I've been having an error message with Sam and Max. I first brought it up in the Windows 7 Compatibility thread, but I decided to start my own.

First, this problem (which now occurs with Sam and Max seasons 1 and 2, and Zoo Tycoon 2 Zookeep) has a 50/50 problem.

When I click "Play", it either...

1. ...for Sam and Max, I get to the episode selection screen. When I choose an episode, nothing happens. If I look at my processes, it says the episode EXE is running, but nothing is happening. For Zoo Tycooon 2, nothing happens, but the game EXE is sometimes in processes anyway.

2. I get an error message (after episode selection) saying that SamMax101.exe (or Zoo Tycoon 2) has stopped working, with this error message:



So, I did some digging. Based on the "StackHash_0a9e" and "Appcrash" this seems to happen a lot for people with Windows 7 when they try to use various applications or games. Unfortunately, no one on the internet has seemed to find a diffinitive way to fix the problem.

Here are the things I've tried in order to get things working:

1. Installed all the suggested software on the OP of the Windows Compatibility thread.
2. Updated my graphics card with Nividia's official newest update (more difficult than you'd think.)
3. Made sure all other drivers were updated, just from the Device Manager.
4. Disabled all services that weren't microsoft and restarted to see if they'd affect anything.
5. Ran Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool to see if there was a problem. There wasn't.
6. Uninstalled and reinstalled Sam and Max. Didn't work.
7. Made sure Windows 7 had all updates installed.

And none of these things fixed the problem.

Now, here's the real kicker: I went to Telltale Games and downloaded the demo for Sam and Max. It worked. So, this problem must be on the GameTap end.

And, because I think it will help, here's the games that work and don't workon my comp:

Working Games
- Puzzle Quest 2
- Ghostbusters
- Art of Murder
- Vampyre Story (after allowing it in my virus protection)
- The Witcher
- Evoly
- Mystery of Mortlake Mansion

Non-Working Games
- Jewel Quest 2
- Sam and Max seasons 1 and 2
- Zoo Tycoon 2 Zookeep

If someone who knows more than me could look at that list, perhaps they could see something in common with the working or non-working games. And if there's a game that uses the same kind of software stuff as the non-working games that you want me to test, let me know.

Because really...what does Sam and Max and Zoo Tycoon 2 have in common that they'd get the same error message?

Here's my comp stats:

Sony Vaio
Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.93 GHz
4096 RAM
Nvidia GeForce G210M

Please help me figure this out. I really want to play these games and if I can't get it fixed, I might have to cancel my GameTap membership.

Thanks!

I'm thinking I've found one major solution to the stackhash error after a little searching. This not only affects Windows 7 users, but Vista users as well (which is what I have). I hadn't seen any mention so I am assuming this has not been done yet.

Please follow the directions to the link below and turn off DEP (Data Execution Protocol) for the Gametap application. No one can guarantee this will fix all your troubles, I would really suggest attempting this. Here is a post for the instructions, but I'll copy and paste them for ease:
1. Click the run button and open the Control Panel
2. Browse to the section of System Maintenance then to the System (or just open "My Computer" and open system properties)
3. At the left side, select Advanced System Settings link
4. In the System Properties Window the top section is named as Performance with the Settings button. Click this button.
5. Choose the Data Execution Prevention tab.
6. Select the option which reads Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select.
7. Use the Browse button to locate the executable file for the application you were trying to start when you received the StackHash error, and click Open to add it to your exceptions list.
8. Click Apply or OK to commit your changes.
http://www.flyaga.info/stackhash-error- ... -appcrash/ - for more info

The main Gametap exe to add should be the C:\Program Files (x86)\GameTap Player. Just add YBroker.exe to the list. If that doesn't work, I would also add the Sam and Max exe file (SamMax101.exe) and Zoo Tycoon (zt.exe) to the list to turn off this protocol for these games. You'll only need to know what directory your Gametap games are kept.

I use this myself by default, and will post a screenshot of my PC window of what the screen looks like to make the change for other have issues and want to try this as a troubleshooting step . It's been recommended by the staff years ago, but I haven't seen anyone recently mention it. I don't want to get your hopes up , but I am really hoping this will be the end of your troubles so you can start enjoying your games!

Please let me know what your results are as that's my only suggestion. Thanks.

Thanks for the awesome reply. I added the games' EXE files as well as the various Yummy programs to DEP. Unfortunately, it didn't work. (Unless I'm supposed to restart or something...)

Also, here's another weird thing that happens to me:

When I first enter game tap and the Yummy stuff starts up for the first time, about half the time, it freezes. I go to Task Manager and YProxAutLuncherMain is Not Responding. So, I end the process and then it restarts itself, starts the other Yummy thing, and then it works.

I reinstalled the Yummy stuff and it still does it. I didn't mention it because it really isn't a problem since I can get it unstuck so easily.

