I guess the largest battle is getting it to work!

After fighting the dreaded D3dx9_43.dll battle which was finally won with the help of Mike in facebook....Thanks agian Mike!....he gave me the secret to the battle the redistributeable version id Directx 9.0c as the normal version refused to load claiming it was for xp and below. I am now onto my next battle a um for lack of better words 'crash' upon start up that says "PA.exe has stopped working" " A problem caused the program to stop working correctly, windows will close the program and notify if a solution is available" Since I doubt I will ever be notified by window on any level for any solution I thought I'd ask in here how to win this battle and finally get to play a game I've waited for for um 7-8 months now. I know all you techs are busy solving real bug issues but if one of the many other bright peeps in the forum could help me win this battle I'd appreciate it very much. Thanks in advance!

See this thread: viewtopic.php?f=71&t=47593.

ok I read thru things to do in order to get it to work. I downloaded net 4.5 already did the redistributable directx 9.0c. Shut off my firewall, I think, added PA to accepted program in the firewall as well. and still nothing. I have no idea why I get a crash. I have installed countless programs and never once had this much grief. I know yes we are in a testing stage but the very basics of getting people in without a hassle should be above any other because if they can't get in to play then it don't matter how pretty, well thought out the rest is because they will never ever see it. Right about now I'm almost to the point of asking for a refund and even if you get it completed and on store shelves I will not buy it because I already have a bad taste in my mouth from chewing on it already! I have TA,TACC,Taucp,SC, SCFA and SC2 and on any platform....yes even on a 13 year old platform as you say, yes several pc's that I have , and every one of them are kind of pre cursors to PA all have worked just fine right out of the box none of this change this change that configure this. I'm getting aggravated over a 8 month wait after jumping in at 90 bucks and still unable to play on a Asus republic of gamers laptop running 64bit vista home deluxe with a nvidia geforce GTX 260M CUDA with 1gb and a system with 6gb ram of it's own. I've run resource hungry games on full settings on this and had no trouble yet I can't even get PA past it's greeting screen without a crash right after it boots it's window after pressing play. This is getting old quick!

Please, ask for a refund and get off these forums.

IT IS AN A.L.P.H.A. Stuff breaks. Stuff is broken.

They're letting us in the alpha to find that stuff. I had issues when I started, I fixed them. Stop whining and posting passive-aggressive threats and keep trying, then come back and tell us how you did it! Help others who have the same issue! You know, actually TEST fixes. You didn't pay 90$ to jump the queue, you paid it to get into the ALPHA. I guess you didn't read that.

You're using an nvidia graphics-based laptop. You need to make sure PA loads using your discrete graphics card not the laptop's onboard GPU, which you can do via your nvidia control panel or by disabling the onboard GPU entirely via the laptop's bios.

Don't be an ***. Sure it's alpha - but he paid at least $90 to play, and anyways he's actively testing by trying fixes and giving feedback saying it doesn't work.

You are being equally as passive aggressive as he is.

Even if he is perhaps overreacting and you disagree with that (trust me, it annoys me too), the worst thing you can do is outright flame by telling him to get off the forums.

Forcing your laptop to run the game with the dedicated graphics card is probably a good first step, as well as updating your video card drivers.

If those fail post a dxdiag.

Thanks to all who are trying to help. I guess I was venting a bit on my last post but it's getting frustrating. I've my nvidia control panel open, and for the 1st time no less. So this is a struggle to find out just what need to do. I've added the PAlauncher.exe in program settings. There was only 1 line out of the several lines that even mentioned gpu. It was 'multi-display/mixed-gpu acceleration' I set it to 'single display performance mode' this made no difference. no where in the control panel do I see a 'discrete' setting of any kind anywhere. Any chance someone can dumb this down for us whom are still struggling just to get this to so much as work. As for working in the bios wouldn't that also share a big risk of this pc not even turning on if I set something wrong. Bout the only thing bios wise I've ever done was change boot sequence order so it'd hit a cd 1st and that's been way back in windows 98 era days. Yeah I'm old! So if anyone could help this old man across the street he'd much apriceate it.

Some solutions you might consider.

IF your laptop has a onboard GPU and a NVIDIA GPU then you should be able to disable the onboard GPU, i don't know if this will be your solution, all i know it that it should be posible in the bios.

Reinstall your laptop with Windows 7 64bit, i bet you it will work, because allot of people using windows 7 have no problem running the game. Reinstall install latest windows 7 drivers ect, IF you do this + the onboard GPU bios setting (if possible) you should have no problems.

