hello, first let me say that i installed the game perfectly, am able to play it and have no problems with video or sound, everything is great, except.... whenever i end the game my whole system does a reboot. i was thinking that it was because my game resolution and my desktop resolution were differnet so i made them both the same. still the same problem.
second. i started playing the game and got almost thru tahgira when i saved and exited. i had already exited quite a few times and restarted with no problems however this time when i pressed continue the game would not start and told me there was a stack violation with 14 stacks. no idea what this means. so i started a new game and have been playing for 4 days now. just got almost to the end of noloben(my third age) when same problem happens. please help if you can. i would like to keep my saved game if there is any chance but if i do have to start over the i really don't want this to happen again. thanks everyone

Suggestions, to do in the order shown. Play EoA after completing each suggestion.

1. Unless you've done them very recently, do at least steps 1 through 5 under Overall Windows and Hard Disk Tune-up With Win XP in Myst V: Clean Boot Install/Re-install With Win XP, one of the stickied topics at the top of this Forum.

2. If you haven't already done so, install the latest drivers for your video and sound chipsets. For video drivers, see Myst V: Installing Video Drivers With Win XP, another of the stickied topics. For sound drivers, go to your PC, motherboard, or sound card manufacturer's website.

3. Reset your virtual memory paging file size. Before changing your paging file settings, note what you started with, so that you can go back to those settings if desired. Be certain that you're logged on as an Administrator or a member of the Administrators group, then:
-- a. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
-- b. In the System Properties dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
-- c. In the Performance pane, click Settings.
-- d. In the Performance Options dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
-- e. In the Virtual memory pane, click Change.
-- f. Under Drive , click the drive that contains the paging file you want to change.
-- g. Under Paging file size for selected drive, click Custom size.
-- h. Change Initial size and Maximum size to the proper value in megabytes.
----- 1. For 256 MB of system RAM, set to 512.
----- 2. For 512 MB of system RAM, set to 1024.
----- 3. For 1024 MB of system RAM, set to 2048.
-- i. Click Set, and then click OK.
-- j. Click OK to close the Performance Options dialog box, and then click OK to close the System Properties dialog box. Close everything back to the Desktop.
-- k. Reboot, and play EoA.

4. Re-install EoA as detailed in in Myst V: Clean Boot Install/Re-install With Win XP.

5. If you have lots of processes and applications running in the background, one or more could be causing the stack problem. Use Windows Task Manager to close everything except for Explorer.exe, Ctfmon.exe, and whatever your hardware needs. Be certain that you're logged on as an Administrator or a member of the Administrators group, then:
-- a. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del once and then click on Task Manager.
-- b. Select the Applications tab.
-- c. Click on the desired application to highlight it.
-- d. Click on the End Task button at the bottom of the tab.
-- e. Repeat this procedure until all unnecessary applications and processes are closed. If you aren't sure which background processes or applications can be closed using Task Manager, check out the AnswersThatWork Task List Programs index. The most common tasks are described, and which ones are essential and which can be safely closed are noted.
-- f. Play EoA.

Note: DO NOT leave your Internet connection active after doing this, especially if you have only a software firewall. An active connection with no firewall is an open invitation to hackers, who are most assuredly not your friends!


If none of the above help, post a DxDiag report in this thread, and we'll take a look at your system and make further recommendations. See Myst V: System Requirements and Posting Guidelines under To post a DxDiag report for a how-to. Run all of the graphics and sound tests you can before saving the report to a file, and post *all* of the file.

hello!! this is my first post here ... i'm just a reader of this forum, but this time i decided to post about that crash i have, basically the same reported in the 1st post of the thread.
like everybody here, i was very excited about the last release of the saga, beeing myself a huge fan, but since i have the game (today) i am so frustrated: if it's not the set up, it's the security-don't-know-what...and now, after a big acces of joy, i was beginning the adventure and....

Exception type: Acces violation
Call stack (14 levels)
0x0086775F
0x009158C2
0x77E614C7
0x006689D9
0x01137624
0x00441988
0x0052C608
0x0052C3FF
0x0052C16F
0x00528DE0
0x004EF3FF
0x004EF189
0x004E2457
CRASH!!
there is no way to keep on playing because everytime i want to restart the game it's the same(i don't even have the time to explore Taghira, it happens just when i arrive there... yes, i am still here, in the begining )
i am going to try what Heimdall said and i'll let you know if it works!
note that i had the same crash before that one, but this time it happened before entering in Taghira... i canceled the game and began a new one... with a new crash LOL
i hope i could play one day!

peace to all!!!

pd: a looooot of bugs everywhere too... and i'm running with 512 RAM and my nivida has been updated today with the ultimate drivers

Stack overflow is a problem somewhere on your pc. You need to do all possible housekeeping such as defrag, clean the registry, set your pagefile up correctly, etc etc.

Heimdall will advise you on the tuning necessary.

thanks for your reply Mr Zebe D!
i tried to set up my pagingfile as suggested by Heimdall but it worked for only a minute... so i guess it didn't work at all! LOL
anyway, i decided to restart from the begining, since i didn't install the game via clean boot.
i'll do everything step by step and set up my pc as you guys said, before re install and so on.
i'll keep you posted!
thanks again for your advices... and wish me luck!

mulholland_dr.

Also make sure your system isn't overclocked, especially the memory. That can mess with things.

hi! well, i've done everything: un install game, set up my pc as recommended (desf., check disk for errors etc), re install with clean boot and nothing: i still have violation stack (seems diferent, but still). i don't know what else to do... ok, i managed to see tagirah and walk around a while, but it's simply impossible to keep on playing with that kind of crashes every 5 minutes!
by the way, i don't understand if a have to set up my memory on 512 or more (Heimdall said that we can set it up at 1024 but then uecasm said that overclocking the pc could be a mess... i'm lost ) anyway, i did both 512 and 1024 and the same
am i the only one with that kind of troubles? i've lost all the ilusions for playing myst V, it'a shame they are making things so complicated...
other strange thing happened: like i said, i uninstalled the game without saving my progress (not much) but when i re installed it, i was able to charge my game where i stoped the last time i "played". is it normal?
please any help would be highly appreciated

sorry for spamming the forum...but I DID IT! i can play now! i don't know if it is because i changed back my card drivers (i reinstalled the 77.77) or because i set up the resolution on 800X600 instead of 1024X768 (wich would have been the right thing to do, but...)
so i guess i won't cry around here anymore!
thank you for all your help guys!
the adventure can starts for me now!!!!

Note that setting virtual memory paging file size has nothing to do with overclocking.

Overclocking is something that's done with system BIOS settings (or a video card utility), while paging file size is set from within Windows.

See also Myst V: Main Branch & Stack Violation Error Fixes With Win XP.