Crashes - Volunteers Needed
Posted by: Arthur
Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/13/05 05:05 PM
If anyone is crashing reliably, that is you can make it crash any time you want, or it always crashes when you try to do something or when you play, I would love to try some special builds on your device.
You could really help us improve stability for yourself as well as for others. Send me a private message here and we'll set up some kind of instant messenging and try some builds.
I could use up to several people!
Thanks!
Posted by: Anonymous
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/13/05 05:12 PM
I've had no crashed but am an experienced software tester. I'd be happy to help out.
Posted by: Anonymous
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/13/05 05:24 PM
I have been experiancing crashing, I play on a Treo 650, I have not been able to determine what causes the crashes yet, but I'm working on that.
Psartryn - waiting on password
Posted by: JustAGirl
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/13/05 07:36 PM
Aahhhh crashing. I'm having fun making another game on my T5 crash and sending in the reports
Village Sim has (so far) been utterly reliable and I have no crashes to report! Now, I have had it paused during the day because I want to be there for all the action but when I'm letting it run and playing in it I've had no issues. I know you were looking for crashes but be proud! The other game I'm crashing, their company can't seem to get the T5 fixed at ALL - I'm so happy I didn't have the same issue with this one
Posted by: Arthur
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/13/05 07:37 PM
Thanks good news is VERY welcome. Keep me posted.
Posted by: Arthur
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/13/05 08:44 PM
Ok we have fixed the Clie "new game crashes me" bug. Thanks very much, Stringfellow.
If you have a Clie and are having this crash, contact me for a special build that doesn't crash.
Posted by: Anonymous
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/13/05 08:45 PM
I keep getting crashes on my Zire 71. Hope you find the cause as it is such a brilliant game. When I go back into the game after a crash all the people are dead. It is very sad.
Leila Ferguson
Posted by: Arthur
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/13/05 11:28 PM
We're getting some additional reports of crashing being cleared up by having some additional RAM available on devices.
We're collecting this information, creating fixes, and at a point in the very near future we will post a summary of any remaining instability in Village Sim.
Posted by: Anonymous
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/14/05 01:55 AM
I am playing on my Palm Tungsten E. I have had a crash with every game I have played except for the first time. There has not been a pattern to these crashes.
Posted by: Buny251
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/14/05 06:20 AM
I am also playing on my Palm Tungsten E. I have had a crash with every game I have played except for the first time. There has not been a pattern to these crashes. Hope you find the cause as it is such a brilliant game. When I go back into the game after a crash all the people are dead. It is very sad. Thanks......Buny
Posted by: JustAGirl
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/14/05 06:24 AM
Oh dear!
Even without a "pattern" you should try to watch it a few times and write down when it's crashing. If it's truly random like, no Event just occurred or it crashes after you up a tech level or something, try and see if it's only after a certain amount of time playing. Also, let Arthur know your Palm specs - like how much RAM you have open, the build of your OS, etc...it seems like they're really willing to work and fix these bugs but they don't have every Palm available to test on - so let them know so they can figure it out!!
Posted by: Buny251
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/14/05 06:33 AM
There is no pattern and I have a tungsten E, and I have 8 left on my ram. Thanks....Buny
Posted by: melomak
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/14/05 07:53 AM
Hi. I've also experienced several crashes with software today. I have a Zire 71. I would be playing and then I'd power off. When I power on again later, a number of flashing messages on the screen would show up and wouldn't stop. I noticed that I have my Power to "off in 30 seconds" and the game did not like that. I've now set it to "off in 3 minutes" Also, since my people were dying, I had decided to start a new game. When my Zire powered off in the middle of my second game with 6 people, it somehow relapsed, by doing a soft reset, twice. When I open the game again, it opens into my old game where I had only 1 person left. So then I had to click on new game and start again. I'm now more careful to go to the main menu of the game and then exit out of the game before i power off. This seems to help.
Also, in regards to the first game with only 1 person left, a 19-yr old boy, i think there was something wrong. There was no food left, but his health did not get worse and he was only 5 when I had no food source available any longer. He was invincible. It was a nice glitch, but unfortunately, i did not have any other people to live on the island to work, etc. Also, I've had experience where the screen will freeze up during the game, and luckily my zire will power off and when i power on again, it works.
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/14/05 09:48 AM
Since there are many, many different kinds of crashes, it would be very helpful to Arthur if you would take a moment to write down any information that you get when the device crashes. (For example, Fatal Alert: Window68K.c, Line:86, No shadow window found (Reset), or some other code or symptom), as well as what you were actually doing when the device crashed.
