Zugg Software :: View topic - MAJOR problem, multiple computers.... love to buy.

Newbie Joined: 30 May 2003 Posts: 6

hello,

well heres my situation as well as many others that I know.

We would all love to buy acexplorer, but it doesnt make it worth it, when it just INSTALLED, not even run yet, ac wont load. It crashes to the desktop...

Works perfectly before installing ac explorer, stops working AFTER installing.

This is definately an ac explorer problem, not hardware/computer related, being all of my systems vary, as well as the other system vary. Theres not much I can give about this issue. The only thing I have seen, is after ac explorer is installed, whether I reboot or try loading ac first, AC crashes to the desktop. Is there any files ACExplorer uses in the AC directory?

We would all love to make you richer, but its not worth buying software, that doesnt work with the game...

-Chris

Newbie Joined: 30 May 2003 Posts: 6

sorry, should have mentioned these...

after installation of ac explorer, upon trying to restart ANY of the computers, explorer.exe hangs, both on 2000 and XP... Have to manually End Task, is there any other services besides LicCtl that acexplorer uses? as we are powergamers, we disable pretty much all of the services.

the fact that i beleive its acexplorer causing this, is that once I remove acexplorer, restarts work fine, no explorer.exe hanging, and ac once again works fine...

-chris

Posted: Fri May 30, 2003 8:02 pm

LicCtl is the only service that AC Explorer uses. Not sure what to suggest. I use AC Explorer and AC on my Win2000 system here without any troubles like this at all. And since I develop and test on this Win2000 system, it should work best on Win2000. Make sure you are not using any other 3rd party utilities with AC. While I'd love your order, you certainly shouldn't buy it if it isn't working for you. All I can say is that AC Explorer has been out for over 2 years and there are over 6,000 users of it and I'm not getting reports of problems like this from anyone else.

Newbie Joined: 30 May 2003 Posts: 6

Well, I have used ACExplorer before, I dont remember if it was called pro, i think it might even have been a free version??? it was awhile ago, I just recently got AC back so I cant remember. I love the product and such. Does it use the .net framework at all? Im going to format again, and withOUT downloading any of the windows updates from a fresh install, im going to see if it works, or still acts like this, then I will try tracking down EXACTLY what is causing this. The thing is, when we try "Rebooting" the system, BEFORE its installed, explorer.exe works fine, after installation upon selecting reboot through the start menu, explorer.exe hangs, Im totally lost on what exactly could cause this.

Posted: Sat May 31, 2003 6:47 pm

Nope, AC Explorer doesn't use .NET. The new zExplorer version using the MDAC/ADO software, but AC Explorer doesn't.

I assume you mean acxplorer.exe when you mention explorer.exe, right? explorer.exe is Internet Explorer, not AC Explorer.

Newbie Joined: 30 May 2003 Posts: 6

Hello Zugg, no I mean explorer.exe, and thats not Internet Explorer, IE is IEXPLORER.EXE, explorer.exe is the main shell. ACExplorer AFTER installation hangs "explorer.exe" when trying to restart the computer, with ACEXPLORER uninstalled, explorer.exe returns to normal operation, so its definately a ACEXPLORER issue, everything works fine without acexplorer on the drive, as soon as its installed, explorer.exe (which is windows shell) hangs when trying to restart from the start menu... and ac just crashes to desktop, I dont use any third party apps, as well as nothing else running besides the basic required process's for windows to run...

Newbie Joined: 30 May 2003 Posts: 6

sorry, should have added this,,, and im not trying to say anything bad about your program, wed all love to use it, but we cant...

when i say ac crashes to desktop, when we click "play" ac "loads" black screen right before the main screen with the vials show... goes right back to desktop, no error, nothing...

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2003 6:19 pm

I'm afraid I haven't a clue as to what can be wrong. AC Explorer hasn't been updated in almost a year, and with thousands of people using it, nobody else is reporting a problem like this and I can't reproduce any problem on any of my systems here. I'm afraid, even though you say you have the latest updates, that it's still a problem with Windows on your particular computer, but since it sounds like you have already tried installing all the service packs and updates to drivers, I'm not sure what else to suggest.

On Windows 2000 and Windows XP it's nearly impossible for a simply application like AC Explorer to effect other applications on your computer, like AC or Explorer. The only software that has system-wide access which can effect multiple applications is your drivers. Since AC Explorer uses a lot of memory in the video driver, and given the amount of trouble *I* had with video drivers on my WinXP system, that's the first place I would check.

Sorry I couldn't offer more help on this. AC Explorer is really a pretty simple graphics program and isn't doing anything wierd or fancy. The only time it interacts with the AC game client is when you have ACX Server running, which it doesn't sound like you are doing.

Newbie Joined: 30 May 2003 Posts: 6

hmm, heres some more info to whats happening, and I honestly cant see how ACexplorer would do this, if in fact it is, which according to my file logs its the last program run before this happens, so im assuming it is doing this...

but anyway,,, before acexplorer is run, console.exe is around 4xx kb, and client.exe is around 2.1mb, and ive launched, played, and exited AC, rebooted about 5 times, done ittt all over (launched/played/exited), and the file sizes stay with those numbers, after installing, and running acexplorer, the two files change sizes to: console.exe 642kb, and client.exe 2.3mb, and that is why im assuming its failing to launch, client.exe is the wrong file size, and both file with the ORIGINAL file size, are after updating ac to the latest patch...

i dont honestly see how, or even WHY acexplorer would make these 2 files change sizes, but again, according to my file log it is the last program run before the 2 files are modified...

Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2003 6:37 pm

Here's the reply I sent to your email:
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I don't either, especially since the AC Explorer client doesn't even care if the AC client is running or not. As I said, the only program that even looks for the AC game client is the ACX Server program that is used to capture the real-time tracking info. The AC Explorer client itself never even checks for AC running and can be used as a standalone map program and can even be run on a computer that doesn't have AC installed at all.

Just out of curiosity, do you have a virus checker running? You might want to run one and make sure that the AC Explorer file doesn't have some sort of virus attached to it that might be trying to modified other programs that are running.

Wizard Joined: 14 Oct 2000 Posts: 1368

quote:

Just out of curiosity, do you have a virus checker running? You might want to run one and make sure that the AC Explorer file doesn't have some sort of virus attached to it that might be trying to modified other programs that are running.

Perhaps you could do a CRC check on the AC .exe to verify it as well(after the virus check if you get that it didnt find any) if it should be so rare that it is an unknown virus.

Rorso
Currently using zMUD 6.62

Newbie Joined: 29 Jun 2003 Posts: 3 Location: USA

I have an odd feeling I know what this problem is/was. I think the user uploaded Decal, either had a wrong version/didn't update the memlocs, and then, before starting AC, fired up the ACExplorer client. Then of course, when going into game, the game would crash. Since everything was fine during the Decal load (game not started yet), and ACExplorer was last, they assumed it was that product, since no error messages arrived during the Decal load, only in it's execution in the client. Just a hunch...hope this helps. Wink

Reason I get that feeling, is due to the user skirting around the issue a bit when loading other 3rd party apps. Heh. Smile