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Author Topic:   Terran.exe crash

Gary posted 03-06-99 09:16 AM ET
I guess I'm in Terran.exe crash group. I have an IBM Aptiva, Pentium II, 266Mhz, with 64Mb RAM. I had run DXDiag and a couple of tests failed so I updated to DirectX 6.1 and was hopeful after DXDiag ran clean through the tests. However, I once again crashed last night in year 2331 which is about where I was seeing the crash before. I'm sorry but I'm just not a computer/Win95 wizard. I am a simple user. I do not have the time nor knowledge to troubleshoot this problem. I have purchased about a dozen of the latest games over this last year and have played them for hours without any problem. I will monitor this forum to see if this problem ever gets fixed but until that time I will have to stop playing it and recommend to my friends that they not buy it.
Bastian Laubner posted 03-06-99 10:21 AM ET
Hi!
Seems like I'm not the only one having problems with terran.exe. The first time I started the game, it ran about 10 mission years and then crashed down because of the terran.exe. Since that time terran.exe no longer crashes, but the game simply disappears after a certain time, e.g. when I want to move a unit. terran.exe is still running then, but it's not possible to reactivate it.
For there is no message why the game crashes, I have no idea how to solve this problem. I have a AMD K6-233 with 64 MB RAM, Matrox Millennium and Diamond Monster and Win95. There are no problems marked out and the swapfile is 100 MB of size.
If you can, please make a patch to fix this problem. Once I was able to play about 150 mission years before it crashed, but believe me it's no fun at all to restart it every 10 mission years.
Bye,
Bastian
robertc posted 03-06-99 07:09 PM ET
I am having the same problems. My game crashes at about the same point every time. Now if I start a new game it randomly crashes. Before I installed the update, the game play would become erratic then it would crash. Now after I've installed the update, the sound doesn't work properly. It lags behind the game play, is erratic and eventually crashes the game. I have a PII 300, 64MB RAM, Monster Fusion, and Monster Sound MX300. I hope there is a simple fix for this.
wyzzard posted 03-06-99 09:10 PM ET
I posted an earlier retort to this "terran" fatal error, but thought I would add another two cents worth.
My latest, and last game until they fix this mess, was playing the gaians. I had a coastal city that if I entered it, the game crashed. Soon, I learned not to enter or have anything to do with the city. Then, the game crashed about a hundred turns later, relentlessly.
My computer is a P350, 64 megs of ram, 8 meg TNT rivia video, with plenty of hard drive with a full install.
P.S. The sound stinks as well, I get hisses, gurps, burps, and stuttering on everything, even after setting the values indicated in the ini file to "0"\
Wyzzard
BarCop posted 03-06-99 09:14 PM ET
I have found that on my AMD K6 233, 128 megs of RAM, 4 MB Diamond Stealth 3D card system, that every time I get the terran.exe crash, its because I ran out of Virtual Memory.
Make sure that your Virtual Memory setting are correctly set.
If you don't know what Virtual Memory is, or don't know how to adjust it.........I wouldn't mess with it.....find someone that knows what they are doing.
I hope this helps.
BarCop
Gary posted 03-06-99 10:04 PM ET
How would I know if I'm running out of Virtual Memory? I'm running Win95 and have simply selected "Let Windows manage my virtual memory settings (recommended)" from the control panel. The other option is to make a manual selection where I still have 2Gb of my harddrive available.
Gary posted 03-07-99 11:18 AM ET
Just an update to my previous comments...I tried playing with the CD in the drive and much to my surprise I was able to get beyond the point where the game had previously crashed with the Terran.exe fault. This was with a saved game that had consistently crashed within 2-3 turns of restart. Jeff, since this was suggested as one of the "fixes" perhaps you could give me an idea of what is going on in this case that the CD makes a difference.
Also, since I had a chance to finally play a game a little further I ran into another question. The Hive (not me) was kicking everyone's butt. Yang called a meeting to have himself declared the Unified commander (or some such thing.) I voted nay with the other three remaining factions. Yang had enough votes though and the resolution carried. Next thing I knew since I had voted nay all the other factions were united in a vendetta against me despite the fact they had all voted nay also. Seems like mighty strange logic. Is this an AI bug or should I have expected that results?
