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Captain Red

GAHHHHH!! Sexual favours for anyone who can find a way to stop Zdoom from cashing!

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I do a quite a bit of computer servicing for work, let me see if I can help you...

0) Backup your ZDoom config files then delete the originals to start with the default settings.
1) Set your video card settings in Display to the defaults.
2) Are you overclocking anything in your PC? If so, stop.
3) Check the temperature of your CPU and video card (if possible) to detect a possible overheating problem, also check that all your fans are working correctly (including power supply)
4) Make sure you have adequate disk space for your virtual memory swap file, and that the swap file is being managed automatically by Windows.
5) Disable all background applications (MSCONFIG at Run dialogue)
6) You could try Windows Update to download a possible OS bugfix
7) Download the latest (or earlier) drivers for your video card.
8) Download a memory testing programme and run it through your RAM to detect a possible stuffed chip.
9) Run a thourough scandisk on your drives to check for bad clusters (the Windows swap-file could be resizing over the top of one of these during gameplay)

If you've done all of that, you might want to look at these options:
1) Reinstall your OS from scratch on a fresh partition (or do a dual-boot with this new one to test it out).
2) Upgrade to a later OS if possible (I would recommend at least 98SE, it exceeds 98 in many cases including reliability in my experience).

Will post some more ideas if I think of them, but that should keep you occupied for the time being :)

[EDIT]
Also, try this:
- Remove all unnecessary peripherals and devices from your machine including: scanners, printers, joysticks, adsl modems etc. As well as internal card devices such as ethernet, modems, sound cards etc.

Basically just rip everything out of your PC so you're left with the bare minimum. If it works, just keep replacing things one by one until you find the culprit.

[EDIT 2]
Run the System File Checker (SFC) to verify the integrity of your system files. One of your installed programs or drivers could have overwritten a Windows system file, thus causing the problem. The following link explains how to run it:
http://www.windows-help.net/windows98/start-142.shtml

You might also want to consider reinstalling Windows 98 *on top of* your existing installation. All your personal settings and programs will remain, but the system files will be set back to the originals - this usually fixes most problems I've found. A little tricky to force Windows to install over itself though (have to rename certain files, edit stuff etc), let me know if you need a hand.

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0) Backup your ZDoom config files then delete the originals to start with the default settings.

Check

1) Set your video card settings in Display to the defaults.

Check

2) Are you overclocking anything in your PC? If so, stop.

I don't think I am... unless it's overclocked it's self?

3) Check the temperature of your CPU and video card (if possible) to detect a possible overheating problem, also check that all your fans are working correctly (including power supply)

alrighty... how do you do that?

4) Make sure you have adequate disk space for your virtual memory swap file, and that the swap file is being managed automatically by Windows.

Check

5) Disable all background applications (MSCONFIG at Run dialogue)

Check

6) You could try Windows Update to download a possible OS bugfix

Check

7) Download the latest (or earlier) drivers for your video card.

Check

8) Download a memory testing programme and run it through your RAM to detect a possible stuffed chip.

you could be on to something there... can you serggest one?

9) Run a thourough scandisk on your drives to check for bad clusters (the Windows swap-file could be resizing over the top of one of these during gameplay)

Check

If you've done all of that, you might want to look at these options:

1) Reinstall your OS from scratch on a fresh partition (or do a dual-boot with this new one to test it out).

did that, didn't help.

2) Upgrade to a later OS if possible (I would recommend at least 98SE, it exceeds 98 in many cases including reliability in my experience).

I did have SE for a while, the crashes weren't as frequent, but they still happened.

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Captain Red said:

3) Check the temperature of your CPU and video card (if possible) to detect a possible overheating problem, also check that all your fans are working correctly (including power supply)

alrighty... how do you do that?

For the CPU temperature, you can usually get this via your BIOS. Just hop in by pressing DEL or F1 (or whatever) and have a look at your Power Management section (or equivelant). Check your manual for the proper operating temperature for your CPU, or have a look on the internet for your CPU's model. You should also be able to see your CPU fan's RPMs there, should be around the 5000RPM mark for normal usage I think. Check this in any documentation you have if you can (also, ensure the fan isn't making any abnormal noises - this would indicate a dry bearing or simply a stuffed fan. Significant variations in the RPM rating would also indicate a problem).

