XWA Upgrade

Using the GoG version, Windows 10, the game runs when installed, however after installing either the XWAUCP 1.5 or DSUCP 2.5 packs the game crashes on launch with the ever helpful "X Wing Alliance has stopped working" error message... digging in the event log turns up this gibberish:

Faulting application name: XWingAlliance.exe, version: 2.0.0.2, time stamp: 0x3765a9b7
Faulting module name: XWingAlliance.exe, version: 2.0.0.2, time stamp: 0x3765a9b7
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0019cd60
Faulting process id: 0xcd4
Faulting application start time: 0x01d3a1b4b15ad6fa
Faulting application path: c:gamesxwaXWingAlliance.exe
Faulting module path: c:gamesxwaXWingAlliance.exe
Report Id: f0177d02-3ac8-462e-bf12-3fd494a4e967
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

Gives the same exception and offset codes with either craft pack, tried both the current GoG version: x-wing_alliance_2.02_(18061), and an older version xwing_alliance_2.0.0.9 dated from 2015, same error; tried rebooting, compatibility mode, running as an admin, but no joy... any ideas?

EDIT: Dug out my old XWA CDs and installed that version.. what a pain.. and it still doesn't work with the packs, same error *headdesk*

Hello,
0x0019cd60 corresponds to the Program Entry Point.
Was the game blocked by your antivirus?

Well that's a starting point at least, thanks for responding... I had tried disabling my av, forgot to list that as one of the umpteen things I've done; just to be sure I just tried a fresh reinstall of the pack with the av disabled on the off chance it blocked something that the installer didn't give an error for but no luck, still crashes at launch, same event log error codes.

EDIT: I've since tried killing every non-windows essential task and service, even tried in safe-mode, still the same error every time

Sorry, I don't know why the game crashes.
A thing that you can try is to rename ddraw.dll and dinput.dll to see if these dlls cause the crah (they shouldn't).

Holy &%*#... well that made some progress for a change, renamed those and the game launched! Of course it immediately crashed again with a DirectDraw Inint failed at 2 error, but at least I got a black screen as the game tried to initialize... very strange tho.. the DDraw fix works very well in my experience, just finished a run though of XvT-BoP with it, and used an older version of it the last time I played Alliance a few years ago on Win7 as I recall (with XWAUCP naturally, i don't remember which version tho).

Is it ddraw.dll or dinput.dll that caused the crash?
Does ddraw.dll version 1.3 work?

lol here I was trying a couple old versions of the ddraw patch without thinking to check if it was dinput first, it's dinput, just ran the 1st mission of the game and everything seemed fine... very odd tho, but thank you very much!! This forum does need a like button

So dinput.dll makes the game crash. It means that one of the hooks is faulty.
To determine which one, you can rename all the hooks (hook_*.dll) by adding a leading character (the name must not start with hook_) and then rename back the hooks one by one.

Hmm... renamed all the Hook_ files and put dinput.dll back in, but the game crashed on startup with the same error codes.

Does an error pop up with this dinput.dll?
EDIT: link removed

Yes; the file size of that one is different then the version already there but still crashes with no hook files, same error.

You can try this one:

hmm... well still crashes but the error codes are different (still have it with no hook files), gives two different ones this time...

First it gives this one:
Faulting application name: XwingAlliance.exe, version: 2.0.0.2, time stamp: 0x3765a9b7
Faulting module name: XwingAlliance.exe, version: 2.0.0.2, time stamp: 0x3765a9b7
Exception code: 0xc00001a5
Fault offset: 0x001a4ba8
Faulting process id: 0x332c
Faulting application start time: 0x01d3a3857c782f26
Faulting application path: C:GamesXWAXwingAlliance.exe
Faulting module path: C:GamesXWAXwingAlliance.exe
Report Id: 6d174c3b-d335-4298-b635-61ae3c8b5e21
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

Then this one:
Faulting application name: XwingAlliance.exe, version: 2.0.0.2, time stamp: 0x3765a9b7
Faulting module name: XwingAlliance.exe, version: 2.0.0.2, time stamp: 0x3765a9b7
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0013dfe3
Faulting process id: 0x332c
Faulting application start time: 0x01d3a3857c782f26
Faulting application path: C:GamesXWAXwingAlliance.exe
Faulting module path: C:GamesXWAXwingAlliance.exe
Report Id: 15114fee-a04c-4aa5-af94-0c8ad82a9d25
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:


