Topic: SFC 3 problems with windows 7

[carch]

Hey everyone, first of all I'm really glad to have found this forum, I love starfleet command 3 (don't have any of the others yet sadly).
However, I recently decided to start it up on my laptop again (I'm fairly sure I played it on it before, not 100% anymore though), and the game simply won't work any more. Pretty much regardless of what i do (the suggestions concerning administrator access, compatibility mode with windows 95 through all the options to windows vista) after the intro movies are done i get the following error:

Unhandled Exception! in Version 1.01 Build 531
SFC3.exe caused an EXCEPTION_INT_DIVIDE_BY_ZERO in module SFC3.exe at 0023:007B9814

now, I assumed it was something to do with my installation, so I reinstalled it, applied the latest patch (534b if I have the numbers in the right order), and I still get this error. I've spent a good few hours experimenting with various patches, compatibility settings and google searches and just can't find anything on this. does anyone here have any experience with the problem, or any other tips on getting it to run? A lot of people seem to have no problems, and I can remember running it on my laptop, so I'm myself confused as to what has changed.

[JanB]

As you said other people don't have any problems at all. I myself have it running on two completely different Win 7 machines, and with no compatibility or administrator settings.

One thing I can think of is that perhaps you have 64bit Win 7 and installed the game under "program files" (instead of "program files (x86)", or any other folder that's not within "program files"), this can cause problems.

Another thing that I find strange is that your error message says "Build 531", it should say "Build 534" (because of patch 534), whenever my game crashes that's what it says. I pulled up location 007B9814 of my SFC3.exe file (build 534) in IDA Pro and it's not the first bit of a command, so it cannot give an error message. I think your SFC3.exe file was never patched to build 534. As to why that happened, it may have to do with the "program files" point, but it's also possible you didn't install the 534b patch to the right directory (for example if you have over time installed multiple instances of SFC3 the patch installer will remember the latest path, so check if that path is correct), or you might have patched incorrectly, you should only use the 534b patch: http://www.gamefront.com/files/files/3853085/sfc3patch1.01beta2buildv534b.exe . If you try different patches they'll screw up your installation. I suggest scrubbing your system of any SFC3 installations, then reinstalling the game within program files (x86)  and then applying the patch from the link I just provided and checking that it installs into the right directory (probably "C:\Program Files (x86)\Activision\SFC3" ).

[carch]

yeah... that number is 'probably' to do with the ffact I was trying out different patches and compatibility settings. still, I tried your suggestion (thanks for helping!) and.. still. get this error message. I'll post it in full now, as you seem to know how the hex editors would work.

Unhandled Exception! in Version 1.01 Build 534
SFC3.exe caused an EXCEPTION_INT_DIVIDE_BY_ZERO in module SFC3.exe at 0023:007B9904

EAX=00000000  EBX=75F5166B  ECX=00000000  EDX=00000000  ESI=03B60038
EDI=03B60078  EBP=0018FE58  ESP=0018FDFC  EIP=007B9904  FLG=00010246
CS=0023   DS=002B  SS=002B  ES=002B   FS=0053  GS=002B

0023:007B9904 (0x0099DE20 0x00407366 0x75E57D79 0x00631B65) SFC3.exe
0023:0040599E (0x00400000 0x01163372 0x00000001 0x00000000) SFC3.exe
0023:00632653 (0x7EFDE000 0x0018FFD4 0x77499F42 0x7EFDE000) SFC3.exe
0023:75F53677 (0x7EFDE000 0x7759FCFA 0x00000000 0x00000000) kernel32.dll, BaseThreadInitThunk()+0018 byte(s)
0023:77499F42 (0x007B9AB9 0x7EFDE000 0x00000000 0x00000000) ntdll.dll
0023:77499F15 (0x007B9AB9 0x7EFDE000 0x00000000 0x78746341) ntdll.dll

just to be sure, my install directory is 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Activision\Sfc3' that.. should. be right.. right?


o-kay. I'm mystified now. I decided, to try and install it on my desktop, which also runs windows 7 and is brand new (well, 6 months. but still) it runs perfectly after the patch.
so.. somewhere. on my laptop. something is wrong.

[JanB]

There is indeed a division command at 007B9904. Unfortunately IDA refuses to decompile the surrounding function. I'm guessing it's either a hardware problem with your laptop or some conflict with other software. I know that's very broad but since you've got it working on your desktop we have gotten a little further (we now know you've installed and patched correctly and that the cd rom or image file you used isn't corrupted). You could check to see if it's a software conflict by reinstalling Win 7 (often these conflicts arise from antivirus software so don't reinstall those before you've tested the game on a clean Win 7 installation), if you're willing to do that. If that doesn't help it has to be a hardware problem by definition (there's a small chance you'd just have to change a bios setting but it's more likely something is really broken, like the harddrive, memory or the dvd drive if you install the game from a cd rom). Could you list your laptop's hardware specs?

P.S. your install directory is fine.