Issue when finished with a profile

[matthew]

A small number of users are have an issue with Game Jackal when they have finished with the profile (i.e. shutdown the game). Game Jackal seems to be hanging and this ultimately requires a reboot.

Please try the following tests (each is a separate test).

1) Active a profile, wait for the game to launch then deactivate Game Jackal. This can be done by alt-tab'ing back to the desktop, right-click the Game Jackal icon and select deactivate. Then go back into the game and continue playing. See if the issue still occurs.

2) Insert the game's CD/DVD into the drive before you launch the profile. Leave it in there until you have finished and the profile has shutdown.

3) This test is a little more involved and required a registry change. Open regedit, head to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SlySoft\GameJackal" (or "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\SlySoft\GameJackal" for 64 bit OS) and change the value "Default Driver Generation" to 3. Create a new profile and then test. This will create the profile using the old gen 3 method. FYI - you may want to change this value back to 4 when done.

Please post your results. If I think of any other tests I will post here.

 

[Dave3d]

Test 1 and 2 failed.
Still get the GJ hang, and then then explorer hangs.

Test 3 worked (at least for Tomb Raider 2).
GJ disabled the profile after game exit, didnt hang, and explorer is totally fine.

So, can you work some In-UI magic to give us a button to trigger mode 3 or 4?
Going into the registry is annoying, and even creating 2 batch files is going to be annoying enough to not warrant it.
Even better would be support for 3 for certain titles, and 4 for others, without us users having to do anything at all.


Let me know if you want me to do anything else.
I do software QA for a living, so it isnt a big deal for me.

I will check the other 2 games and see if it is fixed there also.

Edit:
Well, Recoil works fine also.
Checking Carmageddon 3 right now.
I dont have much hope for it though, as it is pretty unstable even without game jackal.
Well, even Carma 3 works fine.

 

[ChrisRM]

1. No change
2. As (1)
3. Took huge amount of time to make the profile (went and had a haircut) but worked OK without side-effects.

Does this support your ideas?

Chris M

 

[Dave3d]

Yep, it took 40 minutes to finish the Carmageddon 3 profile.
Kinda long time.
But, I would rather have it take a long time and NOT hang explorer.

 

[matthew]

Thanks for the feedback... basically there would appear to be an issue with the new gen 4 engine. I need to have one or two users run some further tests. Those interested please PM me.

 

[model359]

1) Active a profile, wait for the game to launch then deactivate Game Jackal. This can be done by alt-tab'ing back to the desktop, right-click the Game Jackal icon and select deactivate. Then go back into the game and continue playing. See if the issue still occurs.

Since the game does not start, I can not perform this test.

2) Insert the game's CD/DVD into the drive before you launch the profile. Leave it in there until you have finished and the profile has shutdown.

This has no effect. The profile still does not work.

3) This test is a little more involved and required a registry change. Open regedit, head to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SlySoft\GameJackal" (or "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\SlySoft\GameJackal" for 64 bit OS) and change the value "Default Driver Generation" to 3. Create a new profile and then test. This will create the profile using the old gen 3 method. FYI - you may want to change this value back to 4 when done.

Please post your results. If I think of any other tests I will post here.

I changed the regestry setting and restarted my computer. I then tried to create a new profile.
1. Selected BTS
2. Inserted the CD and waited for the game to finish all the intro movies.
3. stopped the game. At this point game jackel spinned and spinned away. It was like it did not know I stopped the game. I let it sit for 30 minutes before I right clicked and deactivated BTS. At that point it went and finished the profile and ejected the cd. I tried to start the game, and again, it showed the splash screen of the game loading and just sat there. When I deactived again, that is when the games asked for the CD. Just like before.

I am uploading a new summer log.

 

[matthew]

Since the game does not start, I can not perform this test.



This has no effect. The profile still does not work.