I hope you get to make it work, would be a shame if someone couldn't enjoy this game ^^

Good luck

Probably you need try to add PA.exe here, instead of PAlauncher.exe.

Don't forget to update your sound drivers as well, often missed and forgotten problem.

still no luck. i've added pa.exe to the list of programs in the nvidia console still same crash.....even after latest update. As for 'just upgrade to windows 7' this system came with a free upgrade to it but after reading, shut this off,uninstall this, do this and that made my head spin I decided to just leave it vista. I don't like vista but I don't like 7 even more and you can imagine just where I think they can put 8. There was nothing wrong with xp it was stable and easy to navigate I never understood why they feel the need to ruin a good thing. Anyway off topic rant I guess. Back to the post I repeat about my reluctance to go into the bios of any computer so I guess my delema will never be resolved. I also repeat about being old and struggling to make sense of things being told. Has any of you heard the phrase 'KISS Keep It Simple Stupid' well I think that what we all need more of. Still unplayed still same crash still frustrated. When you only have 1 day a week free to try things don't help much either as something is always pulling me elsewhere. guess I'll hold off to beta maybe by then issues will work themselves out.

Did you make sure to pick the High performance GPU rather than the integrated? Make sure it's not set to Automatically pick .

Ok since i'm getting tired of hearing the same drum beat of 'go into your bios and make sure your using your high performance gpu' I guess I will tell it to you like this. As I've stated before I really have no desire to get into my bios for fear of screwing something up past the point of turning this pc into a brick. What you are all telling me is past my tech skill level. I'm old I have no clue what or how to do what i'm being asked, told or scolded into doing. So unless some very bright tech wants to take time to write out a step by step of how to's on this gpu delema then please don't bother to post. To me it's all a wonder as to why I would need to do this when no other game needs me to do so. Doesn't the the gpu select itself when a game starts? What good is a vid card if it can't sense when it is needed or why would an onboard vid even be in play at all once a real vid card has it's drivers installed and is up and running wouldn't that in it's self over ride the other? So yeah I need someone to really field this! Online searches do nothing checking nvidia's web site is a waste of time too. I'm sorry again if this all sounds like another rant yet again but I've still yet to get to play what I've paid for. I just wanted those who keep repeating the same line, yet never bother to say how, to truly understand. There is no place to turn for a how to on what you are tell me and folks like me to do.

No offense to you, but aside from the whole "entering your BIOS and changing your GPU" bit, this is a comprehensive guide on how to fix any problem with PA except for corner cases, which this is most likely not.

By the way, you shouldn't have to muck about with your BIOS for any reason, don't know who told you that.

Another thing is that Windows 7 is almost exactly like Vista, as far as you are concerned. However, Windows 7 does everything better than Vista UNDER THE HOOD. That means you don't have to worry about the changes, aside from the fact that all the changes will help you.

Yet another thing, if you aren't tech-savvy, why did you buy Alpha Access? Alpha is almost strictly about fixing bugs, compatibility issues, crashes, and technical stuff like that. Alpha is bound to have issues and crashes, and unless you can help figure out why you are crashing, and unless someone else has solved the same problem, you're in the dark and so are we. A doctor can't administer a treatment if the patient doesn't describe the symptoms understandably.

P.S., Personal question, I don't expect you to answer, but how old are you that you are both an RTS player and a technological layman? That's a very, very small niche and you're the first person I've met that occupies it.

P.P.S., The reason your High Performance GPU isn't used by PA by default is because the weaker GPU is "first" in the list of GPUs your computer has. Because PA is very, very new software, your driver doesn't "know" that PA is a very high GPU use program, and PA has no way of telling the driver that it is a high GPU use program. So until the Nvidia updates the driver with a sort of personality profile for PA, that tells your computer that PA is a powerful, high-GPU use game, you have to tell it to do so manually.

I know this is a rough fix, but could he test the gpu fix by disabling the weak gpu in the device manager?

You can't keep your computer all the time like that, but if pa boots, then you know it is that and you or somebody has to set the high gpu as first priority to run things from

Hope you understand that you aren't running the best machine for the game. Especially a laptop and windows vista. They are right, windows 7 has all vista looks options and screens, nothing visually changed, but with unbroke back program and an apology for dropping the ball on ever releasing vista. That is probably why you got a free upgrade. Because win7 is Microsoft's fix and apology for vista. Vista has trouble running roller coaster tycoon...

