Star Trek Armada II: Support

TREKCORE > GAMING > ARMADA II > Support

 Install the patch!  It may fix the problem you're having.  Download it here.  Any problems that are fixed by the patch are not addressed in this page.

Information on this pages comes from the Help files that came with the game as well as Activision's technical support pages.  If you cannot find help on this page, you may want to visit the FAQ, as it has answers to non-technical questions related to the game.

1. What's the 1.1 Patch all about?
2. What are the system requirements?
3. The game is randomly crashing to the desktop.
4. Will this game work on Windows XP?
5. When I am playing the game the screen turns white.
6. When I run the game I get the following Error message: No compatible Direct 3D Hardware accelerator detected.
7. The game will sometimes freeze while I am playing.
8. When I play the game I get a MSVCRT.DLL error.
9. When launching the game, I get a Fatal Error in Direct 3D.

1. What's the 1.1 Patch all about?

To upgrade your version of Armada II, simply download the StarTrekArmada2Patch.exe (12.7 MB) and double-click it.

Notes:
The upgrade will work for the Microsoft Windows 95/98/2000/ME versions of Armada II (US, UK, and German). Saved games from Version 1.0 of Armada II will not work with Version 1.1.

New Changes:

  • Adjusted the power of Borg Cubes for better balance
  • Health bars of ships in the ship display now display the color of the ship's shields: green for full health, red for almost depleted and blue for no shields.
  • Added a metal cost to creating a fusion cube. It will now cost 750 metal to form the fusion cube. It will cost 1500 metal to form the Tactical Fusion cube.
  • Increased max zoom-out in strategic view from 1500 to 2200.
  • Added 'F' as hotkey to bring up Formations menu.
  • Added a left-click interface mode. Left click will give orders and select, while right click will be to deselect.
  • Species 8472 fleets using the bio-pulse conduit now share damage (e.g. 50 points of damage to one ship gets dealt out as 10 points to each of 5 ships in the fleet) when the frigate is targeted

Multiplayer/Instant Action Enhancements:

  • Improved the game's Artificial Intelligence with numerous tweaks.
  • Added an option to disallow map downloads, or only download after asking.
  • Minimaps will display immediately after map download.
  • You can recrew a station while life support is down.
  • To save a multiplayer game, press CTRL+S. To load a saved game, you can choose it from the map selection screen in multiplayer.
  • Added a slider for ship (not station) build times.
  • Added a slider for global unit cost.
  • Added a slider for map depth.
  • Added a Slower Physics button. This will cause larger ships to turn and accelerate more slowly, more in line with the physics of ships seen in Star Trek shows and movies. This will affect Federation, Cardassian, Romulan, and Klingon vessels.
  • Per fan requests, added an "Early Upgrade" techtree, which allows the ship upgrade facility to be built immediately after the first research facility is built.

New Fixes:

  • Eliminate the warp jumpiness of the AI.
  • Your own ships will not attack your fleet.
  • Fixed fireball explosions.
  • Fixed Radeon 8500 performance issue by disabling vertex buffer flushing for Radeon.
  • Optimizations for path planning system.

For a complete list of changes, please see the Armada II 1.1 Patch Readme at the end of the patch installation. The readme will be available in the root directory of the Armada II folder after installation.
   

2. What are the system requirements?

The system requirements are:

  • Pentium® II 300 MHz or Athlon® processor or higher
  • Windows® 95/98/2000/ME operating system
  • 64 MB of RAM
  • Quad-speed CD-ROM (600 K/sec sustained transfer rate) and drivers
  • 1.3 GB of uncompressed free hard drive space plus 100 MB for the Windows swap file
  • A 100% Windows 95/98/2000/ME-compatible computer system including:

DirectX 8.0a (included)
100% DirectX 8.0a-compatible true 16 bit sound card and drivers
100% DirectX 8.0a-compliant 8 MB video card and drivers*
100% Windows 95/98/2000/ME-compatible mouse and drivers
100% Windows 95/98/2000/ME-compatible keyboard

*3D Accelerator Card Required
A 100% DirectX 8.0a or higher compliant 8 MB or higher 3D video card and driver are required to play Star Trek: Armada II. Some 3D accelerator card brands may not be compatible with the 3D acceleration features utilized by Star Trek: Armada II. Please check with the card's manufacturer to ensure DirectX 8.0a compatibility.

Important Note:
This product uses DirectX 8.0a technology, which requires your system to have the latest Windows 95/98/ME/2000 drivers (for CD-ROM, video card, sound card and input devices) that fully support DirectX 8.0a.