EDIT: Clarification: I've been trying both DSUCP & XWAUCP; the above was for DSUCP... my bad, didn't notice, sleep deprived

With XWAUCP, -with or without- hooks the latest dinput.dll gives the following codes (DSUCP also gives these codes -with- the hooks, -without hooks- is as above):

First:
Faulting application name: XwingAlliance.exe, version: 2.0.0.2, time stamp: 0x3765a9b7
Faulting module name: XwingAlliance.exe, version: 2.0.0.2, time stamp: 0x3765a9b7
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0013e650
Faulting process id: 0x3468
Faulting application start time: 0x01d3a38abeaab351
Faulting application path: C:GamesXWAXwingAlliance.exe
Faulting module path: C:GamesXWAXwingAlliance.exe
Report Id: 8fc81bf5-5aad-4442-b9af-b265f9b65e2d
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

Then:
Faulting application name: XwingAlliance.exe, version: 2.0.0.2, time stamp: 0x3765a9b7
Faulting module name: XwingAlliance.exe, version: 2.0.0.2, time stamp: 0x3765a9b7
Exception code: 0xc000041d
Fault offset: 0x0013e650
Faulting process id: 0x3468
Faulting application start time: 0x01d3a38abeaab351
Faulting application path: C:GamesXWAXwingAlliance.exe
Faulting module path: C:GamesXWAXwingAlliance.exe
Report Id: e6ffcc24-0d8f-4aa2-b708-4364bd5f8357
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

PS: you've been super-awesome going through all this trouble to help with this.

I don't understand why it crashes.

Yeah.... I've been slamming my head against the wall trying to figure out a way to make it work... I've played an older version of XWAUCP on this same system, I mean its been upgraded some in the years since, faster cpu 980X vs 920, newer GPU 680 vs 260, more ram, and now running Win10 instead of 7 but aside from maybe Win10 I don't see how any of those could break anything... spent awhile trying to get it running on the WinXP partition only to finally find out newer versions of the packs don't work on XP... and older versions that do don't seem available anywhere, bah!

I really don't want to have to install a Win7 Partition too but looks like a may have no choice... heh my luck if I do it'll still crash...

Still.. thanks for trying so hard!

I'm on Win10 and the game runs fine.

JetBlack wrote:tried rebooting

This might seem a weirdly obvious suggestion, and you may have tried it already, but just in case you haven't:

Have you tried powering down the machine completely, for about 10 seconds, to let everything discharge properly, and then re-seating your GPU/RAM/both? I've had to do this a few times to fix seemingly random crashes, always in a single game that has worked fine before for months/years, and no problems in any others. It's as if something gets "stuck" in the hardware, that only affects one particular game, and a restart isn't enough to clear it out. Sometimes even just a shutdown, wait, and cold-boot is enough to fix things.

If you're anything like me, in that you hardly ever power down your machine, then it might be as simple as that.

Yeah tried a cold boot no help... not gonna take the comp apart, aside from this one thing it's running more stable then it ever has so I'm not gonna mess with it.

Did delete an old Linux partition I wasn't using and installed Win7 there, game & pack runs fine when booted in that *shrugs* I hate computers.

Final update (probably) for anyone interested or who happens to run into this problem themselves in the future:

Possibly found the cause, or at least a workaround: As I said the game ran in Win7, but when I reinstated the Win10 bootloader and later booted back into 7 to play some more the game crashed again with the same error... however if I leave the Win7 bootloader the game runs both in Win7 AND in Win10... I have absolutely no explanation as to why.. 28 years using/building/fixing PCs and this is bar-none the weirdest bug I've ever seen.

Anyway to anyone else who has this issue, try changing your bootloader to something other then the Win10 one, Win7 works for me but I should imagine GRUB or anything else would work as well.

I have not been using Multi-OS-Systems since... well... decades and have no idea if that applies to a single-Win10-system, too - or how to replace the bootloader.

I tried to google it. Will
bcdedit /set "{current}" bootmenupolicy legacy
do the trick?

Nay, it's a problem of the file paging. Basically an address error before the program may be the cause of incorrect start. Booting you bypass file paging system, dictating how to use the memory.