mbcaster doesn't run mbacPC~

[abitofBaileys]

Hi there.

This is not a problem regarding me, but a friend. Whenever he tries to use mbcaster and selects debug (9), then the game won't start. It doesn't say something like "caster and MB not in the same folder" or something similar. It says nothing and freezes until he closes caster.
Furthermore, the CPU usage rises up to more than 90% for mbacPC.exe in this situation.

I gave him hours of advices what he can do, but with no success. We checked the config_caster and everything. We even replaced them with new files. He even reinstalled Melty Blood. The other thought was that some kind of malware forces the cmd up to such a high CPU usage, but this didn't happen. I gave him my pre-configured mbcaster with the INI files but this didn't work either. I even gave him the mbacPC.exe, the cfg.cfg and the app.cfg, but this didn't work, too.

We disabled the Firewall. Even by deselecting it and everything that is not nessesary in the msconfig. We cleaned the registry from auto starts and dubious programs. This didn't help, too.


So. There he is, he can play Melty Blood regulary, but not via mbcaster. Does anyone have an idea what may cause this problem?

Thanks.

[Draku]

Are the contents of the exe folder taken out and put into the main folder instead of just leaving them in the folder?

[abitofBaileys]

Of course. The files are in the MBAC directory.

[mrpinoy]

did you try yelling at it...


or reinstalling

[abitofBaileys]

did you try yelling at it...


or reinstalling

He even reinstalled Melty Blood.

The yelling didn't work.

[Draku]

Of course. The files are in the MBAC directory.

I mean, as in... all of the exe folder contents are moved to the main MBAC directory. Not just the exe folder itself moved there.

[abitofBaileys]

Yes, they are. If it were not, it would spit out the message that mbcaster and mbac are not in the same folder.

[mauve]

Sounds highly likely that you have not properly patched MBAC to 1.03A. MBCaster doesn't do any tests about the current version of the game... Though it should.

[abitofBaileys]

He patched it to 1.03A. That's propably the most weird point about it. =/

[mauve]

Don't have the foggiest idea what might be causing it then. As long as MBAC is not running at the time, it is patched up to 1.03a, and there is nothing running in the background that could prevent Caster from doing its magic (gameguard-type things or overzealous system protection software), it should be working fine. MBAC itself shooting up to 90% CPU usage is also baffling, since that shouldn't be able to happen in most of the loops.

Some system information would be helpful in resolving this here.

[Ken_Deep]

Melty Blood and BigBang Beat are the only games that are installed on my PC.(Yeah, I'm  the "friend" )

CPU System:
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor
3000+
1.81 GHz, 512 MB RAM

The weird thing is, that it worked a month ago. And the only thing I changed  was my screen.

[motoh]

You've run it in singleplayer since, yes?  also, when you run the MBCaster, does the MBACPC window open, or does it just list the process?

~M

[Ken_Deep]

You've run it in singleplayer since, yes?  also, when you run the MBCaster, does the MBACPC window open, or does it just list the process?

~M

I've run it in singleplayer, yes. And it works. Only mbcaster doesn't work.
It's just listing the process.

[mauve]

I was hoping for something more along the lines of OS information.

Anyhow, try this build. It's no different from my other builds except that it has extra debugging information printed out. If you can tell me where it hangs/explodes, that would be a big help.

[Ken_Deep]

When I'm using DebugMode on your client, this is written:
debug: WaitForIni<>

And that's it. That happens.

[mauve]

Seriously? That's pretty messed up. Like, along the lines of, "Your system is directly getting in the way of Caster working."

I haven't a clue what's doing that but if it bombs THAT early then the debugging hooks it uses didn't properly take hold and/or messed up the program, which should not be possible if you are running MBAC v1.03A. Therefore something is interfering with it. What it might be, I really don't know, and I can't think of anything at the moment to more directly track it down.

[Evenshade]

He's not the only one suffering from this problem at the moment *grumbles*

[Deer]

He's not the only one suffering from this problem at the moment *grumbles*

Exact same problem?

What are your Computer/OS specifications?

[anam]

Actually I've been having similar problems although I get it to work. The problem (for me) is that once MBAC has been started by caster that process is never terminated. Even though the game itself has shutdown the process is still present in the process list of the task manager. Trying to start MBAC again using caster results in a new process being spawned. I'm guessing that the standard MBAC behavior in that case is not to start so the new process is left hanging alongside the old one. My workaround is to restart caster, this kills all processes started via caster. The problem Ken is having might be connected to this, dunno.

I'm personally running Win X64 and I've been toying with the idea that this might be causing the problem but I'm not that familiar with the differences between XP and X64 to take it further than that. I'm guessing caster "attaches" itself to the MB process and reads/feeds it input, it could be the "detachment" that's not working as intended that keeps the process up. Just random rambling from my part though

[Ken_Deep]

Hello. Long time no see.

Finally, after so many months, I found some hope. I found some hope to get some beatings from my friend here again.

The hope is, what you may find paradox, an error message. Why? Because it never said something like that.

There's only one problem...
http://npshare.de/files/36/8237/lol.PNG
WHATTHEHELL does it say? XD

I would be glad if you could help.

[abitofBaileys]

As I explained you in the PN, you have to put the CD in first.

[Ken_Deep]

As I explained you in the PN, you have to put the CD in first.

Wops. Seems like I forgot to put it in. Damn.
Since I put the CD in, it's the same as before. damnit.

However, I tried the debug-build again and something strange happened. He came with massive "FATAL ERROR: Access violation at 0x050A712F"-message-spam.

[anam]

Access violation? I've never seen that with mbcaster though I've never tried the debug version. That means that someplace in the program an attempt to write to invalid memory is done. To help Mauve debug this you could post the whole message and any debug messages printed before it crashes.

(Assuming it is mbcaster that crashes since you mention debug mode, if it's MB then there's something that ain't right at all...)

[mauve]

I updated the debug build to have additional information printed. That's all there is to it.

That being said, I haven't a clue. The access violation line says it explodes in a DLL somewhere - which does indeed say to me that it is something regarding stuff installed in Vista. But, unfortunately, that doesn't tell me what, and I'm not sure how to find the information on that. But if it is taking place in a DLL, it doesn't really make any sense to me that Caster would interfere with it, since pretty much none of the hooks override or interfere with any of the DLL things. At best it might be getting confused at configuration values.

So I don't know for the time being. Vista sucks.

[Ken_Deep]

Well, I actually only have downloaded the Vista Style Preview for WindowsXP. And I can clearely remember that I wasn't able to play online since I installed the style. Maybe that's the reason? I couldn't think of something better. Then there is only one problem: I don't know how to uninstall the style, and as far as I remember, it said it would overwrite certain datas.

I am also missing my windows-install CD, so reinstall windows won't work.