > System and Security > System > Device Manager. Under Human Interface Devices [HID] disable ONLY the devices named:
+ HID-compliant device
+ HID-compliant game controller.
+ HID-compliant consumer control device

NOTE: It seems HID-compliant devices are responsible for lag and crashes across a wide range of devices. See these threads: link1, link2, link3. You can read more on HID here.
Disable V-Sync. To disable V-Sync in the settings.txt file set the Window.VSync key to false:
Window.VSync = false
NOTE: On some machines Enabling V-Sync is what you need to do instead. Best to try both.
Disable full-screen mode. In some odd cases playing in windowed mode will either remove the crashes or at least make them less frequent, though it can be quite an annoying experience. To set the game to run in windowed mode, open your settings.txt file and set Window.Fullscreen to be false AKA:
Window.Fullscreen = false
Add the resolution fix to your settings.txt file. See the post on the Dead Space changing resolution crash and follow the steps on how to fix it.
Disable antivirus and firewall. Do this at your own risk! Some have noted that Dead Space conflicts with certain antivirus software.
Disable Jumi controller if you have it. As mentioned here the Jumi controller driver can conflict with Dead Space so disable it when playing if you have it.
Delete your latest save file. This suggestion comes from EA. It appears sometimes your savefile can become corrupted and cause startup crashes.
Disable additional monitors. Some users reported that switching to a single screen display setting got around their crashes.

If you’ve followed the above steps and are still having issues with the Dead Space.exe has stopped working issue, please post in the comments below. To increase your chances of a solution being found include as much detail as possible (which version of the game you’re running, what operating system you have, what video card you have and steps to reproduce the issue). Screenshots are also very useful!

sources: link 1, link 2, link 3, link 4, link 5, link 6, link 7

Posted in Dead Space | 21 Comments

Homeworld Cataclysm on Windows 7

Tested: windows 7 32 bit, windows 7 64 bit

When running Homeworld Cataclysm on Windows 7 the main issue is usually not with the OS but with newer video cards. Users with unsupported video cards may experience the following error right after the intro cinematics:

"Cataclysm.exe has stopped working"

To get around this follow the steps below. Advance warning: some users have reported that the game still crashes after following these steps on non-US versions of the game (e.g. UK). If you find that this is the case, please contact me or hunt down an US version of the game and use that instead.

Install the Homeworld Cataclysm 1.01 patch (most important part). Make sure you install the patch specific to the region where you bought the game. Keep in mind after patching you will not be able to load saves made before the patch! See the Homeworld Cataclysm 1.01 patch installation crash post if you have any trouble installing the patch.
Download link 1 <– Assam Kiiith’sid Storehouse (All regions)
Download link 2 <– Shacknews (US version)
Download link 3 <– Softpedia (US version)
(Optional) Install the latest video card drivers. In most cases this won’t be necessary, but it’s always good to have the latest stable release of your video card drivers. See your video card manufacturer’s website (e.g. nvidia) for more info on how to download the drivers.
(Optional) Run as administrator and with Windows NT compatibility. While still in the shortcut properties select the compatibility tab and run the program under Windows NT compatibility and select Run this program as administrator.
Note – Setting the game to run in compatibility mode, works for many, but some users on Windows Vista have reported that this step actually prevents the game from running, so be sure to try both with and without these settings.

Railroad Tycoon 3 on Windows 7

Tested: windows 7 32 bit, windows 7 64 bit, windows vista 32 bit, windows vista 64 bit

Railroad Tycoon 3 is known to have issues with running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista. The most common issue appears to be related to hardware transform and lighting (hardware t&l) – an option that is enabled by default in Railroad Tycoon 3. The beauty of this setting is that you normally have to start the game to disable is. Seeing as it causes game startup crashes this isn’t really possible. Luckily there’s another way:

Install either patch 1.05 or unofficial patch 1.06. If you installed the game on steam, you’ll automatically be patched to version 1.05 so you don’t have to worry about this.
Download the “Vista Fix” (aka modified engine.cfg):
Download link 1 <– Hawk and Badger (account required)
Download link 2 <– Local mirror
Overwrite the engine.cfg with the downloaded version. The original engine.cfg is located in:
Railroad Tycoon 3\Data\Configuration
If you installed the game through steam you can find this file in the following directory:
steam\steamapps\common\Railroad Tycoon 3\Data\Configuration
To install the “Vista Fix” simply replace your version of the engine.cfg with the one you downloaded and restart the game!

If you’ve followed the above steps and are still having issues running Railroad Tycoon 3 on Windows 7, please post in the comments below. To increase your chances of a solution being found include as much detail as possible (which version of the game you’re running, what operating system you have, what video card you have and steps to reproduce the issue). Screenshots are also very useful!

Sources: link 1, link 2, link 3

Posted in Railroad Tycoon 3 | 25 Comments

Tiberian Sun on Windows 7

Tested: windows 7 32 bit, windows 7 64 bit, windows vista 32 bit, windows vista 64 bit

Tiberian Sun is known to have some issues running on newer operating systems especially Windows 7 or Windows Vista. This is understandable as the game was released way back in 1999… I’ve compiled a list of steps below that will cover the majority of potential issues you might encounter running Tiberian Sun on Windows 7. Make sure you see the list of possible errors at the bottom of this post if you’re still experiencing errors after following these steps!

Make sure you have the TFD freeware version installed. The freeware First Decade version of Tiberian Sun comes fully patched and includes both Tiberian Sun and Firestorm. It is also bundled with a few patch files that set you up for online play so there’s no reason you shouldn’t be using it at your main installation of the game. You can get the First Decade version from one of the links here.
Make sure the game is installed in the right directory. The First Decade version of Tiberian Sun expects to be downloaded in C:\Program Files\. Your full game path should be as follows:
C:\Program Files\EA Games\Command & Conquer The First Decade\Command & Conquer(tm) Tiberian Sun(tm)\SUNIf you don’t have the game installed in this directory the included shortcuts and registry patch will not work. You can simply move your extracted EA Games folder to C:\Program Files\ if it isn’t there already.
Set ALL game executables to run as Admin with Windows 98 compatibility mode. Right click on your game.exe and SUN.exe files in your SUN directory, then go to compatibility and select run as administrator and run with Windows 98 compatibility. Make sure you do this for both of these files.
Start the game from the Game.exe. If you’re running the game from a shortcut instead, make sure the shortcut points to this file and is being run as administrator with Windows 98 compatibility.

There are a few other issues you may run into when installing/playing the game. See these posts on the respective issues for solutions to some of the common problems you may encounter:

One or more DLL files were missing or damaged. Please reinstall.This issue is related to improper installation of Tiberian Sun. See the Tiberian Sun DLL files missing or damaged post for details on how to fix your installation.
Failed to initialize. Please reinstall. This issue is related to compatibility issues with newer operating systems. See the Tiberian Sun Failed to initialize post for details on how to resolve these compatibility issues.
Westwood online support library is missing or invalid. This error is caused by issues with your Westwood internet components installation or registeration. See the Westwood online support library is missing or invalid post for details on how to fix your internet components installation.

If you’ve followed the above steps and are still having issues running Tiberian Sun on Windows 7, please post in the comments below. To increase your chances of a solution being found include as much detail as possible (which version of the game you’re running, what operating system you have, what video card you have and steps to reproduce the issue). Screenshots are also very useful!

Posted in Tiberian Sun | 62 Comments