Even if there is no pattern, this information (along with any other details you can provide) will help tremendously. Arthur needs more than "my game crashed" to help track down the bugs, but he will work with you to help resolve them. He has spent an entire day (or more) working with me to resolve some tricky bugs, so I know he wants to get these fixed. He just needs your help.
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/14/05 09:54 AM
If you turn off your device (or it auto shuts off) with the game running and a villager selected, it will display many messages about that villager when you turn the device back on. That doesn't usually cause a problem. Several of us have had the game 'freeze' during play (as you described). Turning the Palm off and back on always resolves it (it's still a bug, but at least there's a way around it).
Posted by: Gatewood
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/14/05 10:11 AM
My Zodiac 2 crashed repeatedly at first, always when I'd try to start a new game and access the menu. I uninstalled and reinstalled, and have had no crashes since. However, it's the first game since reinstalling, and all my women are elderly with no pregnancies yet, and I can see the end of the world coming! Perhaps the crashes will start again when I try to start over. I'd be happy to test for you.
Posted by: Moppett
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/14/05 10:19 AM
I'm playing on a Tungsten T2 with over 9mb free memory. After the first crash (after starting a new game), the program reverted to the previous game (with dead villagers scattered all over the place). After that I found that if I'd pause the game periodically it would at least continue the current game when it crashed again. The biggest problem is that when I reboot and resume the game, I lose babies but GAIN lots of tech points. It may be my imagination, but I believe it's been crashing less with the tutorial turned on. The most consistent crash is when I try to open any other program. Hope this is fixed soon.
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/14/05 10:56 AM
What kind of crash are you having? A Fatal Exception? Something else? Can you provide any specifics?
The reason that your game 'reverted' to a previous state is that it is only saved when you exit the game (or switch apps). Say, for example, that you had been playing the game for awhile, took 3 female researchers and turned them into moms, and played for another hour or so when the game crashed and required a soft reset. When you launch the game again, it will load your last saved game state - before you made the babies (since you had been running the game all day). Instead of having 3 babies, the game will 'think' that your researchers had been researching all day (since the baby-making activity hadn't been saved). The same goes for any puzzles you might solve, etc. That stuff is only saved when you exit the game. It's not the pause that saves the game - the game is saved when you change apps or go back to the launcher.
Posted by: Crumpet
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/14/05 11:30 AM
I had a crash yesterday on my Palm Zire 72 - it was when I accidentally selected "Beam" from the main menu (I think). There was a fatal exception, and the Palm had to reset.
When it loaded back up again, 2 of my children had different names, the vilagers re found the lagoon, and I was back to Level 1 science, but had the points to buy Level 2 again. My food level also dropped drastically.
Today, while it hasn't crashed, I have had some weird pixellating with some of the characters. They will moved in blocks and leave a blurred trail.
Posted by: Dnac
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/14/05 11:30 AM
I started a new game and it crashed, and reverted back to the game I had previously been playing, so i tried a few more time and the same thing happened. I did a hotsync and it seems to have sorted the problem, well it hasn't crashed yet. I am using a Tungsten T
Posted by: Crumpet
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/14/05 11:34 AM
Quote:
The reason that your game 'reverted' to a previous state is that it is only saved when you exit the game (or switch apps).
Good to know!!
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/14/05 11:36 AM
The pixellation that you saw is a known bug. It seems to be related to villagers dying. Leaving the game and launching it again will clear it up.
What kind of crashes did you have? It would be VERY helpful if people who are having crashes would post the EXACT message they receive (if any) and what they were doing when the game crashed.
Posted by: treefern
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/14/05 11:39 AM
Quote:
Today, while it hasn't crashed, I have had some weird pixellating with some of the characters. They will moved in blocks and leave a blurred trail.
This weird pixellation is a known problem. It can be fixed by going out of the game and re-entering (that's right, isn't it Barbara? <addition> hmmm she beat me to it!!)
There is at least 1 other strange screen movement problem, but the testing team were not able to pin-point the scenarios that they were happening in, so if you see more strange things, keep reporting them as descriptively as you can
Posted by: Crumpet
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/14/05 11:46 AM
Quote:
What kind of crashes did you have? It would be VERY helpful if people who are having crashes would post the EXACT message they receive (if any) and what they were doing when the game crashed.
