SCS Exception line 599

[Seeker]

Hello,

I seem to have the problem that is not quite uncommon it seems... A newly-bought SimCity Societies, which to a great disappointment does not start. This PC should not be THAT old, especially since the game itself is not a fully action-furnished one. The error message is:

Unhandled exception: Unable to find a valid device
Type: class TMill::Common::Exception
File: c:\sc5enginework\source\engine\dxdevice.cpp
Function: TMill::Engine::GetBestDeviceId
Line: 599

About the file: There is no such file - should there even be? Or has something gone wrong with the SCS installation?

I ran Dxdiag, and uploaded the results here. Could someone more familiar with this thing than I am please look at the specs and give me some clues of what to do? I would be extremely grateful for that. Not to mention my little son, who is waiting more than eagerly for the game to work.

[Manni]

you are not the only one with 599:

http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15129&highlight=Line%3A+599

[Seeker]

Yeah, I know... This really seems to be quite a massive nuisance, since there are a lot of people at the moment trying to find out what to do with this error that's preventing them to do what they just originally wanted - to have fun with a new promising game. I surely hope that Tilted Mill/EA will be able to provide some kind of a patch for this soon. Or some individual, who has enough experience with the details in question.

[Primetime01969]

Did you read the readme? ATI Radeon 9600 or greater, You have a 9200.

[Manni]

Hello Primetime01969

haven`t you noticed yet?

3 out of 200 do read the read-me`s.

The rest of 197 ask and want to have it said to them from one of the 3

[Primetime01969]

Yes I know, but it's a sore spot for me as I am a game producer (and write the readme, not for this game though, different company, lol).

[Seeker]

Hi guys,

I surely did read the readme, but that's not the point this time. In this particular case it seems (e.g. by Google), that quite a lot of the buyers of the game have been unaware of the grown demands for their hardware. The readme actually lists two categories: the graphics cards supported, and the ones that surely won't work. The rest of the numerous alternatives are left to the state of possibly working. Since SimCity games are not based on feverish action (like shooting aliens, wrecking cars, etc.), and for instance SimCity 4 has been running on even quite a moderate PC, many of the buyers of SCS have not suspected anything about the capabilities of their platform. For the first time I personally decided that from now on it would be better to have a fresh listing of the hardware components of your computer with you, when going to buy a new PC game. If one is not a hardware freak, it may not be that easy to remember after 2-3 years, if the model of the graphics card was 9200, 9500, or something else.

But, hard experience is the best teacher, as I use to say. That's the good point here. :o

[Primetime01969]

The good thing is that you can buy a Radeon 9800 for about $30-$40.

[Seeker]

You're right, Primetime01969. IF there is not a catch in trying to fix the problem by just changing the graphics gard - maybe it'll turn out that my motherboard doesn't support a more modern card... Well, actually buying a newer Radeon is what I'm planning to do. But before that going to be sure, that a chain reaction of upgrades is not what I'd be facing.

[dreadmime]

Seeker, go here: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=435

Download this program. it's called WCPUID. It's a neat little utility that gives you all the "Hardcore Geek Information" about your System.

Once installed, you'll see a little row of buttons, one will highlight as "Chipset Info", click it. Click the little "Copy" button (it looks like two sheets of paper) and come back here, and reply to this post. Right click and hit "Paste".

It should look like this:
[ WCPUID Version 3.3 (c) 1996-2004 By H.Oda! ]
$$--- Chipset Information

Host Bridg : 1022 7454 13 74541022 AMD-8151
ISA Bridg : 10B9 1563 20 156310B9 ALi M1563
IDE Controller : 10B9 5229 C5 522910B9
VGA Device : 1002 7187 00 19141545 $ATI VGA

AGP Revision : 3.0 / Enabled
(Status) (Command)
Data Rate : 4x 8x / 8x
Fast Write : Supported / Enabled
4GB Addressing : Supported / Disabled
Side Band Addr.: Supported / Enabled
64Bit GART ent.: Not Supported / Disabled
CAL Cycle : 64 ms / 64 ms
ARQSZ : non / non
Aperture Size : 256 MB
---------------------------------------------------------------
A0:[02] A1:[C0] A2:[30] A3:[00] A4:[7B] A5:[0B] A6:[00] A7:[1F]
A8:[12] A9:[0B] AA:[00] AB:[00] AC:[00] AD:[00] AE:[00] AF:[00]
B0:[00] B1:[01] B2:[00] B3:[00] B4:[00] B5:[0F] B6:[01] B7:[00]
B8:[00] B9:[40] BA:[12] BB:[00] BC:[00] BD:[00] BE:[00] BF:[00]
C0:[08] C1:[00] C2:[60] C3:[00] C4:[20] C5:[20] C6:[11] C7:[11]
C8:[20] C9:[20] CA:[00] CB:[00] CC:[22] CD:[05] CE:[35] CF:[00]

##--- Date 02/25/2008, Time 14:25:41

Otherwise, you can always hit Print Screen with it open, go to Start > Accessories > Paint, click on "Edit", select "Paste", go to "File", go to "Save As", change the filetype to JPEG, name it something easy to remember, and upload those here as well. That'll look like the links below.