[EDIT]
If you have a reasonably recent video card (i.e. GeForce2 minimum) you should be able to find the core temperature from the software that came with your card. Otherwise, you can download one of hundreds of tools from the internet which will hook into the temperature sensor on your card and tell you the result. These programs should also be able to tell you your fan's RPM speed.

Captain Red said:

8) Download a memory testing programme and run it through your RAM to detect a possible stuffed chip.

you could be on to something there... can you serggest one?

Not off the top of my head. Visit http://www.download.com and have a look at their System Utilities. Sort the results by the number of downloads and grab the most popular one. Be prepared for a long wait though, the tests usually take hours.

[EDIT]
Also, check for dust and stuff in all your fans (CPU, video, power supply). This could be causing overheating.

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To confirm if your fans are working correctly, look for these symptoms:
- Visible dust and other crap on the fins and the heatsink below the fan.
- Abnormal noise coming from the fan (i.e. buzzing, frequent variations in pitch, high-frequency screeching etc.)
- Occasional decreases or fluctuations in fan rotation speed.

I recommend removing the fan from the heatsink which it will be screwed onto (in the cases of the CPU and video card), and removing any dust which has accumulated in the heatsink fins as well as the fan itself.

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Captain Red said:

I also get a lot of Invalid page faults' and 'KERNEL32.DLL' errors, and I think there connected...

Quite possibly. It could be an overheating problem seeing as you've tried a reinstall and 98SE as well.

Just to be safe, run a diagnostic program (I recommend Norton Utilities' WinDoctor) through Windows to pick up any registry mess-ups.

Also, try setting your BIOS to it's default settings and reboot.

[EDIT]
If you've done all that and things still aren't working, it may be a hardware fault. If you can, try replacing various bits of your PC until you find out which one is causing the problem. Try the video card first, then RAM, then CPU (hehe).

Also, if you have more than one stick of RAM (i.e. 2x 128's for 256) - try taking one stick out and testing ZDoom. Then swap the sticks over and try the other one. A process of elimination.

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Also, since you say you're getting a lot of other errors, try scanning for spyware. A Win98 box is very unstable if it's got a lot of this crap running on it.

Otherwise, I believe it is a hardware problem and previous posters have outlined the proper methods to deal with it.

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There's also the chance that one or more sticks of your RAM is corrupt. This problem caused my computer to crash all the time, but after replacing the RAM, it works much better.

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Although all of the contrived situations everyone is coming up with are technically possible, I think that we're going off in the wrong direction here.

Here's what I can tell from looking at that information:

* EIP is in zdoom's address space so it's not crashing in DirectX or in a system module

* Given that it's a read access on 0xffffffff (aka -1), it's probably one of the following:
1. an uninitialized variable
2. an unchecked error case or default falling through
3. a buffer overflow
4. a pointer math/assignment error

* You can find the value 0xffffffff near the bottom of the stack, indicating that it was most likely passed to a function as a parameter (it could also be a local variable value).

Randy could probably figure it out quickly given a map file and that dump, so discussing it here is a bit pointless.

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First, I recommend to use a newer version than 2.0.57. The current one is 2.0.63a. If it still happens with that version you should post the crash log at zdoom.org where you are much more likely to get help.

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Hardware damage sometimes may force you to downclock to achieve stability, if it turns out to be hardware damage.

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My other computer has the same problem, can't fix it.

I had to download ZdoomGL and I think the software mode fixes the crashes, but I forget. I know for sure that GL mode fixes the crashes.

Anyhoo good luck captain!

EDIT: Yeah ZDoomGL in software does indeed fix it for me, and looks the same as Zdoom, and is up to date. If you're lucky maybe it'll work for you!

