"PA.exe has stopped working". Any solution?

Discussion in 'Support!' started by pipothy, June 18, 2013.

  1. pipothy

    pipothy New Member

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    Sorry to post a thread about this, but I have tried everything mentioned on the forums that I can see and it will still stop working.

    To confirm:
    -running windows 7, i5 dual core, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5145, 4gb ddr3 RAM, etc.
    -This was the case with both opening in steam and opening the ubernet launcher (although since I can't launch it in steam, it thinks my account isn't verified, so I can't use the launcher now anyway)
    -I have checked my sound and graphics drivers, which are up to date.
    -I have .net framework 4.5 and the latest directX 9.0c distributals.
    -Ports 9000-9032 are definitely open on the router and on the local firewall.
    -Tried the copying of atio6axx.dll/atigl64.dll suggested elsewhere.

    And, it is still not working. Sorry for another thread on this, but hopefully some people who have solved this might come forward with a solution, or good ideas to try. Thanks!
  2. garat

    garat Cat Herder Uber Alumni

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    Can you find anything in your log file?

    %UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Uber Entertainment\Planetary Annihilation\log

    Any indication of why it crashed, or useful errors you see in the log?
  3. otlichno

    otlichno New Member

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    Garat,

    I am hitting this as well, but the only thing those log files show me "[00:22:41.000] INFO Looks like this isn't the Steam distribution"

    I also was able to play at launch, but I hadn't had a chance to play for a bit and when I updated last night it crashes.

    Attached DXDiag/EventViewer message

    Attached Files:

  4. pipothy

    pipothy New Member

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    Just checked my event log and mine seems to be the same. Any further things that can be provided to help people work out what this is?
  5. laseek

    laseek New Member

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    The event viewer entry shows the location of the dump files which would help in tracking down the issue.

    While I've done more on Linux than on Windows - so far the faults (from the forums & bug tracker) tend to fall into a few categories:

    1) Launch & Immediate crash
    These tend not to give much info in the PA logs unless they're due to libs that PA immediately depends on.

    Causes:
    a) Dependencies: Indirect dependencies don't flag an error in the PA or often the system log.
    Solution: Use a dependency checker to see what it needs and if it can be resolved (For Windows try http://www.dependencywalker.com, on Linux its built in with ldd, on Mac.. umm :shrugs:)

    b) CoherentUI_Host: If it's already running - then when PA is started it can get its knickers in a twist and throws a wobbly.
    Solution: check to see if it's already running - and if so - it can be safely killed. Make sure you get 'em all - there's often 5-7 instances.

    c) GPU drivers: Crashes & segfaults should be reported in the system logger (Windows: eventvwr, Linux: dmesg or syslog, Mac: umm).
    Solution: Check you're running the latest stable drivers

    2) Launch & crash when starting a game or starting the game never actually happens
    If you get this far - then you can basically run the game. Crashes don't always leave a message in the PA log - but often you'll see something in the system log. So far it looks to be mostly issues of performance/resources/config.

    Causes:
    a) resources/GPU: Sometimes it'll feel like an age before anything happens and your UI may lock up - PA can seriously hog resources and it'll feel like a system crash when it's not.
    Mac is better at handling this than most other OS's and it's system logger will contain more info than you'll see on other OS's.
    Solution: Wait (5 mins), kill the process or reboot. Some people report that tweaking the config for their GPU helps a ton. App profiles on the GPU management UI for PA to push perf to the max can help. Check your running the latest stable driver for your GPU. Beta drivers sometimes bork at this point

    b) Networking: host/router firewall configs blocking the ports - sometimes it looks like it causes Coherent to bork & play dead.
    Solution: Check your setup for the ports used

    c) CoherentUI: when she (or one of her instances) falls over it can take the rest of PA with it.
    Solution: See if there's a corresponding warning/error about the GPU in the logs around the same time as the timestamp on the event in the system logs that might help narrow down what the issue is.

    3) In-game crash/lag
    Game issues & optimisation - this can be anything really but often triggered by user action.
    This is one of the hardest to narrow down as we don't always realize what we did to cause it.
    The game UI may just go black, your system may feel like it stops responding - which often indicate the game is pushing your system/GPU too hard.
    Bringing up the in-game perf window (Keyboard: P) should work and you might notice the FPS being grim. At the moment it's terminal - resetting GPU settings doesn't appear to fix it - your only option is to quit & restart.
    Escape should bring up a toolbar on the left hand side, tab will move down the items but you'll need to use the mouse to click quit.
    If you use the Window Close button - in some cases it leaves Coherent running and you'll have other game issues - so check your clean to be sure (measure twice - cut once :p )

    It can be painful but start again from the beginning - see if you can narrow down the steps that cause the problem. When you have what you think are the steps - restart PA, check none of the processes are lingering, and try it again from the top.
  6. pipothy

    pipothy New Member

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    [​IMG]

    It does indeed seem something is missing for PA.exe to work.

