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Pocus
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Error upon launching the game (aacw.exe has encountered a problem)

Tue May 15, 2007 6:40 am

If you get a window telling you that aacw.exe has encountered a problem when you launch the game (resulting in a crash), you can have a compatibility problem with the DirectSound library of AACW and a deprecated file, Morgan Stream switcher, located in your Windows directory.

Do a search on mmswitch.ax in the Windows directory. If found, rename it and try to run the game.

If the problem persists, be sure to check the others thread: update your video driver (possibly using an Omega one) in any case.
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Hofstadter's Law: "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's law."

Wilhammer
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Tue May 15, 2007 10:54 am

I fixed the same exact problem with a codec pack; kl mega codec pack.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/K-Lite_Mega_Codec_Pack_d5230.html

chiefwally
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Fri Jan 11, 2008 3:46 pm

I downloaded the demo on my computer and get the same response.

I downloaded the pack the above user recomended, but it did not work, I then downloaded the Omega set and it also did not work, I then downloaded the newest windows media player and it also did not work (before all this I tried to find mmswitch.ax, but did nto find it)

what else can you suggest?

my computer is an Apple MacBook Pro with windowsXP installed on it, with a GeForce 8600M GT 256 MB card in it

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Banks6060
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Sat Jan 12, 2008 11:12 pm

I actually have to go through a really annoying process to get my game to launch. It's become laughable....and not a HUGE deal....but annoying nonetheless so I thought I'd mention it.

When I initiate the .exe file it'll take me to a black screen, where I see the mouse pointer doin' it's little "busy thinking" thing.....I also see a "load progress" bar at the bottom of the screen.

The above load progress bar will move around a third of the way across the length of the screen and then just freeze there. My "thinking" mouse pointer goes back to a regular mouse pointer and nothing happens. I go to "Task Manager" and the game isn't responding.....so I try again....same thing.

Well, what's annoying, is that I can RE-START my computer, go through the "no response" thing one more time....and then on my second attempt after the re-start....the game will run correctly. I have NO idea what's goin' on.

My specs:
Windows Vista Home Premium
AACW v1.08d
running the game in compatability mode with XP SP2 (Game will not work at all unless I do).

Thanks again...like I said. The game works, but it's about a 6 minute process just to start playing every time.

-Coop

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Pocus
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Mon Jan 14, 2008 9:36 am

There is a strong probability that it has to do with a Video driver problem, for Vista it is advised to get a very recent one, has the O/S is ... not the best Windows put out shall I say.
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Hofstadter's Law: "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's law."

chiefwally
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Tue Jan 15, 2008 4:33 pm

What is it that I should do? Any suggestions?

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Pocus
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Tue Jan 15, 2008 6:27 pm

You have to update your video driver, it must not be older than 6 months for Vista, and this is a maximum given the youth of the operating system. The newer, the better.
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Hofstadter's Law: "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's law."

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Fouche
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Hello I have a similar problem...

Sat Jan 19, 2008 6:23 am

Hi Pocus...this problem I thought I had cleared up by uninstalling the game and reinstalling it and just updating the most recent patch. Now since installing the newest I have not this problem the last few times starting the game until now. :tournepas
My OS is Windows XP with the service pack 2. My video driver is Nvidia GeForce 7300 LE. I have 2 gigs or RAM and my cpu is AMD 64 X2 Dual core processor 4600+ 2.41 GHz.
Now I have had the ACW game since it was first released and this problem seems to have developed over time (Napoleon's Campaign is now doing it as well--oh well...to edit my message now to include Birth of America as well. By the way a friend of mine who also has the ACW game has not been able to send me a turn since he has the same problem now....).
I note here that you recommend updating the video card if needed in regards to Vista--do you think I should do the same for XP? The video card is less than a year old. Currently, I have had no other problems in running any other games...EU3...Company of Heroes...etc. I remember you advised me to do something if I had this problem....should I still do that.
Many Thanks...

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Fouche
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an update....

Sat Jan 19, 2008 12:42 pm

As an experiment...I rebooted my PC...and started the Napoleon Campaign game. After it starts to load and getting to the 2/3 loading bar on the bottom of the screen...it seems to freeze. I then click on control-alt-delete...and the task menu pops up. I see the AGEod exe file running and then it says it is non-running (or sometimes it says it is non-running initially). I wait a few seconds more it then says it is running...I then close out the task manager menu and the game loads up normally. Seems to be similar to what Banks6060 mentioned earlier.......
Incidentally, I did a search and did not find the MMSwitch.ax in the Windows directory.

chiefwally
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Sun Jan 20, 2008 4:30 pm

Pocus wrote:You have to update your video driver, it must not be older than 6 months for Vista, and this is a maximum given the youth of the operating system. The newer, the better.


Im not running vista, I'm running XP

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Pocus
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Mon Jan 21, 2008 5:49 pm

There can be different issues at hand for the three of you. The recommendations are:

a) if your video driver is 6 months old or older, update it. For Vista, this is particularly important.

b) if the game launch erratically whereas it worked in a previous version, try to disable music and sounds and see if it stabilize the game. You can also double check what happen if you goes Offline entirely, disable your anti virus and security software (anti spy ware) and then launch the game. Don't forget to reboot to restore your security apps before going online.

Aside that, it is also a matter of bad luck. The couple video card + DirectX has always been known to refuse some configurations, without logic, since it exists. For our games, it is very rare fortunaly, perhaps 0.2% of the players. If you are in the few who have unsolvable problems, this won't make you more happy though, I understand, but we will refund you as the last measure taken.

But let's not give up... Many problems are solved after some iterations with players, testing and checking various things.
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Hofstadter's Law: "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's law."

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Fouche
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thank you...

Tue Jan 22, 2008 6:28 pm

Hello Pocus,

Will see what I can do at my end. It is strange though that these problems have happened recently...not when I first bought the games (I purchased each game when they were initially released).

No, I have no interest in refunding any of the games. I :coeurs: the games too much. I have right now been playing via email a friend of mine since the summer the full campaign scenario of ACW (who I reported has had similar problems as mine).

One thing...as I have indicated earlier...when I have uninstalled the game (ACW for one) and just went to the most recent patch the game would not have this problem...it seems after another patch was installed over the previous one and after a few times of starting the game the problem would return. Bizarre is my thought... :tournepas
I will monitor all of this and see if that is part of the problem and a solution for me. To see if the number of times of running the game...whether it was newly patched or not creates this issue.
I have to say it helps that I have been a beta tester for some games from other companies in the past. I have an interest in finding why things work or don't work.... :niark:

Thanks again for your timely help and comments for a solution...
Will see what happens...

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Gray_Lensman
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Tue Jan 22, 2008 7:03 pm

deleted

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Pocus
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Tue Jan 22, 2008 7:14 pm

I keep my fingers crossed too. The things is that we only changed something of importance, speaking of DirectX, is how sounds are rendered. Aside that, not a single line of DirectX stuff has changed since 1.00!
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Hofstadter's Law: "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's law."

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Southerner
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Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:54 pm

I had this problem happen to me just once a couple of days ago. What I had done was shut down my virus detection software and immediately tried to boot up ACW, before the virus software had finished cycling off...takes about 5 or 6 seconds to completly shut down.

I'm not saying that is the problem for everyone but in my case it apparently was. Hasn't reoccured (knock wood :siffle: ) since I began to patiently wait for the virus software to shut down before loading ACW. :sourcil:

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aaminoff
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same error, old video card

Sun Dec 28, 2008 5:18 am

Hello. I loaded up patch 1.12 and now I get this error. ("aacw.exe has encountered a problem", and you can choose to send details about the error to Microsoft...) I am running Win XP. I updated my video driver to the latest version, but I have an old video card - GeForce 4 Ti 4400. Anyway, problem remains. I don't have any mmswitch.ax. I wonder if I should try uninstalling and reinstalling the game onto a green field system, then apply the patch. Sadly I have long since deleted the original download of version 1.0. I have my serial number though - should I email in my serial number and ask to get a new copy of the basic distribution? Or is there some other avenue to try?

Thanks in advance for any help,
- Alex

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Pocus
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Tue Dec 30, 2008 9:01 am

Please mail me at pmalacher@age-studio.com. You bought the game at AGEOD I gather?
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Hofstadter's Law: "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's law."

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aaminoff
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reinstall worked!

Wed Dec 31, 2008 5:57 am

Thank you, I contacted AGEOD technical support through the contact form on the web site, and they very kindly sent me a new install of 1.10. I then patched that to 1.12 and it works!

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Pocus
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Fri Jan 02, 2009 10:02 am

Great to hear. The guys at support are awesome. (haha :) ).
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Hofstadter's Law: "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's law."

SkyWestNM
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Unraveling the Mysteries

Wed Feb 18, 2009 5:09 pm

Well, let me see if I can point the way for future users to try what's worked for me. ;)

I have always had intermittent crashes with AACW in Vista, particularly when I had programs like AOL running in the background. Sometimes (gasp) my computer would actually shut down all by itself. By shut down I mean the power would stop and the computer turn off. Never had that happen before. Now understand that I have a fairly new dual core computer and I was not used to this. Ever.

After having lost hours of time spent and having had to back up and do turns over, I resolved to save games often so I had saves to go back to. I now know there are other ways to go back a turn. But I just used save often to prevent rerunning my turns.

Then I upgraded to 1.13b. The problems increased. It culminated with me crashing, losing my saved game completely (it wasn't recorded in my save game file after saying it was) and being unable to even get past program start up. Panic!

The error messages other users have cited occurred for me, too, without any apparent changes to my system on my part. I came out here to get ideas on how to approach the problem. I know enough about computers to be dangerous.

I started with the theory that I had a virus since I had been running naked a bit. NO, multiple scans from different vendors said I was clean.

I next started with Pocus' idea that it was a sound or video driver. After much investigation and downloading I ruled that out.

Next I tried multiple uninstalls and reinstalls, rebuilding my game, patch by patch. 1.05 always worked but 1.10, 1.12 and 1.13 would rarely (but sometimes) get me into the program. When it did allow me in, trying to load a save game would always crash it.

