Arma has stopped working

[abs 2]

Hi everyone,

I'd appreciate any help with this. I'm using Atari's version, patched up to 1.08. When it was a default install, it had the texture bug, but it didn't quit on me. Now it just quits.

My system is:

Quote[/b] ]Intel® Core™ 2 Q6600 Quad-Core (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB)

Genuine Windows Vistaâ„¢ Home Premium Edition

2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 2 DIMMs

500GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cacheâ„¢

Integrated Sound Blaster®Audigy™ HD Software Edition

768MB nVidia GeForce 8800 GTX

Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable

I just received the computer from Dell yesterday, and I'd really like to play ArmA....any suggestions at all would be helpful.

Abs

[SeppSchrot 0]

Go XP.

[JBâ„¢ 1]

When I got my new system Vista had just been released and all were raving about it, I had it for about a day before I formated and installed my old XPSP2.

I have no experience of this but from what I have read about ArmA and Vista on this forum its a no go im afraid mate

If you want to keep Vista try the dual boot option and have XP and Vista on one system.

[sickboy 13]

[*] set -maxmem to 512 or possibly 256 for now on Vista. I have to use 512 on xp, and 256 on Vista with a comparable system like yours.

[*] get all windows updates, including these 2 that might not be available on windows update yet: http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1686 and http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1687

[*] Get forceware 163.44: http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1712

[*] Do not set your graphics preference lower than normal... when I had it to low or very low, I got quite fast Graphical Corruption in menu and other stuff.

[abs 2]

There is no way that I am going back to XP. Sorry. Thanks for the suggestions anyway.

Sickboy, I want to especially thank you for taking the time to write that out. I'm at work, but I'll give that a shot when I get home. I just wanted to ask, why would I set my graphics to less than normal? I've put everything as high as it can go except for view distance.

Cheers for all the help.

Abs

[abs 2]

Thanks Sickboy! I was finally able to play a mission!

Haha...unfortunately after 15 - 20 minutes of playing I quit the mission, and the game crashed. I suppose that's for another thread though. At least I don't get the 'Arma is not working' message.

I'm just glad to finally be able to play.

Abs

[.kju 3244]

install XP as dual boot ... "lazy bastard"

[frogg 0]

Thanks Sickboy! I was finally able to play a mission!

Haha...unfortunately after 15 - 20 minutes of playing I quit the mission, and the game crashed. I suppose that's for another thread though. At least I don't get the 'Arma is not working' message.

I'm just glad to finally be able to play.

Abs

I have a very similar system to you (Vista, 8800 etc), and when I set Textures to High or above, my game crashes in 15-20 minutes of playing.

The crash is usually preceded by some very nasty artifacts (which aren't a result of overheating).

If I set textures to "Default" (which I believe is meant for video cards with <512mb, which mine is), it will usually crash in 5-10 minutes.

If I play with textures on Normal, I can play for as long as I want with no crashes. (I've had some 8-10 hour sessions with this setting) This has been reproducible 100% of the time.

I realize your machine "should" be capable of playing on the highest settings (as should mine), but the only way to get it stable under Vista was to lower some settings.

I was also getting in-frequent and random CTD's with shading above "Low".

My current settings are:

Object Detail - High

Terrain Detail: High

Texture Detail - Normal

Shading Detail - Low

Post Process Effects: Very high

Shadow Detail - Off (for the extra 5-10 fps)

AS filtering - High

AA - Very high (16xQ)

Blood - High

My system is;

AMD 4600, 2gb DDR2, 2x250gb SATA II HDD in Striped Raid, 640mb Nvidia 8800GTS, Vista Ultimate etc

Average fps is 40-80 in open terrain, 20-40 in forests and towns.

/edit; I also use -maxmem=512

[Heatseeker 0]

Try setting texture detail to default, Suma said it was recomended setting for cards with more than 512 mb of memory..

I have them at high anyway and notice no diference but im running xp.

[abs 2]

install XP as dual boot ... "lazy bastard"

Haha...I just might...but we'll see. For now, I'm running ArmA alright (save for a small glitch or two). This thread, especially the last post, really got me stable. I've still got everything on really high. You guys may want to try it.

