[Solved] Troubleshooting Crazy Machines 1.0 on Windows 8?

[KATY PERRY]

Specs: Radeon 7950, 8GB ram, i5 4670k. Shouldn't have any problems running this - except for the Windows 8 problem.

I loved TIM way back in the day, so I picked up the Crazy Machines Bundle on Bundlestars. I received "Crazy Machines," "Crazy Machines 1.5," and "Crazy Machines 2" + DLC

Wanted to start with "Crazy Machines" so I downloaded/installed all 60MBs of it.. but I'm not even getting any launch screen whatsoever. I doubleclick on it, get an hour glass for a millisecond, then nothing. No crash, no error. Verified cache, deleted and reinstalled, rebooted. Nothing worked.

Installed the fixes from CM2 (OpenAL and PhysX drivers). Didn't work.

1.5 runs perfectly!

Tried compatibility for W95, W95, XP SP2&3, Vista, W7. No luck.

Drivers are updated - never had trouble running any other game in my library.

[Surogat]

I could run this game right after installation on Windows 8.1 (64Bit). I have a notebook with Nvidia GTX 760m and an Intel Core i7. Normally, Nvidia graphic cards are more problematic than AMD, but this time it's the other way round. However, this game runs fine on Windows 8.

[KATY PERRY]

Thanks for the reply! Forgot to close the thread, but eventually I got it to work. It was a strange fix though.

I was able to install Crazy Machines 1.0 on my laptop and it ran fine on there. Immediately after I tried again on my desktop (the computer it wasn't working on). Then it ran fine? Crazy Machines doesn't use the cloud.. so I don't think that would have effected it.

The other thing that may have fixed it and make you facepalm for such an easy mistake. I **may not** have tried restarting my computer after installing 1.0 the first time. I don't recall if I did. I do know that I reset it sometime after installing it the first time and being unable to get it working. That may have fixed it, but I'm not sure.

Either way, I can confirm it not only works on an AMD card, but also Windows 8.

[sailorbear510]

Windows 8 is not 100% compatible with this game. It does run on Windows 7 though.

[KATY PERRY]

I can 100% confirm that I managed to get it running on a 64-bit OS Windows 8. I'm not sure how, but it works. At first it would flash a black screen and close itself (nothing in the taskbar). I wish I could give you a solution to help others, but I don't really recall exactly what I did that made it work.

The three things I installed that day were: "PhysX 9.13.1220"

http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/9.13.1220/PhysX-9.13.1220-SystemSoftware.msi

DirectX81.exe

http://download.oldapps.com/DirectX/directx81.exe

And

OpenAL (oalinst.exe)

{LINK REMOVED}http://download1470.mediafire.com/z5ie8kyfpbmg/nwt3ilty2mo/oalinst.exe

I'm unsure if I did anything else or what I did. I do know that it still didn't work after I installed a combination of the 3. I'm unsure if I reset my computer, I may have made the error of not doing so.

After it still didn't work I got stumped. I restarted at one point and while I waited for it to restart I tried it on my W7 laptop to see if it was broken there too. It worked immediately on my laptop (Windows 7). So I set the settings, played a bit, **enabled the cloud.** Then, I checked on my Windows 8 computer and it started working.

Possible solutions? PhysX 9.13.1220, DirectX81.exe, oalinst.exe, or getting it to work on another computer, enabling steam cloud, and fetching the settings from there.

[sailorbear510]

We have had apps where customers were not able to run them on Windows 8 - It's due to to a permissions problem under Windows 8. It seems Windows 8 takes after the protective nature found in Vista.

[KATY PERRY]

I didn't think you'd reply so quick so I thought I'd tell you that I added quite a bit more to my last post which may help you pinpoint/solve the problem with other users. It includes the troubleshooting that I did. I'd like to think I'm better at most at troubleshooting.. so I tested most of the "obvious routes" and am certain I tried running as administrator and I don't **think** that was part of my solution. I may be mistaken.

Other things that DIDN'T work: I tried all of the compatibility versions in Windows. I don't recall changing any permissions, but it's possible I did. I tried running directly from the folder and not Steam. When it properly booted the first time, I launched it from Steam. That being said, it went from not working to working in a single reboot.

I don't recall if I deleted any files in the config folder or if I messed with any of the settings. I wish I could remember all of what I did.

[sailorbear510]

Just so your aware - I have the North American box copy in my hand and no where does it mention that Phys X is required it says the following requirements :

800mhz CPU, 128MB Ram , Direct X 8 compatible video card with 32mb ram or better (TNT2 or comparable) Direct X 8 Compatible Sound Card, 60mb free space and 2x CDROM Drive.

[KATY PERRY]

You're correct. The PhysX suggestion, I believe, was from a Crazy Machines 2.0 troubleshooting thread. It's also where I got the OpenAL and DirectX 8.1 suggestion. PhysX I think is for the water or liquid DLC in 2.0.

When I installed PhysX I was taking a long shot in case the engines shared something in common and I'm using an AMD card. From my understanding, 2.0 was optimized on nVidia cards so I figured it couldn't hurt installing a driver I didn't have. PhysX driver apparently works on AMD cards, so no harm done.

Removed parts of this post

[KATY PERRY]

Hey Jason. it was nice chatting with you tonight. After you left, I uninstalled "OpenAL" and deleted the openal32.dll in the gamefolder. That replicated my problem.

It appears openal comes with the download now.

[AlienSoul (GS)]

It worked fine on Windows 8.1 for me. I have Steam set to run as administrator (needed for some other games).

[KATY PERRY]

My problem is fixed now Alien. I think what ended up fixing it for me was copying the config files from W7 where it worked to W8. I'm pretty sure I tried running it as admin with no luck. It's possible the fix was patched by now. Good to hear you got it working though.