1. On running the game it sounds like the DVD is running, but nothing happens

2. No

3. See Above

4. No

5. Yes, updated to lastest version and still cant access game

6. Intel Core Duo 2.13 GHz
2Gb DDR800 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS 512Mb

7. DVD single player version only

8. Makes no change

9.

1. Did you ever managed to reach the in game menu / play the game?

No, But Demo Worked?

2. If you ever managed to get to the Menu/play the game, did you remember what was the last thing you did before everything went broken?

...

3. Where/How does the program crashes? (Just by clicking on the shortcut / During the first cinematic / After the intro cinematic & during the loading screen to the Menu)

I can only hear the cinematics with white background, then get error message

4. Do you have an error message?

yes said, Can't find background image 'materials/console/background01.vtf'

5. Did you update your video drivers with the last one available from NVIDIA / ATI Sites?

Yes have the latest NVIDIA drivers

6. What is your CPU / RAM / Video Card / Video Card Memory?

1.6 AMD, 1GB, GeForce 5700LE 256mb

7. Are you playing Steam or DVD Version? If you're playing Steam do you ALSO have the DVD Version?

Have DVD version but when i was installing i had to download some files from STEAM? now i have Steam shortcuts & normal?

8. If you follow the procedure below, does it change anything?

NO

Also, when i tryed to uninstall the demo it would just reinstall the game? the uninstaller does not work?

Basiclly i just start up with DVD version and I get 3 white screens followed by what Semuk got

Yeah it sucks...but managed to uninstall the game and this time not install the 1.02 patch and i can actually play now, though on the cinematics i get a black screen now with a diagonal white line across??? anyone???

I eventually got this bloody game to run!!! Using the solution posted by "staninja" I disabled my virus scanner (AVG) and also closed all internet connections... The game is now running pretty well everytime i go through this procedure...

I know this is not the optimal solution espescially for people wanting to play multiplayer, but it works for me in single player... I hope that a proper solution is brought out soon, as I hate being offline and without an antivirus whilst playing...

BTW I am also using the v1.02 patch, and don't appear to have any problems yet!

Oh, just want to add that when i re-installed the game i didn't install the multiplaer version or any steam files...just plain Single Player...

Will the staff stop eating their x.mas grub an reply to these problems please!

1. yes i got to the menus before.

2. I was playing the game. I never made ANY settings ingame. and after FOUR reinstalls of both game and steam (totally spent 15 hours downloading with steam, i try not to be rude but F*K you steam) so i seriously doubt it would matter if i did.

the message i am getting is that steam claims that the game is unavailable. I have no idea what kind of unavailable steam means, and there's no connectivity problem (see? i'm posting this right now! i got connection!) and when i look at the list of servers through steam i can clearly see tons of other people don't find hteir game to be "unavailable".

The only cure i can predict for this problem though is that an option for an alternative client is released, if this is not done REALLY soon i am returning the game and believe me i won't be the only one never touching an ubisoft product ever again for the rest of eternity.

The less you care for your customers and the more work you leave for some poorly made client(s) the more people will return their games and never buy another ubisoft product. i am sure of it.

1. Did you ever managed to reach the in game menu / play the game?

Just the multiplayer version, the singleplayer, no.

3. Where/How does the program crashes? (Just by clicking on the shortcut / During the first cinematic / After the intro cinematic & during the loading screen to the Menu)

When I click the shortcut after a few seconds I get a "mm.exe has encountered problems and needs to be closed down", with the option to send or not an error report to microsoft. This happens both if I try to play through steam or through the DVD shortcut.

4. Do you have an error message?

described above.

5. Did you update your video drivers with the last one available from NVIDIA / ATI Sites?

Yes.

6. What is your CPU / RAM / Video Card / Video Card Memory?

AMD Athlon 64 XD dual-core processor 4200+
2gb RAM (dual channel)
NVidia GeForce 7900 GS
256 mb I think

7. Are you playing Steam or DVD Version? If you're playing Steam do you ALSO have the DVD Version?

Well, I bought the DVD retail from the store, but if "steam version" means downloading it, then no, I do not.

8. If you follow the procedure below, does it change anything?

Nope.