*goes off to look for his WinXP CD*

Abs

[sickboy 13]

NP ABS, here's some more interesting news btw:

[*] New Hotfix out: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940105

[*] More Info by Nvidia: http://www.nvidia.com/object/windows_vista_hotfixes.html

[*] More info, even by Suma: http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....7;st=15

Oh, just checking ur post it seems you already got it

You tried upping ur maxmem or leaving it on Auto again since these hotfixes?

[abs 2]

I tried it just now. I upped it to 1024, and it's working just fine. No glitches anymore either. [Edit: Actually, just experienced a crash after changing maxmem....I think I'll just leave it at 512.]

The only thing that sucks is having to go back to work again.

I think that later tonight, I'll try leaving maxmem off and seeing what happens. I doubt it'll be okay, but I can always hope.

Abs

[crashdome 3]

OK, I just changed out my motherboard to an Asus P5L-MX because of sound issues I had with the other(not ArmA related) and now ArmA will not start.

I get the lovely "ArmA has stopped working" crap. [EDIT]No boxes, no nothing[/EDIT]

Personally, I am getting frustrated. I had zero problems with my previous board. Worked great. In the past two months, I convinced a friend of mine to buy ArmA so we could play online together and it took him three days to get it to work (on Win XP Pro) and now I am going into day 5 of my "upgrade" and the *ONLY* thing not working is ArmA.

I've got all the latest drivers, about 90% of them certified. I haven't changes any video cards, memory, chip, or otherwise... the only thing that has changed is sound and motherboard drivers. Everything else I have runs perfect.

I must admit that everyday I work/play with ArmA the more I hate it.

Here is what I have done (generally) so far:

* Updated all drivers

* Tried all commandline switches known

* Tried Reinstalling ArmA

* Tried deleting the files in the buried directory (cannot remember the name at this point)

* Tried updating OpenAL dll file (no use it was correct version anyways)

* Tried updating to latest DirectX 9.0c release just in case (already had 9.0c)

+more

[sickboy 13]

Crash, how about a list of ur sys specs incl. OS?

Also, the driver updates, did you get them from the manufacturer of the seperate devices or did you get them from the manufacturer of the mainboard, in case of the latter one, try getting them from the device manufacturers instead.

[baddo 0]

Did you try "repair Windows installation" option?

You can get problems if you change motherboard. This is to me no surprise

I once did it and the only way I managed to get XP working again was to run the repair installation from the XP installation CD, otherwise it was the Blue Screen of Death at startup (Linux by the way, started up fine even though it dropped hard disk drives to run at a slower speed mode, but that was easy to fix I recall with hdparm).

I think the "repair installation" basically recognized the hardware again for Windows from scratch and made it to work again.

I remember reading some time ago that the BSOD problem I got could have been avoided by removing some drivers (don't ask me which, I forgot, probably chipset drivers at least) before installing the new motherboard, and then later you would install whatever new drivers are needed.

It's a somewhat different situation in your case, but the "repair installation" is one thing you can try as it should, to my understanding, recognize all of the hardware again for you.

By the way this is even more proof that console gaming is not that bad a thing to consider  Entertainment products should Just Work and the older I get the more I think that the PC platform brings more pain than entertainment.

[crashdome 3]

OK, thanks guys,

First:

This is Vista (32 bit) the OS is fine... I've been doing things like this forever and a day and I am 100% confident my OS installation AND drivers are up to date (as much as possible).

Second here are my specs:

Asus P5L-MX mainboard

- using Integrated ADI 1986A sound chip for Teamspeak only

- using integrated gigabit LAN

- not using, but enabled integrated Video

PCI-Express Geforce 7600GT w/ 256mb RAM (BFG brand)

Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS

2gb Kingston RAM

160gb SATA 3gb drive

Leadtek TV2000 Expert TV Tuner card (gotta watch my soaps! )

Here's some history:

The above setup was almost entirely the same with the old Intel board I used **except** at one point I removed the Audigy 2 because of a conflict with the integrated Sigmatel sound chip. I installed a $10US PCI cheap-o sound card in it's place (I need two sound cards - one for TS *only*  so I can use a headset to listen/talk while having my games play through my 5.1 surround sound speakers).

I used the Sigmatel sound chip for my 5.1 after removing the Audigy 2 which was great for games but bad for my TV Tuner. This change was done *after* installing and playing ArmA. Over the course of time, the Sigmatel sound chip caused me various issues with my TV tuner and other apps so I finally decided to chuck this Intel board when I got the chance to pick up a cheap P5L-MX.