Sorry - I edited my last post and included some more info. Don't know if you saw that or not. It was a fatal exception while accidentally hitting the "beam" link in the main menu.
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/14/05 11:54 AM
If it happens again (or for anyone experiencing crashes), it's very important to assist Arthur by writing down the exact message you received (if any). The message often contains diagnostic information that Arthur can use to find the bug.
Posted by: Arthur
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/14/05 02:15 PM
Ok a quick update on the stability issues:
If you are having a crash where it runs fine, then subsequent attempts to start a 'new game' cause a crash, that has been fixed. Remove your existing version and download and install this one:
www.ldwsoftware.com/VillageSimFixed.zipThe T2 and TT have very low heap memory and stability has always been an issue on those devices. I've put in some code that should tread lightly on those devices, but we will still have to look into additional steps to improve stability.
The Zire 71 is behaving badly, was less represendted in our beta group, and I am very desirous to have a volunteer with that device who can reproduce a crash at least somewhat reliably.
Posted by: Anonymous
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/14/05 06:31 PM
Village Sim crashes regularly on my Tungsten T2. It crashes on start every third game or so and crashes if I leave one game running longer than about 5-7 mins. If I exit regularly and soft reboot every three games then I can play on. Just thought par for course on a v1.0 build. Good game. I've registered it. I have one SD card in all time.
Posted by: Anonymous
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/14/05 09:00 PM
Hi... I'm playing on my Zodiac2... and I've crashed about 10 times in a row tonight. I just loaded on Tues night... played without crashing with the tutorial "on"... Tuesday and Wednesday night... all my survivors died (can't remember the disaster). Have to go to "new game" each time... Start new game and turned the tutorial off and crash within minutes after dragging to the research table. I seem to be in a cycle. Hope this helps.
Posted by: Gatewood
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/14/05 11:23 PM
Quote:
Hi... I'm playing on my Zodiac2... and I've crashed about 10 times in a row tonight. I just loaded on Tues night... played without crashing with the tutorial "on"... Tuesday and Wednesday night... all my survivors died (can't remember the disaster). Have to go to "new game" each time... Start new game and turned the tutorial off and crash within minutes after dragging to the research table. I seem to be in a cycle. Hope this helps.
This was my problem with the Zod2. Uninstall the game, then reinstall it and it should be OK. That's what I did, and all is well so far. I think I'm in some trouble now, because I only have boy children, and my villagers are getting old. When they all die, I'll see if the crashes start again, but I know I can fix it by uninstalling and installing new.
Posted by: Randy
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/15/05 02:18 AM
While I was beta testing VS I ran into this problem. By uninstalling and re-installing the game I was able to get past the problem. It's kinda like once you have that error it corrupts the file and has to be reinstalled. Since reinstalling the file I've had no problems and already played two more games.
Posted by: Anonymous
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/15/05 09:26 AM
Dear Arthur,
I purchased and downloaded Village Sim to my Tungstun E on April 13th and have crashed twice. It is not really crashing, but frozen and I have to drain the battery and hot sync in order to get my files back. Both times occurred during the first few minutes of a new game when I select one of the men.
Do you have any patches to correct this problem? I am getting mighty frustrated with the game....
vickijp2002@yahoo.com
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/15/05 09:39 AM
Could you explain exactly what you mean by frozen? The game doesn't respond to stylus taps? Do the hardware buttons on your Palm work? Several beta testers had something happen that sounds similar to what you've experienced, and we were able to just turn off the Palm and turn it back on again to free it up. You shouldn't have to resort to such drastic measures to make the game work, and I'm sure Arthur will work with you to resolve this problem.
Posted by: Moppett
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/15/05 10:33 AM
I've downloaded and tried VillageSimfixed on my T2. After playing for several hours, it crashed again - right in the middle of a game. I'm not aware of anything I did to trigger this, it just crashed. I'm getting very irritated with this game.
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/15/05 11:00 AM
What kind of crash did you have? Some crashes, like "No shadow window found" have diagnostic information that's very helpful to Arthur. He has much more to work with when he knows exactly what kind of crash you had.
Posted by: Anonymous
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/15/05 12:39 PM
Dear Barbara,
NO buttons work on my palm and I have tried them all. It does not respond to stylus taps and I am not able to shut off my Palm as none of my buttons work. The picture stays frozen until the battery dies.
Vicki
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/15/05 01:24 PM
One of the beta testers experienced the 'freeze' condition on her Tungsten E (and I had it on my T5), but we were able to use the power button to just turn the device off and back on. Your situation appears to be a little different, and Arthur will probably want more information from you.