Really weird how multiplayer works and single doesn't. And yes, I ran a cache integrity check via steam and it's normal.

1. No
2. --
3. After the 3 cinematics, I can see the pic after saying: Dark messiah. and it crashes here.
4. No, my computer only reboot/crash...
5. Yes
6. Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz/ 510.7MB/ NVIDIA GeForce 6200 TurboCache/
7. DVD
8.No

I wasn't able to play this game until yesterday. I could play for a bit initially but frequently crashed on loading new levels. After the Dec. 12th patch I couldn't even get to the menu so I gave up on this game.

I deleted Dark Messiah and just recently thought to give it another shot so as to not completly waste my money and downloaded it again. After downloading it I shut down my Trend Micro virus scan before booting the game. This time it works fine on near maximum settings @ 1680X1050. If I leave my virus scanner running it crashes before loading the menu. At 80-95% of the progress bar.

This might indicate that it is indeed your copyright protection interfering with my virus scanner.

Having now played the game I think it is a shame so many people (including myself) have had such a frustrating experience with it. It has a lot going for it without the bugs. What really irks me is that by paying for the game I likely received copy protection that prevented me from playing, while someone who downloaded it illegally would never have this problem. I also find it aggravating that I have to turn of virus protection to get the game to run.

To answer the initial questions in this thread:

1. Yes.
2. Yes (though I had frequent crashes). The last thing I did before the crashes before the menu was update the game via steam.
3. It crashed just after the cinematics while loading the menu.
4. No error message that I saw, though I was unable to get back to windows so there may have been errors poping up that I could never see needing to turn off the computer and reboot.
5. I first updated to the 84.21 drivers, but then upgraded to the 93.71 which I am now running.
6. My system is : Athlon XP 3200, Geforce 6800 GS (256), 1024 mb of RAM, Windows XP.
7. Steam version of Dark Messiah.
8. This procedure didn't fix anything.

I bought this game on steam the day it was available and am just now enjoying my purchase. I really only ended up fixing this problem out of spite, the money I spent on the game was less than my hourly wage would have been if the time spent trying to fix it had been applied to work instead. It was the principle of the thing. I really like your game, but I will be very reluctant to purchase anything from Arkane or Ubisoft in the future.

I am not really angry, but as a consumer all I can do is vote with my dollars and avoid companies that poorly test their games in the future. Please for the sake of your employees, fans, and stockholders test your games better in the future.

Peace.

The Purple Monk

Concerning ShaderApi problem (this may be of interest to you KarlozKiller
This I found on steam support wiki while browsing the web about source engine-based games such as Dark Messiah (which caused an havok on my steam installation, as for now I can't play any source based game it seems :s)

quote:

If you are encountering crashes in Source-engine games (possibly before the game's title screen loads) which reference "shaderapidx9.dll" in the Microsoft Error Reporting details window you may need to check the Windows services running on your system. Please ensure that the DCOM Server Process Launcher service is started to correct this crash condition. Start the DCOM Server Process Launcher Service

1. Go to the Start button and select Run...
2. Enter services.msc and click OK
3. Locate the DCOM Server Process Launcher Service and right click on it to select its Properties
4. In the Startup type: drop-down menu ensure that Automatic is selected
5. Click Apply and then OK to save any changes

If you continue to experience crashes referencing shaderapidx9.dll while the DCOM Server Process Launcher Service is running, please see the Ongoing Issues topic for instructions to submit a detailed report to Steam Support.

Hope that maybe it helps

1. No

2. N/A

3. Gives me a error message asking me to send an error report after attempting to run the single player program.

4. i guess

5. N/A

6. Pentium 4 3.00Ghz, 512Mb ram, Radeon X300 SE 128 Hypermemory, 128 MbWhat is your CPU / RAM / Video Card / Video Card Memory?

7. DVD version

8. No

quote:

Originally posted by edralzar:
-snip-

quote:

Please ensure that the DCOM Server Process Launcher service is started... -snip-

Hope that maybe it helps

AWESOME!! This worked for me!

I'm so happy. Played through the whole game in two sittings! Thank you for posting this info.

Previously I couldn't get SP to start at all (no intro screens, no nothing.) but oddly MP would start up. Enabling that service was all that was needed to get SP up and running!

happy this could help for at least one person... maybe I'll try to add it to the sticky if it's possible. And I'll definitely try it when I come back to my PC at the end of the month (my desktop PC can't run the game anymore but I'm playing on my Laptop)

1. Did you ever managed to reach the in game menu / play the game?

No. It is a fresh install from the Collector's Edition DVD I just bought tonight.

2. If you ever managed to get to the Menu/play the game, did you remember what was the last thing you did before everything went broken?

Never.

3. Where/How does the program crashes? (Just by clicking on the shortcut / During the first cinematic / After the intro cinematic & during the loading screen to the Menu)

It crashes at about 80% of the progress bar after the intro video.

4. Do you have an error message?

MM.exe crashed, memory could not be read.

5. Did you update your video drivers with the last one available from NVIDIA / ATI Sites?

Yes.

6. What is your CPU / RAM / Video Card / Video Card Memory?

Intel 2.8GHz, 768Mb RAM, ATI Radeon 9550 Deluxe (it's part of the 9600 series)

7. Are you playing Steam or DVD Version? If you're playing Steam do you ALSO have the DVD Version?

DVD version.

8. If you follow the procedure below, does it change anything?

With the DVD Version:
Right click the desktop shortcut, then select "properties" at the end of the field with the full path to mm.exe add "-width 1024 -height 768"

With a default installation, it should looks like:
"c:\program files\ubisoft\dark messiah of might and magic\mm.exe" -width 1024 -height 768

I get another dialog before the usual "MM.exe memory cannot be read" one. It said: "Internal Driver Error in IDirect3DDevice9:Present()".

I tried again, this time with some improvements.

I uninstalled, then reinstalled from the DVD. Without applying the 1.02 patch, I also set my swap file to a huge size (to 2Gb).

That got me into the main menu. I changed the settings to very low (800x600, medium on most settings, disabled anti-alias and v-sync).

I got to play the tutorial until I impaled the first black knight I met. Then the game crashed, with the same two error dialogs:

Internal Driver Error in IDirect3DDevice9:Present()

followed by the usual "Memory cannot be read".

[QUOTE]Originally posted by DrakosVek:
1. Did you ever managed to reach the in game menu / play the game?

Yes

2. If you ever managed to get to the Menu/play the game, did you remember what was the last thing you did before everything went broken?

random crashes, all through the first two chapters

3. Where/How does the program crashes? (Just by clicking on the shortcut / During the first cinematic / After the intro cinematic & during the loading screen to the Menu)

After the menu on a saved game

After the cinematic, annd sometimes at the loading screen. Then the computer just restarts.

4. Do you have an error message?

yes mm.exe exception error

5. Did you update your video drivers with the last one available from NVIDIA / ATI Sites?

yes

6. What is your CPU / RAM / Video Card / Video Card Memory?

Duo core 2 2.8 / 1024 / nvidia geforce 7300se / 512

7. Are you playing Steam or DVD Version? If you're playing Steam do you ALSO have the DVD Version?

I am playing the DVD

8. If you follow the procedure below, does it change anything?

No

I would just like to add that it is your engine that fails not my PC

ATTENTION

Any experiencing a crash at start up may benefit from checking my other thread: http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8821027804/m/6701084135

Possible symptoms:

Windows error message:

"mm.exe encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience."

OR:

BinkShouldSkip@4 was not found in binkw32.dll

---------------------------------

My fix works for either of these, but may also fix other video related issues. (Plus it's harmless, so give it a try.)

- Monarch

1.yes for about 2 mins

2.Set every thing on low and set res to 800x600

3.I click on the shortut when I use the disc, then it goes black, then back to my desktop, nuthing else happens..So I tried using it through steam...It freezes during the loading screen about half-way, then I have to restart my comp.

4.I did before it wouldnt start anymore.."internal Driver error"

5.Dont know how..I have a ATI Radeon Xpress 200.

6. Where do I find this...XD

7. trying both

8.It wont let me change the dvd version, but i tried the steam version and it go to the menu but when i tried to load a game it froze half-way. after it freezes, i have no other choice but to restart my computer.