Help with all Sam and Max Episodes

[dualloop]

Help!
All my sam and max games for some reason will not start up when they previously did. What happens now is that when i double click the icon of an episode, it comes up with: sam & max - culture shock\Situation comedy\the mole, the mob, and the meatball\abe lincoln must die.exe has stopped working.
I have tried running as administrator and windows xp compatibility.
These episodes worked fine a few days ago.
All other games i have (e.g Half life 2, doom 3 F.E.A.R) work perfectly.


My specs are:
Windows Vista Home Premium 32Bit
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz
4GB RAM (Vista reads it at only 3.12GB for some reason, Have also tried 3GB and 2GB but no luck)
4GB Flash Drive (for ReadyBoost)
Nvidia Geforce 8880 640MB (Tried normal and beta drivers.)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[koga57]

Mind does the same thing, but episode 3 works just find.
Windows Vista 64 bit

[dualloop]

Mind does the same thing, but episode 3 works just find.
Windows Vista 64 bit

Do you get to the place where it has the launch game button?

[koga57]

No as soon as I open the desktop icon Windows problem solver come up and the only think I can do is close program. Doom 3 works just find on my computer to.

[dualloop]

Come on, someone help.
i havent had a chance to play the fourth episode that i have paid for.

[ReverendTed]

Have you tried running the executable directly instead of the shortcut?

(And I hate to sound like a crusader, but it smells like copy protection gone sour is a definite possibility.)

[Emily]

Could you please post a screenshot of the error message?

[MSUSteve]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/sbouren/sammaxerror.jpg

I'm running:

Vista Home Premium 32 bit
AMD Athlon 64 2400+
nVidia 7800 GS

[koga57]

Sorry vista secruity prevents me from sending screenshot. It shows.

Microsoft Windows
Sam and Max-Abe Lincoln Must Die.exe has stopped working

A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.

[Emily]

We are going to have to do some research into this. Three cheers for Windows for throwing such a descriptive error. :(

A quick Google search shows that this error is occurring in all sorts of different applications (including Internet Explorer!) It seems pretty clear that it's a Vista problem, not necessarily a Sam & Max problem. The question now will be how to fix it.

EDIT: This post (http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winvista/1173136864) has some information that might be helpful. Here's what they suggest:

Turn User Account Control on or off

User Account Control (UAC) can help you prevent unauthorized changes to your computer.
It works by prompting you for permission when a task requires administrative rights,
such as installing software or changing settings that affect other users.

We don't recommend turning User Account Control off. If you do turn it off, you should
turn it back on as soon as possible.

Click to open User Accounts.

Click Turn User Account Control on or off. If you are prompted for an administrator
password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Select the Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer check box
to turn on UAC, or clear the check box to turn off UAC, and then click OK.

Here (http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.internetexplorer. general&tid=b2968270-2d9b-4281-9cbf-f69f40552bfb&p=1) is another thread that has what seems to be the same workaround:

You need to disable User Account Control

Go to Control Panel
Click on User Accounts and Family Safety
Then click on User Accounts
Then click on Turn User Account Control On or Off
Uncheck the box User User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer
Click OK
You'll have to reboot to see the changes.

Can someone who's having this problem try turning off User Account Control and see if the error goes away?

[MSUSteve]

Emily, I've had User Account Control disabled since the second day I had Vista. That is not the problem, at least not for me.

[Emily]

Okay, thanks for letting us know. I just replied to your email, btw.

[dualloop]

User account control does nothing, same error messages still appear.

[koga57]

Same results with the User account control, but re-downloaded episode 3 and it runs fine.

[Emily]

Koga, I can't imagine why episode 3 would work and the others wouldn't...

I'm going to check in with the guys who make the activation software and see if they've had any reports of this problem.

[dualloop]

Hi,
just an update to say that they are working now.
Because i was wating for a 64bit version of vista to come, i had installed 32bit, so i did a clean install of vista 64bit.
It is definetly vista.

[koga57]

dualloop did you get Sam and Max 4 to work on Vista 64bit?

[dualloop]

dualloop did you get Sam and Max 4 to work on Vista 64bit?

Yeah, i just installed it after installing vista 64bit and it launched and played without any problems or error messages appearing.

[Emily]

People still getting this error - could you take a look at the DEP settings as described in this thread (http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2071) and see if disabling them for Sam & Max makes any difference? I didn't realize until just now that the error reported in that thread is the same as this one.

[koga57]

Thank you Emily
After disabling DEP Sam and Max 4 works just fine.

Have a good weekend.

[Emily]

Woo!

*dances*

I'm so glad that fixed it. :D