Game crashes at startup - Space Rangers War Apart

[bunyan1]

I could really use some help! I am trying to run Space Rangers War Apart. When started, the screen will go white for 3-5 seconds, flash once, then crash to desktop. I'm far enough into troubleshooting, that I thought it best to give some detail, so sorry for the long post.

I've gotten no help from the game's support forum, so would LOVE to get help from you all.

I've tried:
-updating all my drivers again (all good)
-updating Direct X (currently version 11)
-changing resolution settings
-trying different combinations of windowed mode and vsync

Running on Win 7 Pro, i7 2.8Ghz, 8 Gig RAM, 64 bit, with tons of harddrive space; This is a laptop, but i've played games like Fallout 3 and other more recent ones with no problems...since Space rangers is a turn based strategy game, I can't imagine it would demand more than the other games I've played on this...but it IS a laptop video card, so maybe that is part of the issue? I'm running an Nvidia NVS4200M; My video card specs are:

GPU processor: NVS 4200M
Driver version: 311.00
DirectX support: 11.1
CUDA Cores: 48
Core clock: 810 MHz
Shader clock: 1620 MHz
Memory data rate: 1600 MHz
Memory interface: 64-bit
Memory bandwidth: 12.80 GB/s
Total available graphics memory: 4095 MB
Dedicated video memory: 1024 MB DDR3
System video memory: 0 MB
Shared system memory: 3071 MB
Video BIOS version: 75.19.53.00.22

The game calls for:
OS:Windows XP SP3
Processor:Intel Pentium 4 2.5 GHz / AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (2200 MHz)
Memory:1 GB RAM
Graphics:GeForce 7800 GT 512 Mb / Radeon 1800 Pro 512 Mb or similar
DirectX®:9.0c
Hard Drive:2 GB HD space

Here is the error log from the game, exactly as it appears (the sudden ending to the log correcty pasted):
Start
Build=2.1.1414 (7 October 2013)
DXVersion=10.0.0
Visual C++ 2010 (x86) found
Visual C++ 2010 (x64) found
VC 8.0 SP1 (x86) found
VC 9.0 SP1 (x86) found
VC 9.0 SP1 ATL (x86) found
Load MatrixGame.dll .... ok
Robot.Support()=0
Operating system=Windows 7 build 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 [x64]
Processor=Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2640M CPU @ 2.80GHz (4 cores)
CPU Clock=2790 MHz
Physical Memory Total=8075 MB
Physical Memory Available=4711 MB
Page File Total=15927 MB
Page File Available=11828 MB
Virtual Memory Total=2047 MB
Virtual Memory Available=1811 MB
Cache Size=393216 KB
Loading configuration files.... ok!
Creating window.... ok!
Sound interfaces are:
- Primary Sound Driver
- Speakers (Conexant 20672 SmartAudio HD)
Selected interface: 2 channels at 44100 Hz, 16 bit
Initializing sound.... ok!
Loading libvorbisfile.dll....ok!
Pre-fetching music.... ok!
Initializing DX9.... ok!
Videocard=NVIDIA NVS 4200M
Driver=nvumdshim.dll
Max Texture Size=8192x8192
Desktop Resolution=1920x1080
Available Resolutions=1024x768, 1280x720, 1280x768, 1280x800, 1280x1024, 1360x768, 1366x768, 1400x1050, 1440x900, 1600x900, 1680x1050, 1920x1080
Exception EDirectXRender with message GR_DXInit()::GR_Direct3D.CreateDevice =

 

[bunyan1]

I'm glad to hear you think the game should run easily on my rig. That was my thought, but sometimes you want to hear someone else say it so you don't think you are going crazy.

Thanks for the memory test. I had not thought of that primarily because I've not had any other issues with the computer in general. I ran the test software for 2 hours (during lunch and a meeting--so it worked out), and it all came up good---100% pass with no errors.

Recommended next step(s)?

UPDATE: a tech from the company asked me to run 2 programs to test the video card. Here are the results of both tests (copied from their logs):

Here are the results of both tests:

D3D Test:
Create Direct3D9 : ok
Create CreateDevice [method 1] : ok

DXTest:
Start
Direct3DCreate9(...) - ok
Videocard=Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
Driver=nvumdshim.dll
Max Texture Size=8192x8192
DisplayFormat = 22
BackBufferFormat = 22
CreateDevice [method 1] - ok

 

[bunyan1]

will do. Note my edit in my previous post about the game site asking me to run the 2 programs.

 

[bunyan1]

NVidia runs the integrated GPU by default until another program kicks in. I've checked the settings and the GPU does use the NVidia GPU for the game. I've also played with the settings on this--always on; let the application decide; etc.--but the error is always the same.

Just unisntalled the game and deleted the remnant files left behind. Re-installed. I was never prompted to install DX at all. Game gave the same error as before.

Update: I just re-named both diagnosis programs "Rangers.exe" so that they woudl run the same GPU as the game... the new results are listed below:

New results, with both programs running under "Rangers.exe" (You'll notice the video card did change, which is good)

Create Direct3D9 : ok
Create CreateDevice [method 1] : ok


Start
Direct3DCreate9(...) - ok
Videocard=NVIDIA NVS 4200M
Driver=nvumdshim.dll
Max Texture Size=8192x8192
DisplayFormat = 22
BackBufferFormat = 22
CreateDevice [method 1] - ok

 

[bunyan1]

Update: after working with the game support, they also thought it weird that DX works fine outside of the game but not inside the game..and the GPU should be fine.

They said they would send me a revised game executable in a couple days, so we'll see what happens. I'll keep you all updated!

 

[bunyan1]

Sorry for my delay--I've been working with the game tech support to see what we can find. In our tests, the DirectX works great and the way it should--but only outside of the game. They have agreed that my system more than meets the minimum requirements and should run the game easily.

The tweaked game executable they sent didn't change anything, unfortunately.

Here are some test logs if it helps:
Create Direct3D9 : ok
Create CreateDevice [method 1] : ok


Start
Direct3DCreate9(...) - ok
Videocard=NVIDIA NVS 4200M
Driver=nvumdshim.dll
Max Texture Size=8192x8192
DisplayFormat = 22
BackBufferFormat = 22
CreateDevice [method 1] - ok

I've tried different resolutions, changing options within the cfg file, etc...but stil end up with the same error.

Thanks for all the suggestions! I'm won't be the last guy to struggle with this,so hopefully all this will help others too.

I'm game for other ideas!