CD Autoplay crashes

[ramiso]

Hello,

I just bought KOH and rushed home to install. (French version)

I have WinXP SP2 with all the updates. I am an expert user, the system is clean of spywares, trojans, etc, the drive is defragged, there's plenty of room, etc. I have lots of games and all of them work. I am running a 4 month old computer.

When I put CD1 or CD2 in the drive, and it executes autoplay, the program crashes. I tried different things and was finally able to install by using explorer to "open" (as opposed to "execute") the CD and then simply use the "setup.exe" file to install the game.

Hope this helps someone.

BTW: If Sunflowers is listening: PLEASE GIVE US A WAY TO SKIP THE INTRODUCTION AND TO QUIT OUT OF THE GAME IN ONE OR TWO KLICKS.

This is not the demo, I've already bought the game and I don't want to see those things over and over every time. (The screen with the Knight looking back where you have to press "continue" is superfluous)


Thanks!

[ramiso]

Well, bad news for the french version

In my previous post I was installing on a Acer 1501Li portable (AMD64 3000+ ATI 9600 64Mb all drivers up to date, XP PRO up to date, DVD-RW)

This morning I tried on a desktop (also with all drivers up to date, of course) with XP Pro, GForce 4 Ti4600 128. Athlon XP + 1800. Autorun.exe crashes immediately. ;( Note that this time I go from an ATI card for portable to a Nvidia desktop card. The game crashes whether I put it in the DVD drive or the CD drive (some DVD drives can cause problems with the copy-protection software).

Luckily, I have a few computers in which to try it. So, I figured I would try it on my old beast, a PIII 450Mhz running win2000pro which is not powerful enough to run the game, but all I want is to get the autorun screen!

... and it worked.

I wonder if any other french users (or others) will have this problem. In any event, if you explore to the CD1 and use SETUP.EXE to install, the game works fine. Except it always crashes when you put the CD in... ;(

I'd love to get an opinion on this from Sunflowers.

Thanks,
Ramiso

[Mandragoron]

What Typ of Dvd and CD Drive do you have in your Desktop PC ? and wich firmware ?

[ramiso]

Sorry, but I didn't bother putting my CD and DVD rom stuff here because it doesn't seem to have anything to do with that;

First because it happens on the portable and on the desktop which have very different architerctures. Also the fact that it happens on a CD and a DVD drive and on a clean system where I have played hundreds of demos and where I still play some of the nearly 100 games I own. None of which give me trouble.

But, I tried something simple. I opened the CD contents by right-clicking and choosing "explore", and then I changed the compatibility mode of the autorun.exe executable to be "Win98" compatible. And that works.

Why doesn't it just work on win XP SP2? Go figure....

In any event it is only a problem to neofite users who will buy the french version and perhaps return it to the store complaining that it doesn't work. I thought it would interest Sunflowers, but they obviously think they'll sell enough copies to make up for the people who will return it thinking it doesn't work.

Thanks,
Ramiso

[Nadine Knobloch]

In any event it is only a problem to neofite users who will buy the french version and perhaps return it to the store complaining that it doesn't work. I thought it would interest Sunflowers, but they obviously think they'll sell enough copies to make up for the people who will return it thinking it doesn't work.

Thanks,
Ramiso

Hi Ramiso,

thanks for taking the time to address your problem to us - please believe me: we do mind if you have problems!
Unfortunately I'm not the pro regarding such things but I forwarded your problem to the right person. As soon as I got a statement I'll let you know!

Cheers

[ramiso]

Thanks for the reply. I thought of checking the XP logs and the application event log says:

-----------
Application défaillante koh.exe, version 0.0.0.0, module défaillant koh.exe, version 0.0.0.0, adresse de défaillance 0x0061923b.

0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 46 61 69 6c ion Fail
0010: 75 72 65 20 20 6b 6f 68 ure koh
0018: 2e 65 78 65 20 30 2e 30 .exe 0.0
0020: 2e 30 2e 30 20 69 6e 20 .0.0 in
0028: 6b 6f 68 2e 65 78 65 20 koh.exe
0030: 30 2e 30 2e 30 2e 30 20 0.0.0.0
0038: 61 74 20 6f 66 66 73 65 at offse
0040: 74 20 30 30 36 31 39 32 t 006192
0048: 33 62 0d 0a 3b..