In the meantime (I know this is kind of drastic, but there's a possibility it could help), you might try uninstalling from the Palm OS "delete" function and reinstalling the game. Do you use any third party launchers, by any chance?
Posted by: Anonymous
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/15/05 01:38 PM
Dear Barbara,
I will gladly provide Arthur with any information to the best of my ability. I may not get time to try your suggestions for a few days. Would you define "third party launcher"? I do not believe that I am using one, but I want to make sure.
Vicki
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/15/05 01:46 PM
It's an add-on program that you use instead of the standard Palm launcher.
Posted by: tigger4will
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/15/05 03:03 PM
Just to let someone know, my palm didn't actually crash, but one of by villagers kept a constant "box" around him. The background behind him was always different than his actual surroundings. I deleted several other games I had on my palm and I haven't had the problem since. Maybe it was just a memory issue?
Posted by: Arthur
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/15/05 03:11 PM
I have had one report of a possible workaround, I would be very grateful if a 'crasher' would try it:
Uninstall the game completely. Then reinstall and before you ever start a new game, enter your reg code. Then exit the app and reenter it and start a game normally, etc.
Please let me know if this works, anyone. The theory is that the process of registering is corrupting an existing game-in-progress, and registering before a new game was ever started might circumvent that.
Posted by: Anonymous
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/15/05 04:14 PM
Okay I have a Zire 71 and I got it installed then when I click on the icon it freezes in a white screnn and does not respond to stylus/buttons etc. I have to turn it off then it soft resets and I never even get into the game in the first place.
Posted by: TheVillageIdiot
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/15/05 04:18 PM
How much free mem do you have?
Posted by: Anonymous
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/15/05 04:53 PM
6 MB
Posted by: Gatewood
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/15/05 10:55 PM
Zodiac 2, ended one game, started another. Crash pretty soon after accessing the details. Crash Pro installed and the message is:
"10 400000 1F 2016A3E4
2016EB009FE518F2"
The spaces in the above are impossible to make out. Hope this is helpful, nonetheless.
Posted by: Randy
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/15/05 11:04 PM
Quote:
Zodiac 2, ended one game, started another. Crash pretty soon after accessing the details. Crash Pro installed and the message is:
"10 400000 1F 2016A3E4
2016EB009FE518F2"
Gatewood,
I was previously experiencing this exact same error. At the suggestion of Arthur (and Barbara I think ), I completely uninstalled and re-installed VS and haven't experienced any issues since. It may be a corrupted file that is causing the issue. What I don't understand is why a fresh install seems to fix the problem and it doesn't come back (or at least haven't for me yet).
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/15/05 11:10 PM
Here is Arthur's leading theory on that, Randy (and he would like some volunteers to test it):
Quote:
I have had one report of a possible workaround, I would be very grateful if a 'crasher' would try it:
Uninstall the game completely. Then reinstall and before you ever start a new game, enter your reg code. Then exit the app and reenter it and start a game normally, etc.
Please let me know if this works, anyone. The theory is that the process of registering is corrupting an existing game-in-progress, and registering before a new game was ever started might circumvent that.
Posted by: Randy
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/15/05 11:51 PM
Barbara,
I know this is my circumstances but I reinstalled the game (after getting the errors) and played unregistered until I was forced to register (because of upgrades). I then registered, noticed a delay between registering and being able to buy the upgrade but then went back into the game. I haven't had any problems with it since.
The only thing I can think of that was different was that after my reinstall I chose NOT to turn the tutorial on. I will reinstall VS and try this, if I can ever get it to crash again I'll try Arthur's method and report back.
Posted by: Gatewood
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/16/05 01:56 PM
Quote:
Quote:
Zodiac 2, ended one game, started another. Crash pretty soon after accessing the details. Crash Pro installed and the message is:
"10 400000 1F 2016A3E4
2016EB009FE518F2"
Gatewood,
I was previously experiencing this exact same error. At the suggestion of Arthur (and Barbara I think ), I completely uninstalled and re-installed VS and haven't experienced any issues since. It may be a corrupted file that is causing the issue. What I don't understand is why a fresh install seems to fix the problem and it doesn't come back (or at least haven't for me yet).
I've done that twice. It fixes it to uninstall and reinstall but as soon as you have to start a new game the next time, the crash happens again. I have installed the one that was in one of the threads called "VillageSimFixed" and am trying to see if that one does it as well.
