Windower crashing

[Cream Soda]

I got a new computer recently and it came w/ vista and can't download due to some drivers being incompatible w/ xp ><.

That being said, vista been clashing w/ POL and windower. It doesn't happen often, maybe once every 2hrs, but my windower will randomly crash and it'll say POL viewer has stopped working ect ect and its getting annoying. On the windower forums I was told to run a file check and after 24 probs in file check they said i may have to reinstall, but instead I found out which files were corrupted and replaced them w/ the original dats and ran another file check for 0 problems. Still having this same problem though and i wanted to know if the prob could be w/ the windower itself rather than my installation of the game. I am able to stay on in official windower and not crash.

If it helps, I am using the beta .dll (which I have to otherwise I can't get past the play button w/o crashing).

Any tips/tricks to get passed this problem or to get it working properly on vista?

[AmarenFairy]

What does your application log say in Event Viewer, might give you an indication

[Fallyn]

my Windower crashes on Vista, but only when i exit out or ctrl+alt+delete. It always just says "playonline viewer has stopped working" and dies.

[Cream Soda]

What does your application log say in Event Viewer, might give you an indication

I'll check it out for you next time it crashes and post back

[Cream Soda]

http://i25.tinypic.com/9gvbpt.jpg

[Kohan]

You said you're using the beta DLL. Is it the latest version?

Windower 3.42.2 (RC2) BETA / Windows 7 Compatability - Windower

Coincidentally, I haven't forgotten about hitting you up while you're in Los Angeles -- I'm just in the middle of moving further away, toward Winnetka, coincidentally. Maybe I will actually get an opportunity to see you before you head back (and who knows, I could even wind up fixing POL for you. If only I had the time).

That aside, even if you do have the latest DLL, try replacing it anyways. If that doesn't work, try running Windower without any plug-ins active.

[Cream Soda]

Yea that's the one I have. I'll try re-doing it i guess. The pc i was using before this as a temp (my gma's laptop) while i waited for it to come in the mail was vista, but it worked fine w/o the beta .dll (this one won't get passed play w/o it) and I had no problems on that machine

[Kohan]

It's strange that this one won't work without the beta DLL, considering that it shouldn't be necessary. Go ahead and do what I think you're already going to -- re-downloading the entirety of Windower and running it, that is -- and see if this alleviates the problem. If it doesn't, follow the aforementioned advice of starting it up with no plug-ins running whatsoever.

[Cream Soda]

I can try w/o plug ins, but usually if its a ;plug in problem, it won't be latent, meaning it'll crash as soon as the plug in is loaded rather than waiting randomly to boot me. As for trying another windower I have like 4 windower folders on my desktop, was the first thing i tried

[Kohan]

You can have plug-ins cause crashes further down the line, especially if any have been updated and are conflicting with one another. Considering that you've updated the Hook.DLL, there's always a chance that an old, outdated plug-in is conflicting with that, if not something else.

I've also had a lot of plug-in crashes myself, recently, but few of them actually crashed the whole application. SpellCast, ExpWatch, etc., have randomly failed and shut themselves down during gameplay, requiring a manual reload. I also have the beta DLL, which is why I suggest trying that approach.

[Cream Soda]

ah kk, will give it a shot after dyna

[Baelorn]

Does it have an IR device? My laptop had one built in and it randomly crashed Windower until I disabled it.

[retice]

Are you running the game with admin privileges, and also I would use a different video driver, since that seems to be what crashed you from the pic. And if you have any IR devices enabled I believe that windower will not work either.

[Cream Soda]

Hmm none that i know of, but where would I go to check if any IR devices are up? And yea, I'm running in admin w/ xp service pack checked.

[Kohan]

There's a lot of topics on the Windower forums about the IR matter. I'll see if I can pull one up.

Here's the main page on it: http://wiki.windower.net/crashissues

[Cream Soda]

Found something in device manager named "Consumer IR Devices" I'm guessing this is what I need to disable? what is it and do i actually need it for anything?

"Uninstall “Microsoft eHome infrared receiver” or any other InfraRed (IR) device. "

No infrared receiver, but there is a "Microsoft Ehome Infrared Transceiver"


Edit: back on the windower forums, someone said by looking at the error report, the part about ati.dll failing module, tha tI need to change my driver?

[Kohan]

Found something in device manager named "Consumer IR Devices" I'm guessing this is what I need to disable? what is it and do i actually need it for anything?

Yes, that's what you disable, and no, you won't need it unless you use IR devices (e.g., a remote control for your computer).

Edit: back on the windower forums, someone said by looking at the error report, the part about ati.dll failing module, tha tI need to change my driver?

The error you're getting does mention an ATI-related DLL, so if you want to replace your drivers, do the following:

1. Download a new set of ATI drivers. Just use the ones from ATI's website, as the modified ones do not provide a significant performance gain for people who aren't into serious tweaking.

2. Use Driver Cleaner Pro -- following its Readme file -- to completely remove your existing drivers.

3. Install the new ones.

[Cream Soda]

Site jerked me around a bit and didn't give me exact info (like I have mobility HD Radeon 4670) and it had an actual section for mobility radeons and a section for HD radeons, but no mobility HD radeon. Closest thing I found to it was in the HD radeon section, 4600 series, which brought me here, which I will assume for now is the correct driver
Drivers & Tools | GAME.AMD.COM


Edit:
Not sure if it was updating the driver or disabling the IR devices, but I'm now able to get on w/ the original hook.dll(used to crash at the play button) that comes w/ the windower 3.41 download exe. I'm gonna play w/ it (since u don't have to do windower macros the weird way when involving more than 1 /wait). I'll report back if anything goes wrong.

[Cream Soda]

K was going fine a while started acting up again. Went back to beta .dll just in case so will have to see if that works now

Faulting application pol.exe, version 1.18.12.0, time stamp 0x49bfb399, faulting module atiumdag.dll, version 7.14.10.636, time stamp 0x49666ef4, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x0004acd3, process id 0x478, application start time 0x01ca03674545cda8.

System 

  - Provider 

   [ Name]  Application Error 
 
  - EventID 1000 

   [ Qualifiers]  0 
 
   Level 2 
 
   Task 100 
 
   Keywords 0x80000000000000 
 
  - TimeCreated 

   [ SystemTime]  2009-07-13T06:59:02.000Z 
 
   EventRecordID 1957 
 
   Channel Application 
 
   Computer Freeman-PC 
 
   Security 
 

- EventData 

   pol.exe 
   1.18.12.0 
   49bfb399 
   atiumdag.dll 
   7.14.10.636 
   49666ef4 
   c0000005 
   0004acd3 
   478 
   01ca03674545cda8

I'm assuming vid driver still maybe? I downloaded the latest one. Could anyone point me towards one that may work?