Just for kicks I went into my bios. No where in it is a gpu mentioned what so ever.Also no where in device manager either for that matter. I have a feeling that the only gpu on this pc is on the vid card but I've no way of finding this out. As for why I bought alpha access.I bought alpha access because it gave both a beta and alpha commanders no where in the description did it hint that these commander were only for use in alpha and beta testing stages of the game. So I thought that there were different commander packages that you could only exclusively buy during this jump start phase of funding the game project. It's not that i'm totally lost it's that when peeps say do this or that and I go to those spot on the pc nothing of the sort is there to do anything with. They've said go to the nvidia console and change it. So I went nothing in there say anything about a gpu. They say go into you Bios so I go and again nothing in there says anything about gpu. Go to device manager been up and down that list too nothing gpu related the vid card itself is in the list but outside of that nothing. Age, Yeah I know don't have to answer, but 49.

' Hope you understand that you aren't running the best machine for the game' um SC,SCFA SC2 all seem to run just fine on it. Yeah I know 7 is just Vista shook around so peeps would accept it, but as I said in my earlier rant on OS's I don't like Vista and I like 7 even less and you can imagine just where I feel they can put 8. I was happy back at 98 it took me forever to finally reluctantly make the move to XP and had the gamer laptop given a choice it would of still had XP but it was Vista so I went with it and since 7 was just a few weeks out they offered it with it free upgrade just jump thru the hoops. I did all the jumping got those disk but the paper work with said to remove a few drivers before install and uninstall a few things so since it seemed to be a big hassle I've just left it as I seldom get the gaming laptop out except during this 'fun' phase of PA which has had it out about a dozen times trying to get it running PA. Why not more because I love my old Dell XPS M-2010 and even at 7 years old it also runs SC,SCFA and SC2 a lil bit slower on SCFA but still runs em all fine and to me it was the coolest laptop ever made with the very best sound system of any laptop. Yeah I know desktops blow away any laptop because of the customization and configurations and ease of working on internals but I like laptops. Boy I went way off topic I'll have to get out the old roller coaster tycoon and just see how the gamer laptop feels about it. All in all I was reaching out because all the roads I've been told to go down have been dead ends. So I thought I might just be missing something thus why I asked for a how to. Do I know how to go into bios yes. Do I know how to go into device manager yes. Do I know how to go into nvidia's control console yes. However there are no gpu's to select from in any of these places. I'm starting to think I just might have to jump thru that windows 7 hoop and start all over again as that really seems to be the missing link in this puzzle and maybe those gpu settings are only there once I'm on 7 but I don't know. That and I guess I should have jumped in at the minimum buy in and save myself $50.00 and months of aggravation , I mean no offense by that. I had no idea what I was in for and if I had to do it over hind sight is 20/20. I shall not bother you guys again. Thank you all for at least attempting to help the helpless but I think I'm a lost cause you have all been great even when I wasn't.

If it has a gpu, it'll be under display devices. If you only see the video one, check to see if it is a gpu. If not, it probably doesn't have one, just integrated graphics.

Even if it does, besides updating the driver, i don't have any more answers other than maybe it doesn't run it until the game is optimized later. For comparison, my desktop can run sc2 and not this game. It runs on integrated graphics tho, no surprise. My differences is that i can stick a gpu in my pcie hole and then it would run it. Which is why you don't get gaming laptops unless you only tend to play low end games and/ or have a desktop to supplement it.

Edit: also, you do get other goodies as a pa backer. Unless you did the digital only package, you even get figures tshirts soundtracks and stuff as it becomes available.

I dont want to be mean, but youre not really helping yourself here.
You say you are not very fond of technical things, fine. Thats absoluteley no problem, but you should listen to people who are then!
If they tell you that Win7 is much much better than Vista(and it is), you should at least think about it instead of just stating that you dont like 7. (EDIT: I see you did, great )
Vista was a terrible mistake between XP and 7 and its known for its performance drain and driver problems. Win7 can be compared more to XP performance wise, it runs smooth even on older machines and has sorted out the most problems Vista had. Give it a try and Im sure you will like it more.

In your bios you go to advanced settings, look for Integrated GPU, turn it off, this will tell your PC to use your real graphics card.

Don't touch anything else, just look for the integrated GPU or on board graphics option and switch it off.

Hope that helps.