Chaos Engine Fails to Start

[marcusthedude]

Hi All,
I wonder if anyone can help?

I just installed The Chaos Engine via Steam and it won't run. I can open the Steam console, but when I select the game from my Library and click the Play button, I see an empty white window and then a Windows error message:

"The Chaos Engine - Remastered.exe has stopped working.
A problem caused the program to stop working correctly.
Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available."

Windows Event Viewer has this information:

Faulting application name: The Chaos Engine - Remastered.exe, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x5241a3b4
Faulting module name: The Chaos Engine - Remastered.exe, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x5241a3b4
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00013e70
Faulting process ID: 0xa48
Faulting application start time: 0x01ced61f5e87c706
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Chaos engine\The Chaos Engine - Remastered.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Chaos engine\The Chaos Engine - Remastered.exe
Report ID: 9cafbfd6-4212-11e3-be8e-0022fa281d7a
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

I'm running 64-bit Windows 8.1 on an Acer Aspire 7735G laptop, with 4Gb memory, Intel core 2 duo T6500 @ 2.1GHz, and ATI Radeon HD4570 512Mb (+"hypermemory" as required) mobile graphics chip.

I've installed the latest graphics driver from ATI.

I looked on Steam support and followed a procedure there to re-install DirectX and some other things, but that made no difference at all. I'm also NOT running Steam in compatibility mode, as advised.

I'd be very grateful if anyone can offer some pointers!

Regards,
Mark.

[Rax Savvage]

well speaking as a windows 7 player... it works fine, so some usual simple stuff to try

have you got
.netframework 3
3.1
4

and openGL drivers installed.

[Nimloc]

You could try making sure you have openal32.dll in your system32 or SYSWOW64 folder. If you are 64bit windows then it will be SysWOW64, 32bit is system32

You can install OpenAL drivers by finding it in your chaos engine install folder subdirectory below

Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Chaos engine\_CommonRedist

or you can simply downloading it here
https://code.google.com/p/rallyraid/downloads/detail?name=oalinst.zip&can=2&q=

Then extract the install exe into your system32 or SYSWOW64 folder and running it.

All being well you should now have the openal32.dll in your system32 or SYSWOW64 folder.

You could also place that dll into your choas engine install folder too and it also works for me.

[marcusthedude]

Thank you for the replies Guys:
Rax - I tried to install .netframework 4.5 but the installer said I already have that or later as part of Windows (8.1). I checked that opengl32.dll exists in:

windows\system32
windows\SysWOW64, and also in the game folder under steam. It still won't start however.

Nimloc - openal32.dll also exists in all the locations mentioned above. Still the game will not even start.

Can you think of anything else I could try?

P.S. I also fired off a support ticket to Mastertronic ten days ago but not heard anything back from them other than a confirmation that the ticket was received and assigned a number.

Regards,
Mark.

[Nimloc]

I wonder if the answer can be found here? One suggestion was to verify the integrity of the game files, and there are a few other ideas. Wondows 8.1 is still a bit flaky with some titles.
http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/810938810667653624/

[Rax Savvage]

tried launching it directly from the program and not as a steamshortcut? weird i know but across my entire list had 4 games that play fine from the app itself but not through steam shortcuts.

Also... it might just be down to windows 8. Plays fine on 7

[ThunderPeel2001]

I have the same OS (Windows 8.1 x64) and it works fine.

[marcusthedude]

Thanks guys, but still no joy despite trying all the above. I've also been in dialogue with Mastertronic support who were also unable to resolve this. The Windows exception code is one of those annoying general faults that doesn't actually give much indication of why the program failed. It doesn't run outside of Steam either so it's not a Steam fault. Mastertronic provided a DRM-free version and that also fails to run. That's odd because the laptop runs things like Far Cry and Oblivion fine! It's frustratingly annoying, but I think I'll have to give up :-(

[Nimloc]

Have you tried disabling your sound card and running the game. If it runs then there's a sound setup issue and its easier to solve it... Worth a go?

[marcusthedude]

Hi Nimloc, thanks for the suggestion - much appreciated. I tried disabling the sound in device manager, but it still fails with the same error. The game doesn't even start - I just see a white window immediately followed by the windows error message saying the game has stopped working. It could be something silly but damned if I know what!

[Nimloc]

Have you tried looking at in windows... Control Panel > Admin Tools > Event Viewer then with that open, open the Windows Logs branch on the left of the utility and highlight "system". In the main windows you should see loads of log entries. scroll through them looking for any errors or warnings and try and fix them by Googling them. Reboot and see if you still get errors there. Once you stop getting errors have another go.

Also can't remember if you tried typing in "SFC /scannow" in a command window to make sure your system has no broken system files? A command window is opened by running the program "cmd".

Sorry if you've tried all this already!

[Nimloc]

... also tried this? https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=2037-QEUH-3335

[Spectrum Legacy]

Originally posted by marcusthedude:

Hi Nimloc, thanks for the suggestion - much appreciated. I tried disabling the sound in device manager, but it still fails with the same error. The game doesn't even start - I just see a white window immediately followed by the windows error message saying the game has stopped working. It could be something silly but damned if I know what!

I have exactly the same issue with drm-free GoG version of the game. I get to see the game window with tabs, but its white while game keeps loading, until it crashes with Win error / cycles itself and stops responding. Difference is, that it happens on WinXp for me. I can confirm that I do have latest openAL, openGL and Frameworks installed as far as Xp allows...hard to miss those as pretty much every Steam game installs redistributes first anyway. Also checked registry for some out of the place values, but found nothing wrong so far.

Few other people got same problem with this Remaster edition, but it has to be some incompatibility between game's code and specific hardware/drivers. Amiga version always ran great though.

[marcusthedude]

Hi Nimloc - tried those suggestions thanks. SFC ran clean (apart from some printer driver issues) and I ran the Steam game cache verify. Still exactly the same problem. It's infuriatingly persistent. I think I'll just agree with Spectrum Legacy (had one of those!) that the game ain't gonna run on this laptop due to incompatibility with specific driver/s. It's a bit odd as other games like Oblivion run fine. Ah well!

[Nimloc]

I'd let the developers know at this point as you've really done everything you can try! I think they should really take a look at this as its part of their agreement with you to provide some level of support in this area. I'm sure they'd want to know about it as a good developer. Contact them here saying all you've tried. http://www.mastertronic.com/support-contact

[marcusthedude]

Hi Nimloc - thank you for your help and suggestions - much appreciated! I have raised this through Mastertronic support who were very helpful, but unable to determine the cause due to the general (very) nature of the exception code. They even provided a DRM-free copy of the game for me to try but that failed with exactly the same error. I guess it's just something iffy about my laptop, although it does run other games like Oblivion and Far Cry just fine. Ah well, C'est la vie :-/