IL-2 1946 won't start anymore..?

[Paulski]

Some time ago I bought IL-2 1946, and everything worked fine, except that the game (for me) was unplayable with just a keyboard. So I uninstalled it and waited for the day I'd buy a joystick.

So now I finally got a joystick. I dug up my IL-2 disc and installed it again. But the game won't start at all, while I haven't changed anything on my pc from the last time it worked.

When I want to start the game I just get the hourglass cursor for a few seconds and then nothing happens! I've been searching on the internet but couldn't find anything that works for me. I also tried to re-install it a few times, last time I even intalled it outside the 'program files' folder although I'm on Windows XP.

I just can't believe how it's possible that the game won't start anymore, while it worked perfectly just few months ago..? I hope there's a solution to this problem, because I kinda bought the joystick especially for this game So does anybody know what the problem could be?

[Fafnir_6]

That does seem odd, if you made no changes in the intervening time (you are sure no configuration or settings changes have been made and no new programs unrelated to IL-2 have been installed/uninstalled?). Have you inspected your system for hardware failures (corrupted data on drives, 3d card functionality in other games, etc)? You could try using a mod pack over your install. I believe they use modified executables and there have been instances of modded copies running and stock ones not (and vice versa). Could the joystick driver be interfering somehow? System specs might be helpful as well.

I hope this helps,

Fafnir_6

[Paulski]

Seemed there was a recent change in my hardware after all... I totally forgot about my old IDE harddisk that I installed to retrieve some old files.

I didn't believe it would be the cause, but I removed the disk and now the game starts and runs like a charm But thank you for your reply anyhow, Fafnir

[TinyTim]

To save you some trouble in the future: IL-2 1946 does not use registry entries to run, which means that you can back up (simply copy to a DVD or such) entire directory where the game is installed. When (if) you need to reinstall the game, simply copy this folder back to your hard drive.

[Paulski]

The old disk had nothing to do with IL-2, just some pictures and music and stuff. But seems it wasn't the disk after al.. The problem has returned

[TinyTim]

Let's exclude the obvious:
Did you install any of the official patches on top of the vanilla install? Maybe you confused patch order.
Have you installed any of the mods?

If I get this right you only installed the game from the CD (that's version 4.07), it installed fine, but now it won't work?

Did you try installing the game on any other computers to verify it's not a faulty CD (scratched inbetween since your first installation)?

Other than that - running out of ideas...

[buz13]

No idea if you just have version 4.07, but if you installed up through 4.09 it would possibly be snd.dll files which don't work with some sound cards.... I had that problem and pasted 2 snd.dll files from 4.08 root directory to 4.09 and was back in business.

[Paulski]

Originally Posted by TinyTim

Let's exclude the obvious:
Did you install any of the official patches on top of the vanilla install? Maybe you confused patch order.
Have you installed any of the mods?

If I get this right you only installed the game from the CD (that's version 4.07), it installed fine, but now it won't work?

I have tried starting the game both "out of the box" (4.07) and the patched versions (4.08 and 4.09).

Originally Posted by Fafnir_6

If your DVD is damaged you can get a copy of the game from www.gog.com for ~$10. But it seems to me that you may have an intermittent problem...Try reseating all your cards & connectors if you think that might be the case.

Cheers and good luck,

Fafnir_6

I can get a new disk at my local store for 5 Euro's, but thanks I don't think the CD is damaged, because the install went fine and the game does work occasionally (I'll get to that later).

But if it would be something with my cards, wouldn't I have problems with other games too?

Originally Posted by rga

Did you happend to install CloD in the same drive as IL-2. It's not advisable since CloD is a bug fest and could infest your IL-2 install.

Nope, no Cliffs of Dover for me.

Originally Posted by SEE

In set up, check your screen resolution matches your desktop. I change monitors frequently and IL will not launch untill I match the resolutions.

My DVD will not launch it either, you could try a No CD start up IL2fb.exe file (as you are the legal owner of the software I think its O.K. mentioning that).

I have tried starting the game both with and without CD (I can start without CD without using crack, so I think CD just isn't needed to play.

And I have been fiddling around with the resolutions, but the times the game did work, the resolutions weren't matched, lol.

Originally Posted by buz13

No idea if you just have version 4.07, but if you installed up through 4.09 it would possibly be snd.dll files which don't work with some sound cards.... I had that problem and pasted 2 snd.dll files from 4.08 root directory to 4.09 and was back in business.

I have tried starting 4.07, 4.08 and 4.09. I'll try again with 4.09 but with the dll's you mentioned.



Now the starnge part is; As I posted yesterday morning, I got the game to work after I removed an old IDE disk. Resolution was set to 1280x960 while the resoltion of my monitor was set to 1280x1024, yet there were no problems. And as I posted later on, when I tried to play the game some time later, I had the same problem again.

Yesterday evening, I reinstalled JAVA and the driver for my graphics card. Restarted my PC, started the game and it worked! But the resolution was set to 1280x1024 and I had black banners at the top and bottom of the screen. So I quit the game, set the game resoltion to 1280x960, and I could start the game again without any problems. When I restarted the game later, to be sure if the problem was solved, it again wouldn't start anymore, and today I haven't had any luck either...

I'm thinking about re-installing windows if I can't solve the problem in the next couple of days. After all; I did spend 30 Euro's on a joystick for this game.

I'll keep you updated, and thanks for the replies, I really appreciate it

[Paulski]

I re-installed Windows and the problem seems to be solved