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/16/05 02:09 PM
Did you try the procedure that Arthur suggested earlier in this thread? It would help him to know if that works or not (if you're still having the crashes).
Posted by: Anonymous
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/16/05 02:48 PM
hi. I have installed the game on my treo 650 a few days ago and cannot go for more than 5 mn playing ! it crashes (seems to me, at least) as soon as I try to teach more than one villager to do someting (ie one at the building table and one harvesing). I have to start my treo entirely (I get to the Palm os welcome screen) it turns off the phone etc... When I get back to the game all villagers are gone (0 villagers 0 food) and I have to start a new game ... which ends after 10 minutes. I registered the game before evene playing with it (entered the code before actually starting the first game !) . Should I try le new donload you gave a few days ago ? or anything special with treo (I have seen several others treo users messages...) Thanks for your help, it is very frustrating !!!
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/16/05 04:59 PM
It's possible that your game has been corrupted somehow. You could try completely uninstalling and reinstalling it, or you could try the special fix release (uninstalling your current version first. You could also try the procedure that Arthur suggested earlier in this thread.
If your problem is still not resolved, please post back here.
Posted by: tigger4will
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/16/05 06:11 PM
I had my first crash during the game.... I had about 15 villagers and 70,000 tech points. My palm Tungsten E crashed and when it came back up all my villagers were dead but three, and I only have 50,000 tech points. Now I'm just hoping the last female has a couple of kids to re-populate the island. Sigh.
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/16/05 06:21 PM
How long had the game been running when it crashed? If it was a very long time, that explains the loss of tech points and death of villagers. The game is saved only when you exit to the launcher or another app. If it crashes and you have to soft reset, Village Sim will revert to the last saved state and much of your progress can be lost when you start the game again.
As always, Arthur needs some details on the type of crash, and, if possible, what you were doing at the time in order to effectively find the bugs and fix them.
Posted by: tigger4will
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/16/05 06:24 PM
oh- I had it plugged in overnight and it was running on normal. I had put in (according to the stats page) 49 hours. Most of the island were kids and when i restarted, everyone was dead but three. No kids. My food is over 100,000 so I don't think they all starved. I may have to try doing it all over again.
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/16/05 06:28 PM
Yeah, after a soft reset, any babies born, puzzles solved, tech purchases made, etc. since your last exit (when the game was saved) will be lost. You may just have to start over (and save the game a little more often).
Posted by: tigger4will
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/16/05 07:03 PM
I'll remember that.... but it didn't regress in the game, it's like it jumped ahead 50 years because everyone was dead in a little line on the ground. Is there an event I might have missed to have them all dead like that? Or is that still the soft reset problem?
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/16/05 07:15 PM
It could have been a food issue. If you had been playing all that time without saving, when the game came back up after a reset you would not have had all that food. It's as if you turned the game off very soon after starting it and left it off all that time (from the game's point of view). It's not really a good thing, but I'm not surprised that your villagers didn't survive.
Posted by: tigger4will
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/16/05 07:23 PM
alright, this is a stupid question, but how do you save the game?? Right now I have it plugged into the charger and it's just running next to me. Does just turning the Palm off save it?
Thanks
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/16/05 07:37 PM
You have to exit the game to save it - just go to another app or to the launcher and your game will be saved!
Posted by: tigger4will
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/16/05 07:53 PM
thanks. I'll do that a lot!!
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/16/05 08:03 PM
I do!
Posted by: KristyS
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/16/05 08:54 PM
I just had a fatal alert. I drug one of my people to the table and a few seconds later I got this:
Window68K.c, Line:92, No
shadow window found.
<reset>
I had this error one time before when I was using my stylus to move up toward the well.
Posted by: tigger4will
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/16/05 09:05 PM
that's the exact same message I got before mine crashed. Then all my villagers died
Posted by: KristyS
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/16/05 09:08 PM
All my villagers didn't die because every now and then I exit the game and come back in so I get a recent save game. The only thing that stinks is I lost a lot of tech points because I hadn't exited in a while. And I had a few less people beacause I had some new births.
But I have found, as people have said above, that if you exit everynow and then, your game will be saved.
Just think of it as an "island event" when it crashes! LOL
Posted by: tigger4will
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/16/05 09:53 PM
swell!
I've been "saving" every 20 minutes or so now!!
Posted by: Anonymous
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/16/05 10:02 PM
This time it crashed in the middle of a hotsync.
