Sound Drivers Crashed - Not Gracefully Recovered From

Jadetorc · 09-24-2003, 05:36 PM

#1 - The 'Look Here FIRST' link throws an 'Internal Server Error' message.

Problem - I had just set up a new historical 1901- league, spent some hours editing setting, configuring my team, and trading players. I played 3 games without difficulty. I played the entire 4th game of the season and was looking at the box score when the sound files caused a page fault and crashed the program. When I rebooted and reloaded OOTP5, the 4th games was still played in the schedule, but the teams' records weren't updated. I tried to continue the league through SIM-ing, but those two teams have played 1-less game than everyone else.

Side Problem - There seems to be no way to delete a league from the program, but when I tried to delete all the league folders, the program wouldn't start properly to start a new league!

Side Suggestion - Wow! Those are some of the worst choices for colors ever. 90% of the white text in the default game skin should be made darker. I have entire screens with white text on light gray background, that I didn't even know there were buttons on!

SPECS - new, registered OOTP5 downloaded 9/21 (although the version seems to be 5.11) Win98 500Mz 64 RAM 1 GIG free hard drive, Virtual Memory Manager on Automatic, no other programs running (aside from OS and Norton). Settings: manager mode, financials on, all minor leagues created with fictional players, in-game scoreboard on.

Steve Kuffrey · 09-24-2003, 05:49 PM

Ok, adding sound to ANY program can cause all sorts of problems and issues that "in reality" can't be tested for due to the huge number of different user setups and configs..

64 megs of RAM is the bare-bones minimum that the game will even run on much less perform satisfactorily. RAM is VERY cheap now and if it was me I'd invest in some additional RAM. It will improve game performance in a big way.

As another comment to the sound, I've just deleted the sound files as they only slow things down and cause other possible issues(but that is just a personal preference).

Win98 is a decent OS, but rough on memory management and with the low RAM amount it is compounded. Win2K or XP are both much better in this regard if getting more RAM isn't possible.

I'm color blind and have never had an issue w/ the colors though some have.

Before you delete the "troubled" league create another THEN delete the old one.

Also, if you turn Norton OFF while you play your performance will be much better as well.

Jadetorc · 09-24-2003, 06:13 PM

Performance isn't an issue. The program not cleaning-up after itself is. No program I've ever run on this laptop has caused sound-related problems. I won't be changing OS just for a baseball SIM. Perhaps this is an indication that there are sound management issues to be looked at in the game. To validate the quality of these assessments, I'm a professional programmer and this is a very clean machine.
I can come up with work arounds myself - I'm giving you the information to fix the problems themselves [e.g. color-blindness has nothing to do with the design mistake of having white text on a lt gray background]. I think it is essential to:
a) add a function to delete a league into the opening screen
b) load the program properly even if there isn't a league
c) add an option to not even load a league at all upon startup
d) have the program verify that all teams games played are counted in the standings and stats (perhaps with a manual function that users could run, as opposed to automatically).
e) do more testing on the sound management

Btw - I read the System Requirements before downloading, using, then purchasing. It quite clearly says Pentium! with 32 megs RAM and 20 megs swap is the "bare-bones minimum". Perhaps this is a lie?

Jadetorc · 09-26-2003, 02:49 AM

This is now an easily reproducable problem and I have wrecked 5 leagues with it. It can be repeated by using the 'Sim' function within the game (used to skip ahead innings) that was started from the schedule by hitting 'Play'. It will happen between when the last out is recorded and when the Box score is displayed. It causes a paging fault. I have turned off the interactive sounds and menu animations in addition to the settings above (historic, MM, sometimes minors filled, sometimes not) and no longer use either the Warm-up rule or in-game league scores updating. Norton is not running. The highest frequency is when the majority of the game is Sim-ed but the last half inning is Play-ed (and the voiced Ref issues the final 'You're Out" sound file. After crashing the program, rebooting then restarting OOTP5 the box score is displayed on the schedule, however trying to retrieve the Box Score pops up with a HTML window with a 'missing' error. The stats from the game are not included in the team stats and the Win and Loss are not recorded in the standings. The league will finish and play fine, but all of that games results are gone and 2 teams will be short the crashed-on game.

