Crash caused by Mss32.dll

**verena xeventus** · August 21, 2012, 08:44 PM

As title suggests, I am experiencing crashes with Napoleon and Shogun 2 total war games with the error report showing the fault being a Mss32.dll file. Itrishron Has kindly explained this is to do with "miles to fast ", but I am just wondering if there is a fix for it.

The games seems to play fine for about 4-5 days without a crash, then when I get the crash I do a verify integrity of game cache which seems to fix it temporarily.

However if possible I would like to fix this issue completely. Dxdiag has been provided if it is of any use.

Any help and suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

**irishron** · August 21, 2012, 09:08 PM

This is/was a problem with ETW but not necessarily the mss32.dll alone. it could be a carryover from there.

You have four different sound devices listed. They should not conflict but with Miles, it could happen.

Be sure you have the latest SB X-FI drivers from Creative Labs' website, and in Device Manager disable all the others.

**verena xeventus** · August 21, 2012, 09:29 PM

Hi mate, thanks for quick reply as usual.

Ok, in device manager, the following "sound, video and game controllers" options are listed:
1. Creative SB X-FI
2. NVIDIA High Definition Audio
3. Realtek High Definition Audio.

Are you telling me I need to disable the bottom two options? How would I do this? (not familiar with device manager, dont want to bugger anything up)

Thanks in advance.

PS. Sorry forgot to mention, As far as I am aware I have the latest sound drivers, but they were downloaded and installed without any problems directly from windows update. I'll check to see if I have most recent ones in a moment.

**irishron** · August 21, 2012, 09:53 PM

Hardware drivers I don't trust Windows to do it for me as installing outdated drivers and a couple of times the wrong drivers and crashing the computer and me having to reinstall the right ones. I found many years ago I'd better do it myself.

Yes, disable the bottom two and Microsoft's if it is listed. You can always re-enable them.

**last_name_left** · August 21, 2012, 10:44 PM

disable the realtek / onboard sound through the BIOS at boot. It shouldn't show at all in device manager then.

Also, check your startup programs - remove any references to realtek / cmedia audio. [Type MSCONFIG in Win start menu, run it and select "selective startup" - then go to Startup tab - deselect anything suggesting it relates to onboard sound - check google for what the entries in your startup are for if need be.]

should help, at least

**verena xeventus** · August 21, 2012, 10:29 PM

Sorry, got logged out, had to send an email.

Yeah, I know exactly where you are coming from about getting drivers direct from windows update. On my previous computer it gave me AMD graphics drivers that buggered things up. So clean driver reinstall was necessary. Should really have learnt my lesson from that, but I gave it another chance with the sound drivers on this machine. I'll double check for latest driver versions.

I will disable the bottom two sound options in device manager as you advised and will let you know if I have any further problems (probably will, but that's just my luck).

Thanks again for the reply. I'll post here if the changes don't work. + rep.

**verena xeventus** · August 21, 2012, 11:34 PM

Thanks last_name_left. I am going to try what irishron suggested forst in the hopes that I don't need to take any further action. However, should that fail, I will try what you have suggested aswell.

I assume that the sound cards - onboard and otherwise are conflicting with each other from what you have both suggested?

Really hoping I can fix this, then my games are all but golden... except for the fog around the trees on shogun 2. Tried some suggestions but has made little difference.

Thank you both

EDIT: Short update: in MSconfig - startup, there are only 2 entries from realtek, which makes the job a little easier if step one doesn't work.

Thanks again.

**A Barbarian** · August 23, 2012, 03:05 AM

I would also disable the Realtek audio in the computer BIOS and uninstall any Realtek software. The NVIDIA audio is for having sound through a HDMI connection, for example to a TV connected to the computer. Usually that shouldn't be a problem.

**verena xeventus** · August 23, 2012, 07:49 PM

Hi Barbarian

I am still testing the changes I made via device manager, so I don't know if that will suffice yet. Main thing is, I know that it's a sound issue causing the crashes, so thats a start... more than I had on my previous PC where all of the total wars crashed persistantly. However, should the changes not work, which I suspect will be the case, I will continue with your advice by disabling realtek audio in BIOS. The information about the NVIDIA audio is good to know, one less thing to worry about. I willpost back in approx 1 week to report if there are any problems or not. Thank you again for the information... I would send you some more + rep but I need to rep other people before I can rep you again apparently.

Like I said, at least I have something to go by this time, which is no where near as frustrating as my previous experience on previous computer with TW games.

**last_name_left** · August 24, 2012, 02:37 AM

Where's the entry for Nvidia audio in the dxdiag?

I assume that the sound cards - onboard and otherwise are conflicting with each other from what you have both suggested?

Aye, maybe.

Are you getting errors because file is missing, or because it failed?

**verena xeventus** · August 28, 2012, 12:13 AM

Hi sorry for late reply, been busy over the weekend. No, no reports of the file missing, just causes an error after a while. However, since disabling in device manager I've not had a Mss32.dll crash in 9 days with any of the Total War games. *Seems* to have fixed it, but I don't want to speak too soon. I played on Napoleon for a good 10 hours today on full settings, huges battles, zoomed in and out regular and all seems stable. So my thanks to you who have offered suggestions and assistance. I will report back in this thread if I come accross the problem again.

Another problem with the sound side of things, which seems happen no matter what computer I use, is that sometimes the sound affects, i.e when I click attack and end turn down work. Also get a high pitch sound sometimes after sacking a settlement. Did this on my previous computer aswell, so I'm thinking it's game bug not a computer bug. I'll do a bit of research.

Thank you all again for your help, hopefully, problem is solved with Mss32.dll.

**irishron** · August 28, 2012, 06:16 AM

Good luck and you're welcome.

**verena xeventus** · October 14, 2012, 09:15 AM

Still crashes... infact, now it's a whole lot worse and is crashing 2 - 3 times per day. Any suggestions? PLEASE? Im going nuts here, I want to tear my hair out because of this faulty goddamn game.