OOTP9 has stopped showing data

[RchW]

Some official acknowledgment that OOTP Developments is even aware of the issue would be helpful. I'm very disappointed in the complete lack of response. (Not referring to Nutlaw)

[Nutlaw]

Guys, I have tried to get ahold of the developers, but this is an incredibly busy time for them right now with the new version being worked upon. I know that this is supremely frustrating for you, but please give them a little bit more time.

[Irishray]

Originally Posted by RchW

Some official acknowledgment that OOTP Developments is even aware of the issue would be helpful. I'm very disappointed in the complete lack of response. (Not referring to Nutlaw)

I am not an OOTP Developer, but I am willing to take a bit of my personal time to help troubleshoot this. I have a rock-solid working linux installation of OOTP9 and would be willing to take your league file to see if I can load it into my installation. Could you provide m a link to get the league file? If it loads then we should be able to eliminate the league file itself. I apologize if this has been done before, but like I said am trying to help.

Is this idea worthwhile or no? Nevermind... I now see that this an issue related to Vista. The same game files work in other OS, correct?

Ray

[Irishray]

OK - I hesitate to mention this, but will anyway. Have you considered doing a clean reinstall of your Vista installation? It is possible that something within the OS is corrupt. You have eliminated that prospect with OOTP since you have reinstalled that from a good install file multiple times.

I know that is a less than optimal solution, but I bet some library file in Vista is corrupted.

I would bet that your league file would work fine with a clean Vista install.

Ray

[RchW]

Originally Posted by Irishray

OK - I hesitate to mention this, but will anyway. Have you considered doing a clean reinstall of your Vista installation? It is possible that something within the OS is corrupt. You have eliminated that prospect with OOTP since you have reinstalled that from a good install file multiple times.

I know that is a less than optimal solution, but I bet some library file in Vista is corrupted.

I would bet that your league file would work fine with a clean Vista install.

Ray

I'll have to wait until after the school year to do that.

Is there any way to re-install Vista but preserve the software links etc. I have some specialized educational software that requires copious paperwork to re-install. I can't take any chances with it and it works just fine right now.

[battists]

I have called this to "the big boys'" attention, just FYI...

[spitfire]

Originally Posted by Irishray

OK - I hesitate to mention this, but will anyway. Have you considered doing a clean reinstall of your Vista installation? It is possible that something within the OS is corrupt. You have eliminated that prospect with OOTP since you have reinstalled that from a good install file multiple times.

I know that is a less than optimal solution, but I bet some library file in Vista is corrupted.

I would bet that your league file would work fine with a clean Vista install.

Ray

Sorry to butt in, but there are apparently several others reporting the same problem running Vista. Doing a reinstall of Vista might get OOTP running for now, but unless there is some idea of what is causing the problem, it could perhaps occur again down the road for these and other folks. Perhaps better to wait for Markus & co. to get on to this issue before doing something drastic like reinstalling the operating system? They've been pretty good in the past about tackling these major problems, so I assume they will do the same on this one. Just unfortunate its come up in the heavy-going of the OOTPX development period. For what it's worth, I'd advise a little more patience if possible.

[Markus Heinsohn]

OK, sorry for the late reply, but we'Re extremely busy at the moment.

Anyway, the only solution/idea I can come up with is to clear the entire OOTP 10 folder inside \My Documents. This does not happen when you uninstall the game. But, please make sure you back up any leagues before doing this. Then reinstall the game.

Apart from that, OOTP does not put some mysterious info somewhere that could get corrupted by a crash and cause further crashes even when reinstalled. So, if the above does not help, then this is a Vista bug/problem I fear.

[Andreas Raht]

Thanks for all the good descriptions of the problem, especially to RichW who basically tried everything what I wanted to suggest now. Copying the leagues to another Vista computer was a great idea.

Could you please make sure that the work computer has the same Vista updates on it as your computer at home? Probably your Vista at home loaded an update which is not compatible with OOTP?

Also try this exe file:
http://www.ootpdevfiles.com/ootp/ootp9_pre_XP.zip

Unzip it and replace the original exe file in the OOTP program folder with this one. Rename the manifest file ootp9.exe.manifest to something else (the file should be in the OOTP9 program folder).

Make a backup of your saved_games folder before you do that.

Good luck! The next suggestion is to send your computer to us so that we can debug the program to find the error - but then again I guess the problem will disappear as soon as we install the compiler and debugger on the computer...

