Troubleshooting FAQ

(Up to Guides, FAQs, and ReadMes)

In other languages: English (en) • español (es) • français (fr) • magyar (hu) • polski (pl) • русский (ru) • +/-

This FAQ is for technical problems and will only apply to users of the latest update 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 latest 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 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 initialization error"

Try selecting a different graphics API using the registry scripts in the Tweaks directory. Navigate to the directory you installed W:A in, find the Tweaks subdirectory, and from there open one of the various registry scripts beginning with "Renderer_", such as "Renderer_Direct3D_9_Software_Palette.reg". Keep trying until you find one that works.

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.

Note that WormKit is obsolete - starting with W:A 3.7.0.0, you can enable loading WormKit modules from the Advanced Options screen.

The screen turns off or flickers continuously

On systems with multiple monitors and Windows 7, the screen may turn off, flicker excessively or continuously upon start, or before and after a round, when using the Direct3D 9 renderers. Known workarounds include switching to the Direct3D 7 renderer (by importing the Tweaks\Renderer_Direct3D_7.reg registry script), or by enabling the "Disable desktop composition" option on the "Compatibility" tab in WA.exe file's properties.

When trying to run the game, an Explorer (Documents) window pops up, and the game doesn't launch

This happens when you have somehow enabled an option called "Force Wine Virtual Desktop" on Windows (even though it is supposed to be unavailable in the game options interface, as this option is specifically for running under Wine). To resolve this problem, open the "Tweaks" folder and run the "ForceWineVirtualDesktop_Off.reg" registry script. Alternatively, reset all registry options by running "ResetRegistryOptions.reg".

Front-end problems

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

Try changing the graphics settings on the Advanced Options page.

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.

The mouse cursor is invisible

Disable hardware mouse cursors, either by unchecking the option on the Advanced Options screen, or by importing the UseHardwareCursors_Off.reg registry script from the Tweaks subdirectory.

The screen flickers excessively when the game starts, or before and after a round

See here.

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

Try changing the graphics settings on the Advanced Options page.

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

Note: This can only happen when using the 8-bit DirectDraw renderer on systems before Windows 8. The best solution is to switch to a 32-bit renderer. If you'd like to continue using the 8-bit renderer (no longer fully functional since Windows 8), read on below.

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 7). 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. For the best effect, enable only the last two options, namely Re-set DirectX palette and Listen to palette changes.
3. In Windows Vista, having any Windows Explorer folder open while you play the game may resolve the problem.
4. Registry-based solutions such as DirectDrawFix can enable built-in Windows compatibility entries to tell the system that the game's palette should be protected against negative changes. Note: best to not use this in combination with the Advanced Options above. Only useful on versions before 3.6.30.0.
5. wkColorFix is a WormKit module which suspends Windows Explorer (the most common cause of palette corruption) while the game is running (and not minimized).
6. 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.
7. 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 is muted, distorted, stutters, or plays unsmoothly in-game

The cause of this issue varies based on the symptoms and your hardware/software environment.

If you are running the CD edition and are hearing periodic stutter, it might be due to a slow/defective CD drive or a damaged CD. Try creating a CD image of your W:A CD.

If your sounds are distorted or muted, and you get occasional crashes or freezes while playing the game, this is most likely caused by the GX mode in ASUS Xonar sound card drivers. If you are using an ASUS Xonar sound card, open the ASUS control panel, find and disable the GX mode either globally, or specifically for Worms Armageddon. Note that as of this writing, there is no EAX support in the game -- the feature that this "GX mode" attempts to enable.

If your sounds are muted and nothing of the above applies to you, then check which sound card you normally use for audio output. Worms Armageddon can currently only operate with the primary sound card, unless you install a WormKit module called SoundCardSelect that can specifically tell the game to use a non-primary sound card.

Lastly, make sure to check the volume level of the game -- either in the Options menu, or when you press the Escape button during the game.

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 or newer 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 the WormNAT2 page, addresses 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 Steam 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)