Hi everyone, I was here a little bit ago about the same issue, and after that I went to uber support. I got directed here by the staff member assisting me because there is a helpful user here called SXX from memory! So, I'll copy and paste the relevant things into this: ----- Upon launching it (after first time setup and whatnot), I immediately get greeted with that dreaded message which in this case says 'pa.exe has stopped working'. After quite a long time of searching, I have tried numerous things, including downloading the DirectX files from the links posted from Uberent, and starting it from the PA directory (both normally and as an administrator). I saw a few times about updating Video/sound Card drivers. I would, but I use one of these annoying Sony VAIO Z series laptops with the hybrid graphics so I'm stuck on a pretty old version of either an Intel graphics card or an NVidia Geforce 330M card which is the one I use most of the time. I have tested it on both of these cards (By switching the selector between the 2) to no avail. I do have the latest version of shader etc. ----- Things I found out whilst on uber support: ----- Yup, got 8GB ram and 55GB SSD space + 1GB dedicated graphics memory. However, did a bit of digging into the PA steamapps>Common directory and found a couple of logs. Every time I launched it and it crashed, 2 logs were placed into the folder. These said respectively: -- [16:29:54.016] INFO Log file C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Planetary Annihilation\media\user\log\PA-16-29-54.016.txt opened [16:29:54.031] INFO Looks like we are running via Steam [16:29:54.125] ERROR Error reading C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Planetary Annihilation\media\user\mods: 3 [16:29:54.125] INFO Loaded 0 mods [16:29:54.499] INFO Dump written to C:\Users\Anthony\AppData\Local\Temp\f23ebb04-917c-4dfc-acb9-18c9d47c7258.dmp [16:29:54.499] INFO Upload command: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Planetary Annihilation\bin_x64\crashupload.exe" -c "C:\Users\Anthony\AppData\Local\Temp\checkpoint.cpk" -p "Platform=windows" -p "Program=client" -p "TitleId=4" "uberent link" "C:\Users\Anthony\AppData\Local\Temp\f23ebb04-917c-4dfc-acb9-18c9d47c7258.dmp" [16:29:54.546] INFO Upload limit reached [16:29:54.562] INFO Uploader exited with exit code 0 -- There was a link where I wrote link but this forum doesn't allow me to post links. and -- [16:29:53.031] INFO Log file C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Planetary Annihilation\media\user\log\PA-16-29-53.031.txt opened [16:29:53.031] INFO Looks like we are running via Steam [16:29:53.094] INFO SteamAPI_RestartAppIfNecessary returned TRUE, exiting... ----- I'm not entirely sure what those logs mean, but it sounds like a read error of some kind, but I've tried a reinstall to no avail. My DxDiag should be attached to this for some information. Anyone know of a solution which obviously doesn't involve updating my graphics card as I basically can't? Thanks! Anthony
Why you think you can't? (read bellow) Code: Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M Driver Date/Size: 6/22/2010 04:17:22, 9628776 bytes Game won't work with 3 years old drivers.
Okay I'm find your old topic: https://forums.uberent.com/threads/pa-exe-has-stopped-working.51902/#post-794000 What exactly error Nvidia driver installer return to you? Did you tried any workarounds?
Hi, Thanks for the reply. I can't update my graphics drivers because as per my post I'm using a sony vaio z series laptop which has hybrid graphics so they need to release a driver package but they haven't. A bit of info about this is here http:// forum. notebookreview .com /sony/342947-my-discoveries-vaio-z-s-hybrid-graphics .html without all the spaces I am considering going into my BIOS and fiddling so I can install those, but even they are outdated! Anthony
Did you tried drivers from this forum? http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/123-nvidia-video-drivers-and-tools/
Hi, Never seen that website before, looks cool. I use an NVidia GT 330M but it appears the 33x series drivers are only for XP and 8. I'm not sure whether they will work on windows 7, not quite that experienced in drivers! Do you know which one I should be downloading? Thanks! I also tried running that driver agent thingy and it returned a fair few out of date drivers, but unfortunately it costs $30 to get the downloads which is a shame, and I don't know whether the downloads it has will work with hybrid graphics. Thanks, Anthony
Try to download one which marked as "Windows 8 64bit". Do never use such software, most likely it's just fraud. It's will took your money and won't give you any working drivers. Also I'm recommend you scan your computer with some anti-virus because most of those "drivers installers" contain spyware as well.