Posted by: Anonymous
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/17/05 12:21 AM
i can help
Posted by: Anonymous
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/17/05 01:44 AM
I"ve been running VS on a Zire 71 for, according to it, 96 hours, and haven't had any problems yet.
Just thought you'd like to know!
-Ally
(knocking on wood to keep from jinxing herself!)
Posted by: Anonymous
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/17/05 09:05 AM
Help please then! Any suggestions that haven't already been posted?
Posted by: Arthur
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/17/05 01:14 PM
Thanks for the info Ally. As I said, good news is always welcome.
Alishanhayzley, definately remove it all the way inbetween attempts to install it. If it crashes in Hotsync, that's pretty wierd, since the program is not even running.
Posted by: Anonymous
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/17/05 03:15 PM
Hi - the new download works great, it kept crashing on my Zire 71 but works absolutely fine now.
Let me know if you need any help.
Leila Ferguson
Posted by: PointOfLight
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/17/05 05:41 PM
I'm jumping in a bit late to this discussion, but I just tried playing the final version downloadable off your site, and it's frozen on me three times in the last half an hour. I've been reading some of this thread, and I tried things like powering off (except it wouldn't let me), so all I could do was a soft reset. When it froze none of the hardware buttons or anything would work. I'm running on a Tungsten E, and according to Delete I have 21M free memory (though being relatively new to the Palm world I don't know if that's actual free memory, so any advice on where to look would be helpful). Also, I'm running off of a card and not off of main memory. Every time it's frozen I've been in the process of trying to select a villager, and near as I can recall it's always been in front of the research table.
Posted by: Arthur
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/17/05 07:07 PM
Sounds like the kind of crash that a delete and a full reinstall would help, Eric. Let me know if that helps.
Posted by: Anonymous
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/17/05 08:13 PM
I have an Tungsten C. Running 34 mb memory free before running VS. Statistics showed I had played 116 hours. When the game crashed, I had been running the current unsaved edition about 36 hours. The error on the screen was Fatal Alert Window68k.c, line 92, no shadow window. I had 15 villagers of which 5 were babies. Most villagers were age 35 and below. Of the 5 villagers not nursing, there was 1 female (set to farm and fishing) and 4 males set to construction on the house below the rock. The secret garden puzzle was the last puzzle. I had looked away from the game for 30 seconds and saw a pixelized stripe on the screen from the lagoon to the rock. I then scrolled the screen around and then saw 1 villager at the lagoon with a square pixilized background. I selected the villager with intentions to drag him back to building and the game crashed.
Construction was at 12 percent. There was about 3200 food, and 29,000 tech points. 1st level tech was met for all 6 tech areas.
After the reset, I had 6 dead villagers (age 57 to 116), 5 living villagers at age 59 or older and no secret garden. Food was at 29,493, tech at 14,678. The stats showed the oldest villager at 116.
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/17/05 08:29 PM
Thank you for the detailed description! The "No shadow window found" error is one that Arthur has been working on. Your details will be very helpful to him.
We have seen the pixelization before (usually after a death/burial). It doesn't sound like any of your villagers had died yet, though. If you exit the game and launch it again, the problem will be cleared up.
How long had the game been running continuously (without an exit to another app or the Palm launcher)? It sounds like, from your description, that it had been quite awhile. The game is only saved upon exit to another app or to the launcher, so you will lose any event, babies, etc. that occurred after the last save. When you launch Village Sim, the game recalculates everything from the point of the last save, which could be drastically different from your actual game state prior to the crash. We know that villager productivity is lower when the game is off, and when you restarted the game after the soft reset, the game treated the interval between your last save and the current time as if the device had been off the entire time. We're doing detailed tests, and hopefully the on/off balance will be much better when the update is released!
Posted by: tlasmile04
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/17/05 08:46 PM
I had probably had the game running since the last save for 24-48 hours. I paused it overnight as it seems everytime I check the game in the morning a Typhoon wiped out my food supply. It had been quite awhile since I had a death. As all of the dead villagers were no longer shown.
A point I forgot to mention is that I am running the game from a 128 mb expansion card. The music is turned off with only the sounds. The game is at low difficulty and set to fast speed.
I may try to move the game to the main memory and drop the music although I don't think memory is a problem. I am running MegaLauncher 5.5 I was able to breed 2 of the remaining 3 females and am hoping for the best. Otherwise, I may restart the game.
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/17/05 08:49 PM
That explains a lot about your game state after you recovered from the crash. When you launched Village Sim again, the game probably calculated that you'd been running for all that time on fast speed with whatever skills, etc. that your villagers had at the time of your last save (and no consideration for the times that you had it paused while it was still running). That would probably create a fairly ugly situation!
Posted by: Arthur
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/17/05 09:08 PM
These types of crashes are definately related to running the game for extended periods, never leaving the app. Definately smells like a memory leak to me, but I've tripple checked the likely suspects. We'll keep working on it.
Posted by: Anonymous
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/17/05 09:12 PM
Yeah!! Got it to work, so excited, persistance pays off.
Posted by: MJHecate
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/18/05 12:24 PM
I also have a Tungsten E and when it "crashes" it freezes; buttons and tapping don't work nor will it shut off. I have to do a hard reset on the device and reboot the palm so to speak. I have had to do this several times since I purchased the program on April 13, 2005.
Posted by: MJHecate
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/18/05 12:31 PM
I had pixillation problems also (Tungsten E) but it cleared up when I turned off a 3rd party program used to customize my Palm icons.
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/18/05 01:04 PM
Whenever you have the pixelization bug, simply leaving Village Sim and launching it again will clear up the problem. It usually seems to occur after a death/burial.
Posted by: Lolsmurf
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/18/05 06:25 PM
Hi,
just bought it today and it kept crashing within 5 to 10 minutes. When I read this topic I reinstalled the game then registered, exited and restarted the game and it works now for about an hour without problems
BTW I'm running the game on a Zire 71
Simple fix! Thnx
Posted by: melomak
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/18/05 06:27 PM
Hi!. I noticed that sometimes my villagers will be carrying back invisible "Harvested Crops" to the Food Bin. Then when they get to the food bin, the total amount of food increases. Is this an image glitch?
BTW, i'm using a Zire 71.
Posted by: tigger4will
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/18/05 06:29 PM
I've had the same thing happen. Maybe Arthur knows why this happens.....
Posted by: MissEh
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/18/05 06:31 PM
We've noticed this before, too. It seems to occur mostly after you've just turned the game on, correct?
Posted by: tigger4will
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/18/05 06:38 PM
I haven't noticed. I'll keep checking.
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/18/05 06:43 PM
Yes, it is a known bug! A pretty harmless one, compared to some!
Posted by: Arthur
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/18/05 06:44 PM
Yeah it seems to be a small bug relating to them being already on-the-way to the food bin when the app is turned on. This was pointed out during beta and I doublechecked everything and basically it is a known issue at this point.
Posted by: melomak
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/18/05 06:46 PM
Thanks! Yes, very harmless.
Posted by: Anonymous
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/18/05 10:59 PM
My T3 reliably crashes on the opening screen. I get a Fatal Alert, Emul68KMain.C,Line 108 divide by zero at address 03749702
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/18/05 11:12 PM
That usually means a corrupted savegame file. Have you tried completely deleting Village Sim and reinstalling (and possibly using the workaround that Arthur described earlier in this thread)? Please report back here if either of those resolves your problem.
Posted by: TheVillageIdiot
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/19/05 12:29 PM
Do you still need testers for this? Let me know, as I'm at a standstill on my current game and would not mind starting over. It's gets a little boring just waiting for something to happen.
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/19/05 12:35 PM
Are you able to make your game crash reliably?
Posted by: TheVillageIdiot
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/19/05 12:40 PM
well I have not tried since I started my first real game. I did crash evertime I tried starting a new game.
Posted by: TheVillageIdiot
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/19/05 12:44 PM
Hey I just lost my first villager. I was tring to bread her and it said it was succsful and that she gained in her breading skills, but she went off the map! The action screen said that she was held. It was after buring the dead. My population did not go down, but she is MIA.
Posted by: Anonymous
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/19/05 02:31 PM
I also have a Tungsten E. I let the game go overnight, thinking that they'ed be finr and all my villagers were dead so I started another game and now it goes about a half hour and freezes--everytime!! I am so frustrated. I only had 7 villagers and got the beach cleaned up. That was as far as my adventure has got and am fearful that it will be it!!!
Posted by: Anonymous
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/19/05 02:41 PM
I have a tungsten e and I downloaded yesterday. I left the game running overnight thinking that the villagers would be okay. So this morning I found everyone dead! So I restarted the game and now it freezes about every half hour so I have to do a hard restart each time (did it 3 times then deleted the game!) and each time the villagers were dead. I am really frustrated. What can I do ??
