EDIT: There is a beta driver for NVidia graphics cards that seems to resolve this issue.
https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/305908I'm running a high-end system with Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit. Most of the time Sins runs great, I run into random crashes while in the menu system, but once I get into a game I have no problems. However, if I try to load a save game, around 5 minutes after loading the game will crash. Every single time. I haven't had the chance to beat a game yet because I don't have enough contiguous time to play all the way through.
I'd love to post the exception details, but all the message said was that an "unhandled Win32 exception has occurred." I tried using Visual Studio 2008 to debug since the window had a debug option but VS said it couldn't debug Sins.
Here are my system details, taken from DXDIAG, probably too much information but I'd like to be as helpful as possible. (I wish I could just post the DXDIAG save file)
System:
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate (6.0, Build 6001) [Service Pack 1]
System Manufacturer: NVIDIA
System Model: 122-CK-NF68
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBios v6.00PG
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E6850 @ 3.00GHz (2 CPUs), ~3.0GHz
Memory: 2814MB RAM (grr, need 64-bit Windows)
DirectX Version: DirectX 10
Display:
Name: NVidia GeForce 8800 GTS
Approx. Total Memory: 1755 MB
Main Driver: nvd3dum.dll, nvwgf2um.dll
Version: 7.15.0011.6222 (English)
Date: 7/6/2007
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
DDI Version: 10
DirectDraw Acceleration, Direct3D Acceleration, and AGP Texture Acceleration are all enabled.
Sound:
Driver: HdAudio.sys
Version: 6.00.5840.16387
Date: 11/2/2006
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
Provider: Microsoft.
I found the post "Solution for Vista crashes" at
https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/176162, but after reading that I remembered that I installed that patch a long time ago trying to solve Supreme Commander crashes (helped slightly), so that's not the issue here.
I wish I had more details to give about the exception, but it was unhandled and apparently not inside a try-catch so no exception details were printed.
As a programmer, my guess is something isn't being saved properly or not saved at all, and when Sins tries to access whatever it is after loading, it's not there, so the program blows up. Just a guess.