Thanks for the info, I'll try that download and also scan my computer for viruses, forgot about scams when I did it, but I do get to try out my new AV Thanks, Anthony
Hi, Just tried running it and unfortunately I got the message - NVIDIA Installer cannot continue This graphics driver could not find compatible graphics hardware - I am running my laptop in speed mode right now so it is using the NVidia card. Not sure how to go about fixing it! Thanks, Anthony
it's not the right driver then try this : http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/331.40/331.40-notebook-win8-win7-64bit-international-beta.exe sxx why aren't you recomending Nvidia experience for rookie users with nvidia graphics?
Hi, Ditto message as per the last installer. I think this is because of my hybrid graphics so it recognises that so doesn't work. I also downloaded NVidia experience but that said my graphics driver is not supported. I also guess this is because of the hybrid graphics because I have a 330M card which should be supported but the version might not even be new enough for that. Anthony
no hybrid only means you have, intel and nvidia. the way that works is you install an intel driver and an nvidia driver, they do not conflict and they do not interract. hybrid is a misleading word in this scenario. did you try my driver?
Hi, Yup I tried the driver you linked, unfortunately it returned the same error message. Thanks, Anthony
ok , then indeed you must get a driver from your manufacturer's website or a custom driver if there exists. try http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/product/VPCZ13C5E/updates under "Downloads" -> "Preinstalled Drivers and Utilities" ->"Windows 7" both graphic drivers.
You probably don't understand main problem of those laptops. Problem is 99% of notebook manufacturers never update video drivers or abandon updates after ~1 year.
fixed oh I know don't worry, I loathe the idiots, the only few companies that are serious about stuff like this are msi, Asus, people who do top-dog laptops like deviltech, maybe alienware (though I'd be really surprised).
I'm not recommend software while I'm not fully understand how exactly it's works. I do understand how drivers installer works and how hardware detected on Windows. Marketing-powered bloatware like GeForce Experience only make everything less transparent, it's mean when something work incorrectly there will be one more weak point which might be a reason of problem. Actually each abstraction layer on top of drivers settings is potential problem.
To be fair I don't know any laptop manufacturer who actually update drivers on websites for long time. Best option it's to have laptop from manufacturer who do not modify hardware and do not lock driver updates in software. Alienware is DELL and it's well known for problems with driver updates. And even worse when they're actually change hardware, e.g make some SLI with mobile cards. In result generic drivers completely broken for those laptops and obviously DELL abandon updates like everybody else.
there you have it, this is what I didn't dare to say but it's always made me laugh that DELL of ALL people wanted that top-dog laptop stage. WHY? why oh why? and they sucked at it from the begining, no surprises there.
that's not what it is. This thing, while a waste of space if you know how to install a driver and configure your game, is freaking awesome regardless. It does it's job and nothing else! no ads. and you're always first to have the lastest beta driver (if you turn on beta updates) or stable driver. It doesn't do it seamlessly. it just gives you a notification if there's an update, you click on it and it downloads the driver for you (the exact one you'd have gotten from the website) and launches the installation, which you still have to do yourself, but there's an "express" button which just hits the same buttons and configurations you hit last time and gets through it in one click and minimal GUI. You can also install your own driver manually by downloading and installing the old fashion way (if you feel like downgrading or whatver) and it won't ever see a problem with that. no dirty-dirty, unclean-unclean. it's the same drivers, same instalation procedure. and it also suggests best graphics settings for each game it recognises according to your hardware and latest best-working configurations. it can even (for recent games) automagically set those options externally without the game even running!