K, thanks for the info. Well I dug a little deeper and found a few suggestions but nothing concrete like you said. Some of them point to buffer overrun errors, bad memory, corrupt registry errors, and even bad sectors. But I'm not going to jump to any conclusions like that, as it seems it's defined to certain games. Still, even if that doesn't work I would leave the DEP off for those applications. You may need to do a restart when changing this, not sure.

Sounds like in step#4 you already tried a clean reboot of everything using msconfig.exe. That's was my last ditch suggestion but maybe someone else can find something I missed. I know subsider34 has been trying to help too, just wish I knew where else to look. It's very possible other games would cause this same issue, but I can't see how that would help in a resolution. You even tried the demo with no issues.. I'll try Sam and Max tonight and in the chance I get the same issue I'll let you know.

Anyone else out there have any thoughts of their own?

Edit:
Well, I only had to perform a partial download of Sam and Max and it seems to work, but I learned a few things when doing this. When starting the game, I get the launcher and when I select a game it runs the game in a windowed mode (only the first time run) asking for graphics and other options. I think this is important as most games don't do this. Does the demo do the same thing or just jump right into the game? I also just saw where the Yummy player crashes sometimes when logging in. That's highly abnormal in my opinion and could mean something. I'll wait to see what others think and I'll try out the other game and see if there's a pattern in the way it runs. I'd really like to see this resolved if possible and didn't think it would be an easy fix, but was hoping.

The Sam and Max Demo is full-screen and it goes right to the game. No settings choices or anything.

I swear I've played games here before that asked for settings first, and it worked, but I can't think of what they are.

I've tried some more games since I made my original post. Some work, some don't.

Working games:
1. The Eye of Odin
2. The Treasures of Montezuma 2

Non-Working Games:
1. Treasures of Montezuma
2. Farmscapes

Awesome, thanks for the results. For Sam and Max, I'll clarify a little bit. The options menu I saw wasn't your typical options menu, it was the game running minimized to a windowed mode, but all it was asking for was the graphics and sound options, which is a different than most games. I also tried all the games you mentioned. I'm curious, are you getting the same stackhash error for the nonworking games, or some other kind of error?
I'm also wondering if you've tried the new Zoo Tycoon 2. I lot of people run into the "Out of Memory" error, including me. It can be corrected, but that game can be of a pain.

I'm starting to think now that this could be a simpler problem. In the Windows compatibility thread you started in, you mentioned the DirectX page reports you have DirectX 11. I did quite a bit of research on this exact Stackhash error (20 pages of Google search results to be exact). A lot of them were unresolved. But some had corrected their issue a few ways (complete reformat was one), but one resolution jumped out at me. These games may just not be compatible with DirectX 11. I found a post on Gametap just out of coincidence, and it pointed to that being the issue - I think it was Ghostbusters.

In the other thread this was not recommended to do, but I suggest it in this case. I would go to your Gametap Yummy player files (the same ones you added to the DEP list), and go under the compatibility tab by right clicking and go to properties. Then just select "Run in compatibility mode" and choose Windows XP - SP3. Make sure also that "Run as an administrator" option is checked, just to be safe. If it's greyed out that's good also.

I'm hoping that you wouldn't have to go into the individual game directories and doing this step, but I'd suggest that as a secondary option. Another user just recently suggested a similar step for the new Zoo Tycoon 2, so this is certainly something that could help our dilemma. The error report on this thread points to the game's exe file. But I'm believing that the compatibility will carry over with the Yummy player files. There's also a few other graphics options that can be turned off for compatibility, but we can see what happens with just the Windows XP compatibility mode. You've done just about everything else at this point. I don't expect you to wipe your disk drive clean or anything like that to just play a few games. Kudos for all the great info you've provided (and for reading these lengthy posts).

I'll keep my fingers crossed till I hear back. If this route doesn't work is there really anything else left to try? Best of luck!

Thanks for the help!

The Zoo Tycoon 2 that I've been trying is the new one. The one with the expansions.

So, I just tried to change the compatibility for the Yummy programs. When I switch all three to XP SP3, and then go to "My Games," where it would normally start up, the website says "You need to update your player" as if I don't have the right software. Apparently changing compatibility makes GT think I don't have the most recent Yummy stuff.

So, to troubleshoot, I turned compatibility off of each one until I could get it to work. And then, it was only YBroker that still had it. The other two caused GT to want to update everything. And with only YBroker in Compat mode, it still didn't fix anything.

I forgot to mention in the first post that I had put Sam and Max EXE in compatibility mode, but it didn't help.

For the past two days, these non-working games, all of them, aren't giving the error message anymore. They're acting just like instance 1 that I said in the original post, except that I can't find the EXE files in processes anymore.

I forgot to mention: when all of this is going on, whether I get the error or the EXE is in processes or not, the green circle is still spinning. Yes, even when the EXE is in process. Which leads me to believe that the problem is happening with Yummy. And not the game. Though what do I know?

