3.3.0 crash on startup

[Chud]

I have a rather strange crash (-ish) behavior that may be a result of something I'm doing, but I'm not sure.

Twice now I've gotten into a state where Angband will not start. This is the main 3.3.0 vanilla release, and when the problem happens, it never gives me the opening splash screen; I immediately get the oh-so-helpful Windows report "angband.exe has stopped working ...".

I have Angband unpacked into a folder on Dropbox, so I can play the same game from home and from work (ssh...). In both cases, I've had the problem happen on my home machine after having played on my work machine, but being careful so save and close the previous session - I know it's not still running on the other machine.

The first time this happened I unpacked the distribution again into a new folder tree and copied my save file over (not the pref file, since I forget where that lives at the time). After that it ran again. The second time I have not yet taken any steps to fix it, and it reliably fails to start. (From home - I don't know if it will start on the work machine, where it last ran correctly; I will test shortly.)

What other info would be helpful for me to provide here?

Both machines are Windows 7 fairly current on patches, both SP1 I believe, both somewhat older hardware (one a Gateway, one an older Dell).

Thanks!

[Chud]

Just tested the work machine, via remote desktop - it no longer starts from there either, same error.

[Magnate]

This is tricky. No-one else has reported this type of crash on startup in 3.3.0, so that immediately points to Dropbox as having something to do with it. But the error message is content-free so we have no idea what the problem is. Please try this:

1. Install 3.3.0 on the C: drive at home, start a new character. Exit and email the savefile to yourself at work.

2. Install 3.3.0 on the C: drive at work, and try and load the savefile you emailed. If it works, exit and email it back home, and confirm that you can re-load it at home.

This should rule out any issues with the hardware, leaving only dropbox.

[fizzix]

I have no experience with Windows 7. However I have often noticed strange behavior on Windows XP. Magnate's suggestions are good though
and should be tried first.

Usually, odd XP behavior is resolved by one of two options.

1. Making clean and recompiling (I have to make clean manually because the command in the makefile doesn't work. However, it didn't sound like you're compiling.)

2. Rebooting windows. Oddly this has fixed many start-time crash bugs.

Could it be that there was some data-loss in dropbox?

[ehertlein]

Try deleting the angband.ini file.

Usually when I see this its because I am using something to synch the files over multiple machines with different screen resolutions. If the windows are beyond the screen resolution I have noticed a crash.

[Chud]

Will try these and let you know. It's interesting though that when it quits it does so well before trying to load any save or pref files; it doesn't even open the initial window.

It's certainly possible that Dropbox is introducing some data loss or corruption, though if that's the case that's a *big* problem for them, since it largely invalidates their whole reason for being. Things in Dropbox do run from the local disk; it works (as far as I can tell) essentially by allocating a folder for your shared content and then doing rsyncs among all the machines that play. There's probably a little more to it, but that's essentially it.

[ehertlein]

Will try these and let you know. It's interesting though that when it quits it does so well before trying to load any save or pref files; it doesn't even open the initial window.

This makes sense to me as it tries to open the main window and all the term windows before you open a save file.

I have been playing over Dropbox for ages with no issues. The only problem I have had is that I have 2 different .ini files. One for one machine and one for the other.

I have a batch file that copies the correct batch file into place before starting angband.exe.