Where is Customer Support????

[johnlamb]

Hello,
:confused: :mad:
I cannot get this program to work the error message I am receiving every time I try to start "Fantasy Grounds II" is the following:

_________________________________________________
FantasyGrounds.exe - Application Error
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The instruction at "0x0056c9a3" referenced memory at "0x00000000". The memory could not be "read".

Click on OK to terminate the program
Click on CANCEL to debug the program
_________________________________________________

I have already installed the latest version of DirectX. I checked the system requirements and my system meets them as far as I can tell.

I tried to e-mail you for support, but none of your e-mail addresses accept e-mails. I demand some customer support or I am going to call my credit card company and turn this site in for credit card fraud. I refuse to pay for something that I cannot use or get to work as promised. If you cannot help me then give me a refund. If you do neither, then you will be turned in for credit card fraud, simple as that.

Hope to hear back from you ASAP.
My e-mail address is [email protected]

-JL

[richvalle]

Customer support is on their way from Sweden to Indy for Gencon. They are either still in the air or trying to recoop from the long, long flight.

I doubt they will be looking at much email till they get back from Gencon. I could be wrong though.

What email address are you using for support?

What version are you trying to run.. full or lite?

Did you make any changes to FG (if full) or is this right after a fresh install? What video card are you using? What OS?

rv

[joshuha]

The support address is [email protected] and as stated they are in the Swedish timezone normally but are attending Gencon so support may be delayed a few days.

We have a very helpful community here and would be glad to help.

Did you try the demo before you purchased? Did it function correctly? If not, do you mind trying the demo out as well, its a different version of the product but will help us eliminate graphics card issues.

What graphics card are you using and how much memory? What exact version of DirectX do you have (DX10, 9.0c, etc.)?

Are you using the default d20 ruleset (and not some other ruleset you may have downloaded)? Do you have the GM client or the player client?

[Sigurd]

The instruction at "0x0056c9a3" referenced memory at "0x00000000". The memory could not be "read".
Thoughts if it were me (on WINXP SP2):

This is a wierdness with a file or a memory chip. First go to your Control Panel. Select your "administrative tools" and double click your "event viewer".

Look through the application log and system Log for the past week or so.
1. What does the event viewer say about the FG error?
2. What other areas have errors? Are there many other errors?

If you have a number of errors with other applications its likely that you have a bad memory chip or some such. Reseat the memory module.

If you don't have a bad memory chip maybe there is a corrupted or badly installed file. Reinstall FG and get all the updates. Check start>run "dxdiag". Cycle through all the tabs and look for problems. If you see no problems go to the "Display" tab make sure that all the DX features are enabled and test them.

If that doesn't help get back to the board with information from #1&2


Good luck.

FG2 has been really solid over all for me. (I'm not affiliated with the company) If you are having problems it's probably a technical glitch or a direct X incompatability.

[Dachannien]

I personally have my doubts on a memory problem. If that were the case, he would be seeing much more severe problems like random bluescreens regardless of the program he's running. That particular error can also occur if a program tries to dereference a null pointer.

One question I have is, at what point during the process of running FG does the error occur? Is it when you first click the shortcut, or is it after you've selected a campaign (or, if you're using the client version, after you've selected a server to connect to)? Also, the questions that Joshuha and Sigurd have asked would provide useful information as well.

On a side note, you should consider yourself fortunate to get so much help from the FG community after throwing such a hissyfit. I know I was on the verge of just flaming you and being done with it, but then I figured maybe I should at least try to be helpful first.

[Mellock]

Meh, could be reference to a pointer that isn't initialized yet, or perhaps it's trying to allocate more memory then is available (although the program isn't really that big).

Is fantasy Grounds the *only* program that gives errors that look like that?

Uninstall the program, update any video drivers if that's an option for you, reinstall FG, and give a shout if that does the trick.

[Yenooc]

I would like to proclaim my awe and amazement at the level-headed responses submitted so far. I am curious, however, about the average number of initial responses that were deleted before pushing the "submit" button for the ones that got posted. :D

I'm just sorry that I'm so techno-clueless that I cannot offer any helpful advice myself.

[richvalle]

Heh. I must admit I 'bit my tongue' a bit on my first response. Being calm and helpfull seemed the best route to take.

rv

[Tokuriku]

Heh. I must admit I 'bit my tongue' a bit on my first response. Being calm and helpfull seemed the best route to take.

rv
It was... but still, I salute your nerve.