As for DirectX 11, isn't that with every copy of Windows 7? I'm pretty sure that's the case, and since I know for sure (from the Win 7 Compatibility thread) that Sam and Max should, in theory, work in Windows 7, I don't think DirectX 11 is the problem.


Ooooh, I hope someone can help me.

In the meantime, I downloaded Broken Sword Director's Cut. It worked, and is awesome.

Little question: do you also have DirectX 9 ? The 2 are complementary.

MetaRaka wrote: Little question: do you also have DirectX 9 ? The 2 are complementary.

Yes I do. I had tried the web installer that they link to in the Win7 compatibility thread, but it said I was up to date and didn't install anything. So I found a full, stand-alone version of directX 9 and installed that. It didn't help my problem.

Sounds like the error is at least resolved, that's great. Now if we can somehow fix the Green circle issue. I was looking at the compatibility mode to troubleshoot the Stackhash error anyways. You right, DirectX 10 or 11 is on all Windows Seven platforms, depending on what the video card can support.
But that won't cause a green circle issue, that's always some issue with the process running for Gametap.

It's just weird because I only get the problem with some of the games I try, not all...

What do these games even have in common?

Ugh...

Okay. I turned off UAC. That seemed to fix the Yummy hangup problem I was having, but it didn't fix any of the games.



I've been spending far too many hours trying to fix this.

I know exactly how you feel. I've spent way too much time on this part of the forum this past week on several different issues. I should have known better. I'm starting to get burnt out..
Still, we got two potential problems out of the way. Seriously, I'd take a little break from it as I am for a few days. After a break, maybe you could try to delete a game - including "saved data" and redownload. We've done a lot to this point so I wouldn't be surprised if one of them worked now. For Sam and Max, I did find specific directions for it that's suppose to make the game work for Windows 64 bit, but I'll get to that later. We've just about exhausted all possibilities that you can try for the general issue. (tried everything in the never ending green circle thread without success). You can PM me if you find out anything till then.

See you later..

Well, I decided to uninstall/reinstall Zoo Tycoon 2 Zookeeper.

First, uninstalled from the GameTap My Games list. Then I looked in the Games folder just to make sure there weren't any remnants. Then I used the registry cleaner in Ccleaner just in case. Then I reinstalled the game.

It didn't fix the problem.

Thanks a lot for trying and specifying all the steps taken. I appreciate it!

Ok, I see one more viable option I don't think we've tried yet. It's the fix I mentioned before. It's recommended for Windows 64 bit operating system only, and it has some promise. I've been looking at these directions for a while, and it really does seem the best option left. It's recommended for the games mentioned in the post below, no reason it couldn't apply this to any of the games that don't start (green circle). But if this fails to work, it would almost have to be a fault in the player we can't correct ourselves. I really hopes this helps for you and others having the same problem, at least for a short term option until the new player arrives (April or May according to my signature).

I'll just post via the link, as it's already posted (from Metaboli's site):
http://www.metaboli.co.uk/forum/fix-for ... 60448.html

You should only need to do this for games affected by the Green circle issue on the main game's exe file, which should be in the C:\Gametap\Games directory. Again, we really don't have any guarantees here, but it's at least worth a shot since it's not complicated and could really help us. Thanks so much for all the time you've put into this with me, no matter what happens.

Good luck!

Thanks, c_eddy. Unfortunately, this didn't work at all. Here's what happened:

I downloaded the software from the Metaboli forum. Once installed, I right-clicked on the Sam and Max episode 1 EXE and chose the software as detailed on that thread. Well, in that thread, they say to go to the .NET folder within CFF Explorer, but there is none on mine (as you can see from the attached picture, taken from Zoo Tycoon). It wasn't in any of the games I tried this for.

The closest thing I could find that followed those directions was in the File Header document. I click on link in the Characteristics heading, theres a checkbox for "32 bit word machine." Well, that's kind of like what needed to be unchecked in that other thread, so I tried it.

It didn't fix the problem.

Now, as for the .NET folder not being there, I have no idea why. I double-checked and I definitely have .NET framework 4 installed. And, on that Metaboli forum thread you linked me to, it seems that someone else had the exact same situation as me. But no one ever replied to him.

So, I have no idea.

ETA: I also tried this on Sam and Max Season 2, since that thread said this fix should definitely work with that game. It didn't. There still wasn't a .NET folder.

Okay, I was doing it wrong, at least where Sam and Max is concerned. I didn't see on the Metaboli thread that you're supposed to do it to the launcher, and not the episodes. So I opened up the launcher (for season 1 and 2) in the CFF Explorer and this time it DID have the .NET Directory. Even so, when I followed the directions in that thread, it still didn't solve the problem.

Also, I still couldn't find the .NET Directory in other games' main EXE files, including Zoo Tycoon 2 Zookeeper and Farmscapes.