Only Masquerade won't start - "Please tell Microsoft..." errror

[Guest]

Sorry abouit the long post, I am getting over my head here. I have been
playing Masquerade for a few weeks without major problems. I was playing one
morning about a week ago and quit the game in normal way. Then I tried to
start the next day and I just got the small microsoft window that has
something like this in it:

.................
vampire.exe

vampire.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for
the inconvenience.

If you were in the middle of something... Please tell Microsoft about this
problem... ... debug, send error report, don't send
..................

Restart didn't help, I can see the CD and open it from desktop, but can't
use it to run the game. When I insert the CD I get the "Install, Play etc"
window for the game but it doesn't start from there either. Other games
Halo, Half-Life, and Beyond Divinity all start and run fine, and there were
no DirectX problems when I do diagnostics.

The computer is a pretty new Gateway 505GR, 3 mhz P4, 1 gig ram, 6600GT
PCI-express card, running XP-Home. I have searched for this kind of problem
in a lot of places but couldn't find anything exactly like my problem...

I did uninstall of the game and then reinstall - it lets you choose to not
uninstall save games and config files so I didn't uninstall those. When I
reinstalled it still does the same thing.

At suggestion of Activision support by email, I ran dxdiag video and audio
tests and saved the results and sent them the test file. They suggested
install of newest drivers for my video card and delete the Masquerade config
files and try again, but that didn't fix it... I looked at my System Restore
calendar and there was a "Software Distribution Service 2" update, that
happened right before Masquerade stopped working. Because of this, I
restored my system back to just before this started happening and still get
the same error.

Any hints on what to do next very much appreciated {:- ) and thanks in
advance for any help someone can provide.

 

[Jimmy S.]

Hi Mark,

First, install Masquerade on another system to be sure that the
game itself is working, and then repair your Windows Installation.

How to repair Windows XP:
Unplug from your Internet connection, and then repair Windows:
using this method: http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Afterwards, boot up your system, turn on your XP Internet Firewall,
plug back into your Internet connection and install all Critical and
Recommended updates from: http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

--
Cheers, Windows XP MVP Shell / User
Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

Game FAQs: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite: http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call / Contact
MS Support at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=sz;en-us;top
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
_________________________________________________________

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the quick response Jimmy! Last night I installed Masquerade on a
laptop, and it worked (though it is underpowered so it stuttered/struggled a
bit), so the game is OK. I am just about to repair, after gathering and
backing things up.

One minor thing (I hope), I couldn't find wpa.bak which is recommended to
back up before repair, though I did find the wpa.dbl which I backed up to
another computer... I searched for info on why it might not be there, but
couldn't find anything useful, but it sounds as though as long as I have a
copy of the wpa.dbl I can use that.

I'll let you know how things went.

Thanks again!
Mark

Hi Mark,

First, install Masquerade on another system to be sure that the
game itself is working, and then repair your Windows Installation.

How to repair Windows XP:
Unplug from your Internet connection, and then repair Windows:
using this method: http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Afterwards, boot up your system, turn on your XP Internet Firewall,
plug back into your Internet connection and install all Critical and
Recommended updates from: http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

--
Cheers, Windows XP MVP Shell / User
Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

Game FAQs: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite: http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call / Contact
MS Support at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=sz;en-us;top
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
_________________________________________________________

Sorry abouit the long post, I am getting over my head here. I have been
playing Masquerade for a few weeks without major problems. I was playing one
morning about a week ago and quit the game in normal way. Then I tried to
start the next day and I just got the small microsoft window that has
something like this in it:

................
vampire.exe

vampire.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for
the inconvenience.

If you were in the middle of something... Please tell Microsoft about this
problem... ... debug, send error report, don't send
.................

Restart didn't help, I can see the CD and open it from desktop, but can't
use it to run the game. When I insert the CD I get the "Install, Play etc"
window for the game but it doesn't start from there either. Other games
Halo, Half-Life, and Beyond Divinity all start and run fine, and there were
no DirectX problems when I do diagnostics.

The computer is a pretty new Gateway 505GR, 3 mhz P4, 1 gig ram, 6600GT
PCI-express card, running XP-Home. I have searched for this kind of problem
in a lot of places but couldn't find anything exactly like my problem...

I did uninstall of the game and then reinstall - it lets you choose to not
uninstall save games and config files so I didn't uninstall those. When I
reinstalled it still does the same thing.

At suggestion of Activision support by email, I ran dxdiag video and audio
tests and saved the results and sent them the test file. They suggested
install of newest drivers for my video card and delete the Masquerade config
files and try again, but that didn't fix it... I looked at my System Restore
calendar and there was a "Software Distribution Service 2" update, that
happened right before Masquerade stopped working. Because of this, I
restored my system back to just before this started happening and still get
the same error.

Any hints on what to do next very much appreciated {:- ) and thanks in
advance for any help someone can provide.

 

[Guest]

Either it got misplaced or I did not get an XP-Home CD with my Gateway GR505
purchased at Best Buy (Dec 2004). I just have a plastic sealed envelope with
a little "start here" folder with a sheet of cardboard in it... Don't know
if this is standard operating procedure. So, I am stuck while I find out how
to get the CD. More hopefully soon...
Mark

 

[Jimmy S.]

Mark,

I hope you can find the CD. If you can't find it, give the folks at
Gateway support a call and explain the situation to them.

Cheers,
Jimmy.

 

[Guest]

Hi Jimmy,

So, I spoke with a computer-savvy salesperson at Best Buy this afternoon -
evidently this is SOP for Gateway and some other OEMs. No XP CD comes with
the computer... The XP-Home info etc is on the hard drive and there is a
program which will make the XP system install/repair disk from the hard
drive. He suggested it was some kind of anti-pirate thing - I have a trip I
am going on Tuesday, so I probably won't be able to work on this until next
Saturday.

And I just got an email from a Gateway tech (that was quick, just
emailedthem today!) with some info - more later, thanks again,
Mark