[bmilito]

Just a thought, but I know that Microsoft has been putting out some security patch updates over the past week or so. I am wondering if one of the updates for Vista may be causing a problem. Unforutnately, I am not that familiar with Vista (I refuse to upgrade to it), however, with Windows XP, you can do a System Restore and take the OS/Registry back to a certain date. Seeing that the problem occurred on March 6, I would suggest doing a System Restore, if available, to prior to March 6 (the date of your original post). This would undo any service pack updates done in the last few weeks, while not affecting any programs/data files/etc. It may be worth a shot. Most of the time, if everything is working fine and you are having no problems and then suddenly things stop working, the explanation is usually a piece of software that was installed before the problem occurred or a physical problem (in your case, a power failure). I doubt the power failure is to blame, unless it damaged part of the hard drive where OOTP is stored, however, if part of the HDD was damaged, you would see problems elsewhere, with other programs/files.

Since you have already tried uninstalling OOTP, removing league file, etc, I would do a System Restore to a date prior to March 6. Once that is complete, see if you can go into the game and see if the same problem arises.

Keep us posted.

Brian

[RchW]

Hey guys, Thanks for the responses. I feel like a bit of a jerk for whining so much. I will try to do them tomorrow or Saturday.

BTW Andreas, I did try the pre XP idea but I didn't rename the manifest file. I'll definitely try that again in the next couple of days.

Hope things are going well on OOTP X.

[f.montoya]

Uninstall and try installing on a separate drive. There is a possibility that your default C drive has been damaged(power outage?). Installing on a separate drive usually does the trick.

[GBS]

I probably shouldn't interject here but ....do you guys realize how scary a discussion like this is to folks like me who love to play computer games but are not very computer savy? I am thinking seriously about purchasing a new machine.....that means Vista...yikes!

[jnogan]

Originally Posted by bmilito

Since you have already tried uninstalling OOTP, removing league file, etc, I would do a System Restore to a date prior to March 6. Once that is complete, see if you can go into the game and see if the same problem arises.

Keep us posted.

Brian

My problem began around March 6th. Coincidence? Me thinks not!

I have not been able to do Windows Update since around then too. Had to do manual updates with TurboTax also.

[jnogan]

I have gotten OOTP to work again!

I uninstalled the following:
Office Live Add-In 1.3
Windows Live Sign-In Assistant
Picasa 3
Microsoft.NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Hotfix (KB958484)
Zone Alarm Extreme

When I restarted my computer, all of Windows, TurboTax and OOTP issues were fixed.

I re-installed Zone Alarm ... everything continued to work except for OOTP.

I uninstalled Zone Alarm, OOTP works. I go back to using VIPRE (which I had removed because of the Windows problems).

OOTP still works!

[battists]

Yay!

[RchW]

Originally Posted by jnogan

I have gotten OOTP to work again!

I uninstalled the following:
Office Live Add-In 1.3
Windows Live Sign-In Assistant
Picasa 3
Microsoft.NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Hotfix (KB958484)
Zone Alarm Extreme

When I restarted my computer, all of Windows, TurboTax and OOTP issues were fixed.

I re-installed Zone Alarm ... everything continued to work except for OOTP.

I uninstalled Zone Alarm, OOTP works. I go back to using VIPRE (which I had removed because of the Windows problems).

OOTP still works!

The only common element to me was the NET framework 3.5. Unfortunately it didn't help.

It still confuses me. Everything else works, every other program, game, service, peripheral, internet, utility whatever, they all work. My hard drive is new, defragged and has no errors. I have Appcrash logs with info in them yet the only solution suggested is to re-install Vista.

I will eventually do this but have to wait until the school year is over. Sigh.

[battists]

Originally Posted by RchW

The only common element to me was the NET framework 3.5. Unfortunately it didn't help.

It still confuses me. Everything else works, every other program, game, service, peripheral, internet, utility whatever, they all work. My hard drive is new, defragged and has no errors. I have Appcrash logs with info in them yet the only solution suggested is to re-install Vista.

I will eventually do this but have to wait until the school year is over. Sigh.

Do you have ZoneAlarm, perchance?

[ty24]

This is the exact problem I am having. Several months ago I had no problems running OOTP9 regularly. I stopped playing due to time contraints and just started playing again and am now having this problem. I see this issue is months old and it's very unfortunate that there has not been more of an attempt by the developmental team to get the issue fixed. This thread along w/ the "Vista thread" have pretty much made up my mind for me in regards to purchasing OOTPX. We have received no guidance regarding this issue from the developers and NO assurance that it will be fixed for OOTPX. Not exactly the kind of chance I want to take. The money is not the issue here, so I don't need to hear "if it happens, you'll get a refund". It's the support level and the fact that we spend hours simming in these games only to have those hours lost due to these crashes.

[RchW]

Originally Posted by battists

Do you have ZoneAlarm, perchance?

No.