Mcerion posted 03-07-99 03:20 PM ET
I too have run consistently into the "terran.exe" bug. I have tried all the workarounds suggested in the posts and they don't work. I have also sent my machine specs and a saved game to Jeff at Firaxis, but I didn't get a response. I also included the bug report that my Norton Crash Guard had generated.
The only workaround I have found is to use the Norton Crash Guard. It has been the only safeguard. It usually, but not always, fixes the problem.
I'm tired of hearing that the problem is due to a lack of virtual memory. I have 96mb ram and close to a gigabyte of free hard drive space. How much space does this game need? Is it worse than Unreal?
I have the all the latest drivers.
Ourobouros posted 03-07-99 04:51 PM ET
I had the crash too, and I managed to narrow it down to a specific computer unit. I'd reload the game, watch the computer move units, and each time it got to a particular one, BANG! I backed up a few turns, fought that player and destroyed that piece, and presto, it works.
Now I'm much later in the same game, but I can't seem to narrow it down this time. :-( I hope someday to finish a game of SMAC, but I haven't get. What a waste.
Tamia posted 03-08-99 05:03 PM ET
I had this exact trouble after I moved my missle skimship. My drivers are updated and I have lots of virtual memory. I may have found a solution. I went to preferences, then under video, I think, and I checked the box that said to make the entire unit flash at it's turn. Since I did that it hasn't locked up. I have contiuned playing for quite a while. I would be interested to hear if this solves anyone else's lock up. I hope this works! If not, I give up.
Valla posted 03-10-99 10:17 AM ET
I have had multiple games crash with the TERRAN.EXE file after installing a complete game and playing without the CD at work; at home I have a partial load, and always use the CD and have yet to have it crash. There is no pattern as to what casues it overall, but there is a pattern in each specific game each specific time. For example, in one game, it was when I moved a sea colony pod to a specific spot. I stopped doing that, and it later started crashing when I moved a shard copter to attack a certian city, I stopped doing that. In these cases, I was able to fix the "problem" by avoiding it and performing some other action. I have played as every faction, and in every one of my games, I have had a crash somewhere (although some after the uear 2300 could be attributed to low virtual memory after playing several hours straight with occassional programs running in the background). There is no apparent pattern to what causes it as far as internal game settings (options, preferences, random this and that, faction selection, technologies, etc.) I have not kept track of how many times it has crashed with the CD as opposed to how many without, so keeping the CD in might be a factor (I have one load at home that was a partial, and always use the CD with it, and it has never crashed once.)
The problem that can't readily be solved is when the crash occurs on the computer turn. I have gone back as far as 10 turns, and still had the crash happen with what appears to be the same unit. There is no way to know when that unit will not act the same unless you go back so far and alter your strategy so much as to create a whole new game within the game you were playing. I have re-installed the program both with and without the 2.0 patch, and I still get TERRAN.EXE crashes.
Since I have a Gateway PII-33 at work (with ultra-compatible everything), I would expect it to work better than the hybrid-mutt P-166 I have at home, but it doesn't; at least not when comparing a complete install with no CD use to a partial install and using the CD.
My brother also had problems on his Compaq with a complete install, so he re-installed it as a partial and uses the CD, and has had no crashes (he's got other problems, but not the TERRAN.EXE crash).
My bottom line advice is that if it keeps crashing on a complete install, try using the CD, if it still crashes, re-install it with a partial, and like 99% of all games, use the CD.
There is certainly a glitch, or bug, or whatever you want to call it when running the complete install without using the CD
SPAWNIE posted 03-10-99 03:43 PM ET
DAMN IT ...
It seems that thiz game has the same ****ty
bugz than Baldur's Gate.Unplayable without
a major bugfix.Hey,fellaz,what da heck is going on? I threw 50 bucks over the desk and what did i get? A CD with sum Paper to make
fire.I got the well-known TERRAN.EXE error
but noone seems to have a solution to fix it.
Shame on FirAxis and shame on all ya Computergamedevelopers,releasing such programs! I think thiz was the last time I bought a program before a major bugfix is released....
Have fun ya'll! SPAWNSIE!
