(Resolved)Game crashes immediately on startup. (Minidump provided.)

from Sins Forums
Me and my friend are trying to play with one another. On my computer it starts up and runs fine, on his it doesn't. Immediately on startup the game crashes to a black screen in which he has to alt+esc in order to get out of. It does provide a minidump.

We updates his video drivers and made sure he had the latest version of DirectX by downloading it from the Microsoft site. But he still gets the same problem.

Any ideas?

Here is the minidump:

AppName: sins of a solar empire.exe AppVer: 1.0.1.0 ModName: dinput8.dll
ModVer: 5.3.2600.2180 Offset: 00016324

dinput.dll led me to believe it was dx issue...but updating didn't seem to do any good.
technical
25,834 views 21 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

We need to know more about your system.  What kind of video card? What OS? that kind of thing.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Please send us the minidump at [email protected]. Also try playing in windowed mode or any the other suggestions here: https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/?g=editpost&aid=174432

It could also be that he didn't clean out everything the Sins directory (or the uninstall failed). This will leave around garbage files that causes Sins to crash.

Minidumps can be found here:

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temp

or


C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\Sins Dump

WindowBlinds - Free yourself of the default settings, customize your desktop.
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
i have this same problem i am not shure what the problem the bata ran fine but now i cant play the full version  (:(  (:(  (:( i did use star dock to uninstall the bata the it reinstalled the full game but no luck
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
I already had him email it to that address, thought i'd post in case this was a known problem. Anyways we tried running it in Windowed mode, but it had the same problem. I can't access your link https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/?g=editpost&aid=174432 because I get "Access Denied", so I don't know what your other suggestions would be.

He has a Intel Q6600, 7300 Nvidia GT, 2 gigs ram.

Anyways, if none of this helps I'm sure he can tell you more details about his system via email when you get and respond to it.

Thanks anyway.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
Oh yes, forgot to add:

When the game installed it didn't complain of any errors either in the download or installation process, so he never had to uninstall the program to clean up "junk" files.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
i will e-mail my min dump right now and i cant find where to put the game into window mode?? i tried useing the searh on the forum but no luck!! also i had no problems with the download
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
i cant find where to put the game into window mode??


It's in the video options, below the resolution list is a toggle for windowed mode :)
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
Did your friend have the beta installed? If so have him uninstall Sins before downloading and installing the final release version. Thanks!
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
Got around the access denied thing by going to that thread via the sticky. For some reason when I click on that link in this thread it says access denied. The URLs appear the same.

Tried the suggestions such as turning off intro movies, and turning off multisamples, fiddling with the Windowed height and width, and uninstalled and updated his sound card driver (which is realtek), and none of that did anything. Still has this minidump which complains about dinput8.dll.

Going to suggest reinstalling the operating system to him, though I doubt he'll like that solution.
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
It's in the user.setting file.

Afrak is completely unable to get into the game so he can't use the in game video settings toggle.

Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
My friend did not have the beta installed. He just got the game today.
Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top
Reply 10 was in response to reply 7.
Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top
SUCCESS!! Doing some googling we discovered that a lot of these dinput8.dll problems occurred from certain USB devices. So the last thing we tried was unplugging his current USB keyboard/mouse and plugging in another one. That did the trick. It now loads up.
Reply #16 from Sins Forums Top

wierd i dont even know what is wring with mine


I don't know man, but if you're also getting a dinput8.dll error in the minidump from googling around this is clearly not a Sins specific problem.

Just google: dinput8.dll crash

You'll see what I mean, and the symptoms are typically the same throughout every game. If you have already tried unplugging all your usb devices and replacing your keyboard and mouse with another replacement (or plugging them in via PS/2), then I don't know what to say....It seemed to work for my friend.

I hope this information is of benefit to somebody.
Reply #17 from Sins Forums Top
well i got some great help from ironclad they helped me replace the galaxies maps that where corrupted but now i am still in this jam now i can not get sins to even create a mini dup it just hangs i have the latest drivers for my graphics card from hp.com i know i have an old computer hp pavilion laptop zd 8000 3.2gig 1gig ram and ati mobility x600 128meg gfx crd. the last thing i can think of is to update direct x which i am doing now ill get back to you guys if it works thanks to everyone hope fully this will work
Reply #18 from Sins Forums Top
nope still wont run it seems to initilize and i have set it to window i am worried that i am not opening the right user.settings file to make the game window and to turn off the movies is the game still placeing the user.settigns in C:\Documents and Settings\afrak\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Setting
Reply #19 from Sins Forums Top
well i bleave that the last step is to compleatly unistall the game again and delete all files pertaining to sins and start over ill let you guys know how this shakes out but i think i am goig to head to bed it is late in hawaii :) 
Reply #20 from Sins Forums Top

nope still wont run it seems to initilize and i have set it to window i am worried that i am not opening the right user.settings file to make the game window and to turn off the movies is the game still placeing the user.settigns in C:\Documents and Settings\afrak\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Setting

This is an old directory which tells me there are still old Sins files on your machine. The new settings folder should have been C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Setting.

I bet there is lots of old stuff in the main Sins directory too and will cause you problems. I would delete it all and reinstall.

Reply #21 from Sins Forums Top
this worked i deleted everything and started over and now am playing thanks alot guys you rock the effert you put into this game shows thanks. just to let people know i did use the uninstall buton it is a good idea for people to go back and manualy delet alot of files that dont get deleated even when you slect the option to deleate everything maby this will help some one else. thanks again