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Yes, video card stuff. You may have forceware installed with it that is designed for NT+, as with the case with my nVIDIA GeForce 5200 Ultra. This cause a serious problem with leaving the upper left of my screen black and if I touched it my computer would just go to pieces. What you need to do is go to Start/Run and enter msconfig and look at your startup programs to see what junk there is and comparing it to answersthatwork.com , which I'm sure you're familiar with, though it is mostly for any Windows NT+ OS. Just try to find the video card forceware and uncheck all of it, if there is any. Better yet, remove all of the junk (what you can identify as junk from the link above) from the startup list. Good luck.

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Quasar said:

Although all of the contrived situations everyone is coming up with are technically possible, I think that we're going off in the wrong direction here.

Since Captain's mentioned that the problems extend beyond ZDoom, and that he has tried differing versions of the program to no avail, I think we're on the right path. I believe it is a hardware fault.

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Graf Zahl said:
First, I recommend to use a newer version than 2.0.57. The current one is 2.0.63a. If it still happens with that version you should post the crash log at zdoom.org where you are much more likely to get help.

the only reason the version so old is because I did exactly what you suggested a few months ago and what you see up there is what I posted at zdoom.org, and I couldn't be bothered getting it to crash again (like I said, it is quite random)

Epyo said:
EDIT: Yeah ZDoomGL in software does indeed fix it for me, and looks the same as Zdoom, and is up to date. If you're lucky maybe it'll work for you!

damn. no such luck. thanks anyway.

Quasar said:
Although all of the contrived situations everyone is coming up with are technically possible, I think that we're going off in the wrong direction here.

Here's what I can tell from looking at that information:

* EIP is in zdoom's address space so it's not crashing in DirectX or in a system module

* Given that it's a read access on 0xffffffff (aka -1), it's probably one of the following:
1. an uninitialized variable
2. an unchecked error case or default falling through
3. a buffer overflow
4. a pointer math/assignment error

* You can find the value 0xffffffff near the bottom of the stack, indicating that it was most likely passed to a function as a parameter (it could also be a local variable value).

Randy could probably figure it out quickly given a map file and that dump, so discussing it here is a bit pointless.

As I said, I already took it to randy, and showed him exactly what you see here. though, he didn't say anything like what you serggested... maybe it's worth another shot.

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I have the same problem, specially with Zdoom 63, I share your pain buddy. If you find a way to solve it let me know.
I can run Zdoom in my father's computer without problems but not in mine, it's annoying.

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zDoom is not the only port of the galaxy (unlike some seem to think).
It's rather annoying if you want to play zDoom specific wads tho...

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It's my ram. I ran memtest, and it came back with errors. damn. Oh well, atlest I know what it is now. so Vegeta, you might want to look at you ram...

so a big thanks to Sephiroth for seggesting it, and Trilinear who set me on the right path, and thanks to everyone else for there Suggestions! i finally have an answer.

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Hope that fixes it! I replaced my RAM which had an absolutely staggering number of errors (hard to believe my PC worked at all), but ZDoom still happily hangs whenever I try to play it :(

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Whenver I install RAM I always turn off "allow quick boot" or wahtever the BIOS option is named. This allows the memory test to perform at boot, and with my 1GB + 256MB chip, it takes three minutes to check, but those three minutes save much more time later if the chip is bad. I only do this once, then go back and turn off this function, as it would waste a lot of time to do every time I boot my computer.

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david_a said:
Hope that fixes it! I replaced my RAM which had an absolutely staggering number of errors (hard to believe my PC worked at all), but ZDoom still happily hangs whenever I try to play it :(

That’s interesting... it seem it wasn't (just) the ram that is giving me grief, I removed the affected chips and I still get errors in Zdoom, and my computer still locks up every now and then. That said, it is a hell of a lot more stable and now and zdoom actually worth playing. I can live it, but I'd like to know what it dose that...

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Captain Red said:

I removed the affected chips and I still get errors in Zdoom, and my computer still locks up every now and then...

...I'd like to know what it dose that...

Perhaps your current Windows installation is corrupted somewhere due to a problem caused by your previously defective RAM. Try a re-install or a dual-boot clean install and see if that makes any difference.

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Yeah, that seriously broke my installation of Windows 98 a while back and after I removed the memory chip I had to reinstall everything, losing much from a previous installation.

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