Jeffrey Morris FIRAXIS posted 03-10-99 03:45 PM ET
Uh, usually there is a fix, Spawnsie. Where is it crashing? What's your system specs? What have you tried?
jkm
firaxis games
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Author	Topic: Terran.exe crash
Gary	posted 03-06-99 09:16 AM ET I guess I'm in Terran.exe crash group. I have an IBM Aptiva, Pentium II, 266Mhz, with 64Mb RAM. I had run DXDiag and a couple of tests failed so I updated to DirectX 6.1 and was hopeful after DXDiag ran clean through the tests. However, I once again crashed last night in year 2331 which is about where I was seeing the crash before. I'm sorry but I'm just not a computer/Win95 wizard. I am a simple user. I do not have the time nor knowledge to troubleshoot this problem. I have purchased about a dozen of the latest games over this last year and have played them for hours without any problem. I will monitor this forum to see if this problem ever gets fixed but until that time I will have to stop playing it and recommend to my friends that they not buy it.
Bastian Laubner	posted 03-06-99 10:21 AM ET Hi! Seems like I'm not the only one having problems with terran.exe. The first time I started the game, it ran about 10 mission years and then crashed down because of the terran.exe. Since that time terran.exe no longer crashes, but the game simply disappears after a certain time, e.g. when I want to move a unit. terran.exe is still running then, but it's not possible to reactivate it. For there is no message why the game crashes, I have no idea how to solve this problem. I have a AMD K6-233 with 64 MB RAM, Matrox Millennium and Diamond Monster and Win95. There are no problems marked out and the swapfile is 100 MB of size. If you can, please make a patch to fix this problem. Once I was able to play about 150 mission years before it crashed, but believe me it's no fun at all to restart it every 10 mission years. Bye, Bastian
robertc	posted 03-06-99 07:09 PM ET I am having the same problems. My game crashes at about the same point every time. Now if I start a new game it randomly crashes. Before I installed the update, the game play would become erratic then it would crash. Now after I've installed the update, the sound doesn't work properly. It lags behind the game play, is erratic and eventually crashes the game. I have a PII 300, 64MB RAM, Monster Fusion, and Monster Sound MX300. I hope there is a simple fix for this.
wyzzard	posted 03-06-99 09:10 PM ET I posted an earlier retort to this "terran" fatal error, but thought I would add another two cents worth. My latest, and last game until they fix this mess, was playing the gaians. I had a coastal city that if I entered it, the game crashed. Soon, I learned not to enter or have anything to do with the city. Then, the game crashed about a hundred turns later, relentlessly. My computer is a P350, 64 megs of ram, 8 meg TNT rivia video, with plenty of hard drive with a full install. P.S. The sound stinks as well, I get hisses, gurps, burps, and stuttering on everything, even after setting the values indicated in the ini file to "0"\ Wyzzard
BarCop	posted 03-06-99 09:14 PM ET I have found that on my AMD K6 233, 128 megs of RAM, 4 MB Diamond Stealth 3D card system, that every time I get the terran.exe crash, its because I ran out of Virtual Memory. Make sure that your Virtual Memory setting are correctly set. If you don't know what Virtual Memory is, or don't know how to adjust it.........I wouldn't mess with it.....find someone that knows what they are doing. I hope this helps. BarCop
Gary	posted 03-06-99 10:04 PM ET How would I know if I'm running out of Virtual Memory? I'm running Win95 and have simply selected "Let Windows manage my virtual memory settings (recommended)" from the control panel. The other option is to make a manual selection where I still have 2Gb of my harddrive available.
Gary	posted 03-07-99 11:18 AM ET Just an update to my previous comments...I tried playing with the CD in the drive and much to my surprise I was able to get beyond the point where the game had previously crashed with the Terran.exe fault. This was with a saved game that had consistently crashed within 2-3 turns of restart. Jeff, since this was suggested as one of the "fixes" perhaps you could give me an idea of what is going on in this case that the CD makes a difference. Also, since I had a chance to finally play a game a little further I ran into another question. The Hive (not me) was kicking everyone's butt. Yang called a meeting to have himself declared the Unified commander (or some such thing.) I voted nay with the other three remaining factions. Yang had enough votes though and the resolution carried. Next thing I knew since I had voted nay all the other factions were united in a vendetta against me despite the fact they had all voted nay also. Seems like mighty strange logic. Is this an AI bug or should I have expected that results?