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/19/05 03:31 PM
I know this is getting to be a very long thread, but there is a special fix version of the game available, as well as a number of things you can try to resolve your problem. Please try some of those, and post back here if you're still having difficulty. Arthur will work with you to resolve your problem if none of those things work.
Posted by: Patty
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/19/05 03:58 PM
I don't see many T3 users with problems with this game-is that an accurate observation? Thanks.
Posted by: Anonymous
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/20/05 04:35 AM
Just to chime in - I have a T3 and I have not had any problem so far. I am on my 2nd game (they all died the first time so it was a short game.) I have been playing for 108 realtime hours - lots of changing speed and pausing.
Posted by: JustAGirl
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/20/05 07:11 AM
I just had my first crash. For some reason my palm and music don't mix well.
I had the game running for about half an hour. I had just played around with my villagers, making some research/farm etc. I went to menu, preferences, and went to turn sound off. It started stuttering (just holding on the same note) in the music. None of the other selections worked, I could not click on anything else in the menu. My keys on the bottom of my palm to go back to my launcher, etc, did not work either. I had to hard reset it on the back of my palm. Luckily nothing HUGE had happened in those 30 minutes
just a minor loss of tech points and food and one villager had had a baby but oh well.
I've found this stuttering thing happening on other games on my T5 when I go to change sound settings IN a game. This is the first time is had stalled my Palm and caused a reset though.
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/20/05 10:01 AM
I've experienced some 'stuttering' of the sound on my T5, as well, but it's been minor and has never caused a lockup or crash. I'll play with this some more and see if I can recreate your problem.
Posted by: TheVillageIdiot
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/20/05 02:38 PM
Quote:
...., but there is a special fix version of the game available, as well as a number of things you can try to resolve your problem. Please try some of those, and post back here if you're still having difficulty.
OK, where do you find the "special fix"? Is that another puzzel peice? jk, but is the special fix avaiable for download some where?
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/20/05 02:40 PM
The link to the fix is in Arthur's post earlier in this thread (currently on page 3).
Posted by: TheVillageIdiot
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/20/05 02:46 PM
Quote:
The link to the fix is in Arthur's post earlier in this thread (currently on page 3).
OK, thanks. I must have missed that. By the way, it is on page two of my browser. We must have different settings as to how many screens to show per page.
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/20/05 02:57 PM
Probably!
How's this - you'll find the link to the fix somewhere in the realm of the early part of this thread!
Posted by: MJHecate
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/20/05 04:33 PM
My Tungsten E Just crashed!
Rather than locking up this time I received the following error message--Fatal Alert Window68K.c,Line:92 No shadow window found. Reset
Reset device. Tried different application and device worked. Tried Village Sim tried updating then went back to home screen. Tried Village Sim again then did update and went to game. In game 5 villagers died, lost 40,000 tech points (very frustrating 199 short of level 3 building) but inherited about 10,000 food points.
Ran about 142 hours; still have Level 3 Harvesting/Medicine rest Level 2. The version of game is updated version mention in tech form not the one originally loaded from website.
Posted by: TheVillageIdiot
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/20/05 04:35 PM
Quote:
Probably! How's this - you'll find the link to the fix somewhere in the realm of the early part of this thread!
That's BETTER! 
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/20/05 04:40 PM
How long had the game been running continuously (without going to the launcher or another app) before the crash?
Posted by: MJHecate
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/20/05 06:52 PM
30 minutes
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/20/05 06:54 PM
Thank you. That will help Arthur.
Posted by: Pussycat
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/28/05 03:28 AM
I am getting crashes sporadiacally on my Tungsten E and can currently see no rhyme or reason for them.
Posted by: LadyCFII
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/28/05 09:32 AM
Could you describe the crashes in more detail? Do you get any error messages? Have you tried the fix release or the workaround described near the beginning of this thread? The more information Arthur has, the more able he is to locate bugs.
Posted by: heathermari
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/28/05 11:02 PM
I'm not crashing, but my screen does some strange things after my 25th villager. Periodically, the main map and the overview map start having graphics issues, like the pixels are getting mixed up (I have a pix of someone running thru the flower field imprinted in the middle of the village). I just scroll away from the area and go back and it cleans up. LOL not major, but kinda irritating.
Posted by: treefern
Re: Crashes - Volunteers Needed - 04/28/05 11:15 PM
Heathermari, this is a problem that is being worked on at present. To fix the problem, exiting your game, and coming back in fixes it, if nothing else works.