I did my research and knew the P5L-MX was pre-Vista release and made sure all drivers for this board were updated for Vista before buying. I've installed ALL latest drivers from Asus. There are no options to get manufacturer sound drivers or other drivers for that matter (that I know of).

All this sound card business aside... why is it that ArmA doesn't work after a hardware upgrade? I can understand if I really did need better sound drivers for my Audigy 2, but should that cause such a problem that it doesn't even load the little checkbox screen?

This is utter nonsense. My friend had that "openAL32.dll" problem and luckily he is a professional IT person. It took the both of us three days to find the fix. If he had been some 30 year old joe-schmoe who is not computer savvy, even with my help, he would have NEVER got it to run. He would have been fed up by day 2 returned the game if possible. I find this completely inexcusable.

Oh how I miss Avon's site...

[EDIT] Tried installing latest DirectX 9.0c version and added it to list of things I tried on prev post

[sickboy 13]

@Baddo, XP since SP2 aswell Vista have quite a stable setup for HAL. The only thing that matters is if you have a single or multi core system, as most acpi/apic atm is much the same. If you switch mobo, the most one needs to think about is making sure IDE/SATA drivers are back to general ones, and/or the drivers for the new mobo/raid are installed before switching to the new mobo. Not sure out of my head if you must do a SysPREP (check google) before switching the mobo, in some cases, but just wanted to point out that in this case Windows vs Linux match up quite equally

Besides, Crash's Windows seems to run just fine

Im not sure how ArmA likes being on a new mobo without reinstalling Windows though... Might depend on the copy protection.

@Crashdome, what ArmA release are you using? If ur using the securom one, did you get the fix for that thing aswell?

What happens when you switch default sound device btw?

Btw Crash, even though ur ArmA worked before, I must say ur a Bad Boy... running ArmA on an unsupported OS ... :P

[crashdome 3]

lol... "unsupported"

yeah, you hit the nail with just about everything. My install is ok despite the motherboard change.

I haven't tried the securom fix yet (I do have Atari's release) but I did disable onboard sound and disabled the Audigy 2. I did not actually physically remove it, because that would require alot of work. I will try that next but I doubt it's going to help.

I got an idea to install a second Vista install on an 80gb drive I got lying around and try and mimic my main install as much as possible (drivers and all) and see if it runs. If it does, I'll copy and install as much as possible from the first drive and then finally clone the 80gb to my main 160gb drive when I am done and then reactivate. Now if ArmA still doesn't work on the second drive by itself (Vista + Drivers only) then I KNOW it's not my OS install.

That will take awhile so I will probably do it over the next 2-3 days.

[EDIT] Someone sent me a PM about trying to disable EAX... I will see if I can do that (not sure if it's possible in Vista) but I did wanna say thanks because I got an email notification with the message but no message on the forums

[crashdome 3]

It was SuckRom.

Hotfix cleared it.

[baddo 0]

in this case Windows vs Linux match up quite equally

I would not say so.

From a practical point-of-view,

Windows XP gave me Blue Screen of Death and was useless until I re-installed operating system components, which took quite a long time to do.

Linux booted up nicely, and was very useful as I had an operating system which worked.

And I am not one of the people who says Linux is better than Windows. Both have their positives and negatives and I use them both regularly. I am actually considering a console for playing games as I have become somewhat tired of being a system administrator and a computer mechanic to be able to play PC games. Can be useful skills sometimes but should not be needed when the goal is to have fun playing a game.

Anyways, CrashDome got his problem fixed and that is good

[crashdome 3]

Baddo, I agree with you about being a PC mechanic to get things working, but let's remember the context that a PC is *not* a console and the features you get with each are completely different.

Secondly, I do have one linux box at my work here that is far more troublesome than any windows box. I don't know what it is, but imagine for a second you installed 1gb of extra memory into your machine (going from 1gb to 2gb) and found out you need to install a "different" version of Windows for it to recognize it at all - no tweaks, no upates, etc.. but a complete different version. THAT sums up my problem with Linux and I will say they are both equal (equal in # of problems!!! lol) and I'll leave it at that... no need for a war.

I'm glad the hotfix fixed my problem, and I wish I would have been able to see it sooner. My original install worked fine with just 1.08 which I had in another directory stored already. So when I reinstalled, I missed the hotfix had been released because I just used what I had.

Part my fault for not checking updates and part.. well... not going there.