Mcerion	posted 03-07-99 03:20 PM ET I too have run consistently into the "terran.exe" bug. I have tried all the workarounds suggested in the posts and they don't work. I have also sent my machine specs and a saved game to Jeff at Firaxis, but I didn't get a response. I also included the bug report that my Norton Crash Guard had generated. The only workaround I have found is to use the Norton Crash Guard. It has been the only safeguard. It usually, but not always, fixes the problem. I'm tired of hearing that the problem is due to a lack of virtual memory. I have 96mb ram and close to a gigabyte of free hard drive space. How much space does this game need? Is it worse than Unreal? I have the all the latest drivers.
Ourobouros	posted 03-07-99 04:51 PM ET I had the crash too, and I managed to narrow it down to a specific computer unit. I'd reload the game, watch the computer move units, and each time it got to a particular one, BANG! I backed up a few turns, fought that player and destroyed that piece, and presto, it works. Now I'm much later in the same game, but I can't seem to narrow it down this time. :-( I hope someday to finish a game of SMAC, but I haven't get. What a waste.
Tamia	posted 03-08-99 05:03 PM ET I had this exact trouble after I moved my missle skimship. My drivers are updated and I have lots of virtual memory. I may have found a solution. I went to preferences, then under video, I think, and I checked the box that said to make the entire unit flash at it's turn. Since I did that it hasn't locked up. I have contiuned playing for quite a while. I would be interested to hear if this solves anyone else's lock up. I hope this works! If not, I give up.
Valla	posted 03-10-99 10:17 AM ET I have had multiple games crash with the TERRAN.EXE file after installing a complete game and playing without the CD at work; at home I have a partial load, and always use the CD and have yet to have it crash. There is no pattern as to what casues it overall, but there is a pattern in each specific game each specific time. For example, in one game, it was when I moved a sea colony pod to a specific spot. I stopped doing that, and it later started crashing when I moved a shard copter to attack a certian city, I stopped doing that. In these cases, I was able to fix the "problem" by avoiding it and performing some other action. I have played as every faction, and in every one of my games, I have had a crash somewhere (although some after the uear 2300 could be attributed to low virtual memory after playing several hours straight with occassional programs running in the background). There is no apparent pattern to what causes it as far as internal game settings (options, preferences, random this and that, faction selection, technologies, etc.) I have not kept track of how many times it has crashed with the CD as opposed to how many without, so keeping the CD in might be a factor (I have one load at home that was a partial, and always use the CD with it, and it has never crashed once.) The problem that can't readily be solved is when the crash occurs on the computer turn. I have gone back as far as 10 turns, and still had the crash happen with what appears to be the same unit. There is no way to know when that unit will not act the same unless you go back so far and alter your strategy so much as to create a whole new game within the game you were playing. I have re-installed the program both with and without the 2.0 patch, and I still get TERRAN.EXE crashes. Since I have a Gateway PII-33 at work (with ultra-compatible everything), I would expect it to work better than the hybrid-mutt P-166 I have at home, but it doesn't; at least not when comparing a complete install with no CD use to a partial install and using the CD. My brother also had problems on his Compaq with a complete install, so he re-installed it as a partial and uses the CD, and has had no crashes (he's got other problems, but not the TERRAN.EXE crash). My bottom line advice is that if it keeps crashing on a complete install, try using the CD, if it still crashes, re-install it with a partial, and like 99% of all games, use the CD. There is certainly a glitch, or bug, or whatever you want to call it when running the complete install without using the CD
SPAWNIE	posted 03-10-99 03:43 PM ET DAMN IT ... It seems that thiz game has the same ****ty bugz than Baldur's Gate.Unplayable without a major bugfix.Hey,fellaz,what da heck is going on? I threw 50 bucks over the desk and what did i get? A CD with sum Paper to make fire.I got the well-known TERRAN.EXE error but noone seems to have a solution to fix it. Shame on FirAxis and shame on all ya Computergamedevelopers,releasing such programs! I think thiz was the last time I bought a program before a major bugfix is released.... Have fun ya'll! SPAWNSIE!
Jeffrey Morris FIRAXIS	posted 03-10-99 03:45 PM ET Uh, usually there is a fix, Spawnsie. Where is it crashing? What's your system specs? What have you tried? jkm firaxis games