Difference between revisions of "Troubleshooting FAQ"

Revision as of 20:27, 31 December 2011

This FAQ is for technical problems and will only apply to users of the latest Beta version of Worms Armageddon (v3.8.1), or users either trying to update to this version, trying to install WA or trying to access WormNET.

Trygames / Trymedia versions are not supported. If you have one, try getting a refund and buying a CD version.

If you have any comments regarding this FAQ, please add them to the talk page.

Installing WA

I can't install Worms Armageddon. The auto-run installation screen disappears, and nothing else will work.

Disabling DMA (Direct Memory Access) has been known to solve this. To disable DMA,

1. Start Menu → Control Panel → System
2. Click the Hardware tab, then click Device Manager
3. Expand the System Devices sublist
4. Double-click "Direct memory access controller"
5. Select "disable" from the Device Usage drop-down list

The installation freezes at 100%, and the game fails to install when I quit it.

Keep waiting, the installation will eventually complete after a few minutes. Cause of this problem is unknown.

I am encountering other problems with installing the game

madewokherd has written an alternative Automatic Installer for W:A. It allows installing W:A on 64-bit Windows operating systems, among others.

Patching/updating WA

When installing the 3.0 patch, I get the error "Failed to find installation path"

This is caused by missing or incorrect Registry entries created by the WA installer. This can be solved by reinstalling, or editing the registry entries as follows:

1. Start menu → Run → regedit
2. Navigate to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Team17SoftwareLTD\WormsArmageddon\"
3. Double-click the PATH string and make sure the directory location is correct

I get a "Bad Integrity" error when trying to run the Patch or Update file

The file is corrupted. Try deleting it and downloading it again.

Starting WA

"C:\Windows\System32\Autoexec.nt The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications..."

This file has a nasty habit of corrupting itself, so Microsoft supplied a backup copy for such circumstances. Simply copy the "Autoexec.nt" file from "C:\Windows\Repair" to "C:\Windows\System32". If your Windows is installed in a different location, replace C:\Windows with that location.

If this doesn't work, see the Q324767 article from Microsoft support.

I get a "No CD" Error

You probably tried to patch WA when it did not need patching. Uninstall the game and try installing only the beta update.

"ltkrn10n.dll was not found"

You tried installing an outdated Beta patch on top of an unpatched version of the game. Download and install the latest Beta update.

When trying to run the game, the Sold Out installation setup sometimes insists that I install the update, even when I have already done so

Ignore the message.

"Graphics subsystem error - Unable to set desired video mode"

Your video card or video drivers do not support the video mode required by W:A. If you are using Windows Vista or 7 on a notebook computer with an Intel video chipset, this is a known problem - Intel has chosen to no longer support old games such as Worms Armageddon for their Vista drivers. Note that the drivers for the GMA-500 (aka Poulsbo) are known to have this problem even on Windows XP. The only work-around is to emulate W:A. Otherwise, try updating your drivers.

While Windows Vista/7 have EDID support and already hide resolutions below 800x600 in their resolution control panels, they will both go that extra mile to also helpfully delete any such modes that a monitor advertises support for that you might've wanted to use anywhere else. You can take that mile back by adding resolutions (in the case of WA: 640x480x8-60) into your monitor INF; doing this manually requires advanced understanding of monitor timings, so you should probably, instead, use NV/ATI/AMD control panels to do it for you, or, failing that, try and/or buy PowerStrip.

This problem was discussed in depth in this Team17 forum thread. CyberShadow wrote a WormKit module as a last resort which causes the frontend to run at 800×600. Use it only after trying everything else, since it's far from an optimal solution.

I get a black screen when I try to run WA, then it crashes to desktop or I have to restart the computer

Disabling the introduction screens has been known to solve this. To do this, right-click the WA shortcut icon, select properties, and in the "Target" text box, type "/nointro" at the end of the path.

This must be outside of the quotation marks for it to work. For example,

"C:\Worms Armageddon\wa.exe" /nointro

After updating, W:A crashes when I try to start it via WormKit

You probably have an incompatible WormKit module in your W:A directory. See here for details.

Front-end problems

I can't see the bottom or right side of the screen in the front end

Your font sizes are set to a large value. W:A does not support non-standard font sizes. Open the Display Properties Control Panel applet, click Advanced... on the Settings tab and set font sizes to Normal size (96 DPI).

The frontend and menu system suffers flickiness, lacks background sound, messed up animations, or unusually slow/fast animations

Try adjusting the values of the Slow frontend workaround and Use VRAM settings on the Advanced Options dialog. If none of the settings have a desirable effect, your video card is too modern. These problems will be fixed in a future update. See this thread for more details.

The game freezes in the main menu

Try the various SlowFrontendWorkaround registry tweaks, which you can find under your game directory, in the Tweaks subdirectory.

