MTM2.com

when i try to run MTM2 i get this error pop-up :
"Runtime Error!
Program:...iles\Microsoft Games\Monster Truck Madness 2\Monster.EXE

This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusaul way. Please contact the applications support team for more information."

I've uninstalled and re-installed the game and i get the same thing - any help would be much appreciated

thanks

I've never seen that error messege before, ill have to check the monster.exe file when i get home.

It's not an MTM2 error, it's a generic Windows error (possibly specific to XP) and there appears to be no single solution to avoiding it. It sounds like a fancy way of saying 'your program has crashed'.

>> "Please contact the application's support team for more information."

At this point that would be us. You're in trouble.

About all I can suggest is... make sure no instances of the crashed game are still running in memory before trying to run it again, and if and when you uninstall you should verify the program directory is wiped out before reinstalling. Reboot in between tests just to straighten out your system, and if you're running XP you should try running the program in 95/98 compatibility mode via the properties tab. I have no idea what's going on but it's possible that you have other stuff in memory that is interfering with the game trying to start up.

ok wint...that sounds good to me but i guess i'm still pretty comp. illiterate so i dont know how to go about making sure that there's no instances of mtm2 running on memory- or how to wipe out the program directory or that stuff sry but i guess im still new to computer stuff like that. lol

> i dont know how to go about making sure that there's no instances of mtm2 running on memory

Hold ctrl and alt at the same time and press the del key. A box will pop up. You will see a number of tabs at the top. The ones we're interested in are the "applications" and "processes" tabs. Just look to see if "monster.exe" is listed, and if it is, highlight it and click "end process" It should then disappear from the list.

Alternately, you can just reboot after every error... but that can get a bit tedious.


> or how to wipe out the program directory

You know how the game installs to this

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Monster Truck Madness 2

Right? When you uninstall, just make sure you delete the "Monster Truck Madness 2" folder before you reinstall again.



Let us know how it goes. If the error continues, there are still things we can do. Eliminating extra instances of mtm2 and reinstalling are just the beginning steps.

It's okay, but when you're looking for help it's generally best to give as much information as possible at the start, like stating what you've tried (you did mention installing), what you may know, when the game worked or when it stopped working - perhaps even providing clues about what might have happened in between. Instructions given to you can vary depending on your operating system (Phin's ctrl-alt-del instructions being a perfect example [Thanks Phin]), so it's good to say what you're running, like Win98, XP, etc.

In any event, no matter the problem uninstalling the game is generally unnecessary. Most game problems are usually rooted in a messed up Pod.INI, which can be fixed by running a pod mounting utility like Cowpod. And if game settings are somehow corrupt one can always delete the Monster.INI and the game will recreate a fresh one. I'm not suggesting you bother with either of these files, I'm just saying that reinstalling is generally pointless if the game was installed properly the first time (and for the general audience out there I might as well mention that Cowpod can also reset all registry settings as well). In your case I suspect the game is fine (particularly since you reinstalled and everything) but that your system has become unfriendly to the game for some reason. The game worked before but doesn't now, right? So what changed?

i see what you are saying wint, and i try to explain everything to the fullest. I already knew how to use the task manager and that's not the problem. When i un-installed it last i didnt delete the MTM2 folder so that might be the problem but you say i can delete the monster.ini file and it will spawn a new one? i'm gonna try that and if it doesnt work i'll re-install it. Btw im running windows XP and have standard installation. To answer your Q about what changed since i last entered the game - I dont really know. I think i added a new truck that i podded using c-pod but i deleted that and tried again and the same thing happened. thanks for being patient with me!

Umm, if it's not too late please ignore what I said about monster.ini, at this point I can't guarantee a newly spawned one would be as good as an installed one. I probably shouldn't have mentioned it.

Since you mention pods... To expand on my earlier note, the game not starting is often due to bad pod.ini or perhaps even a bad pod listed in the .ini. I'm not suggesting your problem is here (your reinstalling suggests it isn't and your error message seems unusual but who knows?) but if you don't already understand it you would do well to learn exactly how that file works, how to edit and repair it and perhaps even how to revert back to a stock one when things go really wrong (again Cowpod comes in handy). Check out THIS note and follow the link to the pod.ini page for info if you like.

I told ya you're in trouble, particularly with folks like me offering support on an off day. Thanks for your patience, and good luck.

mann wint.... i have no clue what to do! I dl'ed cowpod and used it's registry cleaner, re-installed the game twice, moved around folders, explored the monster.ini file, blah blah etc, etc. - still the same message. When i tried your earlier suggestion of deleting monster.ini before the error message popped up a pop-up stating that my comp's resolution wasnt set to 256 colors popped up. I think that's just b/c of deleting monster.ini, b/c when i re-installed it that pop-up didnt come up. I tried to delete the whole MTM2 folder but i cant delete the file "player.pro" - maybe thats a source of the problem, but again i dont know for sure. All i know is that this sucks big time b/c i miss playing the game!! Is there a way to delete that player.pro file?

Excuse me, but we are not proceeding at all systematically. We will never find the solution unless something changes here. Now, I have a few questions and I want you to answer them very specifically, thanks. Everybody else please butt out until b_smith07 replies.


Have you read the pod.ini page? yes or no

http://mtm2.com/~mtmg/helpfile.shtml

If no, then stop everything until you understand every word on that page. We're just wasting time if you haven't got that down pat and inside out.


This error message you get, please take a screen shot of it and either post it so we can see it or email it to me and I'll post it. We cannot troubleshoot an error if we don't know what it is exactly. Close doesn't count. It has to be exact.


Okay, same thing for Player.pro. If you attempt to delete it, something happens. What? Give us a screen shot. We cannot guess the problem until you show us.


Now let's get specific. What kind of computer do you have. PII, PIII, PIV, apple, mac, or what? What kind of graphics card? Don't guess. Tell us.


On the start menu is an option called "run". Click it, and in the box that comes up, type: dxdiag. Tell us what version of Direct X you have installed. Do not fiddle with anything in the program that comes up or you'll have worse problems still. Just tell us what you see, then close it.


Do you have any anti virus installed? What?


When you press ctrl+alt+del what are the programs listed in the two tabs I mentioned above? Every single one, don't skip anything.


Once you've done that, we can "begin" to work on the problem. Without it, we're just wasting time.


The best advice I can give right now is to STOP guessing and STOP this trial and error. You'll get nowhere fast doing those.

ok phin here we go -

1. Yes i have read the pod.ini page and have a good understanding of it and what it does.

2. the error message:
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c286/ ... essage.jpg

3. the player.pro message
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c286/ ... error2.jpg

4.I have a Pentium 4 processor, run Windows XP home edition, and a ? graphics card

5. I have DirectX 9.0

6. I have WinAntiVirus

7. Applications Running:
DLG.exe
TaskPanl.exe
msmsgs.exe
jusched.exe
wuauclt.exe
WinAV.exe
qttask.exe
igfxpers.exe
hkcmd.exe
MsgPlus.exe
dlbtbmon.exe
MotiveSB.exe
dlbtbmgr.exe
tfswcrtl.exe
jucheck.exe
EXPLORER.exe
dlbtcoms.exe
FWSvc.exe
realsched.exe
FXSSVC.EXE
wanmpsvc.exe
IEXPLORE.EXE
wdfmgr.exe
SVCHOST.EXE
spoolsv.exe
SVCHOST.EXE
SVCHOST.EXE
SVCHOST.EXE
TASKMGR.EXE
SVCHOST.EXE
SVCHOST.EXE
LSASS.EXE
SERVICES.EXE
WINLOGON.EXE
CSRSS.EXE
ALG.EXE
SMSS.EXE
System
System Idle Process


Phin- i'm also going to e-mail you the screenshots, they didnt come up very well with photobucket. im sry i dont know what graphics card i have; whatever comes stock with a Dell Dimension 300.
Again thanks for being patient with me.

<center>
<img src="http://cownap.com/~mtmg/errors/pics/bsmith07_runtimeerror.gif" width="363">
</center>


<center>
<img src="http://cownap.com/~mtmg/errors/pics/bsmith07_cannotdeleteplayerpro.gif" width="363">
</center>

Okay, here's what we're going to do. And the order we're going to do it in.

First. You have 21 programs running more than the basic requirements to run windows. I'm fairly confident one or more of them are conflicting on the system, not just with mtm2. So. Carefully now, in the run box we used to type dxdiag, go back and this time type: msconfig - that will bring up a configuration utility. Click on the "Startup" Tab. Don't touch anything else, just the startup tab. You will see a checkbox list. Uncheck EVERYTHING and then click the apply button. When you close the configuration utility box you will be asked to reboot your computer. Do so. If you're not prompted, reboot anyway. When windows restarts you may get a nag saying something about msconfig. Ignore it for now. Just cancel or accept whatever prompt that allows you to continue as we've set things up.

Note. Do not browse the web very much with all those things unchecked. This will have deactivated your anti virus and other programs. We will re-enable those things but before we do, we must find your problem, so just bear with it for a short while.

Next. If mtm is installed, uninstall it. If mtm is already uninstalled, delete the game folder like we described above. It should delete now. If it doesn't, let us know and list the contents of the ctrl+alt+del box again - it will be very different.

Now that mtm is uninstalled, you may reinstall for the last and final time. When installing, choose the "full install" option and accept all the default values for things like installation location. Once installed, never uninistall it again. Like wint points out, there will be no need to reinstall it anymore.

Test it. See if mtm starts. If not, let us know what happens. If it does run, install the patch and test run it again. If all is well, come back and we'll begin re-enabling things and figure out what the problem was. If none of this works, we will begin looking into graphics cards and drivers.

ok i followed all of your steps up to deleting the game folder and player.pro still gives me the same error as before.
Here's the applications running as you requested:

IEXPLORE.EXE
TASKMGR.EXE
wuauclt.exe
SVCHOST.EXE
acsd.exe
EXPLORER.EXE
spoolsv.exe
SVCHOST.EXE
SVCHOST.EXE
SVCHOST.EXE
SVCHOST.EXE
SVCHOST.EXE
LSASS.EXE
SERVICES.EXE
WINLOGON.EXE
CRSS.EXE
SMSS.EXE
ALG.EXE
FXSSVC.EXE
wanmpsvc.exe
wdfmgr.exe
System
System Idle Process

Okay, by comparing the two lists, we see these four are still present

ALG.EXE
FXSSVC.EXE
wuauclt.exe
wanmpsvc.exe

And this is a new one

acsd.exe

==========

ALG.EXE
alg.exe is a part of the Microsoft Windows operating system. It is a core process for Microsoft Windows Internet Connection sharing and Internet connection firewall. This program is important for the stable and secure running of your computer and should not be terminated
http://www.liutilities.com/products/win ... brary/alg/
The alg.exe which is from Microsoft is located at c:\windows\System32\alg.exe
This is a Windows OS component named Application Layer Gateway Service. It is required by third party Internet Connection Sharing application and Internet Connection Firewall.
http://www.spyany.com/files/alg_exe.html

FXSSVC.EXE
fxssvc.exe is a program belonging to the Microsoft Fax application
http://www.liutilities.com/products/win ... ry/fxssvc/

WUAUCLT.EXE
Wuauclt.exe is a process managing automatic updates for Microsoft Windows
http://www.liutilities.com/products/win ... y/wuauclt/

WANMPSVC.EXE
wanmpsvc.exe is a part of the America Online, Inc
http://www.liutilities.com/products/win ... /wanmpsvc/

ACSD.EXE
ACSd.exe is a component of AOL... and it automatically reconnects you to AOL if you are being disconnected.
http://www.liutilities.com/products/win ... rary/acsd/


==========

Now we see that these three are for internet connection and/or AOL

ALG.EXE
WANMPSVC.EXE
ACSD.EXE

However, your ip address shows you log on with sprint, not AOL. If that is true, then we will have to find a way to uninstall WANMPSVC.EXE and ACSD.EXE. But let's hold on that for a moment.

Next, FXSSVC.EXE is for faxing. If you have a fax machine attached to your computer or you send faxes by a program directly from your computer, then let's leave this alone for now. If you have no fax, then look in the control panel > add/remove programs and uncheck anything beside faxing programs. You may have to reboot - ignore the msconfig prompts if you do.

Finally, WUAUCLT.EXE. To me, this looks like the most guilty candidate. On my computer, I have three copies of this file.
<pre>
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wuauclt.exe (112k) - date : 8/3/2004 8:02 PM
C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache\wuauclt.exe (112k) - date : 8/3/2004 8:02 PM
C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386\wuauclt.exe (137k) - date : 8/29/2002 3:41 AM </pre>

To help find them, highlight the c:\windows folder, right click and select "search" then type in WUAUCLT.EXE for the search. You should see all copies on your computer. It may not be exactly the same as mine. If you get no results, we may have to make a change in folder options but let's not trouble with that until we know what turns up. Anyway, once you see what you have, delete all copies of the WUAUCLT.EXE file. If you do it in the search box, you should see new copies of the file automatically generated. No matter, reboot after you delete them. Ignore any msconfig prompts you get. Then see if you can delete the mtm folder... and let us know.

If you right-click on Player.pro and view it's properties is the 'read only' box checked?

When I set my Player.pro to read only and try to to start mtm2 I get an error that says "Runtime error! Abnormal program termination". This is what I see on Win98, I suspect you have the XP version of the same error and that your Player.pro is set to read-only status. If at the start of all of this your MTM2 suddenly stopped working and you hadn't reinstalled it or anything then I would say your Player.pro file got set to read only somehow and thats the only thing preventing you from playing the game (unchecking the read-only box will fix it). The overall state of your system may be another matter entirely.


Where did you get WinAntiVirus and does it pop up messages all the time? Was it a 'free download'? Did you pay for it?


You definitely have a lot of junk loading at startup that you don't need.

Wint, if I write protect player.pro I get this message.

<center>
<img src="http://cownap.com/~mtmg/errors/pics/microsoftvisualcruntimelibrary.jpg" width="363">
</center>

Not the same readout... which has led me in the other direction.

ok phineus, i searched my Windows Folder for WUAUCLT.EXE and i had two copies - one was 122KB and the other was only 25KB. I deleted the 25KB file and then tried to delete the 122KB file but it gave me the same error as when i try to delete Player.pro. And i did check to see if Player.pro was write protected but it wasnt, wint. The same error still occurs when i try to delete Player.pro. Oh and yes Phin, i do use Sprint DSL, we used to use AOL Dial-up. And wint, my mom bought WinAntiVirus over the internet, even though we previously has AVG Free antivirus.

> I deleted the 25KB file and then tried to delete the 122KB file but...

Did you reboot before you tried to delete the player.pro file?



> i do use Sprint DSL, we used to use AOL Dial-up.

When did you switch?

And either way, look in control panel > add/remove programs and remove anything having to do with AOL. Once they're gone, look for folders in c:\program files\ that says AOL and delete them manually. For what it's worth, you should also remove quicktime and real player.

Note. Have your sprint install disk handy in case removing AOL does anything wonky. Better to be safe than sorry.


When was the last time you ran a full anti virus scan on your computer?


For what it's worth, this looks like you have a program, maybe it's a virus maybe not, that is masquerading as a legitimate program. This is just a matter of finding which one and removing it.



Note. Control panel > automatic updates. Turn off automatic updates.

Also, turn off automatic updates for all programs that have automatic updates - including antivirus programs. You should also consider using a better browser than internet explorer. Of course, turning off automatic updates and switching browsers won't cure the present problem but they'll help prevent problems from happening again.

For now, run the virus scan and hunt around for programs that can be uninistalled. Then let's see what we end up with.

WinAntiVirus is known malware. :-/