_____________


I can add a detail: As I said, if I make the autostart.exe application Win98 compatible using the XP check box in properties, it starts fine. However, if you then click on "Jouer" (play in French....) it crashes just like before.

[Webmaster]

1st
you can terminate the game with alt+f4 like every other windows application ;)

are all your systems xp sp2? i can confirm that KoH runs perfectly under xp sp2. me machine at home runs under xp sp2 and got no problems with the CDs in me dvd or cdr drive (pioneer and plextor).

if the system is clean and nothing else tries to access the drive, it must be something with the drive itself!!! so please report infos about your drives (manufactor, speed, firmware, interface, ...), the best way is to run dxdiag.exe and copy+paste the section about the drives!

.nowrap

[ramiso]

Thanks. Yes, all my systems are XP SP2 (except, as I said, my old PIII 450Mhz that runs w2k), see first post.

I have trouble thinking it is the drive as it happens on three different drives: one CD-RW, one DVD-RW and a DVD-R. Also on two different machines with different architectures, memory, install history, drivers, etc.

Besides, both systems are very active, I use them every day, most of the time all day and I am a big game fan. No other game has ever done that. (I own over 100)

Just to be fair, here are the drive descriptions, but that feels like the wrong way. To me it has to do with the copy protection system, or the way the app is being launched. That would make more sense. Otherwise, why would changing the compatibility setting to win98 fix the autorun.exe? Do you think that setting has something to do with the CD drive drivers? Possible, but I doubt it.

-------- Portable AMD64 +3000 -----

Drive: F:
Model: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K12RA
Driver: c:\windows\system32\drivers\cdrom.sys, 5.01.2600.2180 (French), 8/4/2004 07:59:52, 49536 bytes

------- Desktop Athlon XP +1800 -----
Drive: E:
Model: PIONEER DVD-ROM DVD-105
Driver: c:\windows\system32\drivers\cdrom.sys, 5.01.2600.2180 (French), 8/3/2004 22:59:54, 49536 bytes

Drive: F:
Model: PHILIPS CDRW1610A
Driver: c:\windows\system32\drivers\cdrom.sys, 5.01.2600.2180 (French), 8/3/2004 22:59:54, 49536 bytes

[The Black Knight]

hi there, i also have the error regarding autoplay. I have an english version, and
running the english version of XP without SP2..(i'm not crazy :rolleyes: ).

[Webmaster]

sorry missed the post ;(

actually i use at home xp sp2 and the pioneer 105 also. didn't had problems with the autorun or not recogniised CDs ... and i am running a hell of background appz on me machine.

discinfo (http://discinfo.rpc1.org/) shows me this:

DISCINFO VERSION : 1.5.5.9
VENDOR : PIONEER
MODEL : DVD-ROM DVD-105
REVISION : 1.33
VENDOR SPECIFIC : 2001/02/05PIONEER
LOADING MECHANISM : Tray
NUMBER VOL. LEVELS : 256
BUFFER SIZE : 512KB
INTERFACE : ATAPI
RPC2 SCHEME : NO

dxdiag show this:
Model: PIONEER DVD-ROM DVD-105
Driver: c:\windows\system32\drivers\cdrom.sys, 5.01.2600.2180 (English), 8/3/2004 22:59:54, 49536 bytes

the installer is a standard application ... sure it has something to do with the copyprotection system and how it accesses the drive. why switching to win98 compability solves the prob i don't know, but i will give into the QA.

did you installed any cd or dvd drivers/appz?

just for the record:
under which userpriviledges do you install the and run the game (administrator, superuser or user)?

[The Black Knight]

I installed the game as administrator, but i do have Alcohol 120% running, could this be the problem?. i will try to deinstall it tomorrow and get back to you. Even a knight has to sleep :yawn:

[Webmaster]

does alcohol runs as a service? try to deactivate it before uninstalling
good night, may gods send you dreams about glorious and vicotrious battles

[ramiso]

I install as administrator as well.

Weird problem, at least I'm no longer alone ;-)!

I have virtual CD installed. I tried disabling it, but didn't do it. I won't go as far as uninstalling it.... it's too useful.

thanks