Game Crashes
 

Hello,

I've just bought the game. However, I can't play it for more than 5-10 minutes before the game freezes up. This seems to happen when I open up a drop down menu. The only way to get out of this freeze is to clt + alt + delete. I should note this issue is not specific to one game save. I've just bought the game and due to this issue I've never gotten far when trying to start a new save, although I have tried to start two games and quickly run into this issue multiple times. This happens whether I play the game windowed or full screen. Interestingly, I had the exact same issue when I tried to play FHM 6 a couple of years ago. At that time I just got a refund, but now I really would like to be able to play the game. But obviously I need some help here as it's hard to even know what the issue may be. Thank you for any help.

What type of system are you playing the game on, and do you have the Steam version, Fastspring (standalone), or another version?

Hi,

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700HQ CPU @ 2.60GHz

12 GB RAM

Windows 10

I play on Steam

Thanks for getting back to me.

Should run fine with that system. Is there a particular dropdown menu that this happens with most frequently, or can it happen with any of them?

No particular menu. As I recall, the first time was when I was creating my coach and selecting my nationality. Other times I made it into a game but have it crash while navigating menus there. It's always something different but the commonality is it happens when I have a drop down menu open. Even if I minimize the game, the drop down menu will be stuck on my screen by itself. I have to close the game out in task manager to get rid of it. I know this is all awfully vague, hoping there can be some clue as to what is causing this. Seems like any FHM game will do this for me. Another thing I can think of is that I have the install on the D drive, but I have all my games there to save space on C. Doesn't seem like anything that would cause an issue, but just trying to give as much info as possible in the hopes that something becomes apparent. Thanks again for trying to help me. Would be a massive shame if the whole franchise was a no-go for me.

No, the drives being different shouldn't be a problem, I do that myself. I'm wondering if there's maybe something out of date or corrupt in your Visual C++ runtimes. You can re-download them from Microsoft's site (get the X64 version, the last one listed in the first group.) Install that, reboot, and then try running the game. At worst, it'll do nothing, so it's worth a try.

Very good idea. I would definitely try this.

So I believe I did it right. Went to that link, downloaded the x64 version under Visual Studio 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2022. Clicked install and then restart. Unfortunately, still had this happen twice. In the attached instance, I clicked on "World" while in a save game and the game freezes up and that menu is stuck faded on the screen until I shut the program down. Disappointing result.

Is it every type of game mode or just one?

Must be something specific to your system that we're missing. Let's try this: on the start screen, go to settings, then troubleshooting, and click on "Enable Debug Trace", then exit and restart the game. Play until you get a crash, and then go to the \debug folder in \Documents\Out of the Park Developments\Franchise Hockey Manager 8. There'll be a file named fhm_trace.txt there, send me a copy of that in a PM (or to jeff@ootpdevelopments.com). Even if that doesn't show specifically what's causing the crash, we may be able to spot something in there that's not right.

Just thinking out loud here:

Since you're playing on Steam and the screenshot you posted shows a frozen graphic glitch, I'm wondering if you can try starting the game (via the Steam interface), with an alternate command line switch. Something like -OpenGL for example?

Thanks. Sent you an email.

Hmm, don't know much about that. Do you have any good info on how that works? I'd be interested to read. Or maybe I can do some googling when I have time. Thanks.

Basically it bypasses DirectX and uses OpenGL instead. But Mr. Google would know a lot more about that than I do. Worth checking out if you can't find another solution. :)

Thanks. Nothing obviously wrong that I can spot in the trace, but I'll have Sebastian take a look, he may spot something I can't see.

Doesn't appear to be an OpenGL problem, the log shows the checks for that are being passed. Your graphics driver is a little elderly, though, so you may want to try updating that to see if it helps.

No apparent problems that Sebastian could see, but crashes when using GUI elements like dropdown menus are usually memory-related.

So, right-click on the Windows icon, select Run, type "dxdiag" without the quotes and hit enter. Click on the "Save all Information" button and it'll save a file named dxdiag.txt; send that to me (or just tell me what it says on the Memory and Page file lines, those are primarily what we're interested in.)

Then, back to Windows icon-Run, type "sysinfo32" and hit enter. That'll give you more detailed system information. Take a screenshot of what you see on the "Conflicts/Sharing" view of the Hardware/Resources section - that may give us an idea if there's some memory conflict on your system that might be doing this.