GPL problems on XP

My friend Bruce just got GPL and a new Logitech MOMO. I went over yesterday to help him install GPL and all the goodies. (I burned *three* CD's full of tracks, car graphics, and utilities before I left my house. You GPL tweakers are awesome!!) GPL runs great solo on Bruce's machine, but he has some problems: 1. GPL Multiplayer doesn't work. GPL crashes to the desktop (aka CTD) as soon as you try to enter the multiplayer screen. This happens either when launching GPL standalone or from WinVROC (which works ok otherwise). 2. GEM+ doesn't work. When you launch it, it complains that there is an invalid engine parameter in GPL.EXE and then displays a corrupted version of GEM+'s own main page. All of the variable fields are blacked out and other areas have a strange pattern. You can click between sheets but they all have the same problem. 3. GRE doesn't work. It displays error popups when you launch it and when you try to load a setup, and won't load the values in the setup file properly. I went home and tried all these things on my own XP installation (brand new this week!) GPL Multiplayer works fine, as does GEM+. But GRE doesn't work on my machine either. Ok, it looks like GRE has a problem. My brother Nate, who wrote it, says he's received emails from several XP users that are having trouble with GRE. Is anyone running GRE on XP with no problem? Any Visual Basic experts out there who might be able to suggest how to make GRE work on XP machines? The other two issues could be installation-related. On Bruce's machine I installed GPL, GEM+, WinVROC, and GRE using their setup programs. On my own machine, all these programs were already in place, because they were all on the D partition of a hard drive that previously had a Win98 installation on its C partition. After I got XP, I simply formatted C and installed WinXP Pro on it, and then made links to the existing GPL, GEM+, WinVROC, and GRE executables on D. I've looked inside the CABs for GEM+ and GRE and found that both include Visual Basic runtime files and other DLL's. I seem to recall reading that XP already has a VB runtime, so maybe one or both of these installations over-wrote the XP VB modules on Bruce's machine and are causing the problems with GEM+? I can't think of anything that might be causing the multiplayer CTD, though. (See below for more details on Bruce's machine and mine.) My first thought was to roll Bruce's XP back to a restore point prior to when I started messing with his machine <grin> but I figured maybe I should check with you guys first. I think some XP expertise is called for - expertise which I don't have! Has anyone with XP had any of these problems and resolved them, or are there any XP experts who can suggest the best approach? Our machines differ in some ways that might be significant: Bruce's machine: WinXP Home Dell Dimension 4400; Pentium 4 at 1.6 GHz 256MB DDR SDRAM 64MB DDR GeForce3 Ti 200 with DVI Integrated Audio 40GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive 3COM PCI 10/100 Remote Wake Up Network Card 56K PCI Data Fax Modem for Windows 8X/4X/32X CD-RW/DVD Combination Drive Logitech MOMO (new w/rubber & shifter) with 4.20 driver AT&T cable through Toshiba 1100 cable modem and Belkin hardware router (see note below) Alison's machine: WinXP Professional, SP1 Homebuilt ASUS P2B; Celeron at 1.0 GHz 256MB SDRAM GeForce 2 Ultra SoundBlaster Live! Value 40GB and 8GB WD Hard Drives 3COM PCI 10/100 Network Card 40X Acer CD-ROM Drive Logitech FF (Old Red) with 4.20 driver CH Pro pedals with Radio Shack game to USB adapter AT&T cable through Toshiba PCX2200 cable modem and Winroute software router (see previous long thread) Other notes: On Bruce's machine we had to install Papy's Speed Fix for GPL; otherwise GPL just CTD's on startup. My own machine is not fast enough to require the Speed Fix. On Bruce's machine I installed GPL from the CD, and then made a copy of that install. I overlaid my own installation from the CD-R's I burned onto one of the copies. I then applied the Speed Fix to GPL.EXE in both of these installations. Both exhibit the CTD when trying to enter the GPL Multiplayer screen. Since Bruce's fresh GPL install had a "virgin" copy of GPL.EXE from the GPL CD with only the Speed Fix applied, it appears that the multiplayer CTD isn't related to the GPL 1.2 patch, sound patch, Disco Fix, Bart Westra's Cars Behind patch or whatever other patches might have been applied to the copy of my own GPL.EXE. The original GEM (aka EngineChanger.exe) also complains that there is an invalid engine parameter in GPL.EXE. GEM and GEM+ work fine on a copy of the same GPL.EXE on my own XP install. We bypassed Bruce's hardware router and connected his computer directly to his cable modem. This didn't make any difference; GPL still did a CTD when attempting to enter the multiplayer screen. We also tried setting alternate_ip_addr_lookup to 0 in core.ini (normally it has to be set to 1 on my machines). No joy. Thanks in advance for any help you might have, guys! Alison From: [email hidden] Reply-To: [email hidden] Remove the spam blocker ARGLEBARGLE to email me. http://eaglewoman.maximumspeed.com

On Fri, 08 Nov 2002 14:41:03 GMT, Alison Hine <[email hidden]> wrote: >My friend Bruce just got GPL and a new Logitech MOMO. I went over >yesterday to help him install GPL ... [snip] Should have mentioned up front that Bruce's machine has XP Home on it. I noticed the earlier thread about disk indexing on NTFS under XP, so we checked Bruce's machine. He has NTFS and disk indexing was turned on for the GPL folder but the disk indexing service wasn't started. We started the disk indexing service and tried running GPL, but it crashed as usual when entering the multiplayer screen. Alison From: [email hidden] Reply-To: [email hidden] Remove the spam blocker ARGLEBARGLE to email me. http://eaglewoman.maximumspeed.com

On Fri, 08 Nov 2002 14:41:03 GMT, Alison Hine <[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted text (13 lines)

>3. GRE doesn't work. It displays error popups when you launch it and >when you try to load a setup, and won't load the values in the setup >file properly. > >I went home and tried all these things on my own XP installation (brand >new this week!) GPL Multiplayer works fine, as does GEM+. But GRE >doesn't work on my machine either. > >Ok, it looks like GRE has a problem. My brother Nate, who wrote it, >says he's received emails from several XP users that are having trouble >with GRE. Is anyone running GRE on XP with no problem? Any Visual >Basic experts out there who might be able to suggest how to make GRE >work on XP machines?

I'm running GRE in XP Home and the only error I've been receiving is "parseTrackIni: Error 52 - Bad file name or number at C:\games\sierra\GPL\tracks\<none>\track.ini". I'm guessing this isn't OS-related, probably a typo in one of my season.ini files somewhere that I haven't been able to find. Otherwise it runs fine, I can save/load setups, copy chassis and gearboxes, etc. No crashes or anything. FWIW, I'm also using FAT32 which may/may not make a diffference. Jason

"Jason Moyer" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

Quoted text (11 lines)

> I'm running GRE in XP Home and the only error I've been receiving is > "parseTrackIni: Error 52 - Bad file name or number at > C:\games\sierra\GPL\tracks\<none>\track.ini". I'm guessing this isn't > OS-related, probably a typo in one of my season.ini files somewhere > that I haven't been able to find. > > Otherwise it runs fine, I can save/load setups, copy chassis and > gearboxes, etc. No crashes or anything. FWIW, I'm also using FAT32 > which may/may not make a diffference. > > Jason

If it's of any interest I get exactly the same error, and am also using FAT32 on xp pro. Haven't re-installed engine manager since I upgraded to xp, might have a try and see what happens

On Fri, 08 Nov 2002 20:10:07 GMT, [email hidden] (Jason Moyer) wrote:

Quoted text (17 lines)

>>Ok, it looks like GRE has a problem. My brother Nate, who wrote it, >>says he's received emails from several XP users that are having trouble >>with GRE. Is anyone running GRE on XP with no problem? Any Visual >>Basic experts out there who might be able to suggest how to make GRE >>work on XP machines? > >I'm running GRE in XP Home and the only error I've been receiving is >"parseTrackIni: Error 52 - Bad file name or number at >C:\games\sierra\GPL\tracks\<none>\track.ini". I'm guessing this isn't >OS-related, probably a typo in one of my season.ini files somewhere >that I haven't been able to find. > >Otherwise it runs fine, I can save/load setups, copy chassis and >gearboxes, etc. No crashes or anything. FWIW, I'm also using FAT32 >which may/may not make a diffference. > >Jason

I have the same exact problem. I never used GRE when I was using win98 so I dont' know if this is an XP problem. -- karkrazy AT softhome DOT net http://karkrazy.m4driving.sm

Alison Hine <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>... > On Fri, 08 Nov 2002 14:41:03 GMT, Alison Hine <[email hidden]> > wrote: > > >My friend Bruce just got GPL and a new Logitech MOMO. I went over > >yesterday to help him install GPL ... [snip] [snip] A few possibly obvious - and maybe irrelevant ;) - questions, but: -Have you tried Compatability mode for the apps that are crashing? -Wasn't there an issue where GPL tried to poll your COM ports or modem when you went into multiplayer? I have some vague recollection of this, and maybe that's the source of the crash? -Is he running as an administrator of his own machine? (Don't know if that's relevant for XP Home - only bothered with XP Pro so far). -How does he connect to the Internet? Is the internet connection firewall (or some other firewall prog) on? Haven't heard of a problem there, but you never know. HTH, Kendt

"cc" <[email hidden]> schreef in bericht news:[email hidden]... > On Fri, 08 Nov 2002 20:10:07 GMT, [email hidden] (Jason Moyer) > wrote: > > I have the same exact problem. I never used GRE when I was using > win98 so I dont' know if this is an XP problem. FWIW: GRE refuses to install on my W98SE too (the full install setup.exe). Bye, Leo

"Alison Hine" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > GPL runs great solo on Bruce's machine, but he has some problems: > > 1. GPL Multiplayer doesn't work. <SNIP> > 2. GEM+ doesn't work. <SNIP> > 3. GRE doesn't work. <SNIP> Alison (I can't believe I'm replying to the famous Alison Hine! :-) ), I run GPL on WinXP Pro without any trouble at all, no compatibility mode needed. I recently had similar troubles when I installed GPL on another (brand new) machine with XP Pro. I tried several things to fix it, but in the end I simply copied the GPL folders (less my player files) from my good install over the new install. It then worked exactly as it should. This had the added benefit that the new install also had all the additional tracks and car graphic updates in one simple step. As for GEM+, I never managed to get it to work at all. GRE also gives me the initial error 52 (as others have reported), after which it appears to work OK. Hope this helps. -- - Peter Ogden (GPLRank: -9.312) Perth, Western Australia http://www.locost7.info --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.413 / Virus Database: 232 - Release Date: 6/11/2002

On Fri, 08 Nov 2002 16:20:38 -0800, cc <[email hidden]> wrote: >I have the same exact problem. I never used GRE when I was using >win98 so I dont' know if this is an XP problem. Does it still work otherwise? I get the "could not parse..." error message, but the software still works exactly as it should functionality wise. I just have to click "ok" everytime I open a setup. Jason

On Sat, 09 Nov 2002 06:08:24 GMT, [email hidden] (Jason Moyer) wrote:

Quoted text (12 lines)

>On Fri, 08 Nov 2002 16:20:38 -0800, cc <[email hidden]> >wrote: > >>I have the same exact problem. I never used GRE when I was using >>win98 so I dont' know if this is an XP problem. > >Does it still work otherwise? I get the "could not parse..." error >message, but the software still works exactly as it should >functionality wise. I just have to click "ok" everytime I open a >setup. > >Jason

Yes it continues to work after I click "OK", like you said it also pops with the same error when I try to load another setup. It's just annoying. Just an observation. Try to load setup, when the error pops up, don't click okay just yet, look at the Setup Target section of GRE (next to the image of the guy holding a wrench), you'll notice it's trying to load up the "<none>" field, that's why the error appears. -- karkrazy AT softhome DOT net http://karkrazy.m4driving.sm

Good suggestions, Kendt! I had Bruce check all these things (he'a already running as an administrator) but still no luck. :-( Alison On 8 Nov 2002 17:28:05 -0800, [email hidden] (Kendt Eklund) wrote:

Quoted text (23 lines)

>Alison Hine <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>... >> On Fri, 08 Nov 2002 14:41:03 GMT, Alison Hine <[email hidden]> >> wrote: >> >> >My friend Bruce just got GPL and a new Logitech MOMO. I went over >> >yesterday to help him install GPL ... [snip] > >[snip] > >A few possibly obvious - and maybe irrelevant ;) - questions, but: > >-Have you tried Compatability mode for the apps that are crashing? >-Wasn't there an issue where GPL tried to poll your COM ports or modem >when you went into multiplayer? I have some vague recollection of >this, and maybe that's the source of the crash? >-Is he running as an administrator of his own machine? (Don't know if >that's relevant for XP Home - only bothered with XP Pro so far). >-How does he connect to the Internet? Is the internet connection >firewall (or some other firewall prog) on? Haven't heard of a problem >there, but you never know. > >HTH, >Kendt

Alison From: [email hidden] Reply-To: [email hidden] Remove the spam blocker ARGLEBARGLE to email me. http://eaglewoman.maximumspeed.com

Hmm. As I recall that was the same error we got on GRE on Bruce's machine. We were running out of time so didn't get to check thoroughly, but I tried loading a second setup and then doing a save as, and I thought it changed the values. Maybe I was wrong. Will have to check again. Interesting that everyone seems to be getting the same error from GRE on XP. Hopefully that means it won't be too hard to fix. Alison On Fri, 08 Nov 2002 20:10:07 GMT, [email hidden] (Jason Moyer) wrote:

Quoted text (29 lines)

>On Fri, 08 Nov 2002 14:41:03 GMT, Alison Hine <[email hidden]> >wrote: > > >>3. GRE doesn't work. It displays error popups when you launch it and >>when you try to load a setup, and won't load the values in the setup >>file properly. >> >>I went home and tried all these things on my own XP installation (brand >>new this week!) GPL Multiplayer works fine, as does GEM+. But GRE >>doesn't work on my machine either. >> >>Ok, it looks like GRE has a problem. My brother Nate, who wrote it, >>says he's received emails from several XP users that are having trouble >>with GRE. Is anyone running GRE on XP with no problem? Any Visual >>Basic experts out there who might be able to suggest how to make GRE >>work on XP machines? > >I'm running GRE in XP Home and the only error I've been receiving is >"parseTrackIni: Error 52 - Bad file name or number at >C:\games\sierra\GPL\tracks\<none>\track.ini". I'm guessing this isn't >OS-related, probably a typo in one of my season.ini files somewhere >that I haven't been able to find. > >Otherwise it runs fine, I can save/load setups, copy chassis and >gearboxes, etc. No crashes or anything. FWIW, I'm also using FAT32 >which may/may not make a diffference. > >Jason

Alison From: [email hidden] Reply-To: [email hidden] Remove the spam blocker ARGLEBARGLE to email me. http://eaglewoman.maximumspeed.com

Thanks, Peter! Good suggestion! However, I did try this and had no luck. I actually took three CD's over to Bruce's, one with a copy of my own GPL install and some tracks, and the others filled with other tracks. This install has the same problem as the clean install we did from the Papy GPL CD; it crashes to desktop when we try to enter the multiplayer screen. However, since Bruce's machine requires the speed patch, and mine didn't, we had to apply the speed patch on his machine. It's occurred to me that maybe there's something about the speed patch installation that screws up under XP. Just now I've applied the speed patch on one of my own Win98 machines, and I'm emailing Bruce the resulting exe. Maybe that will resolve the problem. Anybody else using the GPL Speed Patch on XP? Alison On Sat, 9 Nov 2002 12:58:23 +0800, "Peter Ogden" <[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted text (24 lines)

>"Alison Hine" <[email hidden]> wrote in message >news:[email hidden]... > >> GPL runs great solo on Bruce's machine, but he has some problems: >> >> 1. GPL Multiplayer doesn't work. <SNIP> >> 2. GEM+ doesn't work. <SNIP> >> 3. GRE doesn't work. <SNIP> > >Alison (I can't believe I'm replying to the famous Alison Hine! :-) ), > >I run GPL on WinXP Pro without any trouble at all, no compatibility mode >needed. I recently had similar troubles when I installed GPL on another >(brand new) machine with XP Pro. I tried several things to fix it, but in >the end I simply copied the GPL folders (less my player files) from my good >install over the new install. It then worked exactly as it should. This had >the added benefit that the new install also had all the additional tracks >and car graphic updates in one simple step. > >As for GEM+, I never managed to get it to work at all. GRE also gives me the >initial error 52 (as others have reported), after which it appears to work >OK. > >Hope this helps.

Alison From: [email hidden] Reply-To: [email hidden] Remove the spam blocker ARGLEBARGLE to email me. http://eaglewoman.maximumspeed.com

Yes i use the speed patch on XP-pro and Service Pack 1 and it works fine..... Abit KR7A XP1600 Hecules Fortissimo III 7.1 "Alison Hine" <[email hidden]> skrev i melding news:[email hidden]...

Quoted text (41 lines)

> Thanks, Peter! Good suggestion! > > However, I did try this and had no luck. I actually took three CD's > over to Bruce's, one with a copy of my own GPL install and some tracks, > and the others filled with other tracks. > > This install has the same problem as the clean install we did from the > Papy GPL CD; it crashes to desktop when we try to enter the multiplayer > screen. > > However, since Bruce's machine requires the speed patch, and mine > didn't, we had to apply the speed patch on his machine. It's occurred > to me that maybe there's something about the speed patch installation > that screws up under XP. > > Just now I've applied the speed patch on one of my own Win98 machines, > and I'm emailing Bruce the resulting exe. Maybe that will resolve the > problem. > > Anybody else using the GPL Speed Patch on XP? > > Alison > > On Sat, 9 Nov 2002 12:58:23 +0800, "Peter Ogden" > <[email hidden]> wrote: > > >"Alison Hine" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > >news:[email hidden]... > > > >> GPL runs great solo on Bruce's machine, but he has some problems: > >> > >> 1. GPL Multiplayer doesn't work. <SNIP> > >> 2. GEM+ doesn't work. <SNIP> > >> 3. GRE doesn't work. <SNIP> > > > >Alison (I can't believe I'm replying to the famous Alison Hine! :-) ), > > > >I run GPL on WinXP Pro without any trouble at all, no compatibility mode > >needed. I recently had similar troubles when I installed GPL on another > >(brand new) machine with XP Pro. I tried several things to fix it, but in > >the end I simply copied the GPL folders (less my player files) from my

good > >install over the new install. It then worked exactly as it should. Thishad > >the added benefit that the new install also had all the additional tracks > >and car graphic updates in one simple step. > > > >As for GEM+, I never managed to get it to work at all. GRE also gives methe > >initial error 52 (as others have reported), after which it appears towork

Quoted text (11 lines)

> >OK. > > > >Hope this helps. > > > Alison > > From: [email hidden] > Reply-To: [email hidden] > Remove the spam blocker ARGLEBARGLE to email me. > http://eaglewoman.maximumspeed.com

Alison Hine wrote:

Quoted text (7 lines)

> [...] > It's occurred > to me that maybe there's something about the speed patch installation > that screws up under XP. > [...] > Anybody else using the GPL Speed Patch on XP? >

Hi Alison I'm running GPL with the speed fix under WinXP Pro SP1 without any problems. I did a fresh install from the original CD to a FAT32 drive. Then updated to GPL 1.2, installed the D3D patch and cpu speed fix. Finally I replaced the cars, players, seasons and tracks directories plus some files in the main directory by the files from my old PC. I've never been racing online. But this morning I tried to start a multiplayer race on my two PCs over LAN, and it worked fine (well, racing against myself on two PCs with just one monitor and keyboard connected by a switchbox is a little bit tricky ;-) Just an idea: is there a desktop firewall running on that machine, or is the XP built-in firewall enabled? I remember some discussions in this ng about issues with GPL and firewalls. Good luck Werner PC specs: Win XP Pro SP1 DirectX 8.1 Intel P4 2.2 GHz 512 MB RAM Asus P4B266-E Board Asus V8420 (gf4 ti 4200) C-Media soundchip onboard 2x 40 GB WesternDigital HDs, all partitions FAT32 -----= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =----- http://www.newsfeeds.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! -----== Over 80,000 Newsgroups - 16 Different Servers! =-----

Alison Hine wrote: > 1. GPL Multiplayer doesn't work. GPL crashes to the desktop (aka CTD) > as soon as you try to enter the multiplayer screen. This happens either > when launching GPL standalone or from WinVROC (which works ok > otherwise). Has he got FSAA on? If so, he needs to turn it off.

Andy Wilke had the right solution-- that apparently the patching did not work. He suggested "how many files you have in your layout-folder in GPL.If its only one, then there was an error with patching to version 1.2Please Unzip http://www.sim-replays.de/LayUK.zip to the layout folder. Bruce Allen (the one that originally had the problem)

"Alison Hine" wrote ... >>> My friend Bruce just got GPL and ... he has some problems: <<< I've been away from the board for a long time, so you probably solved all of this long ago. I've been running GPL on XP Home with no problems, and both GEM+ and GRE run without issue. Since GRE is your baby, let me know if he's still having problems with that and if you want to compare some files or settings with me or whatever.