I changed the regestry setting and restarted my computer. I then tried to create a new profile.
1. Selected BTS
2. Inserted the CD and waited for the game to finish all the intro movies.
3. stopped the game. At this point game jackel spinned and spinned away. It was like it did not know I stopped the game. I let it sit for 30 minutes before I right clicked and deactivated BTS. At that point it went and finished the profile and ejected the cd. I tried to start the game, and again, it showed the splash screen of the game loading and just sat there. When I deactived again, that is when the games asked for the CD. Just like before.

I am uploading a new summer log.

There are 2 issues here.
1) The exe used to start the game goes missing after the game starts. As a result GJ cannot detect that it has shutdown. If you can determine the "running process", you can update the profile under the advanced settings.
2) The reason the game does not start is because the sector data captured by GJ is no good. Ensure the disc is clean and re-profile (set the "Default Driver Generation" back to 4). FYI - The next version of GJ has better error handling when profiling... so it will be more tolerant to bad sector reads.

 

[model359]

There are 2 issues here.
1) The exe used to start the game goes missing after the game starts. As a result GJ cannot detect that it has shutdown. If you can determine the "running process", you can update the profile under the advanced settings.
2) The reason the game does not start is because the sector data captured by GJ is no good. Ensure the disc is clean and re-profile (set the "Default Driver Generation" back to 4). FYI - The next version of GJ has better error handling when profiling... so it will be more tolerant to bad sector reads.

I switched the regestry back to default 4.
I took my cd out and cleaned it. It was not dirty to start with and there are no real scratches on the media. I think started the game like normal to very which process the game uses. (from task manager.) I then created the profile again and after the game was loaded, I ALT+TAB out of the game and verified the same BTS process was running. I then exited the game like normal and the profiled finsihed. I tried to use it and get the same exact behavior. The spash screen starts and that is it. I checked task manager and the right BTS proccess is starting.

attaching new summery.

 

[matthew]

Beta drivers.

To install, unzip and copy both files to C:\Windows\System32\drivers (overwriting the existing)
Reboot when complete.

FYI make sure you select the correct drivers for your platform x86 is for 32 bit platforms and x64 is for 64 bit platforms.

 

[model359]

It is a no go with the new 64bit drivers. attaching log file.
Same exact behavior.

 

[matthew]

It is a no go with the new 64bit drivers. attaching log file.
Same exact behavior.

Ok... back to the drawing board i guess :bang:

 

[matthew]

This test is for users having lock up issues.

First install the attached drivers
To install, unzip and copy both files to C:\Windows\System32\drivers (overwriting the existing)
Reboot when complete.

FYI make sure you select the correct drivers for your platform x86 is for 32 bit platforms and x64 is for 64 bit platforms.

Once drivers installed correctly, please run the following test

Test 1 (this is the most useful test. If time is limited just perform test 1).
- Edit the profile, select Advanced Options and enter 256 into "Driver options".
- Open regedit, head to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SlySoft\GameJackal" (or "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\SlySoft\GameJackal" for 64 bit OS) and enter "40" into the value "Debug Value" (if this value does not exist, create a new STRING VALUE called "Debug Value").
- Insert the game's DVD (this step is very important. Failing to have the DVD in the drive can cause your machine to crash).
- Start the profile from the Game Jackal interface, then close the game.
- Note the results of the test ie Profile started and stop successfully, Game Jackal or Windows froze etc. Also note when it happened ie Before games started, when game finished.
Now perform the same test using the following Debug Values
173
67
81
85
43
37
0

Test 2
- Edit the profile, select Advanced Options and enter 4194816 into "Driver options".
- Open regedit, head to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SlySoft\GameJackal" (or "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\SlySoft\GameJackal" for 64 bit OS) and enter "81" into the value "Debug Value" (if this value does not exist, create a new STRING VALUE called "Debug Value").
- Insert the game's DVD (this step is very important. Failing to have the DVD in the drive can cause your machine to crash).
- Start the profile from the Game Jackal interface, then close the game.
- Note the results of the test ie Profile started and stop successfully, Game Jackal or Windows froze etc. Also note when it happened ie Before games started, when game finished.

Test 3
- Edit the profile, select Advanced Options and enter 8388608 into "Driver options".
- Open regedit, head to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SlySoft\GameJackal" (or "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\SlySoft\GameJackal" for 64 bit OS) and enter "0" into the value "Debug Value" (if this value does not exist, create a new STRING VALUE called "Debug Value").
- Insert the game's DVD (this step is very important. Failing to have the DVD in the drive can cause your machine to crash).
- Start the profile from the Game Jackal interface, then close the game.
- Note the results of the test ie Profile started and stop successfully, Game Jackal or Windows froze etc. Also note when it happened ie Before games started, when game finished.

Test = 4
- Edit the profile, select Advanced Options and enter 524288 into "Driver options".
- Open regedit, head to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SlySoft\GameJackal" (or "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\SlySoft\GameJackal" for 64 bit OS) and enter "0" into the value "Debug Value" (if this value does not exist, create a new STRING VALUE called "Debug Value").
- Insert the game's DVD (this step is very important. Failing to have the DVD in the drive can cause your machine to crash).
- Start the profile from the Game Jackal interface, then close the game.
- Note the results of the test ie Profile started and stop successfully, Game Jackal or Windows froze etc. Also note when it happened ie Before games started, when game finished.

If this is not clear, please do not hesitate to ask for more info

 

[Dave3d]

OK,
256 with 40 debug works.


BUT.
I tried to make a profile with those settings (Riddick, Dark Athena) and it never completed the profile (after a little over an hour, I killed it).

 

[ChrisRM]

Test 1 (with 40 as the value)
Dungeon Keeper II ran OK, closed the game and the hangs commenced. GJ was minimised to a running icon but wouldn't respond, maximise or provide a menu. 12824.exe was left running and wouldn't die under any circumstance. A hard reset was called for. Advanced logging was on and is attached (if <xxx>.log is what's needed),

Chris M

 

[ChrisRM]

Debug value 173, same test, this time the DVD was active and was accessed once at the beginning of the profile run. DK2 ran OK, closed OK, then hangs occurred. A popup was got from the GJ icon at the lower right of the screen, offering "Exit GameJackal|Run from CD/DVD|Deactivate DK2" but did nothing and wouldn't go away. Hard reset time...

 

[matthew]

Debug value 173, same test, this time the DVD was active and was accessed once at the beginning of the profile run. DK2 ran OK, closed OK, then hangs occurred. A popup was got from the GJ icon at the lower right of the screen, offering "Exit GameJackal|Run from CD/DVD|Deactivate DK2" but did nothing and wouldn't go away. Hard reset time...

Can you run the test again... however use a debug value of "0".
If this test does not lockup, can you go back and try the other values please.

If it does lockup, can you run test 3 and test 4.

FYI - It is important to run these tests with the drivers supplied in the post.

 

[ChrisRM]

Hi Matthew,

- Debug value = 0, system still hangs after game is closed and GJ minimises. 'Hang' means that new processes don't start although existing ones still run, and a shutdown doesn't complete without the reset switch.

Tests 3 & 4 as above.

Drivers were taken from this thread and installed yesterday with a reboot immediately before I did any testing.

What would you like next?

Chris M

 

[Dave3d]

Hey Chris.
Are you updating the debug values when GJ is exited?
I was getting wierd things happening doing it with GJ running still.
Exit GJ (right click systray > Exit), and then set the debug value, then launch GJ again.
If this is the way you are doing it, then ignore me.

 

[ChrisRM]

Process is:

1 Fire up GJ
2 Select profile
3 Edit it
4 Do test
5 Press reset button to get PC back
6 GOTO 1

I just put in the GOTO because they're fundamental to programming languages

Chris M

 

[ChrisRM]

3.2.0.7 beta has the same behaviour; do you want me to go through the various tests again? Also, it's just caused Outlook 2007 SP2 to bomb and start complaining to MS...

Chris M