AACW will not start

[SteveArrow]

Long time reader of the forums. Printed many of the old forums and AARs, still have many from runyan99, Hobbes, and Gray_Lensman (he had less than 400 posts at that time). Thus, I've been playing a long time.

Recently decided to start playing my favorite game and it won't start. Hmm, figured something must have corrupted during my break-from-the-game so I uninstalled and reinstalled. Still won't work. Here is what is happening: I start the game and it instantly crashes with Vista dialog AACW.exe has stopped working. If I try to restart it immediately after the dialog closes, same result and then I get a "Failed to initialise DirectX Audio. DirectX8 may not be installed." and a Runtime Error 216 at 00403ED6; but this doesn't happen the first time after a reboot or if I wait a while.

Here's what I've done so far:
- Installed and uninstalled numerous times
- Used install different paths (\Program Files, \Games\AGEOD) on the installs
- Checked for MMSWITCH.AX (not found)
- Patched to 1.15
- Updated video drivers, downgraded video drivers
- Updated audio drivers
- Installed Directx 9.0c
- Installed D3DRM.DDL in the AACW.EXE directory
- Installed D3DRM.DDL in the Windows directory
- Turned off the Vista UAT
- Turned off McAfee
- Edited the GENERAL.OPT for LoadSounds and PlayMusic = 0
- Edited the GENERAL.OPT for LogBatch=1 (no logs getting generated)
- Changed screen resolution to 1024x768
- Googled everything I can think of

I'm at the end of solutions that I can find or think of. Anyone else have an idea?

VISTA 64 SP2
4GB Memory
DirectX 11
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 8.17.0012.7061
Creative SB X-Fi 6.00.0001.1375

[Ethan]

Hi SteveArrow!

Welcome to the Ageod Forums, "officially"!

Sorry if I have not understood you, but have you tried to install the game in C:\ directly?

[SteveArrow]

Hi SteveArrow!

Welcome to the Ageod Forums, "officially"!

Sorry if I have not understood you, but have you tried to install the game in C:\ directly?

Thanks for the reply, Ethan. No. I tried C:\Games and C:\Games\AGEOD. I haven't tried just C:\. I don't think that the path is the problem but I'm willing to try anything at this point.

[Ethan]

OK. Try it and check out this, from post number 7 onwards... Perhaps be resolved.

Good luck!

[SteveArrow]

OK. Try it and check out this, from post number 7 onwards... Perhaps be resolved.

Good luck!

Installed to C:\ and uninstalled and tried E:\ since it is a different drive. No luck. However, I did get a log file. I also saw the 'ageod' logo screen this time instead of not seeing anything. Here's the log:
5:29:39 PM (Reporting) Loading general settings
5:29:39 PM (Reporting) USettings.LoadSettings 75 settings loaded, out of 6 settings files.
5:29:39 PM (Reporting) Loading Localized Strings
5:29:41 PM (Reporting) ULocalize.LoadLocalStrings: System local strings loaded from E:\AGEod's American Civil War\ACW\Settings\LocalStrings__AGE.csv
5:29:41 PM (Reporting) Loading Display Options
5:29:41 PM (Reporting) Entering DirectX Initializations
5:29:42 PM (Reporting) TAbiDefs.Create 76 Abilities loaded, out of 76 abilities files.
5:29:42 PM (Reporting) Loading Terrains Definitions
5:29:42 PM (Reporting) TTerrainDefs.Create 35 Terrains definitions loaded, out of 335 terrains files.
5:29:49 PM (Reporting) TListModels.Create 1001 models loaded, out of 1001 models files in 6419 ms
5:29:49 PM (Reporting) TStrucDefs.LoadFromFile 5 StrucDef loaded, out of 5 StrucDef files.
5:29:49 PM (Reporting) TFactionDefs.LoadFromFile 8 FactionDef loaded, out of 8 FactionDef files.
5:29:49 PM (Reporting) Media Librarian Initialization
5:29:49 PM (Reporting) Application.Initialize OK
5:29:50 PM (Reporting) TSplash.Create OK
5:29:50 PM (Reporting) TSplash.Show OK
5:29:50 PM (Reporting) TSplash.Repaint OK

I can now type my 31 digit serial number from memory now.

[Ethan]

Sorry Steve, but I can not think of anything else to do. Maybe Gray or Pocus can help you to solve the problem.

[Durk]

Steve,
My solution in both Vista and Windows 7 when I had install problems was to run as an administrator. While this is not an obvious system option, it stops some of the windows processes and allows for a clean install. I do not see that you have tried this yet, so give it a go.
Need to invoke the admin option with a right click just before opening. If as a download, when the option to run is offered. If from a disc, when you first start.
good luck

[SteveArrow]

Steve,
My solution in both Vista and Windows 7 when I had install problems was to run as an administrator. While this is not an obvious system option, it stops some of the windows processes and allows for a clean install. I do not see that you have tried this yet, so give it a go.
Need to invoke the admin option with a right click just before opening. If as a download, when the option to run is offered. If from a disc, when you first start.
good luck

Thanks for the assist, Dirk. Unfortunately, I have tried that. Both on the install and the patch and when executing. I also changed the compatability to Win XP.

I appreciate the suggestion. If you (or anybody else) have another, please send it on. Not desperate enough to reformat yet, but getting there.

[SteveArrow]

Spent most of the day on this. Scanned the registry and attempted to fix what I could with free cleaners. I added some DLL's to the ACW directory. Did multiple uninstalls again. And much more.

Here is what I have discovered:
- believe it to be related to the Media Library since that is where the log (same as posted above) stops and that is the next step
- setting the general.opt to 0 on sounds and music does not affect the outcome
- I did get further to a ACW load screen but it crashes as soon as it gets there
- after adding the patch for 1.15, it crashes before the AGEOD logo screen so the patch makes it worse
- it is isolated to my computer (obviously) as it installed and ran on my wife's computer

Not sure what to do next. I do not want to lose my settings but I'm leaning towards a clean OS reinstall or a Win7 install. Suggestions?

[Pocus]

Alas I don't see much to counsel here, you seem to have followed almost all tracks to follow, sorry

Perhaps it is a problem with sounds. If your motherboard has an embedded sound processor, then try deactivating your SB sound card and activating the sound chipset instead. AACW will need a sound device to run, but one compliant with DirectX 8 specs, so perhaps here lies the problem, you SB is too recent?

[SteveArrow]

Alas I don't see much to counsel here, you seem to have followed almost all tracks to follow, sorry

Perhaps it is a problem with sounds. If your motherboard has an embedded sound processor, then try deactivating your SB sound card and activating the sound chipset instead. AACW will need a sound device to run, but one compliant with DirectX 8 specs, so perhaps here lies the problem, you SB is too recent?

Thanks for the suggestion, Pocus.

I don't believe it is the SB because I was able to play for a long time. I took a break from AACW for a while and when I tried to start it recently, the errors happened. I guess that's my fault...I shouldn't have taken that break. I may try some different drivers.

I uninstalled my sound card yesterday and same results. I'm determined to get this working so we will see what today's activities produce.

[Ethan]

If the problem persists and if I were you... I would format my PC.

If you get fix it, please let us know.

[Longshanks]

Any chance DIrect X is the issue? I get about a crash a week and the reason given is always related to Direct X. So, try Uninstalling Direct X and reinstall the game, letting it add those files.