| Problem with Stars on XP |
Thu, 30 November 2006 17:20  |
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| Orange |
 | Officer Cadet 1st Year |
Messages: 215
Registered: November 2005
Location: TO, ONT, CA | |
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I recently copied my Stars directory from my win2000 laptop to my XP PC at home. Stars would run on the XP but it would not show my ships unless they have been stationary for one turn. I could click on them to get them to display but otherwise they seem to be hidden. The same game files display fine on my laptop. The generated .x files from my XP PC seem to work fine.
Any ideas?
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| Re: Problem with Stars on XP |
Thu, 30 November 2006 17:28  |
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Sounds very strange.
I run Stars! on my XP PC with no problems at all. The only thing I have noticed from time to time is that the cursor in the galaxy pane may disappear - this happens very occasionally during testbed operations with multiple turn gens and a simple reload of the game solves the problem.
Check and verify that the ship filters are all on. When you load different game files the displayed ship filters change and all ships aren't displayed. This is set with the Design Filter on the Stars buttons menu bar (third button from the right).
Ptolemy
[Updated on: Thu, 30 November 2006 23:34]
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| Re: Problem with Stars on XP |
Thu, 30 November 2006 20:25 |
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I haven't seen this hidden fleet thing, but like Ptolemy I've seen a few glitches.
I've had the disappearing cursor thing, a reload fixes that for me too.
I've also noticed that having certain applications open in the background can sometimes cause some weird graphical glitches (excel was one) that also required a reload of Stars to fix, so you might want to close down all your other apps before opening stars to see if it is the same.
Video drivers could possibly relate to your problem, perhaps check to make sure you have latest version.
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| Re: Problem with Stars on XP |
Fri, 01 December 2006 14:56 |
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| Orange |
| Officer Cadet 1st Year |
Messages: 215
Registered: November 2005
Location: TO, ONT, CA | |
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Thank you everyone for the excellent ideas - I will try your suggestions tonight and then try a new install if all fails.
FYI - Fleet paths overlay does not work at all. Ship counts overlay works for the stationary ships only. The design filter also only works for the stationary ships even after a number of toggles.
The only thing I could think of was whether there needs to a stars.ini file somewhere in XP, but I do not have enough Win OS knowledge to track it down.
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| Re: Problem with Stars on XP |
Fri, 01 December 2006 15:19 |
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OK -
Here is how you do this. For Stars! you do not 'install' it.
1. create a directory (folder) on some drive and name it Stars
2. COPY your Stars.exe and Stars.hlp files to this directory
3. Copy the Stars.ini to the Windows directory (normally this will be C:\Windows) On your system, it may be something like C:\WinXP but, it is probably C:\Windows.
4. Make SURE that you are an Administrator - since this is your home PC and if you don't have other users - you probably are an Administrator.
5. Create a shortcut on your desktop to the Stars.exe file. To do this, open Windows Explorer, go to the directory (folder) where you copied the Stars.exe file to, Select the the file with your mouse, hold the ALT key down and drag the file to your desktop. This will creat a shortcut to the Stars.exe.
Double click the Stars.exe shortcut on your desktop and you should be fine.
If you have problems, you may e-mail me directly using whsmith at welho dot com.
If everything works OK, please post a message back here so the other members of the community know that everything is OK.
Regards
Ptolemy
[Updated on: Fri, 01 December 2006 15:20]
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| Re: Problem with Stars on XP |
Sat, 02 December 2006 04:55 |
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 craebild |
 | Lieutenant |
Messages: 568
Registered: December 2003
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark | |
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I do not think it would be a good idea to copy stars.ini to the new computer, I suspect that that could well trigger the copy protection in Stars!
Instead, you should start Stars! once (entering your serial number) and then close Stars!. Then you might open the stars.ini file, and copy those sections you want to copy. There are three entries which I do not think you should try to copy, those are the "Globalsettings", "Main" and "GameID" entries, I suspect they contain encrypted data that could cause the copy protection to be triggered. I could be wrong about that, though, as I have not tested it.
IIRC, the name of the Windows directory is as follows, depending on the Windows version installed:
Windows 3.1, 3.11, 95, 98, 98SE, XP, 2003 Server: C:\Windows
Windows NT (all versions), Windows 2000: C:\WinNT
Windows ME: C:\WinME (please note that Windows ME is not recommended  for any use)
Ptolemy wrote that you have to have administrator right. Technically, you do not have to be an administrator to run Stars!, but you do have to have read/write rights for the Windows directory and the directory where you save your game files, and it is not that simple to give a non-administrator user read/write rights to the Windows directory. So unless the administrator of your (probably home) network knows how to give a non-administrator read/write rights to the Windows directory, then you do need to be set up as an administrator to run Stars! (or at least to change things like zip orders, recent files list and display configuration).
