ETW Crashes Since DLC Elite Units of the East Update

[niallfreefaller]

My game had been working fine until the new DLC was updated (which I have also bought). I do not use any mods at all and never have done.

Now when I play the game it either freezes, switches to a loading bar screen (which gets to full before freezing) or I get the BSOD (prior to this I get flickering on screen with some textures disappearing briefly before reappearing again).

This occurs after a couple of minutes either on the front screen main menu panel, campaign map or in a campaign battle (land or naval).

I have tried the NVIDIA fixes listed both on this forum and the steam forum (even though my game worked perfectly fine before!) as well as trying the lowest graphical settings possible in game, nothing stops the game from hanging and eventually crashing within a few minutes.

I have reinstalled from disc and by download through Steam and neither has worked, the file cache has been verified in each case with no file fragmentation.

Any fixes or help would be much appreciated, even a pointer in who would be best to contact with regards a fix to this new dlc which has caused my perfectly working game to not funtion at all!

As an alternative, is there any way of removing the new dlc (patch 4 I think?) in order to be able to play the game as I was before until perhaps a fix is found?

I'm new to the forum and not really fluent in in depth technical fixes, part of my dxdiag is below:

Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.091208-2036)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: HP Pavilion 061
System Model: RF781AA-ABU s7640.uk
BIOS: BIOS Date: 03/30/07 17:08:57 Ver: 08.00.12
Processor: Genuine Intel(R) CPU T2050 @ 1.60GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2048MB RAM
Page File: 669MB used, 4293MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.5512 32bit Unicode

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 7500 LE
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce 7500 LE
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01DD&SUBSYS_034B1043&REV_A1
Display Memory: 512.0 MB

Thanks in advance for any help given and received!

[karamazovmm]

what you can do is check the troubleshoot guide about how to perform a clean uninstall, and then install it again, you can choose to not load the DLC with steam, you can click delete local content in the part of the DLC in steam

[niallfreefaller]

I have performed a clean uninstall and reinstalled both through disc and download, this has not fixed the problem. Deleting the local content on Steam will delete all dlc and not just the wonky latest patch, any way to only remove the new dlc?

[niallfreefaller]

If I exit to windows as soon as the flickering begins on the campaign map my monitor continues to flash, repeatedly alternating between a black screen, visible for 2 seconds, and the desktop which is visible for 6 seconds.

Anyone have any ideas what the cause could be?

[karamazovmm]

have you deleted the script and the caches? And have you made any alteration in drivers or something else?

How long the flickering of your monitor continues after you close the program/?

take a look at the www.totalwarforums.com

since they're the closest thing that you get for a official forum support.

and a reminder edit your post, don't double post please

[niallfreefaller]

Mr MM, I used add/remove programmes to remove both empire and steam. I then manually deleted all files and folders relating to both empire and steam before reinstalling, I did not use the cclean (?) programme or touch the registry at all manually. I had not altered any drivers when the problem started, in an attempt to fix the issue I have tried both older and newer drivers NVIDIA drivers before reverting back to the driver I originally had when my game had been working fine before the last DLC update. I also tried the settings recommended on this and the steam forum using the NVIDIA control panel. Needless to say nothing has worked.

I have tried simply deleting the patch4 pack, this didn't work. If you choose to delete local content on steam this deletes all game files, not just the DLC. If you reinstall the game and set steam to either work offline or not update automatically the game is not available to run until it has been fully updated, in short you cannot attempt to use the game until all the updates have been processed, good and bad, wanted or unwanted.

I was playing the game fine until a couple of days ago, really really annoying. Rant over.

The monitor flickering continues indefinitely after closing the programme.

I'll have a look at the totalwarforums.com, thanks for the link.

[karamazovmm]

The issue of the monitor should not continue... the game maybe bugging at some point in the GPU, could you post a error log about it? I don't understand much of it but, Irishron might be helpful to you on that matter.

[niallfreefaller]

Thanks Mr MM. The system doesn't recognise an error i.e. offer to send an error report. Where else would I be able to locate an error log regarding this issue?

[karamazovmm]

this would be the locale C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\empire total war\logs

I'm sorry but I'm more of hardware go to guy

[DUFFMAN]

I read somewhere you should remove the patch4.pack in the data folder. I cant find my source anymore but this is what i read. So just remove that file from the data folder and see if the game works again

[niallfreefaller]

Mr MM, I don't have a logs file in that location. I have resolved my graphical issues after I tried reinstalling the game once I had deleted the scripts folder (I don't use and never have used any mods). This appears to have fixed the graphical errors I was experiencing. However I now get to play my fully functional game for all of five minutes before my PC unexplicably restarts itself after lagging then hanging whilst on the campaign map.

Duffman, I tried taking the patch4.pack out of the data folder before using Iscarans fix for my graphical issues and this did not work. I will try this again now that the graphical issues appear to have been resolved.

After removing the patch4.pack file from the data faolder the game now CTD's at the main menu screen due to insufficient memory, so I'll have to check the boards for a fix to this issue. Really strange that I have never had this issue before.

[dcpuser]

You are not alone. Since that update NONE of my battles are playable as they all crash at random times.