Starcraft System Crash

[StevenBonnellII]

It has to be a hardware problem. Like I said, I switched from 32 bit Windows XP SP3 to Windows 7 64 bit, two completely different OS', and I still have the exact same problem...

 

[KnowledgeWorker]

@hax: No you're wrong. See this thread of numerous ProGamers, all of them (except the last posts end of 2009) didn't even have the chance to use Windows 7 !
I think the thread (I've posted now again) can't go more into detail / describe it more exact. SteveBonnell wrotes there as above more clearly:

I've gone from Windows XP 32 bit SP2 to Windows 7 RC 64bit and I get the exact same crashes, so I'm 99.99% positive it's hardware related.

Now the question is: Which hardware?

 

[KnowledgeWorker]

Hey there,

btw. here is the "official" answer (translated) of the Blizzard Mail Support Europe to my question:

...There are no reports regarding such problems from other players. Should there exist a problem here though will this be solved by a future patch. In cases where the computer crashes, the cause is in the most cases the hardware respectively the drivers. Please further acknowledge that we can't offer support for gaming under Windows Vista and Windows 7. Please also acknowledge that StarCraft has been released already in 1998, long before DualCore processors.

We thank you for your cooperation and for the link to this forum thread [Team Liquid].
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
...Uns liegen keine Berichte hinsichtlich solcher Probleme von anderen Spielern vor. Sollte jedoch hier ein Problem bestehen, wird dies möglicherweise mit einem zukünftigen Patch behoben. In Fällen wo der Computer abstürzt, liegt die Ursache in den meisten Fällen in der Hardware bzw. Treibern. Bitte beachten Sie ferner, dass wir leider keinen Support für das Spielen unter Windows Vista bzw. Windows 7 anbieten können.

Bitte berücksichtigen Sie zudem, dass StarCraft bereits 1998 erschienen ist, lange vor den ersten Dual-Prozessoren.

Wir danken für Ihr Verständnis in dieser Angelegenheit und bedanken uns für den Link zu dem Forenbeitrag.

 

[AeonGamer]

Yup that sounds like Blizzard alright...Their support for games went downhill ultra fast when Vivendi/Universal bought em out.

 

[neoevolution76]

I got Starcraft (newest update) running on Windows 7

 

[atlas01]

Try setting your program affinity to a single core, as follows:

1) Open up Windows Task Manager (Ctl+Alt+Del or right-click Taskbar)
2) Start Starcraft (i use Starcraft7.exe)
3) Alt+tab out back to Task Manager
4) Click on the Processes tab and find Starcraft.exe (as distinct from Starcraft7.exe)
5) Right click and select Set Affinity
6) You will see CPU0, CPU1 (plus CPU2/CPU3 for quad core) checked. Uncheck all except one (doesn't matter which one).
7) Click OK
8) Go back into Starcraft and play.

 

[atlas01]

EDIT: IGNORE this post. It seems that if you do modify your Starcraft.exe, then Battle.Net won't let you login. URGH.

 

[EgyptianAcid]

*downloadable Starcraft*

I have this version but still ran into errors. My problem was not the same as others however.

I have the Battlenet installed version and am trying to update via Bnet (the downloader doesnt actually give you a fully upgraded copy.. dumb I know).

So I'm trying to upgrade from 1.15.2 to the latest, and got the attached error.

Then I found this thread in which for quad-core/64-bit Windows 7 SC doesn't even seem to work

Luckily I'm dual-booting XP so maybe I'll just uninstall SC on this drive. The first fail I've run into using Win7

 

[atlas01]

I have found another way to set the affinity.

From a command prompt, you can type: start /AFFINITY 1 StarCraft.exe

This will create the desired effect without modifying the file.

However, inserting this command into the Starcraft7.bat batch file doesn't seem to work. After executing the batch file explorer.exe seems to restart automatically. Can someone have a crack at altering the batch file?

 

[StevenBonnellII]

Setting the affinity doesn't affect the crashes.

 

[KnowledgeWorker]

As I think I said already

deactivating Aero

does solve the problem once and for all.
That is indeed also the reason the problem is also occuring already in Vista.

 

[donutsrgood]

As I think I said already

deactivating Aero

does solve the problem once and for all.
That is indeed also the reason the problem is also occuring already in Vista.

No, the problem did not occur in Vista. I was running Vista for a year without the problem in Aero and once I switched to Win 7 on the same machine I ran into it. I'm not running Win 7 any more so I don't know if switching Aero off fixes it but I suspect not.

 

[csmith]

No crash in my win 7

StarCraft runs fine on Windows 7.

 

[hax]

just to clarify - i had the same freezing issues and updating to the latest nforce and nvidia drivers and disabling skype while playing has helped. the problem has not occured in vista once - so it's not vista related. it's also not a hardware issue, since i have no problems when i disable skype and any media player in the background.

 

[StevenBonnellII]

Hello! I believe I am having the same problem you all are having.

I can play SC:BW for HOURS, or, maybe only for five minutes, and then my screen jars and I get this disgusting freeze that is impossible to escape from, no alt-tabs, no alt f4's, no nothing. It almost seems like a hardware crash.

I believe I am a little closer to the solutions, though, than most...

I had Windows XP SP2 x86, and I was having these problems. Well, I upgraded from XP SP2 to Windows 7 x64. A COMPLETELY new OS with a different architecture (32 to 64bit).

I STILL have these problems!

I believe that means it -MUST- be hardware related, there's no way around it! ALSO...One of times my computer screen froze, I hard-rebooted and then my monitor had a bunch of weird numbers/characters on it - my graphics card got fried!

One GFX later, I'm still having the same problems!

What kind of mobo are you guys using? I have a P5N-E SLI ASUS board.

My AIM name is Wing Neo Star 15, maybe it'd be easier to talk there, otherwise respond here if you have any good info!

It's not software related.

 

[handcold]

As I think I said already

deactivating Aero

does solve the problem once and for all.
That is indeed also the reason the problem is also occuring already in Vista.

Still crashing

 

[squall leonhart]

Its not hardware related. Its entirely a issue within Windows 7.
The fixes that worked on Vista are not working on Windows 7 at all.

A friend of mine that was working on an app to fix the colour issues (by pausing the explorer thread on start and unpausing on exit) is able to reproduce the issues in most of his DirectDraw games, Warcraft 2 BNE, Starcraft, Age of empires, Fallout, Worms,

Others have reproduced these problems on RCT and Pharaoh.

The issues did not occur under XP or Vista to the extent they are under Windows 7.

BTW, the colour fixer has been (or will be) released in a short while. unfortunately my friend has gone back to XP as it runs all these games fine.

Affinity does not fix it
disabling DWM does not fix it.
Uninstalling drivers does not fix it
Compatibility options do not fix it.

It seems that the issues are caused by Race issues created when Microsoft added WDDM updates to DirectDraw overlay.

 

[KnowledgeWorker]

Thanks squall, interesting post!
Who actually is developing this patch? I'd love to stay on top of the news...

Concerning SC:BW itself, I brought it to crash also in Single Player almost immediately by using WinAmp (v.5.56)and/or Fraps (v.3.0.2) at the same time. Frustrating...

 

[squall leonhart]

I've got fraps running.

.....the possibility of a Race issue increases xD.

Further still, it could be a context locking issue where the game loses focus for a second and the api hard crashes without unlocking the input and display.

App is now at http://mudlord.xtemu.com/proj/dfddraw.zip

you can either invoke manually, or add games (upper/lower case match required) to the games.txt and it will pause explorer threads itself.

 

[StevenBonnellII]

I've got fraps running.

.....the possibility of a Race issue increases xD.

Further still, it could be a context locking issue where the game loses focus for a second and the api hard crashes without unlocking the input and display.

App is now at http://mudlord.xtemu.com/proj/dfddraw.zip

you can either invoke manually, or add games (upper/lower case match required) to the games.txt and it will pause explorer threads itself.

Did you not read my posts at all..?