At the very least, some of us Hardcore geeks can tell you if you can just change the Graphics Card, or if you'll need to do something else (like upgrade your motherboard, etc.)

[Primetime01969]

You have a 9200 already so you have about a 99% chance you can get a 9800 Pro to work just fine.

[Seeker]

Thanks for the new advice. Here is what WCPUID told about my hardware:

[ WCPUID Version 3.3 (c) 1996-2004 By H.Oda! ]
$$--- Chipset Information

Host Bridg : 8086 2570 02 25701458 Intel 865G/PE/P/GV/848P
ISA Bridg : 8086 24D0 02 00000000
IDE Controller : 8086 24DB 02 24D21458 Intel 82801EB (ICH5)
VGA Device : 1002 5964 01 596412AB ATI RADEON 9200 Series

AGP Revision : 3.0 / Enabled
(Status) (Command)
Data Rate : 4x 8x / 8x
Fast Write : Supported / Enabled
4GB Addressing : Not Supported / Disabled
Side Band Addr.: Supported / Enabled
64Bit GART ent.: Not Supported / Disabled
CAL Cycle : 64 ms / 4 ms
ARQSZ : 64 / non
---------------------------------------------------------------
A0:[02] A1:[00] A2:[30] A3:[00] A4:[1B] A5:[4A] A6:[00] A7:[1F]
A8:[12] A9:[03] AA:[00] AB:[00] AC:[00] AD:[00] AE:[00] AF:[00]
B0:[80] B1:[00] B2:[00] B3:[00] B4:[20] B5:[00] B6:[00] B7:[00]
B8:[00] B9:[50] BA:[04] BB:[00] BC:[10] BD:[10] BE:[00] BF:[00]
C0:[00] C1:[00] C2:[00] C3:[00] C4:[00] C5:[60] C6:[0E] C7:[28]
C8:[00] C9:[00] CA:[00] CB:[00] CC:[00] CD:[00] CE:[00] CF:[00]

##--- Date 02/26/2008, Time 17:05:15

[Primetime01969]

You can get any AGP 8X card with that setup providing you have a good power supply (like a Radeon x1950 pro for example - you'll need a power supply adapter most likely (4 pin to 6 pin)). What is the wattage of your power supply?

[Seeker]

What might be the handiest way to find that out (as I don't know it), the wattage I mean? It seems that e.g. SiSoftware Sandra Lite, which is otherwise quite informative, doesn't give this information.

[dreadmime]

The easiest/best way:

Take the panel off your case.

Look at the power supply.

There's usually a label on it that'll say something like:

xClio Goodpower 600W Power Supply.

Otherwise yeah, provided you've got a beefy enough PSU, you support AGP3.0 which means you have a relatively new and decent Mobo, so the sky's the limit, although AGP cards are getting harder to find.

Personally, i'm using an x1300XGE from Visiontek. It cost $50 when I got it. Has 512MB DDR2 Memory, is AGP8x, and provides a relatively decent play experience. Sure, there's lots of games I can't play, but i'm a simple person who's unwilling to make the $500 "leap" into PCI-Express. :p

Edit: Added a picture of an old case and PSU i've got lying around. Might be hard to see because I had to resize it, but the Power Supply reads "ANTEC True 430" with "430W" below it. That 430W indicates it's a 430W Power Supply.

[Primetime01969]

Or you could go with the top of the line AGP card the X1950 pro for about $190. It will be the last AGP card you ever get before going to pci-e.

[Seeker]

Thanks so far to both Dreadmime and Primetime01969, and extra thanks to Dreadmime for taking the effort of including a picture to show the guidelines (your advice of how to use WCPUID was also very thorough, for which much credit from me to you as well!). After a couple of days I will have suitably time to open my PC's case, I'll be back to this issue then.

[Seeker]

It seems that my power supply is 300W. How well would that support a newer graphics card?

[dreadmime]

Well, you could only go "so far". My x1300 suggests a 450W or greater Power Supply. You could quite easily get into a 9800 Pro or something in that range, but you'd only be able to "play" at best... rather than "enjoy".

Generally speaking, you're looking at somewhere between 450 - 600W for an AGP Based System (the new AGP HD3850 wants a 600W Power Supply.)

The good news is: All your cables are almost foolproof, and a new power supply is as easy as buying it, unscrewing and unplugging the old one, and plugging all the things back in.

Personally, i would suggest getting This Power Supply (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817189007) and maybe This Video Card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161208). Yes, the 3850's a little better, but the 2600XT should more than suffice for this, as well as pretty much any other game you toss at is. For an extra $100 though, you can certainly grab the 3850HD (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131090) and be able to run "Darn Near Anything". :p

Not the best thing you can do with $300 - $500... but still.... :P

[Seeker]

Thanks very much, Dreadmime, for analyzing my situation quite thoroughly, with several alternatives and all that! I appreciate this very much, as well as the very clear instructions you gave me earlier for finding out the necessary details about the contents of my computer. Since this PC in question is very probably going to be running various games for several years still, it surely could be a wise thing to upgrade the power supply in order to be able to make a bigger leap with the video card.

Best regards,
Seeker