[Griogre]

I would like to proclaim my awe and amazement at the level-headed responses submitted so far. I am curious, however, about the average number of initial responses that were deleted before pushing the "submit" button for the ones that got posted. :D

I'm just sorry that I'm so techno-clueless that I cannot offer any helpful advice myself.
LOL, well I was one who decide I didn't think I should post with the mood I was in. On one hand you know the guy is frustrated and probably doesn't know about where the developers are located or Gen Con but still...

[richvalle]

Heh, it was late, I was tired and FG had just crashed on me erasing 2 hours worth of work for tonights game. Then I read his post.

:)

rv

[Tokuriku]

OMG!
Let's remember /save every 30 minutes :)

On another hand, I must say I wasn't prepared for this kind of community when I got in about a year ago. I was armed and dangerous comming from another site's community where they treat anybody like dirt. I took it as granted and ruffed someone here but I soon understood that I could be myself here. Myself in saying that even if I where not agressive, I could get my opinion across without being trampled on. Really nice to be here guys... :D

[Sigurd]

Lets not clap ourselves on the back too rigorously :). I hope some of the advice worked for the OP.

ps: To those who think it isn't a memory problem - you might be right but you might not. I've seen ghosty errors like this dissapear with a memory reseating.

Besides you cast your net broadly for the first go... :)


Sigurd

[richvalle]

Hmm, I wonder if we should send him an email to get him back here.

If he's not back by tomorrow I'll email him.

rv

[Mellock]

Yes, darnit, how dare he not respond to us like that!

Where *is* the customer?????????? ;)

[Sigurd]

We really should tell him that we have the solution but we keep it on a private list.:D

[Thore_Ironrock]

I did let Tero know about this yesterday, and I think he was going to look into it after the exhibit hall closed last night. Maybe his problem is fixed???

[richvalle]

I sent him an email this morning. We'll see.

rv

[johnlamb]

Hello Guys, :cool: (I've cooled down... I'm chillin' now)

Hey, thanks for being cool and getting back to me. I know I may have came across a little harsh at first, but I was frustrated and to be honest was starting to feel a little ripped off. Especially when all my e-mails seeking help were bounced back. You are correct, I was sending them to the wrong place. I sent my questions/concerns to two different e-mail addresses:
[email protected] (I should have known... LOL. But, I didn't read the e-mail address I just hit the reply button... LOL)
[email protected]

The above were the only e-mail addresses I could find on the website. Then, in the forums I found someone mention the proper e-mail address for customer support:
[email protected]

When I checked my e-mail today I found the response e-mail from Richard Valle asking me to come back and check the boards and try some of the suggestions and of course, offer more information as per some of the people's questions who were trying to help me trouble-shoot.

Okay, I will try to answer all of you as best as I can. I did not have time yet to try any of your suggestions, but I will ASAP. For now, I will just try to answer your questions and get back to you as soon as I can (either tonight, or tomorrow, hopefully, since I have several things going on between now & then)....

Graphics Card: I am checking on that... not 100% sure... I know it is a pretty good gaming graphics card, but I need to double check brand name and so forth...
I am running an actual Windows 2000 OS, BUT I am using the VMware software for Ubuntu (Linux) to run a "Virtual" Windows 2000 OS. The Windows 2000 OS should work just like the original, since of course, it was installed on VMware using the original Windows 2000 software.
I have recently installed the newest version of DirectX (I believe that is version 10, if not, then the version I have installed is version 10... LOL). :D
I did try ->start ->run, type "dxdiag", ENTER, click on display tab and check to make sure that all three functions are "Enabled"... But, only the first one was enabled... the other two were not. However, I do not know how to enable them (the buttons are grey and are not clickable).
Oh yeah, somebody asked when do I get the error I mentioned in my first post.... I get it as soon as I click on the icon to start FG2.
I never tried the demo. Perhaps I will try it later when I have time to fart around with troubleshooting....
So, basically, I never have actually tried or used the program. I never was able to get it to work without the errors.

Hope this helps you guys to help me. If you have any more questions/suggestions/comments/etc. please feel free to respond. Thanks again for the support, keep it coming, perhaps we can blast this bump out of the road together....:pirate:

Take care.

-John
[email protected]

[richvalle]

Hmmm... that linux thing is going to be an issue I think. I could be wrong, but I don't think linux works with directx very well. Even with Win2000 running inside it has to pass the commands though linux to the graphics card.

Do you have a dual boot option to test out running it in native win2000?

Any one else? I know I've seen requests to have FG run in Linux and I thought I saw that it wasn't working in various flavors. I'll try to find that post.

rv

[joshuha]

VMware Workstation

Accelerated 3-D Limitations
Experimental support for Direct3D applies only to Windows 2000 and Windows XP guests, on hosts running Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Linux.

Experimental support has the following limitations:

Workstation accelerates DirectX 8 applications, and DirectX 9 applications that use only the subset of DirectX 8.
Support for 3-D applications is not optimized for performance.
OpenGL applications run in software emulation mode.
Not all aspects of 3-D acceleration are enabled. The following 3-D features are not accelerated:

Pixel and vertex shaders
Multiple vertex streams
Hardware bump-mapping, environment mapping
Projected textures
Textures with one, three, or four dimensions

[richvalle]

I found this:

"We are going to try running FG2 under Ubuntu 7.04 using either Wine or Cedega in the near future to see where the problems are. "

Though it was a while ago... april 22.

Oh... and I saw joshuha's post. I think he's saying directx doesn't work very well. :)

rv

[Griogre]

I'm also not sure he wants directX 10. I think that is a Vista thing. Vista really changed things up and 10s is more like middleware to keep legacy stuff working.

I think you might want directX 9.0c of the latest flavor. You can also try lower hardware acelertion from max on the video card.

[Oberoten]

Or to sum it all up :

A virtual machine does not give full "hardware DirectX" which makes it impossible for the program to run properly.

... is this in the FAQ? If not it SHOULD be in the FAQ. *checks the FAQ* No it is not in the FAQ.

This should decidedly be added.

[Thore_Ironrock]

I'm pretty sure FGv2 only runs on XP and Vista. During the demos this weekend people are asking the sys requirements, and what they have listed is the above. I don't think Win2000 has the guts anymore to run FG I'm afraid. FGv1 worked, but I think those days are gone.

I'll see Tero in the morning and confirm, but I'm pretty sure that is the case.

[johnlamb]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the information. I think you may be right (Rich Valle) about the Linux thing being a problem. Even though Win2000 was installed from an original Win2000 disc, it is still operating via VMware and is run off the native OS, which is Ubuntu. This could very well be the source of conflicts regarding the graphics card. I am going to try to uninstall DirectX-v10 and then install DirectX-v9 instead to see if this may solve the issue. Wish me luck...
-John

[johnlamb]

Hi again,

Okay, this is probably a stupid question, but "do you have to uninstall Directx-v10 before installing DirectX-v9.0c?"... and "If so, how do you do it?", because I could not find DirectX-v10 in the Add/Remove programs... Perhaps because it is a driver and not a program? :o

Anyway, I tried installing DirectX-v9.0c without uninstalling v10 and it said it installed successfully. However, when I clicked on the FG2 icon to open the application, it gave the same error. (yes, as soon as I clicked on it). I am not having much luck over here. I double checked the version being used by going to ->Start, ->Run, ->"dxdiag", (it is running v9.0c), then I clicked on "display" & under notes it says:

No problems found.
To test DirectDraw functionality, click the "Test DirectDraw" button above.
Direct3D functionality not available. You should verify that the driver is a final version from the hardware manufacturer.


Rich Valle, I do not currently know of a way to run a solo Win2000 OS as the native OS with my set up. When I boot up I only have Ubuntu options for versions of OS to run, no Windows. I could have set it up originally with a dual OS, but unfortunately I did not, thinking that it would be better (and more stable... LOL) to run Ubuntu and then just run Win2000 via VMware. This option also allows me to run both systems simultaneously, which essentially makes my Win2000 OS function much like a window or application rather than a OS... and I still get all the perks of having Ubuntu as my OS along with all its applications.... Basically, I can run anything I want from either system at once, switching back and forth at will... BUT I digress.

Again, most likely it is still an issue with Ubuntu (Linux) interfering with the graphics card usage by the VMware ran Win2000 OS. However, I am at a loss right now as to how to fix that. If anyone knows how to fix it, please let me know. My cousin is really good with anything concerning computers, however he is super busy and I hate bothering him with this stuff if I can help it. Any help from you guys would be much appreciated.

Take care guys, keep the advice coming.
-John :cool:

[johnlamb]

I am going to try the demo version. I will let you know what happens ASAP.
-John

[johnlamb]

Okay I downloaded and installed the FG demo version and this time when I clicked on the icon the program did load up and I could click on the options:

Game master a campaign
Play in a campaign
Create or load characters

Then, if I clicked on "Game master a campaign" or "Play in a Campaign" it went to the next screen, but once I clicked on "Start", or if I originally clicked on "Create or load characters", it gave me the following error:


___________________________________
Could not initialize DirectX
----------------------------------------
CheckDeviceType failed! Error code 16
___________________________________

Does that give anybody any clues to what may be going on, or what I could do about it, if anything? Let me know, I am running out of ideas over here...

Take care guys, hope to hear back from you soon.

Later,
John :cool:

[joshuha]

It means VMWare doesn't support the DirectX necessary to run Fantasy Grounds. You are going to have to find out a way to truly dual boot, VMWare is another layer and thus why its SEVERELY restricted in the DirectX functions it has available (and in fact until relatively recently couldn't do any DirectX at all).

Where you may be getting confused is while the VM session of Windows lets you install DirectX fine it still doesn't mean its going to work right. When the VM Win2000 OS has to call the DirectX function it needs VMWare kicks in and its not robust enough to map natively to your hardware that can support full DirectX. I know lots of people have true dual boot environments of Windows and Ubuntu but I don't know Ubuntu well enough to know how to set it up.

[Hamish]

I agree with Joshuha (I have learned this is a wise thing to do, too, since he's almost always right) but in this case I have some experience of my own. VMWare is a great product, but the hardware virtualization limits your access to hardware resources. Drivers are also a problem, for example, with VMWare versions older than Workstation 6 or Server 1.0, installing Vista would produce a blue screen because the VMWare video driver was not Vista compliant.

[Dachannien]

I'm pretty sure FGv2 only runs on XP and Vista. During the demos this weekend people are asking the sys requirements, and what they have listed is the above. I don't think Win2000 has the guts anymore to run FG I'm afraid. FGv1 worked, but I think those days are gone.

I'll see Tero in the morning and confirm, but I'm pretty sure that is the case.

FG2 runs just fine with Win2k.

[richvalle]

I suspect dual boot is something that has to be setup on the initial install. But, maybe there is a way to set up dual boot after the fact. You'll have to find that out elsewhere (well, other then from me. :) ).

Best of luck, let us know how it turns out.

rv

[Griogre]

Dual boot in normally set up at on initial install. It has been a while since I messed with this but a partition utility might allow you to setup a dual boot but I know nothing about Ubundi. Depending on your system and the state of your backups you might find it easier to format and do a fresh re-install.

[johnlamb]

Hi guys,
Yeah, I am thinking you guys are all right. I will probably have to decide how I want to go about partitioning off the hard-drive and setting my system up as a true dual OS with Win2000 & Ubuntu...:rolleyes: I could still use VMware on my Ubuntu system if I like for easy use of both systems at once just like before, but it looks like if I really want to be able to use FG2, then I will need the true dual system with Win2000 on one partition as a native OS to avoid DirectX conflicts for the graphics card resources.

One more thing. I did not click on the option to be able to view my purchases through my profile when I originally purchased FG2. Does anyone think I will have any issues with this once I re-format? I mean, of course, I can back up my system first, but this shouldn't cause me any issues with the license right? :confused:

Thanks again guys, it might be a week or two before I will have the time to sort all this out, but I will keep you all posted... :D

Hell, I look forward to the possibility of actually being able to game with you guys on-line sometime... If that sounds cool to all of you...:cool:

Again, I will let you know what happens once I get the dual OS up. Most likely that should solve my problems with FG2, but we will see.

Take care guys and if any of you care to drop me an e-mail or whatever, feel free.

Later,
John
[email protected]
https://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Gurps_Group/
https://www.geocities.com/gurpsgaminggroup/

[Dupre]

Running FG2 under Linux using VMs or Windows libraries (WINE/Cedega) has been discussed here before, but we haven't been able to look into it yet and we cannot guarantee it works in such environments.

[richvalle]

Hey John,

As long as you have your Linense Keys you should be fine for reinstalling FG.

Good luck!!!

rv

[johnlamb]

So the original license key will work for the reinstall? Cool. I will let you guys know what happens... But, like I said before, it may be a little while before I get a chance to work on it and do the formating to true dual OS... I look forward to gaming with you whenever I can get FG2 up and running on my system. Thanks again guys, take care.

-John:cool: