another rf2 startup fail

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by jtbo, Nov 27, 2012.

  1. jtbo

    jtbo Registered

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    I had small system failure here, computer failed to shut down and force shutdown caused whole hkey_local_machine\software to be non existent, which naturally caused bit of issues with Windows not finding appropriate license or something along those lines it was that Windows genuine tool complained.

    So after thing leading to another and my organizational skills to be less than those of amoeba, I found out myself starting from scratch, so freshly installed OS to blank drive.

    Currently I have email, www browser, security software and Libre Office installed, nothing else and I did install rFactor2.

    My rfactor core is at C: drive and data is at J: drive, don't ask why Windows decided to label that as J: drive, it just did.

    Very similar setup compared to previous, except I have lot less drive letters now, before system crash I had installed rF2 118 build from scratch and installed all mods in game, instead of using mod manager, as mod manager gives me only tears, it always fails to verify mods and I don't really use it for anything.

    However without mods, I tried to start rF2 and I got splash screen that did go away and nothing else.

    Trace tells this:
    Code:
    TRACE LEVEL = 4
    tracelog.cpp  139: Command line: "+path=".." +hash=####HIDDEN#### trace=4"
    main.cpp      192: FPU=0x0009001f
    game.cpp     1620: Entered Game::Enter()
    osman.cpp     727: Entered OSMan::Enter()
    plrfile.cpp  2899: Entered PlayerFile::Enter()
    plrfile.cpp  2041: Attempting to save to J:\rfactor2data\UserData\player\player.TMP
    plrfile.cpp  2074: Retcode: 0 for renaming to J:\rfactor2data\UserData\player\player.PLR
    hwinput.cpp  7295: Entered HWInput::Enter()
    hwinput.cpp  7296: HKL=0x040b0409
    Now with mod manager I'm getting failed to verify as always, please don't say that need to download again, it is not that, has never been that, it is just that sometimes mod manager works, sometimes it does not work, I'm pretty sure of this. Same packages installed fine from ingame before, they do it probably now too and some packages are my own making.

    I'm pretty sure that I could stat rF2 without mods installed before.

    Also I did have check on direct x of rF2 install, I have not installed any other direct x and I guess that might be the issue here.

    This is latest redist from Microsoft, but link seems to be dead for me and I really want to use redist and not that web installer, I don't trust web installers.

    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=31217


    June 2010 link is which seem to be working, let's wait 30 minutes and then I can test if that is the cause:
    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109

    I would imagine that directX included in rF2 install should install directX that makes things work, though?

    Yeah, still using WinXP sp3 here, hard to beat that 20 seconds boot time :p

    edit: I try just to document what happened, what attempts I make and if I find solution.

    dxdiag shows I have directx 9.0c, 4.09.0000.0904, which is what rF2 installed. Still 10mins until I can install new dx and test if it has effect to issue.

    gfx driver is same as before, os updates are probably same as before, can't really remember too much about those from last system. wheel drivers are probably the same, sound driver can be different but it is same as which had been once with rf2 also, latest mb maker driver, but I had downloaded before reference drivers which I might do again as those were quite bit better.

    av is more recent version and I actually have proper fw now too, which did not harm activation process which was successful.

    differences are that I have no mouse software or lan drivers installed now, I don't really use lan so might disable lan cards.

    Got now June 2010 directx installed, but it did not change anything really, even version number is same.

    So single player mode is now attempting to start but can't and dev mode is not even attempting (known issue with xp).

    I did also try to copy old rf2data folder over new one and while it does now show all mods installed in mod manager rF2 is still not any better.

    Heaven benchmark seems to run so I think rf2 should also. Maybe rF2 don't like to be at c: program files, or maybe av snipped some bit of rF2, or maybe there is some other issue, who knows. I guess reinstalling is only way forward, this time av disabled to see if that makes any difference.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 27, 2012
  2. MJP

    MJP Registered

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    Wish you hadn't copied your old rf2data folder over into your new install that just potentially muddies the waters.

    Is the multiplayer mode working, if so try that and at the racelist screen try 'manage mods' at bottom of screen then select 'all tracks & cars' hit 'accept' then exit out to launcher then try single player again.
     
  3. 88mphTim

    88mphTim racesimcentral.net

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    Just keep the packages folder, remove everything else in core and data. Reinstall installer, reinstall packages.
     
  4. jtbo

    jtbo Registered

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    Well, it is really just matter of renaming folders to switch data folder, or set up different data folder from launcher, no effect of any kind whatsoever.

    New fresh install without av did nothing either.

    mod manager did allow me to install formula renault, but of course it had no effect either.

    It does attempt to start, I can see splash screen and I can see program without name but with rfactor logo at task bar like always when launching, but then it just closes, no trace, no errors.

    Tried all normal restarts and av disabling, but from some reason after splash screen starting window is not happening, I have set it to windowed mode as that is what I always do until I'm sure everything is working properly.

    Multiplayer mode does exactly the same as single player.

    Something is perhaps missing, something that is required to get window initiated or something that happens between initiating window and first splash screen. Maybe it is some library?

    This should come after where my trace.log stops:
    vidman.cpp 1487: Entered VidMan::Enter()

    It does not come, I can change any graphics setting to any kind and that has no effect.

    Also I don't understand, why it is that when I have installed only formula renault, I have palm beach installed into C: program files, rfactor2 and mills installed J: rfactor2data ?

    Why palm beach is there in first place, that is F2 track, right? So it should come only when I install F2 and it should be at J:

    Something confusing here, certainly there has to be some reason why things are happening, so it is just needed to find why and then fix that.

    Might need bit of sleep before banging my head to wall more, I need to install .net 4.0 anyway so who knows, maybe it starts to work after that, however there would be no any logic, but maybe logic is not needed.

    Might also try to install c++ libraries while at it as those are required by rfactor and installed by rfactor, but maybe there is something more that would come from full c++ libraries package and perhaps that makes it to work, after testing I know more again.
     
  5. jtbo

    jtbo Registered

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    I have kept doing this few times, but there seem not to be effect from some odd reason, that should make it tick, but it is just cranking, however if there is a solution, I will find one as I usually do, beware walls :)
     
  6. MJP

    MJP Registered

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    I'd love to be able to just have 5 mins in front of your pc (well not just your pc, plenty of forum posts with similar problems) just to see how people are managing to make a complete dogs dinner of what should be a pretty simple procedure.

    There shouldn't be any need to rename folders and stuff....Palm Beach doesn't even come with the Formula Renault mod, it comes with the GT World Endurance mod.

    Tracks and cars should be in your data folder (which you say is supposedly on a different drive/partition) so how did it get there? You must of either moved it there or tried to install stuff by running mod manager direct from the core folder.

    You can't expect us to believe that it just somehow extracted itself from the GT mod and randomly installed itself into program files! Like many posts on here theres so much stuff that just doesn't make any sense, there has to be something you're doing wrong or haven't mentioned yet.
     
  7. PMC

    PMC Registered

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    Yes ,fail to start is generally because the core cant find the data.

    But there seems to be a couple of other things not right.
     
  8. jtbo

    jtbo Registered

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    Interesting, I did remove config.ini from C: rfactor2 and rfactor started, before that I had installed .net 4 but it of course did nothing to that. Then I removed rfactor2 once again and installed again to see if still same would repeat, but this time from some reason it managed to work straight away.

    This is very confusing, something just did install differently I guess because it works now. I was very careful to make step at a time and making notation which step I made so that I could catch what would cause it not to work, but clever one slipped still past me, I dislike that quite a lot, I really would like to find out why things are happening, but yet again some magical aspect changed between install attempts.

    Installed 60's mod, installed update to it, used car that was first selected and attempt to drive at spa with default race setting, I got error of utilitypoles not being found.
    However I remember that I have driven there before. Monaco seems to be 1.1 and Belgium 1.0. Well at least it starts now, I need to do bit more research about Belgium issue.
     
  9. jtbo

    jtbo Registered

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    Well, if I have fresh install of OS to fresh HD, I install rf2core to that same hd and data to J: drive where I had previous data, which I renamed and used same original name when doing rf2 install (rfactor2data) so that I had rfactor2data_safe and rfactor2data, there indeed should not be any mods there and specially no palm beach in rfactor2core.

    I have installed rf2 so many times that it should be childs play, also as I have worked as pc repairing business I would say I should know my folders fairly well and I can say that something really odd was going on there, whatever reason was.

    It simply is not possible to accidentally copy palm beach to core, imo.

    Of course some don't rename folders or make backups, but I like to do that, downloading 4gb of stuff takes something close to 20 hours, renaming folder takes 2 seconds or so.

    You can easily have two different data folders and swap between them if you like too, so if you want to experiment have new, old and original folder, you can overwrite original with new and old and it just works and you still have both new and old in safety, nothing odd there.

    I blame mod manager, I hit button from launcher that reads mod manager, then I attempted to install F2 mod, which from mod manager complained about not being able to verify. Of course one would think that it should not then even copy stuff around either, so even that does not make sense to me.

    Simply put, something really weird and I do hate it when I can't figure out what and doing shift delete after uninstalling and doing install all over again several times does produce same effect of non functioning rf2, but delete single config.ini and all of sudden it works, even if you do uninstall, shift delete and reinstall without deleting config.ini.

    Does not make sense, not even a bit.

    There can't really be such bug either, it would pop up, there would be a pattern to it.

    Installing some software is a job that can be done blindfolded and both hands tied behind your back so it is interesting why it still can fail.

     
  10. PMC

    PMC Registered

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    Is the hardrive that errored still connected.

    and try install to default,program files and docs
     
  11. jtbo

    jtbo Registered

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    It was more of software fault that system crash, I did the usual diagnostics of course, which revealed that hardware is running within the specs, more than a day to complete all those.

    With Spa track, I was wondering that if there is fault within package, will ingame installer still happily install the package?

    It is bit odd too, I remember that I did download spa for dev mode and that too complained from utilitypoles06, that was long time ago, had to disable that from .scn file to get it working. I could not find anything about that then or now from boards and it does sound illogical that different package would have issue at same file.

    Monaco works fine though, over 200fps :p
     
  12. tjc

    tjc Registered

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    Guys... if I may, I`m going to take this opportunity to ask one question.

    Why do so many people have their core folder and then other folders, such as data in completely different locations?

    I`ve read so many posts by people on here saying they`re having major problems getting "X" to work and then go on to say they have their core folder here and then data (or other folders) there...

    Why?

    I have everything rf2 related installed on my SIMS HDD, in rf2`s case for build 118 it`s in SIMS > RACING SIMS > rF2 > b118 and in the b118 folder I have everything, nothing to do with rf2 (or any sims) is in any other location and, touch wood lol, I`ve never had any problems... done loads of re-installs etc and never renamed or moved anything.

    Now, I`m not trying to say my way`s the way to go by any means, I`m just wondering why so many decide to have different stuff in different places and then go on to have nothing but problems...
     
  13. jtbo

    jtbo Registered

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    Well, it is easier to manage data, especially when you are a modder, when your data is at some simple location, also you can have data with only your mod files and data for original content etc.

    Also I remember faintly that I had some issues with early builds, might been related to mod manager, when I had everything at default places.

    However if I install to default locations, that also puts things on two drives as I have my user profiles on different drive than my OS and my temp and swap at yet another drive, makes OS to operate lot smoother as I can have os read, temp/swap write and user profile read at the same time and without slowing access times of each other.

    That does apply also to rf2, when you have core and data at separate physical discs both can be accessed same time without added delays from another's seek times etc.

    I really doubt that locations themselves are reason of issues, more I doubt mod manager being one that causes issues, then I also suspect always av software, those make so much of very weird problems that one could write many books about them.
     
  14. MJP

    MJP Registered

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    The install locations for 'core' and 'data and settings' are separate by default. The 'core' files go in 'Program Files' and the 'data and settings' go in your 'Documents' folder the exact folder names depend on what OS you're running), of course there's no reason why you can't install them elsewhere if you want to.

    The 'core' location install takes up just under 200MB and that's been pretty consistent from B49 onwards, the 'data and settings' location is where all the mod cars and tracks get installed and will grow to be GBs in size.

    As I've posted many times the biggest flaw (imho) is allowing mod manager to be run direct direct from the Core folder because when you do that it installs stuff *to* the Core folder, whereas if you run 'Manage Mods' from the launcher or install stuff 'ingame' so to speak then they get installed to the 'data and settings' location.

    Then you get people posting stuff that makes no sense, people claiming stuff like 'I had to make a Packages folder the installer didn't create one' or 'I'm missing the ShowRooms or TMTires' or some other stuff that's part of the default base install. Another one you see is 'I had to rename folders and/or move them to get it working'.......no just stop there... if you're having to do that you've gone wrong already.

    Then people get vague on details on what they have (or haven't) done, as above (sorry JTBO not trying to pick on you) he has Palm Beach in 'Program files'. Well where exactly, is it literally in Program Files or the RFactor2 folder or the Core folder. Then there's the issue of how it got there, currently Palm Beach isn't available separately it's part of the ISI GT mod which he said he hasn't installed. He says he hasn't moved it there so we're running out of options now.

    Are we expected to believe mod files just move and/or extract themselves with no user input, you read some posts and you'd be forgiven for thinking Rfactor2 is some sort of virus! As I posted previously I'd love to sit on someones shoulder and see just exactly what they're doing compared to what they say they do.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 28, 2012
  15. jtbo

    jtbo Registered

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    Trying to save fingers creates confusion :)

    Yeah, program files I meant core folder in C:\program files\rFactor2\ which I believe ended up there by using mod manager, even though I did use mod manager button from launcher, but before in old OS when I did update to 118 I found out that folder was showing with / instead of \ and that mod manager really did not know what it was doing and where it was installing stuff, so maybe some av interfered with install and had some of such tiny error happen which made F2 installing to core instead of data.

    Only reason I can think of and only explanation I can think of why rF2 was not starting at first place is av interfering with install., making rF2 as confused as I'm usually am :D

    Usually there is very logical explanation, but sometimes it is difficult to find one.

    I'm thinking again moving away from avast, it did cause C# 2008 installation to fail too, even had it disabled, uninstalled and then no errors with install and I'm not all too sure if it was not avast's fault that computer failed to shutdown and I lost registry keys at first place.

    Starts to remind me of f-secure we had to install when working at pc repairs and selling business, when you installed hp printer drivers, it worked fine, reboot and all was good, customer takes machine to home and few days later comes back saying there is no printer installed still and he was charged from printer installation, being very angry of course.

    We install it again, test again with plenty of reboots and all was fine, but again after few days customer comes back, same issue.

    Weird thing was that if you did shut down computer, instead of reboot, f-secure did remove hp printer drivers at next boot, replaced with avast and no problems ever since, customer was happy that his computer got lot faster too and stopped crashing too.

    After that we did more testing and even f-secure was set disabled, it still removed hp drivers without telling any messages to user.

    That was only one of thousands machines that did go trough our service department each year that had that problem and it required very specific printer and f-secure version to occur.

    Just shows how freak things do happen.
     
  16. Tripp

    Tripp Registered

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    not edit anything in rf2 as you maybe did on rf1 me for example did add a new race start sound same i do with rf1 .
    and offcourse in rf 2

    What happening after that ?? rf 2 not wanna start it refuse to start only way i get that off was a total format c nothing else worked..!! so not chance or edit any files in rf2 it can get really wrong .. Ps. i test all things cokkies if that was on my hd even if i trow the files but nada a full format C was only way to get my HD clean after that missmatch ..
     
  17. DJCruicky

    DJCruicky Registered

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    @jtbo, if you're not happy with your hard drive being called J: you can change drive letters.
    Right click 'My Computer' icon
    Manage
    +Storage +Disk Management
    Right click on J: then pick "Change drive letters and paths"

    I had some bother myself after updating to 118, but all sorted now. Some how the game lost where to find the data path so was looking for the files in core. I fixed it by installing over the top with Full build (not update) and that set the file paths correct again.
    Also I've been meaning to post a bug I found with the 'Change Data Path' button in the Launcher. What happens is if you press it, it changes your data path from (for example):
    'd:\Games\rFactor2data'
    to
    'd:/Games/rFactor2data'
    ...and that will kill your install further.
     
  18. jtbo

    jtbo Registered

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    Yeah, I know that place, but thought that it is fine being J:, what ever reason it ended up being J:, at previous install it was I: and that drive has not been changed. Must be because it is on different hdd controller that it got such label.

    Ah, so there is bug with the button, that is good one. So currently only way to swap mod folders (rfactor2data for me) is in fact to copy/rename/move folders.

    One thing I have not yet figured out is mas2 tool, if I created component, sometimes it gets to quick select list that is on top of component creation window, sometimes it does not get there, maybe it gets there only if you close that window by pressing done and not if you close it by other means?
     
  19. tjc

    tjc Registered

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    Re my question... appreciate the replies.

    As I do no modding (yet) I never thought about it (modding) needing different folders in different places...

    :)
     
  20. MJP

    MJP Registered

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    Yep if you've got multiple installs or modding then you'll need to create folders and stuff to get stuff in devmode etc. I've got a dozen installs on the go atm and just recently moved them all to a new storage hard drive. Took the opportunity to rearrange the folders and stuff but a bit of fiddling around changing the data.path files and stuff and they're all up and running. If you've just got/want a single install though then you shouldn't need to worry about this stuff.
     

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