Help: Thief 3 Crashes before entering Auldale (after Cradl..

[Benny]

Archived from groups: alt.games.thief-dark-project (More info?)

Hi
First, sorry for my English

I'm playing Thief 3 and like it very much so far, but now I have run into a
big problem - a game crash :-(

I have seen the cutscene where Garret goes to the Keeper library and where
Gamall (the hag) has killed some of the Keepers. After that the new
objective says:

"Go to Auldale, figure out where Gamall's lair is located, then break into
it"

I then go through "Old Quarter" to come to the loading zone that leads to
Auldale and say yes to enter Auldale. The loading finish but after a second
or less, Thief quits to the desktop. You just get a small glimpse of where
you start in Auldale, but then *bonk* :-(

My system is:
PIII, 1GHz
512MB RAM
20 GB free space left on the hard drive
GeForce 3 Ti 200
SoundBlaster live 1024
Windows XP Pro with SP1
DirectX 9.0b
nvidia driver version 56.72, but have also tried with an older driver
version 52.16.no luck

(Yes, I know it's not much, but it did run quite good until now)

The released patch has been applied to Thief 3

I have reinstalled Windows XP but Thief still crashes at the same point
I have tried to install Windows 2000 (same PC) but no luck
I have tried to restore another (earlier) saved game and then played through
it till I got to Old Quarter again, but it still won't load Auldale (so it
shouldn't be a fault in a saved game)

It still loads all my previously saved games without any problem.

Has anyone had the same problem or some idea how to fix it

Please let me know if you need more information - at the moment I can't
think of anything else

Thanks in advance for any ideas

Kind regards
Benny

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.thief-dark-project (More info?)

Thanks for the non-existent spoiler.

--
Darin Johnson
Gravity is a harsh mistress -- The Tick

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.thief-dark-project (More info?)

"Benny" <bff.REMOVE.THIS@tiscali.dk> wrote in message
news:40fd7f95$0$231$edfadb0f@dread14.news.tele.dk...
> You just get a small glimpse of where
> you start in Auldale, but then *bonk* :-(


> nvidia driver version 56.72, but have also tried with an older driver
> version 52.16.no luck

I don't have an Nvidia myself, but seem to remember I've seen out of the
corner of my eye something about specific drivers not working well for this
chipset, with ThiefS...

You might find some help here:

http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75031

Good luck

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.thief-dark-project (More info?)

On Tue, 20 Jul 2004 22:24:53 +0200, "Benny" <bff.REMOVE.THIS@tiscali.dk>
wrote:

>Hi
>First, sorry for my English
>
>I'm playing Thief 3 and like it very much so far, but now I have run into a
>big problem - a game crash :-(
>
>I have seen the cutscene where Garret goes to the Keeper library and where
>Gamall (the hag) has killed some of the Keepers. After that the new
>objective says:
>
>"Go to Auldale, figure out where Gamall's lair is located, then break into
>it"
>
>I then go through "Old Quarter" to come to the loading zone that leads to
>Auldale and say yes to enter Auldale. The loading finish but after a second
>or less, Thief quits to the desktop. You just get a small glimpse of where
>you start in Auldale, but then *bonk* :-(
>
>My system is:
>PIII, 1GHz
>512MB RAM
>20 GB free space left on the hard drive
>GeForce 3 Ti 200
>SoundBlaster live 1024
>Windows XP Pro with SP1
>DirectX 9.0b
>nvidia driver version 56.72, but have also tried with an older driver
>version 52.16.no luck
>
>(Yes, I know it's not much, but it did run quite good until now)
>
>The released patch has been applied to Thief 3
>
>I have reinstalled Windows XP but Thief still crashes at the same point
>I have tried to install Windows 2000 (same PC) but no luck
>I have tried to restore another (earlier) saved game and then played through
>it till I got to Old Quarter again, but it still won't load Auldale (so it
>shouldn't be a fault in a saved game)
>
>It still loads all my previously saved games without any problem.
>
>Has anyone had the same problem or some idea how to fix it
>
>Please let me know if you need more information - at the moment I can't
>think of anything else
>
>Thanks in advance for any ideas
>
>Kind regards
>Benny

Low on resources? Try setting the options down to 640x480, etc. Then
see if you can get into Audale after a fresh reboot.

Or maybe your game installation is just corrupted? You mention
reinstalling XP but not if you did a full format or just a repair install.
If you didn't reinstall T3 you could back-up your save game folder
(although I don't think it gets overwritten) and reinstall T3 and see if
that fixes it.

--
Michael Cecil
http://home.comcast.net/~macecil/

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.thief-dark-project (More info?)

Benny wrote:

> Windows XP Pro with SP1

If this is a system-related crash, you should have an entry in the system or
application log that could help pinpoint the error.

Try Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Event Viewerc and then either
Application or System. Look for Errors (red) at the time the rash happened.

(Of course, if you have reinstalled the system, the logs are probably
gone. But if you're able to repeat the crash, don't ignore the information
in the system logs.)

--
Anders Thulin ath*algonet.se http://www.algonet.se/~ath

 

[Benny]

Archived from groups: alt.games.thief-dark-project (More info?)

"McEve" <mceve@azcappy.com> wrote in message
news:2m5it2Fiu7bsU1@uni-berlin.de...
>
> I don't have an Nvidia myself, but seem to remember I've seen out of the
> corner of my eye something about specific drivers not working well for
this
> chipset, with ThiefS...
>
> You might find some help here:
>
> http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75031
>
> Good luck
>
>

Well, in the link they mentioned some XP-patch (327979) that should prevent
games from crashing when a video clip was played - not that it looked like
it was going the play any video clip when entering Auldale, but I installed
the patch anyway - unfortunately it didn't help - it still crashes
The link you send point to this from MS
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;327979

The strange thing is that the game works with all the other saved games from
previous missions.hmm

But thanks for your help

 

[Benny]

Archived from groups: alt.games.thief-dark-project (More info?)

"Michael Cecil" <macecil@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:0pnrf0tejsnulb86mm2dl73lu99udhvdm6@4ax.com...

> Low on resources? Try setting the options down to 640x480, etc. Then
> see if you can get into Audale after a fresh reboot.
>
> Or maybe your game installation is just corrupted? You mention
> reinstalling XP but not if you did a full format or just a repair install.
> If you didn't reinstall T3 you could back-up your save game folder
> (although I don't think it gets overwritten) and reinstall T3 and see if
> that fixes it.


I knew there was something I forgot to tell - I'm already running in 640x480
and have tried to reset the Thief setting to default (key settings, graphics
and so on), but with no luck

Regarding your Q about the install - I have made a ghost image (for some
months ago) and restore that when XP get too confused with all my
experiments ;-)
It works fine evey time...

BUT, the Ghost image does not contain my Thief 3 installation, so I have
made a completely fresh install of Thief 3 - before the Ghost restore, I
copied the entire Thief 3 savegame folder to another partition and have
restored it to the My Documents folder after the Thief 3 reinstall

Since it's the same Windows XP (because of Ghost) it could indicate a
problem (if there was a problem when it was installaed, it would still be
there), but the problem hasn't been there with all the other missions and
besides that, I did try to install Windows 2000 (fresh install) and Thief 3
(fresh install), but it still crashes at the same point

But maybe there is something wrong with the savegames - I will try some
experiments - for now, thanks for your suggestions

 

[Benny]

Archived from groups: alt.games.thief-dark-project (More info?)

"Anders Thulin" <ath_no_spam_please@algonet.se> wrote in message
news:eXnLc.5592$dx3.40771@newsb.telia.net...
> If this is a system-related crash, you should have an entry in the
system or
> application log that could help pinpoint the error.
>
> Try Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Event Viewerc and then
either
> Application or System. Look for Errors (red) at the time the rash
happened.
>
> (Of course, if you have reinstalled the system, the logs are probably
> gone. But if you're able to repeat the crash, don't ignore the information
> in the system logs.)


I have repeated the crash several time (it crashes every time), but there
are no errors at all - all is fine. However I found a Launcher.log file in
the "Thief - Deadly Shadows" folder under "My Documents" and it looks like
this

2 main: Starting with cmdline 'T3MAIN.exe \\.\DISPLAY1
"dummy"
Auldale1?-LoadTravel?-LoadSave?-ObjectFilter=8?DestTeleporter="OldQuarterGat
e" '
7 main: Adjusting default video mode to \\.\DISPLAY1
640x480x32 @ 60 Hz
12 SetDisplayMode(640, 480, 32, 60, 268435457), result = 0
15 InitInstance: Full screen mode
18 MontiorEnumProc: Found monitor spec for '\\.\DISPLAY1' - m
[ 0,0 - 640,480 ] w [ 0,0 - 640,446 ] - Primary
21 InitInstance: Creating window ( 0,0 - 640 wide 480 tall )
37 Waiting for game to send process handle ... (ffffffff)
40 WndProc: Got WM_USER, game's process handle: 00000088
206 Got game's process handle: 88. Wait time: 3 ms.
206 Signaling event for game to terminate
206 Waiting up to 30000 ms. for game process to terminate
1348 Game process exited with code ffffffff
1348 main: Adjusting default video mode back to original
\\.\DISPLAY1 1024x768x32 @ 60 Hz
1348 SetDisplayMode(1024, 768, 32, 60, 268435457), result = 0
2359 Synchronized launch, command args :
'Auldale1?-LoadTravel?-LoadSave?-ObjectFilter=8?DestTeleporter="OldQuarterGa
te" ' ...
2359 Creating process C:\Games\Thief - Deadly
Shadows\System\T3Main.EXE -display \\.\DISPLAY1 640x480
Auldale1?-LoadTravel?-LoadSave?-ObjectFilter=8?DestTeleporter="OldQuarterGat
e"
2429 ... new process handle 198
2439 Waiting for game to go exclusive ... ( 120000 ms delay )
6069 Game has signaled that it has exclusive mode, wait time:
3561 ms.
6073 Wait for game to go exclusive done, exiting.
6078 main: Exiting