09-24-2003, 05:49 PM	#2
Steve Kuffrey Administrator Join Date: Jul 1999 Location: S.E. TN - Georgia born and raised Posts: 17,023	Ok, adding sound to ANY program can cause all sorts of problems and issues that "in reality" can't be tested for due to the huge number of different user setups and configs.. 64 megs of RAM is the bare-bones minimum that the game will even run on much less perform satisfactorily. RAM is VERY cheap now and if it was me I'd invest in some additional RAM. It will improve game performance in a big way. As another comment to the sound, I've just deleted the sound files as they only slow things down and cause other possible issues(but that is just a personal preference). Win98 is a decent OS, but rough on memory management and with the low RAM amount it is compounded. Win2K or XP are both much better in this regard if getting more RAM isn't possible. I'm color blind and have never had an issue w/ the colors though some have. Before you delete the "troubled" league create another THEN delete the old one. Also, if you turn Norton OFF while you play your performance will be much better as well. __________________ Steve Kuffrey DABS Atlanta Braves - 2008 Eastern Division Champ *DBLC Atlanta Braves - 2011, 2014 East Division Champ, 2012, 2013 NL Wildcard Baseball Maelstrom-Montreal Expos-2013 Tourney winner, 2014 WC Team Sparky's League - Tampa Bay D'Rays Epicenter Baseball League - Astros 2014 The CBL Rewind - Phillies '95

09-24-2003, 06:13 PM	#3
Jadetorc Minors (Single A) Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Denver, CO Posts: 50	Performance isn't an issue. The program not cleaning-up after itself is. No program I've ever run on this laptop has caused sound-related problems. I won't be changing OS just for a baseball SIM. Perhaps this is an indication that there are sound management issues to be looked at in the game. To validate the quality of these assessments, I'm a professional programmer and this is a very clean machine. I can come up with work arounds myself - I'm giving you the information to fix the problems themselves [e.g. color-blindness has nothing to do with the design mistake of having white text on a lt gray background]. I think it is essential to: a) add a function to delete a league into the opening screen b) load the program properly even if there isn't a league c) add an option to not even load a league at all upon startup d) have the program verify that all teams games played are counted in the standings and stats (perhaps with a manual function that users could run, as opposed to automatically). e) do more testing on the sound management Btw - I read the System Requirements before downloading, using, then purchasing. It quite clearly says Pentium! with 32 megs RAM and 20 megs swap is the "bare-bones minimum". Perhaps this is a lie? __________________ "Clemente could field the ball in New York and throw out a guy in Pennsylvania." -- Vin Scully Last edited by Jadetorc; 09-24-2003 at 07:48 PM.

09-26-2003, 02:49 AM	#4
Jadetorc Minors (Single A) Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Denver, CO Posts: 50	This is now an easily reproducable problem and I have wrecked 5 leagues with it. It can be repeated by using the 'Sim' function within the game (used to skip ahead innings) that was started from the schedule by hitting 'Play'. It will happen between when the last out is recorded and when the Box score is displayed. It causes a paging fault. I have turned off the interactive sounds and menu animations in addition to the settings above (historic, MM, sometimes minors filled, sometimes not) and no longer use either the Warm-up rule or in-game league scores updating. Norton is not running. The highest frequency is when the majority of the game is Sim-ed but the last half inning is Play-ed (and the voiced Ref issues the final 'You're Out" sound file. After crashing the program, rebooting then restarting OOTP5 the box score is displayed on the schedule, however trying to retrieve the Box Score pops up with a HTML window with a 'missing' error. The stats from the game are not included in the team stats and the Win and Loss are not recorded in the standings. The league will finish and play fine, but all of that games results are gone and 2 teams will be short the crashed-on game. __________________ "Clemente could field the ball in New York and throw out a guy in Pennsylvania." -- Vin Scully

09-24-2003, 05:36 PM	#1
Jadetorc Minors (Single A) Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Denver, CO Posts: 50	Sound Drivers Crashed - Not Gracefully Recovered From #1 - The 'Look Here FIRST' link throws an 'Internal Server Error' message. Problem - I had just set up a new historical 1901- league, spent some hours editing setting, configuring my team, and trading players. I played 3 games without difficulty. I played the entire 4th game of the season and was looking at the box score when the sound files caused a page fault and crashed the program. When I rebooted and reloaded OOTP5, the 4th games was still played in the schedule, but the teams' records weren't updated. I tried to continue the league through SIM-ing, but those two teams have played 1-less game than everyone else. Side Problem - There seems to be no way to delete a league from the program, but when I tried to delete all the league folders, the program wouldn't start properly to start a new league! Side Suggestion - Wow! Those are some of the worst choices for colors ever. 90% of the white text in the default game skin should be made darker. I have entire screens with white text on light gray background, that I didn't even know there were buttons on! SPECS - new, registered OOTP5 downloaded 9/21 (although the version seems to be 5.11) Win98 500Mz 64 RAM 1 GIG free hard drive, Virtual Memory Manager on Automatic, no other programs running (aside from OS and Norton). Settings: manager mode, financials on, all minor leagues created with fictional players, in-game scoreboard on. Last edited by Jadetorc; 09-24-2003 at 05:38 PM.