sudden error message

[AZ Lynx]

Having sudden difficulty with distribfold. The error below started up a couple of days ago and now I cannot run distribfold at all. I can't find any problems with the RAM myself. Windows is sensing it just fine. I don't have time to take it in to a computer shop until maybe Saturday, Nov. 15. Any other suggestions? Anyone else having this problem since the last program update?

Mon Nov 10 09:23:40 2003 FATAL ERROR: [023.024] {trajtools.c, line 2551} RLEUnPack failed, size=3, should=400*400 - likely this is caused by overclocked or faulty RAM chips, please test your RAM

[Brian the Fist]

Can you describe you system in a bit more detail, and if you are running the screensaver, service or 'standard' text client?

[AZ Lynx]

Sorry for my failure to specify my system.

OS: WinXP
Mobo: Jetway V266b @ 100MHz FSB
Proc: Athlon 2000xp @1250MHz
DRAM: PC-133, 256 MB x 2 dimms also @ 100MHz
HDD0: WD 80 GB
HDD1: Seagate 20 GB

occurrence: Saturday, Nov. 8, I was running the latest updated text client (not the downloaded zip file) with dfGUI v 3.2. using switches -rt -qt -i f. I started the client uploading then started playing Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast. Sometime during the game, after it finished uploading, the client quit running giving the error specified in my first post.

steps taken: I took out the RAM chips one at a time and let the system POST up to see if the BIOS or windows found any problems. They don't. I also downloaded the latest complete text client from the DF home site, installed it over the old and tried to run it. Same error. Just now, I opened a different folder in which I have the previous version of foldtrajlite (dated Thursday, October 02, 2003, 5:17:34 PM), including the previous protein. That version ran. I wonder if the new version somehow got corrupted....

I'm going to try a clean install in my main DF directory.

I don't have time this week to go to a real computer shop until Saturday. However, I don't want to lose 7 days of work.

Let me know if there's anything else you need to know. Thanks.

[bwkaz]

Originally posted by AZ Lynx
steps taken: I took out the RAM chips one at a time and let the system POST up to see if the BIOS or windows found any problems. They don't.

FYI: that doesn't necessarily mean anything. There are a whole multitude of RAM problems that will pass a POST but will still cause issues when programs try to use that bit (or set of bits) in memory. Windows also does almost no checking of RAM other than "OK, the BIOS says it exists, let's use it!".

www.memtest86.com provides a very thorough RAM checker that usually catches most of the latter type of error (the one that BIOS checks don't catch). If you have access to a CD burner and a CD-R disc, grab the ISO of version 3.0, and burn it to a CD. (Burn it as an image, though, don't just copy the .iso file to the CD. In older versions of Adaptec, this was labeled "Create CD From CD Image" in the menus; most Windows burning software should have a similar menu item or option somewhere.)

Boot to that CD and the test ought to start automatically (IIRC that is). There are instructions on how to use the program at the site.

I'm not even sure it'll find anything (the "size=3, should be 400*400" piece of that error sounds familiar), but it's worth a shot. Let it run overnight for the most thorough testing.

[tpdooley]

As added proof that the post tests are little more than a test to see if some kind of ram exists at a certain address (does something respond at 64,525? Yes? okay.. it's good.) I got a system today that kept freezing up in the middle of games after a few minutes. The 128 Megs he had passed the bios test with no problem. But a few minutes running heavy cpu usage programs in WinXP and the system would freeze up. Replace the ram, and the problem disappeared.
Running memtest86 will help identify ram problems. Paratima's suggestion of running it off a cd rules out operating system/hardware driver corruption. Power supply problems can also cause problems - (low quality P/S or a 300 watt p/s trying to handle a load that requires a 350+ watt P/S or your power company had a brief brownout that only affected DF are possibilities). During a brownout in '89, I had a customer's wordperfect document filled with 1000+ formatting codes.

Good luck..

[AZ Lynx]

After doing a clean install of the latest text client and starting over again at gen 0, everything is working fine.

So, my latest theory is that somehow the trajectory file for generation 196 got corrupted after the upload of the previous generation occurred.

Yes, I still plan to get my RAM tested at a local computer store. They have the equipment. Thank you to BWKAZ for the link for the RAM testing program.