    Anyone know what this missing file is and why it might be missing in the first place? I should be able to find it, but a place to get it as a link might be useful (especially if others are following this and aren't so tech savvy)

    EDIT: The second error seems to be caused by IEFrame.dll. Anyone know what the error means or how one fixes it?
  7. laseek

    laseek New Member

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  8. pipothy

    pipothy New Member

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    Already done and solved that one, thanks.

    It's the second one that's proving more elusive. I've found a bit of info on it, but I am unsure how to fix the problem with IEFrame.dll.
  9. laseek

    laseek New Member

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    If you can find it on your system (make sure you include hidden & system files) - then in theory adding the folder its in to your path (which might also require relogging in) should allow it to be found when loading the game.
  10. pipothy

    pipothy New Member

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    ieframe.dll and shlwapi.dll are both on my system, it's supposedly some kind of dependency issue. Looked into it and some sites are saying it shouldn't be causing problems... but otherwise, there seem to be no problems.

    Edit:

    It seems that the above is a non-problem, according to various resources.

    I used a different dependency checker tool and it reported these dependencies that were missing. Do these mean anything to anyone?

    [​IMG]
  11. mrknowie

    mrknowie Member

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    Have you checked that all your dependent files are currently x64? Had this happen to one of my directX.dlls (used the same program to hunt it down too).
  12. pipothy

    pipothy New Member

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    Any easy way to do this?
  13. mrknowie

    mrknowie Member

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    That's under the CPU column on the first program you used (Dependency Walker).
  14. pipothy

    pipothy New Member

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    All of them are x64. Also, can probably call the results from the 2nd dependency checker as moot. PA runs on my brother's PC and we couldn't find any of the dependencies it called out.

    How odd. Any other suggestions?
  15. mrknowie

    mrknowie Member

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    Did you run Dependency Walker on the PC that works? Might point out if those .dlls that threw errors are to blame.
  16. pipothy

    pipothy New Member

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    good idea, I'll get on it (and edit in the findings shortly)

    EDIT:
    So, it's exactly the same EXCEPT shlwapi.dll does not appear as red. So, this would seem to be the problem (or is possibly the problem). So, it's the same except for that being red (even ieshims.dll not being there, so obviously this doesn't matter).
  17. mrknowie

    mrknowie Member

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    Ah, a result!

    When I ran into this, I copy-pasted the .dll from another computer which worked directly into my system32, and it finally ran, but that was a x86/x64 bit problem. It looks like you have shlwapi.dll, but it's still tossing an error.

    Might also be a dependency within shlwapi.dll (not too familiar with Dependency Walker and can't tell from the screenshot), so that's another lead.

    What's the timestamp on the PC that works? The screenshot's is pretty old... might be outdated.

    Grasping at straws here, but I find if you grab enough straw, you'll find the needle you're looking for.
  18. pipothy

    pipothy New Member

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    The picture isn't that old... or at least, I just ran it now and it's still the same. Now, the only difference is that his has a dependency issue with ieshims.dll (which mine used to have, I put it in system32, but it wasn't working before or after, so it clearly isn't relevant at all) and shlwapi.dll being marked as red. So, I can confirm that is the current difference on both.

    How do I check for a dependency within shlwapi.dll?

    I could try copying over shlwapi.dll from my brother's PC, but I've been advised not to do this before (I'm not that tech savvy, but can I not just copy my version of it, store it somewhere and replace it if things go wrong?)
  19. mrknowie

    mrknowie Member

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    I meant the "File Time Stamp" on the shlwapi.dll file on the working PC (within Dependency Walker), sorry for the confusion.

    I think you double-click on the filename, and it pulls up the dependencies of that .dll... it's been a couple of weeks, and I may have been drinking at the time.

    As for copy-pasting straight over, I'm not sure how much trouble you can get into doing something like that. I don't think it's recommended, and it'd be better if you could find an official Microsoft installer. Creating a backup is a great idea though.
  20. pipothy

    pipothy New Member

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    The date on the working PC's shlwapi.dll and mine are exactly the same. So, does this mean it'll be the same file from the same location?

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