Kingdoms works but the original Med2TW crashes??

[Redron]

An intriguing problem. I am running the game through Steam, on Vista and on a mediocre laptop. I have had it installed and modded before, so I completely wiped the game before my reinstall. Strangely, Kingdoms works perfectly, all of the campaigns, while the original game gets an immediate windows error when I try to start it from the launcher. I will get hold of a error report if you guys want, but I thought there might be some simple solution I have forgotten.

Thanks!

Edit: This is what windows tells me about the error


Product
Medieval 2: Total War

Problem
Stopped working

Date
27/03/2011 23:54

Status
Report Sent

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: launcher.exe_Medieval 2: Total War
Application Version: 1.3.0.0
Application Timestamp: 467f61a1
Fault Module Name: ntdll.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.0.6001.22777
Fault Module Timestamp: 4cb72ffe
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 0003cdca
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.2
Locale ID: 2057
Additional Information 1: bfef
Additional Information 2: e8adce1c2b9e7be834b4063ac3c53863
Additional Information 3: bfef
Additional Information 4: e8adce1c2b9e7be834b4063ac3c53863

[irishron]

The appcrash is out of memory on 32bit systems.

Have you tried verifying the game cache?

[Rant]I despise the launcher but you need it for Steam.[/Rant]

[Redron]

Yup done that multiple times, I've completed most of the solutions on the forums here, reinstalled about 3 times today, verified multiple times. I just don't understand, all the Kingdoms campaigns work perfectly through the launcher which leads me to think that there might be some sort of left over problem from my previous installations, or some other 3rd party program. Really irritating!

[irishron]

When you uninstall, do you delete all Madieval II Total War folders, run a good registry cleaner, and reboot before reinstalling?

Did you ever install another version like original dvds, Gold, Direct2Drive, etc.?

[Redron]

I didn't reboot, I'll give it a shot and get back to you.

[Redron]

Ok, full uninstall, deleted the remaining folders, repaired registry, rebooted and reinstalled. Same problem.

[irishron]

Assuming Vista or 7, have you tried this? http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=397636

Have you tried XP Compatible?

Have you tried Run as Administrator?

[Redron]

Sorted UAC, yep (Vista). I don't think XP Compatible or running as Administrator is the problem since the kingdoms campaigns still work 100%.

Edit 1:

Tried starting again and now it works o_O. Well something I did must have fixed it, cheers!

Edit 2:

Ok, quit out to unlock the factions and the same problem plagues me once more.

Edit 3:

Ok so it seems I can't edit to unlock factions, no worries, I'll sort it out with the English, got it working but can't modify anything!

[irishron]

How are you unlocking factions? This maybe the fly in the ointment.

[Redron]

Ok, now I'm confused. So I got it working, quit out, tried unlocking them through the cfg file. Started, crashed the same way.

Removed the cfg and verified to replace it. Could restart. Unlocked the factions through the descr file. Started, crashed the same way.

Removed and verified again. Can't get it working again...

[irishron]

Being Steam, and I am learning through you that use it, any modifications to the game have to be in a modfolder. It does not work like the good old discs do. Steam's DRM gets in the way.

In mods folder, make a new folder and for just name it test. Copy the full data folder into it.

Now, http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=422334 to make it work, hopefully.

[Redron]

Same problem, on the verge of giving up.

[PoleCat]

Same problem, on the verge of giving up.

Don't give up yet. Did you download the launcher tool that irishron linked to? It looks like it could help.

The other side of this coin - it looks like you can get the game to run from a nominal install. Meaning if you install it from scratch it works. But your problem seems to be that every time you mod the game (to unlock factions) the Steam DRM causes problems which causes crashes.

Try running from the original install and don't mod a thing. Play a quick two campaigns to unlock all factions just to see if you can. Here's a quick tip - play one campaign right up until before the end. Save the game and win. Then load that savegame and win again. That will unlock all factions for you as it technically is two campaign wins and that is the only requirement for unlocking all factions.

I have a feeling that it's the Steam DRM that is screwing with you. irishron looks at that more than I so he will know. You might try looking at the M2 Modders board to see if this is talked about. As there is a tool that seems to be built for this sort of problem I imagine you'll find some answer there. Good luck!

[Redron]

Alright, il try the full clean install again and get back to you guys.

[irishron]

The old days of modding the old game are gone. You want to edit a file, you need a modfolder with Steam.

ETW,NTW, and now TWS2 have to have their own mod.pack files for their mods to work. For me, it's not a user friendly way to go.

[Redron]

Ooook, so did the full reinstall, repaired registry rebooted and everything. Nothing changed. Exactly the same error. Can't understand this...

[irishron]

Can you start a campaign BEFORE unlocking factions?

If so, you cannot modify the original files in the vanilla folder in the Steam version. Modfolders only.

[Redron]

No, I can't even start the game. Back to the windows error I had at the start. Tried fiddling around with the exe files which helped me when it was installed before, backed em up, deleted Launcher and renamed medieval 2 to Launcher. Tried starting, steam came up with the message 'Starting medieval 2' which disappeared, then reappeared a bit later again and again until I used task manager to remove it. So I moved the backed up files back in to reset it back to the start. Now when I started from the Launcher I got the same endless steam starting problem. So now I deleted all the exe files and verified to replace them...

Ok replaced them, now every time I try to start a game, med2 or any of the kingdoms campaigns, it goes straight back to the Launcher.

[irishron]

That sounds like Steam. Can you start a campaign in any or all of them from the launcher?

[Redron]

Can't start anything, just goes back to the launcher. Extremely frustrated now :S