RS 2.1a runs once only, then never gets past the splash screen

[Ybbon]

Hey.

I hadn't played for a while, last was with 2.0. I started again by installing the patch onto that. Oops, didn't work.

OK, start again, I copied my RTW/BI template (it's an RTW vanilla, with BI and patched appropriately but not used actively). This is the same template as used for the original 2.0 which I had no problems with.

OK, so copied my template to d:\games\RomaSurectum2, installed RS2, and then installed the patch. Ran it for 3 factions and all work. I turned it (RS2) off and did some other stuff (mail, browsing etc). Then tried again.

Now I get the problem, the launcher works OK and I get the RS2 splash screen but then it just stops. I get a minimized icon in my toolbar. I've tried using XP compatibility, running as admin, copied the RTW-BI executable from my previous good install all to no avail. If I restart my PC it works fine. Until I stop the game. if I wait a while, and then try again I get the same problem, splash screen only.

I have the error_log enabled but it's not actually logging an error. My next step would be to try and re-install the whole lot from scratch but I'm a bit perplexed why this fails.

I had no problems at all with RS2 it's only the patch that fails.

Windows 7 64-bit, non steam, 4GB RAM, Athlon II quad core, ATI 5600 graphics, drives use 64Gb solid-state boot drive a 1.5TB data drive so spacewise and specwise this is not a hardware issue.

I didn't see any similar reported issues. Also, on a slight side note, I seem to recall there was a set of instructions for making the exe work better with >2GB RAM or maybe that was RS1? nonetheless I was looking fro those instructions to see if that would help.

[Paedric]

Try to remove the bloom, and see if it works better.

[Ybbon]

I don't have bloom effects enabled. I ran a new campaign as Macedonia last night. This morning I had the same problem, it wouldn't play. There was nothing else running on the PC overnight (well usual background tasks but they run anyway). I restarted, everything is fine.

I reset all the graphics effects to defaults, but I shouldn't need to as I have 1GB graphics memory.

Anyway, stopped without doing anything other than change the settings. Left it for a few hours, tried just now and same problem.

So I can start and play so long as it just after rebooting the pc.

I do have bit defender running every day, it does a basic scan every morning, but it does that after startup too and did it before installing 2.1a as well so it's not a new or changed behaviour and I'm not convinced that would have an impact. Other than that, Outlook 2010, firefox and opera are the only programs I've run today - mail client and 2 browsers which again should have zero impact.

It's very odd. I'll try going from scratch, ie brand new RTW and BI installs first, then RS then the patch later in the week.

-- double posts merged (Brusilov)

OK, I reinstalled RS2, ran just this (no patch) last night as Parthia. Tried again just now and it works fine. So Either the problem is the patch itself which seems unlikely or the download I have. I'm going to get a new copy and try again. We can close this out now I think.

[Brusilov]

OK, closed as requested