The game uses all CPU in the front-end (menus)

See the solution in the previous question. Note that it might not be possible to achieve good visuals and low CPU usage at the same time.

When returning from a game, I get a black screen with some white areas

This is a problem with DirectX for which a workaround has not yet been found. For some reason, the colour palette is set to two colours (black and white). To restore the colour palette, minimize by clicking at the bottom of the screen or pressing Shift+Escape, then restore the game.

WA crashes when I try to edit or create a team on Windows Vista / 7

If you enabled any compatibility options for W:A, disable them. The crash is caused by a problem in Windows' compatibility layer.

I can't select a high resolution

If you enabled any compatibility options for W:A, disable them. Windows will restrict the list of resolutions reported to W:A as being available if you enable certain compatibility options.

"Graphics subsystem error - Can't create video surfaces"

If you receive this error when minimizing or restoring W:A, try changing the value of Slow frontend workaround under Advanced Options.

Changes to worm teams aren't saved when restarting W:A

This problem may happen when W:A can't write to the directory you installed it to. It usually happens when you change the default installation path and install W:A under "Program files". On Windows Vista and newer, this will result in W:A saving changes to existing files to a special directory (VirtualStore), but finding old versions of the file when attempting to read them. To resolve the situation you can do one of the following:

• reinstall the game to a directory where non-administrators have write access (e.g under your user profile folder - the default installation path should work as well)
• run the game as administrator (not recommended as it can cause other problems; you will have to do it every time, but you can enforce this in the compatibility options)
• edit the directory's permissions to allow non-administrator users to write to it (for advanced users). Instructions:
  1. Browse to the parent directory of the directory you installed W:A in.
  2. Right click the Worms Armageddon directory, select Properties.
  3. Switch to the Security tab.
     If the Security tab is not present, you will have to configure Windows to display it. There are some tutorials on the web.
  4. If an Edit button is present under the first list box, click it and confirm the UAC prompt - otherwise, skip this step.
  5. Select the Users item in the first list box.
  6. In the second list box, click the check box under Allow on the first row (Full control).
  7. Click OK to dismiss the check box.

It's not possible to play on colour maps

See previous question.

In-game problems

W:A crashes when I try to start a match

This problem appears when W:A fails to read a file from the CD. Check the condition of your W:A CD. Creating a CD image may help.

Right-clicking in-game fails to open the weapons menu

The program StrokeIt can be responsible for this. Either disable the program when playing, or find the program option that allows you to prevent it from interfering when WA is running.

In-game plays extremely slow on Windows Vista

If you're using an nVidia graphics card, updating your drivers has been known to fix this issue.

In-game plays extremely slow on higher detail levels

On some systems, the game runs very slow when the smooth background gradient is enabled (you can cycle background detail levels by pressing Insert). This is caused by incompatibility with modern video cards. Updating your drivers may fix it.

The water and sky are black

Like with the above problem - if you're using an nVidia graphics card on Windows Vista, updating to the latest driver version has been known to fix this issue.

Players quit with a "desynchronization error"

Desynchronization errors are usually caused by a bug in the game. Search the Team17 forums if the problem is known. If it isn't, please post the replays of that game from all players (or at least the host's and the player that desynchronized).

Desynchronization errors may also be caused by 3rd-party game add-ons which change game behaviour.

The game colours get all messed up

Your screen may look like this.

This happens when another application is stealing W:A's palette.

The most common cause of this problem is incompatibility with modern operating systems (Windows Vista and newer). There are several known ways to resolve this problem, with varying simplicity and effectiveness.

1. If you experience this problem during the game, pressing Shift+Pause should restore the palette.
2. If you experience this problem in the front-end, try enabling the Palette fix setting in the Advanced Options dialog.
3. In Windows Vista, having any Windows Explorer folder open while you play the game may resolve the problem.
4. wkColorFix is a WormKit module which suspends Windows Explorer (the most common cause of palette corruption) while the game is running (and not minimized).
5. Terminating Windows Explorer (explorer.exe) will often resolve the problem, however the taskbar and desktop icons will remain inaccessible until Windows Explorer is relaunched. There are several ways to do this:
   • Using the Task Manager (which you can open by hitting Ctrl+Alt+Delete), end process, and then start it back by going to File → Run....
   • Using a batch file:

     Equivalent batch command for terminating the explorer.exe process
     taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe WA.exe Start explorer.exe

   • Third-party tools are available which can do this for you, e.g. Worms Launcher.
6. Some people have reported fixing the problem by disabling the Indexing Service (if cidaemon.exe appears on the list) or Automatic Updates services by going to Control Panel → Administrative Tools → Services.

Another application may also be the cause of palette problems. W:A logs palette corruption occurrences to the file palette.log in your W:A folder. Note that csrss.exe is a system process, and its presence in palette.log most likely implies OS incompatibility as described above.

The sound stutters (or plays unsmoothly) in-game

This has been known to happen with a slow/defective CD drive or a damaged CD. Try creating a CD image of your W:A CD.

The game doesn't react to some of the keys I press

Some keyboard have limits on how many and which buttons may be pressed simultaneously. If you find that the game does not recognize some key presses when you hold down some buttons (such as several arrow keys and the space bar), you may need to change your keyboard or use a key remapper. See this thread on the Team17 forums for details.

When I minimize the game, I can't restore it

If you are using Windows Vista/7 and running W:A "As Administrator" - don't. User Interface Privilege Isolation causes W:A to not receive certain messages. You can temporarily work around this and restore the game by using the "Bring to front" option in Task Manager, however the long-term solution is to set up the game in such a way that it does not need to run with elevated privileges.

Attempting to minimize the game seems to freeze the game

You probably enabled the Use desktop window compatibility option. There is no reason to enable it on Windows. Disable it from the Advanced Options dialog, and don't enable compatibility options you don't need in the future.

WormNET

I have been banned for no reason!

If you get a message that you're banned when connecting, check the green text in the message log at the left bottom corner. This usually happens when you, someone on your network or someone who had your IP address previously had a virus or open proxy on their computer. For that reason, your IP was added to a blacklist. This is done to prevent flooders, spammers and griefers from connecting to WormNET using public proxies and vulnerable/infected computers and causing trouble.

To remove your IP from the blacklists, visit DroneBL and EFnet RBL, submit your IP address (it should be filled in automatically) and, if you're listed, send a removal request. You should also scan your computer for viruses and malware, otherwise you'll be blacklisted and banned again. Once you removed yourself, just wait for your WormNET ban to expire (this currently takes 12 hours), and you should be able to connect again.

I see the error "Unable to detect IPX protocol" when clicking "Test network"

Ignore this error. IPX is an outdated network protocol, obsoleted by TCP/IP.

When I try to connect to WormNET, nothing happens

PeerGuardian can cause this by blocking the WormNET IP address. Consider reconfiguring or disabling PeerGuardian.

When I try to connect to WormNET, the game freezes up (possibly with messed up colours)

ZoneAlarm (and possibly other firewalls) can cause this by producing a pop-up in the background when it detects your computer trying to connect. Configure ZoneAlarm so that it already gives Worms Armageddon access to the Internet. While you're there, you'll also want to allow it to act as a server, otherwise you will receive the same or similar problems when you try to host (see below).

"Unable to connect to the server; please try another server."

This is usually caused by a software firewall blocking the connection attempt. McAfee is a common culprit. You will need to find the option in your security software which controls blocking connection to IRC networks, and disable it. (Temporarily "disabling" McAfee is known not to work.)

When I join WormNET, the content of the channel list, player list and the message of the day box never loads

Restarting the game or your computer has been known to fix this.

No one can join my games

Consult the Hosting Guide.

I can't join my friend's game

Your friend may need to do some network set-up first - see the previous question.

When I try to host a game, the game freezes up

Certain Norton security products (and possibly other firewalls) can cause this by producing a pop-up in the background when it detects your computer trying to open a port. Configure your firewall/antivirus product to allow unrestricted access to W:A.

When I try to join games, I keep getting a "Checksum 15" error

This occurs when the game has been improperly updated. Follow the installation tutorial carefully.

When I try to team in, nothing happens

This problem can be caused by a misconfigured device on your network. Your computer is trying to send the team as a packet larger than the maximum transmission unit of a network node between you and the game's host. Normally when this happens, the said node will send back an ICMP packet, and your computer (or another routing device) will reconfigure to fragment the data into smaller segments (see Path MTU discovery). However, if you are using a firewall or router configured to block ICMP messages, auto-reconfiguration will fail, and the packet will be silently dropped, creating a "black hole connection".

To work around this problem, you can:

• contact your ISP or network administrator
• reconfigure your router or firewall to stop blocking ICMP "Fragmentation Needed" (Type 3, Code 4) messages
• manually set the MTU of your operating system to a lower value (might lower network performance)
• use a VPN service such as Hotspot Shield (not recommended)

"Skipped packet" message in chat, followed by desynchronization or disconnect

This problem is usually caused by an incompatibility between Windows 7, multi-core processors, and wkPackets (a WormNAT2 component). The latest version, available from WormKit's webpage, attempts to address this problem. Note that this problem may occur even to clients merely joining a game when wkPackets is enabled.

Miscellaneous

An alternative solution to many problems

Many hardware/software/OS incompatibility problems can be solved by Emulating Worms Armageddon, if you don't mind a performance trade-off.

Getting support

If your problem can't be solved by following this FAQ, create a new thread on the Team17 Worms Armageddon forum. You could also search the forum for similar problems.

I downloaded Worms Armageddon from the Internet without paying. Can you help me?

Please consult this advisory video. (Adobe Flash Player required)