Unable to load BA2 on new Windows 11 laptop

[psklenar]

Pip, et al,

A friend of mine had BA2 on his old PC but stopped playing it a few years ago after getting some weird errors. He's recently bought a brand new Win11 laptop and thought he'd give it a try again and now he's not even able start the game from the Loader screen (EXCEPTION: 0xC0000005 at address: 0x20202020).

I'm running on a Win11 laptop w/o issue (after updating my OPTIONS.TXT with the new screen resolution), so I'm confused what his issue is? His screen is 1920x1080 and his OPTIONS.TXT shows that.

We used to have so much fun playing PBEM coop.

Any thoughts or ideas? His last "ERROR.LOG" follows. Thank you for your time!
pat----

VER:10004
PLATFORM: WINDOWS
CPU String: AuthenticAMD
Stepping ID = 1
Model = 8
Family = 15
Extended model = 6
Extended family = 8
CLFLUSH cache line size = 64
APIC Physical ID = 10
CPU Brand String: AMD Ryzen 5 5500U with Radeon Graphics
Cache Size = 512K
UNKNOWN TAGS IN: CONFIG/SYSTEM.TXT
Unknown Tag: MOVIEMODE
Unknown Tag: DYNAMICENV
Unknown Tag: LAYOUTKILLSENEMYX,
END: CONFIG/SYSTEM.TXT
######## EXCEPTION: 0xC0000005 at address: 0x20202020
SEARCHING: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Battle Academy 2;C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Battle Academy 2;C:\Windows
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Battle Academy 2;C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Battle Academy 2;C:\Windows
0: SymGetSymFromAddr64(): GetLastError = 126

[psklenar]

Follow up - this was a clean install from a clean STEAM install. No data files copied from his old PC.

p

[pipfromslitherine]

Can they try running in Windowed mode, to see if that helps. I would also suggest disabling sound (in case it is a sfx driver issue).

If that doesn't help, can they check they have the DX9 runtime installed. It is supposed to be installed by default, but it looks like some W11 installs are broken in some way. You can find it here:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/downloa ... px?id=8109

You need to let it extract, then run.

Cheers

Pip

[psklenar]

they left their laptop here at my house. i'll try those suggestions after work in a bit.

Thank you!
pat----

[psklenar]

Pip,

How do we force the game into Windowed mode or change the Sound settings when we can't get into the game to get to the Options settings? There's no way to access that from the launcher and I don't see anything inside Steam to allow us to set the game to launch in Windowed mode vs Fullscreen.

On a hunch, I tried changing "Fullscreen 0" in the c:\Documents\My games\BA2\OPTIONS.TXT file to "Fullscreen 1", but got the identical error message immediately upon hitting the "Play Battle Academy 2" button on the launcher screen.

I ran the linked DX installer and it said everything was ready to run. Same error.

Thanks for any suggestions,
pat----

[pipfromslitherine]

Fullscreen is indeed how you control the windowed mode. 0 should have it in windowed.

You can disable sound in a similar way, setting the Sound entry to zero.

I'll try and dig in further. As you say, it only seems to be a subset of W11 installs (and only W11) which are having these issues, and none of them seem to be solved in the same way. Frustrating.

When you run the installer, it does what specifically? Does it pause on Initializing, and then tell you it is all installed?

Cheers

Pip

[psklenar]

RezX 1920
RezY 1080
Sound 1
Fullscreen 0

I've tried SOUND 1 & 0. No difference. I get the warning that it's going to try to access the internet (pic attached) and then it hangs with the progress bar not quite all the way across (2nd pic attached) (with music if "SOUND 1" or silent if "SOUND 0". Either way it hangs and i have to kill it via Task Manager.

I tried FULLSCREEN 1 and it does the same thing, starts and the progress bar hangs at the same point, but I can't kill the game via TASKMAN, I have to reboot.

I re-installed DX9 ... it installed the files and then said "ready".

My OPTION.TXT has far more entries than the four above, but when I copy it over and try that ... the whole system just hangs.

p

[psklenar]

I'm sorry Pip, I neglected to include the error.log last night. <blush>

VER:10004
PLATFORM: WINDOWS
CPU String: AuthenticAMD
Stepping ID = 1
Model = 8
Family = 15
Extended model = 6
Extended family = 8
CLFLUSH cache line size = 64
APIC Physical ID = 2
CPU Brand String: AMD Ryzen 5 5500U with Radeon Graphics
Cache Size = 512K
UNKNOWN TAGS IN: CONFIG/SYSTEM.TXT
Unknown Tag: MOVIEMODE
Unknown Tag: DYNAMICENV
Unknown Tag: LAYOUTKILLSENEMYX,
END: CONFIG/SYSTEM.TXT
Found DirectX Version Number: 4.09.00.0904
Creating Device.....
MonkeyInitStart
MonkeyInitStart Is Windowed
MIS: Found DD
MIS: IsHW
MIS: SetCoop
MIS: Done Init 3D Device
MIS: Tex Enum
MIS: SDRS
MIS: Init Decal Render
TS: Start
TS: IAPSent
TS: UILoaded
INITIAL LOAD 2766
TS: BattleObj
TS: Managers
TS: BFBB
TS: LT
TS: InitDLUI
TS: Messages
TS: Ended

[pipfromslitherine]

That doesn't look like it's crashing? Did you see the same error message?

Cheers

Pip

[pipfromslitherine]

And: if you hit ENTER when it hangs, does it close down?

Cheers

Pip

[pipfromslitherine]

OK - I want to try something. Please go to the install folder (usually C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Battle Academy 2). Go into the redist folder there, and run DXSETUP.exe. It should run, and at least attempt to copy some files. Does this happen?

Cheers

Pip

[psklenar]

Pip,

Okay, hitting ENTER while the music is playing and the progress bar is sitting there slightly less than complete ... accomplishes nothing.

I've just installed DXSETUP from the redist directory under Steam ... unfortunately my friend is currently playing CIV VI on his other computer at home right now. I'll try to start BA2 as soon as I see him log off. Note, running DXSETUP *did* install and copy files.

Thank you,
pat----

[psklenar]

Pip,

OKay, he's offline and I've tried to start BA2 ... I hit the PLAY button on the launcher, the music starts playing and the loading screen shows up. The progress bar rapidly speeds across the screen until about a 1/2" before the end and stops. Hitting ENTER doesn't do anything. Hitting ESC doesn't do anything. I have to kill BA2.exe via Task Manager. ERROR file looks the same as above.

p

[pipfromslitherine]

I'm having trouble following you. You did run the DXSETUP on the computer that's having the problems, right? And it didn't make any difference?

OK - can you please try something for me. Can you take the EXE and the pdb from the below zip and drop them into the install folder for the game (the files inside the folder in the zip, not the folder). It should overwrite the pdb file that is already in there. Then directly run the EXE. Then (assuming it crashes!) please send me the error log, it should give me more information - at least some!

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/1jf32r8z ... 7p44v&dl=0

Cheers

Pip

[psklenar]

I'm having trouble following you. You did run the DXSETUP on the computer that's having the problems, right? And it didn't make any difference?

Correct.

OK - can you please try something for me. Can you take the EXE and the pdb from the below zip and drop them into the install folder for the game (the files inside the folder in the zip, not the folder). It should overwrite the pdb file that is already in there. ...

Okay, I looked at "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Battle Academy 2" and don't see a "BA2.PDB" anywhere under there nor under "C:\Users\pat\Documents\My Games\BA2". Interestingly ... I don't see a BA2.pdb anywhere on MY PC either.

is it safe to 'assume' (yes, I know what that word breaks down into ) that the pdb and debug exe should be placed in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Battle Academy 2\"?

Thank you for working on this with me Pip!!! It's GREATLY appreciated!!!
pat----

[pipfromslitherine]

That is correct. The missing pdb would explain why I'm seeing little useful feedback, but we shall see.

Cheers

Pip

[psklenar]

Okay .. the ZIP file contains an error.log, MESSAGES.DAT, OPTIONS.TXT and TUF.INF that were all changed when I ran the debug executable. The attached picture shows that the debug executable didn't respect the requested RexX and ResY and therefore I was unable to select various program commands.

pat----

[psklenar]

picture not shown in previous message.

[pipfromslitherine]

OK - but the game DID load, where before it was failing? Is that correct?

Cheers

Pip

[psklenar]

Correct. Before the debug executable, it would show the title screen, start playing music and the progress bar would halt shortly before the end of the line. Then nothing until I killed it.

Now, with the debug executable, it goes all the way into the main game screen, but ignores ResX and ResY and I'm therefore unable to see the menu buttons on the right side of the screen to do anything.

p