StarCraft freezes after 1-5 minutes of playing

[hax]

squall_leonhart has explained it endless times now.

the issue CANNOT be resolved by closing background applications, as those will only accelerate the crashing. so yes it will crash less if you close background stuff like skype, but it WILL keep crashing. there's no fix, and either the microsoft / blizzard guys will have to fix it.

 

[shadowhack]

when i first installed sc it worked for 3 levels i uninstalled it and it played for around 20 levels .. i don't have any solution right now but i know that the problem is in windows 7 not skype or any other software that is not already installed on windows 7 ... i don't have skype and freezing happens ..

 

[WindowsStar]

This should make you happy:
http://www.sevenforums.com/gaming/82844-starcraft-ii-gets-july-27-worldwide-release-date.html

 

[Naitsirk]

This should make you happy:
http://www.sevenforums.com/gaming/82844-starcraft-ii-gets-july-27-worldwide-release-date.html

I really gotta say...that still don't make me feel better because it doesn't help my problem now. Besides, even with he new game coming out, I'd still like to use the old one.

No new ideas or changes? I'm really not liking the inability to play my brother in SC. Every time I do well and am about to make an attack, the game freezes and I have to reset I want my Vista back....at least I could play my games...and that's really why I have a laptop in the first place haha

 

[squall leonhart]

im yet to try chaos launcher, but i've been using Vbox with no issues.

 

[WindowsStar]

Everyone: I have the solution to this!!

I had some out of town relatives in town while my immediate family was out of town so I put together a game night. I had everyone over and my good friend’s brother had a NEW version of the old StarCraft. He said he bought it about 6 months ago. I guess Blizzard re-released the game with Vista Support?? The CD looks about the same but it states on the CD it is for Windows Vista and has a completely different Key. The package has the original StarCraft and Brood War. We installed this version on our Windows 7 machines and played StarCraft for 16 hours straight without ANY issues on all machines. We used old original maps from the original CD as well as many downloaded from Blizzard Years and Years ago. We even played with maps we downloaded off the internet without issues as well. It seems this re-release works and is fixed. So if you have Windows 7 and want to play this game you need to re-purchase it for Windows Vista and you will have no problems.

I am extremely happy to have this working perfectly!!! -WS

 

[squall leonhart]

Um.... no.

 

[Naitsirk]

Everyone: I have the solution to this!!

I had some out of town relatives in town while my immediate family was out of town so I put together a game night. I had everyone over and my good friend’s brother had a NEW version of the old StarCraft. He said he bought it about 6 months ago. I guess Blizzard re-released the game with Vista Support?? The CD looks about the same but it states on the CD it is for Windows Vista and has a completely different Key. The package has the original StarCraft and Brood War. We installed this version on our Windows 7 machines and played StarCraft for 16 hours straight without ANY issues on all machines. We used old original maps from the original CD as well as many downloaded from Blizzard Years and Years ago. We even played with maps we downloaded off the internet without issues as well. It seems this re-release works and is fixed. So if you have Windows 7 and want to play this game you need to re-purchase it for Windows Vista and you will have no problems.

I am extremely happy to have this working perfectly!!! -WS

This isn't true. Maybe it worked for you but....Not for me. DO NOT waste money on a new Starcraft game in hopes of fixing the problem. My current starcraft game is new (a little over 7 months old and has the "for Vista" on it) and while the installer is different than it use to be, the problems still exist on Windows 7.

Squall: When I was reading over this forum I noticed that Chaoslauncher was suggested a few times. I downloaded it last night and been using it, so far no freeze. The colour is funny but I don't care about that, its only in the title screen anyways, not during gameplay. I know people said there are fixes for that, I just don't care to look.

I haven't played many games of SC/BW with Chaoslauncher but so far so good. I just wish I didn't need another program to run Starcraft...I never heard of vbox but maybe I'll take a look at that.

 

[WindowsStar]

Everyone: I have the solution to this!!

I had some out of town relatives in town while my immediate family was out of town so I put together a game night. I had everyone over and my good friend’s brother had a NEW version of the old StarCraft. He said he bought it about 6 months ago. I guess Blizzard re-released the game with Vista Support?? The CD looks about the same but it states on the CD it is for Windows Vista and has a completely different Key. The package has the original StarCraft and Brood War. We installed this version on our Windows 7 machines and played StarCraft for 16 hours straight without ANY issues on all machines. We used old original maps from the original CD as well as many downloaded from Blizzard Years and Years ago. We even played with maps we downloaded off the internet without issues as well. It seems this re-release works and is fixed. So if you have Windows 7 and want to play this game you need to re-purchase it for Windows Vista and you will have no problems.

I am extremely happy to have this working perfectly!!! -WS

This isn't true. Maybe it worked for you but....Not for me. DO NOT waste money on a new Starcraft game in hopes of fixing the problem. My current starcraft game is new (a little over 7 months old and has the "for Vista" on it) and while the installer is different than it use to be, the problems still exist on Windows 7.

Squall: When I was reading over this forum I noticed that Chaoslauncher was suggested a few times. I downloaded it last night and been using it, so far no freeze. The colour is funny but I don't care about that, its only in the title screen anyways, not during gameplay. I know people said there are fixes for that, I just don't care to look.

I haven't played many games of SC/BW with Chaoslauncher but so far so good. I just wish I didn't need another program to run Starcraft...I never heard of vbox but maybe I'll take a look at that.

I wonder why it is NOT working for you. We installed it on 16 different Windows 7 machines. Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows 7 Pro all without issue. Laptops and Desktops. ???? Puzzled.

 

[squall leonhart]

Naitsirk, check out my latest thread for a color fix, its not just the title screen but also causes artifacts in water and along sprite edges.

 

[squall leonhart]

I wonder why it is NOT working for you. We installed it on 16 different Windows 7 machines. Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows 7 Pro all without issue. Laptops and Desktops. ???? Puzzled.

same reason it does't work for us.
the issue is a tricky beast, and isn't always reproducible.

 

[WindowsStar]

I wonder why it is NOT working for you. We installed it on 16 different Windows 7 machines. Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows 7 Pro all without issue. Laptops and Desktops. ???? Puzzled.

same reason it does't work for us.
the issue is a tricky beast, and isn't always reproducible.

I would figure with a HUGE cross sample of machines 16 all different I should have had at least ONE not working if the software is that bad.

 

[squall leonhart]

i can manage to run starcraft, age of empires, age of empires 2, and worms, before going back to starcraft and having it freeze.

 

[WindowsStar]

i can manage to run starcraft, age of empires, age of empires 2, and worms, before going back to starcraft and having it freeze.

So you are saying you play starcraft, age of empires, age of empires 2, and worms then go back to playing a game of starcraft and then it freezes?? If that is the case then you may be completely correct. Games can and do leave code in memory when you exit so you may have issues. Your best bet is to play only one game and then re-boot, after re-boot then start the next game. This has been a Gaming practice for Years and Years. It was learned when LAN parties were all the rage before the Internet took off.

 

[squall leonhart]

i can manage to run starcraft, age of empires, age of empires 2, and worms, before going back to starcraft and having it freeze.

So you are saying you play starcraft, age of empires, age of empires 2, and worms then go back to playing a game of starcraft and then it freezes?? If that is the case then you may be completely correct. Games can and do leave code in memory when you exit so you may have issues. Your best bet is to play only one game and then re-boot, after re-boot then start the next game. This has been a Gaming practice for Years and Years. It was learned when LAN parties were all the rage before the Internet took off.

Games do not leave any code in memory, doing so would mean.

1. The game is faulty.
2. The operating systems memory management is faulty.

That said, that is on a good day.
Other times it can freeze on first load.

 

[WindowsStar]

i can manage to run starcraft, age of empires, age of empires 2, and worms, before going back to starcraft and having it freeze.

So you are saying you play starcraft, age of empires, age of empires 2, and worms then go back to playing a game of starcraft and then it freezes?? If that is the case then you may be completely correct. Games can and do leave code in memory when you exit so you may have issues. Your best bet is to play only one game and then re-boot, after re-boot then start the next game. This has been a Gaming practice for Years and Years. It was learned when LAN parties were all the rage before the Internet took off.

Games do not leave any code in memory, doing so would mean.

1. The game is faulty.
2. The operating systems memory management is faulty.

That said, that is on a good day.
Other times it can freeze on first load.

Many many many programs leave code in memory after they exit. This has been an issue since the first days of computing. Yes it could be faulty code or sloppy programming or code that is supposed to work but somehow isn't (i.e. a bug). If there were no coding issue then everything would work all the time without any problems.

Windows 7 has gotten 1000% better IMHO on memory management but it is still not perfect. If it were we would never see BSOD.

There could be some other program you are using that has a "Memory Leak" or "Leaves Code In Memory". Once StarCraft is loaded or running (short or long time) it then freezes because of the memory issues.

If you are willing to find out. You could make a backup image of your machine. Then load Windows 7 fresh without any extras no Adobe, No Wireless Software, No Toolbar Mods etc. etc. etc. Play StarCraft for a day or so. If it works start adding software one at a time then playing StarCraft for a day or so and see if the problems come back once you find the program that is causing the problem you can then put the image back on your machine and remove that program or get update or replace it with something else. I know it is a bit of work but sometimes it is worth it if you want to resolve it completely.

On a side note: Most if not all the machines we played StarCraft on did not have too much extra software just the basics, all Windows Updates, A/V software, Adobe Reader, FireFox, and other games. No hacks were installed, no fancy desktops, no mods etc.

I hope that helps in tracking down more issues with StarCraft.

 

[squall leonhart]

Dynamic Libraries are open and closed as applications are, the only code left in memory most often only consists of windows level libraries.

Further, junk code would cause it to freeze in a window, as well as fullscreen which isn't the case.

 

[cwls]

A (partial) fix to your problems

After going to other websites, I have found a fix to your problems. (Note: You will not have the pleasure of enjoying sound).

taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
C:\"Users"\"Home"\"Desktop"\"STARCRAFT"\"Starcraft No Install"\"StarCraft.exe"
start explorer.exe

C&P the above text into notepad, change the middle line into the destination of the StarCraft.exe file. The quotation marks in there (C:\"Users"\"Home"\"Desktop"\"STARCRAFT"\"Starcraft No Install"\"StarCraft.exe") are necessary. If you're wondering why my destination is so weird (instead of Program Files\Starcraft blahblah) it's because I'm using a "no install" version of Starcraft (obviously). It seems that explorer.exe is interfering with the Starcraft process.

Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot. Save that as a .bat file...like, run.bat or something, and just click on it when you want to play some SC

 

[virusak]

eh, once again, nope, this does not help

it helps only to fix the color problems

 

[shadowfox]

After going to other websites, I have found a fix to your problems. (Note: You will not have the pleasure of enjoying sound).

taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
C:\"Users"\"Home"\"Desktop"\"STARCRAFT"\"Starcraft No Install"\"StarCraft.exe"
start explorer.exe

C&P the above text into notepad, change the middle line into the destination of the StarCraft.exe file. The quotation marks in there (C:\"Users"\"Home"\"Desktop"\"STARCRAFT"\"Starcraft No Install"\"StarCraft.exe") are necessary.

This has been explained already. Read the rest of the forum. This does not fix the freezing