(You probably have to expand the viewing screen to get it to look more
readable)

As far as I can see it's the Auldale level (OldQuarterGate) it tries to load
but somehow fails - I'm running in 640x480.

I have tried to delete it and reprocude the error and I think it's the same
stuff it writes every time.but at least I can be glad that there are no
error in the log files in Windows.thanks for the suggestion

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.thief-dark-project (More info?)

Benny wrote:

> I have tried to delete it and reprocude the error and I think it's the same
> stuff it writes every time.but at least I can be glad that there are no
> error in the log files in Windows.thanks for the suggestion

It seems it can't be connected definitely with anything -- earlier
missions still load as they should? If there was a memory problem, you
would almost certainly have a system error log entry.

Guess it's time to ask Eidos or ION Storm for help.

--
Anders Thulin ath*algonet.se http://www.algonet.se/~ath

 

[Benny]

Archived from groups: alt.games.thief-dark-project (More info?)

"Anders Thulin" <ath_no_spam_please@algonet.se> wrote in message
newsOsLc.98994$dP1.336747@newsc.telia.net...
> It seems it can't be connected definitely with anything -- earlier
> missions still load as they should? If there was a memory problem, you
> would almost certainly have a system error log entry.
>
> Guess it's time to ask Eidos or ION Storm for help.
>
> --
> Anders Thulin ath*algonet.se http://www.algonet.se/~ath

Yes, earlier missions load without any problems.
I tried the following:

- Started Thief 3
- Loaded the mission Old Quarter - right where the gate to Auldale is
- Did a [alt]+[tab] to get to the Windows desktop
- Deleted all saved games (have a backup) except for the [User Options]
folder and "options.ini" file in it
- Switched back to Thief and tried to enter the gate to Auldale

After some loading, Auldale appeared with NO CRASH
BUT, BUT, BUT, I have

- No items (arrows, bombs or anything)
- All the objectives are gone and it knows nothing about what I have done in
the other missions
- No "Faction" list (you can't click on the button)

That is not so strange since all that information is saved in my saved
games, but the point is that it loaded Auldale - however the mission looks
like the first visit to Auldale - the only thing that is missing is the two
people standing and talking, but apart from that it looks like the first
visit.

I have tried many combinations with saving and loading but either it crashes
or the items and objectives are all missing

But somehow it looks like it has something to do with the save games.

I tried to load an earlier saved game (where Garret is to follow the ghost)
and instead of following the ghost I went straight to the gate to Auldale,
but is crashed again - maybe something went wrong in that Cradle level but
it took a long time to play.

Yes, I guess you're right about asking EIDOS or ION Storm

Thanks..

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.thief-dark-project (More info?)

Benny wrote:


> - No items (arrows, bombs or anything)
> - All the objectives are gone and it knows nothing about what I have done in
> the other missions
> - No "Faction" list (you can't click on the button)

That sounds very much as if the save file or other configuration file
has been mangled in some way -- you don't happen to have one of these
ultra-silent anti-virus programs that just remove viruses without telling
you? They can do this kind of damage. (Since you reinstalled, only the
save file remains as a suspect.)

Save files should be checksummed -- if they get messed up, at least
it's possible to detect it ...

--
Anders Thulin ath*algonet.se http://www.algonet.se/~ath

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.thief-dark-project (More info?)

On Wed, 21 Jul 2004 14:13:22 GMT, Anders Thulin
<ath_no_spam_please@algonet.se> wrote:

> That sounds very much as if the save file or other configuration file
>has been mangled in some way -- you don't happen to have one of these
>ultra-silent anti-virus programs that just remove viruses without telling
>you? They can do this kind of damage. (Since you reinstalled, only the
>save file remains as a suspect.)
>
> Save files should be checksummed -- if they get messed up, at least
>it's possible to detect it ...

Or maybe some weird permissions problem? Is the game on NTFS or FAT32?

--
Michael Cecil
http://home.comcast.net/~macecil/

 

[Benny]

Archived from groups: alt.games.thief-dark-project (More info?)

"Anders Thulin" <ath_no_spam_please@algonet.se> wrote in message
news:6SuLc.99002$dP1.336332@newsc.telia.net...
> That sounds very much as if the save file or other configuration file
> has been mangled in some way -- you don't happen to have one of these
> ultra-silent anti-virus programs that just remove viruses without telling
> you? They can do this kind of damage. (Since you reinstalled, only the
> save file remains as a suspect.)
>
> Save files should be checksummed -- if they get messed up, at least
> it's possible to detect it ...
>
> --
> Anders Thulin ath*algonet.se http://www.algonet.se/~ath

I have Norton Antivirus 2004, but it usually tells me if it find anything,
but I tried to disable it while playing, but with no luck

But by now I agree that the save files are under suspicion - I just know if
there are some way to fix them or check them.

Maybe I have to play through the Cradle mission again.I did run back and
forth a couple of times to find everything - maybe something happened
although the game shouldn't do that kind of thing

 

[Benny]

Archived from groups: alt.games.thief-dark-project (More info?)

"Michael Cecil" <macecil@comcast.net> wrote in message
newsf1tf0t4a7uhapree7fvg1cchb25huebd5@4ax.com...
>
> Or maybe some weird permissions problem? Is the game on NTFS or FAT32?
>
> --
> Michael Cecil
> http://home.comcast.net/~macecil/


It's on a NTFS partition - and XP Pro is installed on drive C:
I haven't messed around with the permissions and have administrator rights
so don't know - maybe some other program messed it up or something

I can try to move the save folder to a FAT32 partition and back - that
should "reset" the permissions (if they where set by another weird program).

But the other missions still work and I can delete a save game folder from
with Thief (right click on a save game file)

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.thief-dark-project (More info?)

Benny wrote:

> But by now I agree that the save files are under suspicion - I just know if
> there are some way to fix them or check them.

I'm sure Ion Storm have internal tools for that kind of debugging
-- that's why I think the problem is best passed over to them.

--
Anders Thulin ath*algonet.se http://www.algonet.se/~ath

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.thief-dark-project (More info?)

On Wed, 21 Jul 2004 18:06:32 +0200, "Benny" <bff.REMOVE.THIS@tiscali.dk>
wrote:

>It's on a NTFS partition - and XP Pro is installed on drive C:
>I haven't messed around with the permissions and have administrator rights
>so don't know - maybe some other program messed it up or something
>
>I can try to move the save folder to a FAT32 partition and back - that
>should "reset" the permissions (if they where set by another weird program).
>
>But the other missions still work and I can delete a save game folder from
>with Thief (right click on a save game file)

I was thinking that perhaps it was the data files for the Audale section
that might have lost their +read status, rather than the save games being
corrupted.

--
Michael Cecil
http://home.comcast.net/~macecil/

 

[Benny]

Archived from groups: alt.games.thief-dark-project (More info?)

"Benny" <bff.REMOVE.THIS@tiscali.dk> wrote in message
news:40fd7f95$0$231$edfadb0f@dread14.news.tele.dk...
> Hi
> First, sorry for my English
>
> I'm playing Thief 3 and like it very much so far, but now I have run into
a
> big problem - a game crash :-(

Hi

I tried to play through the Cradle mission again (much faster this time
) - and loaded a game from a point before the Cradle, but also where I
could enter Auldale without a crash and played through it till after Garrets
met up with the Keepers. But when I try to enter the gate to Auldale, it
crashes again.

I think I will try to see if EIDOS or ION Storm have any ideas about what is
going on.

For now, I want to thank everyone for their help and ideas. I will return
with a solution if they find one.thanks

Kind regards
Benny

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.thief-dark-project (More info?)

On Thu, 22 Jul 2004 12:32:00 +0200, "Benny"
<bff.REMOVE.THIS@tiscali.dk> wrote:
><SNIP> But when I try to enter the gate to Auldale, it
>crashes again.

I doubt that this is the cause but it is perhaps worth
mentioning. You referred to using Norton Ghost to copy the
partition. The version that I have, incorrectly restores
filenames that had all upper case names to all lower case names
(even though I have 'allow all upper case names' in Windows 98
though don't recall if XP has similar.)

This should not affect anything except it is annoying to the
user if they want upper case. Well, the only case where it
affected me was with some files to upload to my Unix-based web
site. My link checker reported a case mismatch the other day
which is what jogged my memory. But it might be worth checking
the case of your Thief files (just in case! ha ha pun intended).

Incidentally, only Norton Ghost Explorer (the Windows version)
had this problem. Ghost Personal edition so called (the dos
version) restores the names OK because it restores them sector
by sector.

 

[Marco]

Archived from groups: alt.games.thief-dark-project (More info?)

> Incidentally, only Norton Ghost Explorer (the Windows version)
> had this problem. Ghost Personal edition so called (the dos
> version) restores the names OK because it restores them sector
> by sector.

Another long shot maybe worth trying:
Running the game on the same resolution as the desktop or on the 1024x768x32
@ 60 Hz, mentioned somewhere in the log you posted.

Marco

 

[Benny]

Archived from groups: alt.games.thief-dark-project (More info?)

"Fidcal" <trashcan@fidcal.screaming.net> wrote in message
news:0fl2g0defnnho89vr66uhgpv9k2qmh0h4q@4ax.com...
> I doubt that this is the cause but it is perhaps worth
> mentioning. You referred to using Norton Ghost to copy the
> partition. The version that I have, incorrectly restores
> filenames that had all upper case names to all lower case names
> (even though I have 'allow all upper case names' in Windows 98
> though don't recall if XP has similar.)
>
> This should not affect anything except it is annoying to the
> user if they want upper case. Well, the only case where it
> affected me was with some files to upload to my Unix-based web
> site. My link checker reported a case mismatch the other day
> which is what jogged my memory. But it might be worth checking
> the case of your Thief files (just in case! ha ha pun intended).
>
> Incidentally, only Norton Ghost Explorer (the Windows version)
> had this problem. Ghost Personal edition so called (the dos
> version) restores the names OK because it restores them sector
> by sector.


I checked the case and most of them have a mix of upper- and lower case
letters, except a few files. One of those with lowercase (in all folders) is
the "metadata.ion" file. Sometimes there are a few other files e.g. some
files that start with "docks" (city area)

However, I haven't heard that Windows would care about upper- and lower case
letter, but of course you can never be sure the game programmers has created
the internal game structure.

My Ghost image doesn't include the Thief 3 game and the Save game files, so
Thief 3 where installed after the restore of the Windows image and the Thief
save games where copied back to the "My Documents" folder (I did let Thief 3
create the folder by itself, by starting it up once before copying the save
files)

My Ghost is used from the DOS prompt.

But I think I will go through it just to see if there is any difference in
the case, between the (possible) corrupt save files and the files that work
(load)

Thanks for you suggestion

 

[Benny]

Archived from groups: alt.games.thief-dark-project (More info?)

"Marco" <news@No.email.given> wrote in message
news:10g2qo95epnh192@corp.supernews.com...
> Another long shot maybe worth trying:
> Running the game on the same resolution as the desktop or on the
1024x768x32
> @ 60 Hz, mentioned somewhere in the log you posted.
>
> Marco
>

Tried it with different combination of 640x480 and 1024x768 in Thief 3 and
on desktop, but it still crashes.*sigh* :-(

I have read about some problems with that, so it might have worked - thanks
for the suggestion

 

[Benny]

Archived from groups: alt.games.thief-dark-project (More info?)

"Benny" <bff.REMOVE.THIS@tiscali.dk> wrote in message
news:40fd7f95$0$231$edfadb0f@dread14.news.tele.dk...
>
> ****CUT****
>
> Has anyone had the same problem or some idea how to fix it
>
> Please let me know if you need more information - at the moment I can't
> think of anything else
>
> Thanks in advance for any ideas
>
> Kind regards
> Benny
>
>
>

I found some save games from Thief 3 in the EIDOS forum (from "Red Rover")
and tried to download one that starts very near where I was. I deleted all
my own save games and index file and tried to load the save game I
downloaded. I went to the gate that leads to Auldale and guess what - It
loaded the mission without crashing!!!

So it must have been some of my saves that where corrupt
If anyone else needs save games, you can properly find them here:

http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=41705

I have now played through two complete missions (again) and deleted many of
my previous saved games and now it looks like it's working (with my own save
games) - at least it loaded the Auldale area (second visit) and I have been
playing it for about 15 minutes or so.

It looks like it's easy to damage the save games

But thanks again for all the help

 

[Merlindo]

So it must have been some of my saves that where corrupt
If anyone else needs save games, you can properly find them here:

http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=41705

============

I tried downloading these save games from here, but the files don't exist... any chance of making them available again?

 

[Thunder246]

Try this fix!, it worked for me :

http://support.eidosinteractive.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=335

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey