Can't play CoH Opposing Fronts despite "great" hardware

I bought Opposing Fronts today ... what a nightmare. I have a Vostro 1500 with 2gb of RAM, C2D cpu, Vista Basic, and 8600M GT gpu. The original CoH played great at high settings, no problems. After installing this and it reviewed my hardware, every single component was rated by the installer as "great."

Well, install number 1. Finished, try to play, says I need a huge patch. Wait forever, reboot, restart the game. Next, it says I need yet ANOTHER patch. For good measure, it says I need to install a Vista update to run at high resolutions. OK, install both. Ready to play? Why, of course not!

I try to play a campaign game, skirmish, or even the tutorial; it loads, turns black, and nada. I've uninstalled it, updated the video driver, downloaded the recommended Vista update. Still, every time the game begins, it just I just get a black screen with a cursor (BTW, does it matter that I'm using a Razer Deathadder with the Razer drivers?). Then, it says the program has stopped responding.

Anyway, this is the problem as detailed by windows (edited for what may be system specific info):

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: RelicCOH.exe
Application Version: 2.102.0.1706
Application Timestamp: 47041749
Fault Module Name: Debug.dll
Fault Module Version: 2.102.0.1706
Fault Module Timestamp: 46ef5d68
Exception Code: 80000003
Exception Offset: 00005f5d
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.768.2

After this happens, it tells me my video controller has ceased functioning but has recovered. PLEASE, does someone have a solution for this? I'd really appreciate it; I really don't need any more $40 drink coasters around.

 

Did you try the annoyingly slow method of uninstalling your old video drivers, booting in safe mode to run Driver Cleaner, then rebooting again to install the new drivers? If not, try it.

If that doesn't work, Google for a solution until your fingers fall off.

And if that doesn't work... format? With your toes, of course.

 

It sounds like you may tried it already, but uninstalling the Video driver, and everything related to CoH(including the original), then running driver cleaner, and deleting and files left over from the CoH installs.

Update Vista, install video driver, reboot. Install CoH Opposing fronts, you should be able to just put in the CD key to the original if it isn't already linked. Don't use DX10 mode by the way. It sounds like a strange issue though.

 

Thanks, have tried all that good stuff. Four full uninstallations and reinstallations have achieved nothing. I just don't get it.

 

Have you tried running the compatibility mode for WinXP?

 

You can also try to run the executable as Administrator but your problem doesn't sound like that quick of a fix. Good luck.

 

P.Schneider, thanks, tried that for installation no. 3. NotYou, no, I haven't; will give it a try.

 

Try rolling back to a previous driver, maybe? I've found the 163.44 driver to be somewhat old, but it is quite stable and compatible with all of my games. Otherwise you could try one of the tri-flavor 169 drivers.

 

Almost worked, notyou. I actually got a game screen, but it just flashed several times, then crashed. Argh.

Storm, I may give that a try, but this is really the first time I've had a video issue with any game with this machine, and the original CoH ran flawlessly. Thanks all for the suggestions. PLEASE, keep them coming.

 

I doubt it is a memory overflow and I assume the game already had you apply this patch, but if it does not here is the location of the video memory hotfix from Microsoft's website.

 

Thanks guys, got it fixed. It had automatically set the video settings to Direct X 10; I reset it to "high" and it works like a charm.

 

Hey that's what I told you to do!

Even if you missed it, glad you got it working.