Programs that block RTW multiplayer?

[M4T]

I recently tried to play Rome: Total War online but I got the famous "Can't join game (GS)" error.
I have researched it for quite a while and tried it on different computers. The problem seems to be a program that blocks the connection, because when I tried it on a clean OS. I don't have Hamachi, my router and modem aren't causing any problems. These are the programs that are running



Google Chrome obviously isn't running when I play RTW. Do you guys know if any of these could cause connection problems?

[irishron]

What happens if you disable Avira?

The next one for me would be Chrome.

[M4T]

I closed Chrome and disabled Avira and MalwareBytes Anti-Malware. I'm still getting "Can't join game (GS)"
Do I need to disable Avira or shut it down completely?

[irishron]

I'd shut it down completely. You may have to uninstall it.

Ohters have had trouble with AVG this way and I'm trying extrapolate from it.

You still have Windows Defender for protection.

[M4T]

Didn't work either. I'm afraid there is no solution in my case since it might be something so tiny that I wont ever notice it.
Thanks for the help anyway

[MortenJessen]

Hi there.
I see at least a few problems here, one of them being that you said you tried it on different computers... I would try to hold up the lists of processes from the different computers, then see what processes that are common on all of them. Let us know the answer...
Next, please post a screenshot of your PROGRAM list, as it looks when you are playing RTW.
Third, try this: #3

[PoleCat]

Just my two cents - mostly as out of the box thinking. Is there any possibility of a DxDiag log from you? I want to know more about your system. What OS are you running? Is it a laptop or a desktop? Why do you have tablet support enabled?

If I had to make a wild guess I would say that the program [OSD.exe] is the culprit here. After a little digging it looks to be a HP/Compaq version of Hotkey called OSD Maestro. Essentially what is does is display a screen message any time a hotkey on a custom keyboard is pressed - say like the [Internet] key or some such. R:TW is old enough that it may not like something as fancy as that. The other real possible that hasn't been mentioned is the DAEMON Tools suite. I can't say for R:TW if that is a Securom target or not but it might be something to look into. Good luck!

[M4T]

Here is the system info
My PC is a HP Pavilion a6430 (desktop) with Windows Vista Home Premium on it.
Tablet support is enabled because it is enabled by default, I'm going to turn it off since I don't have a tablet.
Daemon Tools and OSD.exe were disabled but it had no effect. But I DID notice something strange on the Applications list while playing RTW (the only thing on the programs list that was running was RTW.exe, so I didn't printscreen it)

What's that ~e5.0001 Cleanup process supposed to be? I didn't activate something to cleanup my hard drive.

[irishron]

Were you playing SimCity 4? If so, you will have to delete that so you can play SC4, again. My copy does it every so often.

[PoleCat]

Were you playing SimCity 4? If so, you will have to delete that so you can play SC4, again. My copy does it every so often.

irishron has linked it to SimCity 4 for some reason but probably for a good reason. I've found a rambling thread that link both R:TW and EA DRM from 2007 that may be a hit. It looks to be related to the top process you've listed (~e5.001). Here it is for your own investigation.

This thread points it out as coming from MacroVision Europe and it seems likely as EA DRM in Europe. Unfortunately I don't have the full time to track down an uninstall procedure. I at least hope this points you in the right direction. Good luck!

[AngryTitusPullo]

Games usually don't like daemon tools. I can't even play my Med2 (DVD version) when I have that thing installed. Don't remember having any problem with Rome though. Is your game via Steam ? If yes then maybe I can try to replicate it since I also have Steam version of Rome/BI/Alex.