Med venlig hilsen / Best regards / Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Christian Ræbild / Christian Raebild
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| Re: Problem with Stars on XP |
Sat, 02 December 2006 07:11 |
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It will not matter if you copy the Stars.ini from the other computer. Doing so will save you from having to make all your custom settings again. The Machine hash ID will not exist when Stars! is first started so you will need to enter your serial number anyway.
Administrator rights are required to write to files in the Windows folder. Just follow the steps I listed and mail me if you have problems.
Ptolemy
[Updated on: Sat, 02 December 2006 07:11]
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| Re: Problem with Stars on XP |
Sat, 02 December 2006 14:43 |
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Note that you can play just fine without administrator acces, you will just have to change the window layout from the dfault each time and you will not have access to newreports, expended backups or custom zip orders(default/custom Queues and transport tasks)
I used to do it all the time at university.
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| Re: Problem with Stars on XP |
Sun, 03 December 2006 10:06 |
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| Orange |
| Officer Cadet 1st Year |
Messages: 215
Registered: November 2005
Location: TO, ONT, CA | |
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There is already a Star.ini file on XP machine at c:\windows. I think it is generated when Stars runs. I am going to try a re-install as soon as I find my old cd right after I remove my McAfee (recent install) but my wife needs the XP computer this weekend and I can't screw it up until the next weekend.
Thanks guys - will advise.
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| Re: Problem with Stars on XP |
Mon, 04 December 2006 04:39 |
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| Quote: |
BTW, I recently installed a bigger disk in my computer, and used Ghost to move all content from the old disk to the new one. When run from the new disk Stars! never asked for serial number. All test games went without triggering copy protection.
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This would be normal. Programs like Ghost copy all data on the source drive - it is not simply a file copy or backup operation. The same serial number information was copied to the new drive. As far as Stars! was concerned, the system had not changed.
Ptolemy
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| Re: Problem with Stars on XP |
Thu, 07 December 2006 23:12 |
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| Orange |
| Officer Cadet 1st Year |
Messages: 215
Registered: November 2005
Location: TO, ONT, CA | |
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I don't know why - I did not do anything since weekend when it was not displaying correctly, but my Stars is displaying fine now on my XP.
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| Re: Problem with Stars on XP |
Wed, 14 February 2007 23:10 |
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How did you install it?
All you should do is create a folder for Stars, copy the Starsjrc4 executable to the folder and double click it to run it. Also, simply copy the Stars.hlp file to the same folder. Lastly, if you have the Stars.ini, copy it to the Windows directory (or Winxp - whatever your Windows directory is named). You shouldn't need to do anything else.
Ptolemy
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| Re: Problem with Stars on XP |
Wed, 14 February 2007 23:52 |
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There is something you can try - I don't know of anyone having had to do this but, it may help.
Create a shortcut to the Stars exe. Right-click the shortcut and edit the properties. Select the compatibility tab and chek the 'run this program in compatibility for' checkbox then select Windows 98/ Windows ME from the drop down box.
This may solve your problem
Ptolemy
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| Re: Problem with Stars on XP |
Thu, 15 February 2007 02:47 |
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| Canuck-Errant |
 | Crewman 3rd Class |
Messages: 4
Registered: February 2007 | |
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No dice there either. I suspect it's either the long uptime - this machine's been on at least a week - or my 64-bit CPU. If the latter... what are some good Windows emulators? I want my Stars!, dammit.
Edit: A reboot did nothing. It looks like it's emulators or nothing.
[Updated on: Fri, 16 February 2007 01:01] Report message to a moderator
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| Re: Problem with Stars on XP |
Tue, 20 February 2007 21:31 |
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| regiss |
 | Petty Officer 1st Class |
Messages: 65
Registered: November 2002 | |
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How about simply dragging race/game files onto executable? Or
starting tutorial and trying to open files then or going into
race wiz/new game. Is it just the splash screen thing? Wine had
that where splash would overlap buttons or some ####.
What about .ini file, could it be you don't have permissions to
access Windows folder (see if you're checking the correct folder
under My Computer properties > Advanced > Environment variables:
"windir")? If you copied your old .ini file try deleting it or
at least check if it's not write-protected or smth.
Don't remember if XPsp2 has it. Try setting My Computer
properties > Advanced > Performance Settings > Data Execution
Prevention for essential win progs and processes only or
excluding Stars executable from checking. I version (maybe jrc3)
had trouble with old antiviruses ages ago. Might as well try
turning your antivir/threat detectors off for a sec.
Eventually fire up some virtual machine with iunno bare win9x to
make sure it's CPU architecture that's causing problems.
Some crazy thing you got there, heh.
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Do "Fleet Paths Overlay" and "Ship Counts Overlay" work ok?
Goes away when I close all instances. Funny thing is the cursor reapers when I press shift key and left mouse button.