arma.exe doesn't start up completely

[dvayn 0]

I've noticed one person had a similar problem to this, but I did not see any solution, so I'll try to be as informative as possible with my situation.

My problem:

When I run arma.exe, the game never starts - I look in process viewer, and I see it sitting there taking up approximately 5 megs of ram, and 0% cpu.

Other info:

-I recieved the game from Sprocket (most recent ver as of 3/4/2006)

-System Specs:

CPU: E6300 (core 2 duo)

MB: P5B Deluxe (onboard sound)

GPU: NVIDIA 7900 GS

Operating System: Windows XP SP 2

-Demo worked fine before I installed this (I uninstalled it before installing the full game, so haven't had a chance to test it out again)

-During the time of installation I had Daemon Tools and YASU installed and running. Since then, I have uninstalled both, and the problem persists

-I have no anti-virus running

-Out of curiosity I used filemon (sysinternals util) to see what files arma.exe examines during startup and I noticed it looking for u3dapi10.dll in several directories, until finally finding a copy in my c:\Program Files\CVSNT folder. I tried moving the file from that location, and arma.exe started up with an error, so I'm guessing this file is required.

-Using processxp I checked out the threads that were running under arma.exe and I noticed two threads: arma.exe, u3dapi10.dll

I am not familiar with U3 development, and not at all with using processxp to check out thread contents, so perhaps that information is irrelevant. I was just curious why there would be ANYTHING mentioning cds when this install came from SPROCKET - was it waiting for a cd to be inserted, or does CD stand for something else in this case?

Anyway I'm completely lost at this point, and am hoping to not have to reinstall this as this might use up an "install" from Sprocket. Does anyone have any idea what might be going on?

[klima 54]

My god.. I have the same problem

[Chrisuk27 0]

I have the same problem in that the game has never run despite my specs being good enough and taking the bold step of doing a clean reinstall of XP. I have the UK 505 DVD version mind you.

[dvayn 0]

So arma.exe stays at 5megs in ram for both of you?

Anyone willing to try using Process Explorer to see what threads are running under arma.exe? or does anyone understand this stuff enough to tell me that I'm wasting my time with this util?

I have a sneaking suspicion that, since arma.exe just searches through dirs for that u3dapi10.dll file, and finds one in a folder for unrelated software (CVSNT in my case), it may be using the wrong version of the file and so perhaps gets stuck...

[W0lle 1052]

You might get a problem with the copy protection then if running tools like Process explorer, since Securom thinks it is a debugging tool.

I have, however, no idea what could causing the issue of not loading the game completely.

[dvayn 0]

Fixed! Well, it looks like the main cause here was... not using the default path during install!!

My first install i chose to put it in:

C:\Games\Arma

When I tried installing again, with the default path (c:\program files\...), everything worked.

Hopefully this will help some people.

Pretty ridiculous problem though...

[stabiz 0]

Nah, that cant be it, I have the 104 to 105 and I installed it in D:Games\Arma. No probs. (With this particular issue, mind you)

[dvayn 0]

I got the 105 install (didn't need to patch), so perhaps that was it?

Could've been that the first install just didn't go right too.

[dvayn 0]

Sorry to keep bumping this thread, but I think that I have found something of value to the devs:

It turns out it wasn't the path causing the issues. When I reinstalled arma, I had also renamed my u3dapi10.dll in the CVSNT folder to something else (in the hope that the install wouldn't detect it, and rely on it later on - see first post why I think it might). After the install, arma worked.

After the first run of the game, I renamed u3dapi10.dll back to its original name, and when I started arma again, I ran into the same problem as the first post.

If anyone from Bohemia reads this, please consider this! I am 90% sure that this dll file (at least the version that is in CVSNT folder) is responsible for my arma not starting up!

[W0lle 1052]

Now why you should be sorry for posting something constructive and probably useful for others.

Chances are good that one of the Devs read it tomorrow or someone pointing them to it.

[Chrisuk27 0]

Sorry to keep bumping this thread, but I think that I have found something of value to the devs:

It turns out it wasn't the path causing the issues. When I reinstalled arma, I had also renamed my u3dapi10.dll in the CVSNT folder to something else (in the hope that the install wouldn't detect it, and rely on it later on - see first post why I think it might). After the install, arma worked.

After the first run of the game, I renamed u3dapi10.dll back to its original name, and when I started arma again, I ran into the same problem as the first post.

If anyone from Bohemia reads this, please consider this! I am 90% sure that this dll file (at least the version that is in CVSNT folder) is responsible for my arma not starting up!

Am I missing something because i did a search and cant find that dll on my system...or that folder for that matter??

I have same no start issue btw

[dvayn 0]

Sorry to keep bumping this thread, but I think that I have found something of value to the devs:

It turns out it wasn't the path causing the issues. When I reinstalled arma, I had also renamed my u3dapi10.dll in the CVSNT folder to something else (in the hope that the install wouldn't detect it, and rely on it later on - see first post why I think it might). After the install, arma worked.

After the first run of the game, I renamed u3dapi10.dll back to its original name, and when I started arma again, I ran into the same problem as the first post.

If anyone from Bohemia reads this, please consider this! I am 90% sure that this dll file (at least the version that is in CVSNT folder) is responsible for my arma not starting up!

Am I missing something because i did a search and cant find that dll on my system...or that folder for that matter??

I have same no start issue btw

It's possible that this dll is used only by softwrap (if you by from sprocket).

That folder, btw, is CVSNT (Current Version Control program), and has nothing to do with arma...