Next I tried manipulating the saved game files. I destroyed the save games files (after copying them elsewhere).Mine are out there in the "app data-virtual store" path already cited. Once again....no dice.

Next I tried turning off spyware programs (both Windows Defender and the other third party ones). I had forgotten I had multiples of these one over another. I turned them all off and for safe measure turned off AOL. my Virus protection and Vista firewall as well. A clue previously for me that I missed :bonk: was that with AOL in the background I had had more problems running AACW than when I ran AACW with AOL down. My AOL has programs for firewalls, and spybots, you see.

At first it seemed to be unfruitful as AACW crashed anyway on entry. But knowing that computer insanity works (ie that trying the SAME thing at different times CAN produce different results) I tried again and again. The second time the program went deeper before crashing. The third time I was in. I experimented with loading prior games, starting new games, saving games and going in and out of the program and voila, all of them worked again. I then moved my saved games back to the original save computer location and they worked fine.

To test my theory (as someone earlier had alluded to here as a potential culprit) I turned my spybot programs back on while I was in AACW. Voila. The program (1.13b, which I was in) gave me some ActiveX jargon and crashed while I was in it. It did this for both Spyware Terminator and Windows Defender with the same results. So at last I found my problem. I think. If it changes I will keep all informed out here.

I am so grateful to be back playing :coeurs: I wish no one to go through the laborious efforts I have for 48 hours to get back to playing. For your dining and dancing pleasure may I suggest tinkering with your spybot protection.

Here's to your happy hours of continued addicted pleasure with AACW like me.

SkyWestNM
Albuquerque, NM
(Just north of SouthWest territory which has somehow again fallen into Confederate hands when I thought Sibley was incompetent)

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Pocus
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Mon Feb 23, 2009 11:42 am

Great story, and you showed some ironwill here!!
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Hofstadter's Law: "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's law."

SkyWestNM
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Thanks!

Tue Feb 24, 2009 4:01 am

Merci Monsieur Pocus. The game is just that good. Worth every hour and I've now logged close to 300. I love the way the gameplay uses elements in units to build all the way to army alongside a leader and unit distinction based on gameplay. Well done! :D

strategy-game-fan
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tried everything found here but still not starting

Wed Apr 22, 2009 5:16 pm

I have Birth of America and it runs great, however I recently purchased the ACW and I cannot get it to start. First, some background: WinXP, 2cpu 3.4GHz, 1 GB RAM, Nvidia GeForceFx 5200 128MB, DirectX 9.0c.

With multiple tries, the install program from the CD hangs at the end of the install. Never got it to complete successfully.

Downloaded and applied the patch. It installed successfully and asked for my serial #.

Attempted to launch AACW. First screen comes up and then it freezes - no cpu and no change in memory or threads. Log file only shows that its attempting to do something with settings.

Tried all tips on this forum to no avail. I tried turning off Norton Antivirus, updating my video driver, turning off Spybot, turning off hardware acceleration on my sound settings.

Any other suggestions?

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Rafiki
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Wed Apr 22, 2009 8:06 pm

What does the Main!.log-file tell you? (Found inside the Logs-directory of your installation)
[CENTER]Latest patches: AACW :: NCP :: WIA :: ROP :: RUS :: PON :: AJE
Visit AGEWiki - your increasingly comprehensive source for information about AGE games
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
[/CENTER]

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Pocus
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Fri Apr 24, 2009 5:07 pm

I see your message at support. What you can do is to open ACW\settings\general.opt and change LogBatch to LogBatch =1 then restart. Hopefully more details will be shown in the log.
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Hofstadter's Law: "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's law."

brannonboys
Conscript
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Tue Sep 22, 2009 8:17 pm

i am recieving the same error time and time again when i try to load a saved game. referes me to C:/program files/AGEod's American Civil War\ACW\logs\!Main log.txt


Exception caught, ExportStep: Files picking Impossible d'ouvrir le fichier "C:\Program Files\AGEod's American Civil War\ACW\Saves\great april62\great april62~CSA.ord". The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process


I have the proper patch downloaded 1.14 (I think), what else can I do???
"Ah! Here is Longstreet; here's my old war-horse!" General Robert E. Lee

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MikeV
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1.15 startup crash

Sat Dec 12, 2009 7:32 pm

1st two attempts to start 1.15 end up with a hard error at the same point: 1:25:56 PM [Critical ] TListModels.Get Data container for models definitions has some discrepancies, for UID 559

It never got a chance to load a save game, since it crashed before getting to the main menu.
Attachments

[The extension txt has been deactivated and can no longer be displayed.]

[The extension txt has been deactivated and can no longer be displayed.]


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MikeV
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Re: 1.15 startup crash

Sat Dec 12, 2009 7:39 pm

Ignore the modpath aspect, it's a red herring. Startup also crashes without it.

What's at UID 559?

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George McClellan
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Tue Feb 01, 2011 11:48 pm

This also happened to me on my laptop (XP). I just went into the routine of restrting the game 3 times to get the load bar past "Loading engine 2/3"

markorvan
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Tue Mar 29, 2016 8:50 am

Wow what an answer thanks

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