Supported Chipsets for Windows® 95/98**
  3dfx Voodoo 3, 4, and 5
  Matrox G550
  Kyro I and II
  Trident Blade XP
  nVidia Riva TNT, TNT2, and TNT2 Ultra
  All nVidia GeForce Chips
  ATI® Radeon

**Some but not all of the cards with the chipsets listed above have been tested on Windows® 2000, ME and XP. For Windows® 2000, ME and XP 3-D support, please refer to your hardware manufacturer for 100% DirectX 8.0a compliant drivers.

Required for Multiplayer Mode:

  • Pentium® II 450 MHz or Athlon® processor or higher
  • 128 MB of RAM
  • Internet play requires a 100% Windows 95/98/2000/ME-compatible 28.8 Kbps (or faster) modem and drivers
  • LAN play (and high-speed internet play over DSL and cable modems) requires a 100% Windows 95/98/2000/ME-compatible network interface card and drivers.

3. The game is randomly crashing to the desktop.

  • Make sure you have the latest video and sound card drivers from the manufacturers' websites.
  • Make sure the 3D hardware acceleration is turned all the way up:

    For Windows 98:
        1) Right-click on the My Computer icon on the desktop and select Properties.
        2) Select the Performance tab and click the Graphics button.
        3) Make sure the acceleration slider is set to Full. 

    For Windows XP and 2000:
        1) Click on the Start button > Settings > Control Panel.
        2) Double-click the Display icon.
        3) Click the Settings tab.
        4) Click the Advanced button.
        5) Click the Troubleshoot tab.
        6) Make sure the acceleration slider is set to Full.

  • Set your desktop settings to 640 by 480 and High Color (16 bit).
  • All background applications must be shutdown prior to running the game.
  • Change the DMA setting on the CD-ROM drive.
  • Try changing the Asynchronous Cursor setting. If it is on, set it to off; if off, turn it on. This can be found in the Graphics Options of the game.
    •
  • This game should work fine as long as you have a supported video card, sound card, and drivers. Also make sure that you have all of the latest updates for Windows XP from Microsoft. Go to the Windows Updater and make sure that you have all of the updates installed.
4. Will this game work on Windows XP?

Users with the Philips Harmonic Edge sound card may experience static noise thoughout the cinematics and gameplay. In order to eliminate this, set your sound card's hardware acceleration down to Basic. To do this, from the Start Menu, select Run, then type in dxdiag. Go to the Sound tab, and change your acceleration to Basic Acceleration on the slider.

Although this product is designed for use with Microsoft Windows 98 and above, Activision cannot guarantee its compatibility with Windows XP. This product has not been thoroughly tested and certified with the new Microsoft Operating System.
   

5. When I am playing the game the screen turns white.

  • A white screen in the middle of game play is usually caused when a video card does not have DirectX 8.0 compliant drivers or on a system that does not meet the minimum system requirements.
  • Please check to make sure your computer has a supported video chipset as listed in the minimum system requirements.
  • Try changing the Asynchronous Cursor setting. If it is on, set it to off; if off, turn it on. This can be found in the Graphics Options of the game.
  • Set your desktop settings to 640 by 480 and High Color (16 bit).
  • Change your monitor refresh rate to Adapter default.
      1) Right-click on the desktop and select Properties.
      2) Click the Settings tab and click the Advanced button.
      3) Select the Adapter tab and change the Refresh rate to Adapter default.
      4) Click the Apply button and then OK until you are back to the desktop.
      5) If you are asked to restart the computer then do so.
  • Make sure the 3D hardware acceleration is turned all the way up:

    For Windows 98:
        1) Right-click on the My Computer icon on the desktop and select Properties.
        2) Select the Performance tab and click the Graphics button.
        3) Make sure the acceleration slider is set to Full. 

    For Windows XP and 2000:
        1) Click on the Start button > Settings > Control Panel.
        2) Double-click the Display icon.
        3) Click the Settings tab.
        4) Click the Advanced button.
        5) Click the Troubleshoot tab.
        6) Make sure the acceleration slider is set to Full.

  • NOTE: The following is an unsupported work-around:
    When the white screen appears try:
      1) Pressing the Esc key on your keyboard.
      2) Enter the Options Menu.
      3) Increase or decrease the Graphics Detail level by one step.

6. When I run the game I get the following Error message: No compatible Direct 3D Hardware accelerator detected.

This error message will appear on systems that are not running the correct version of DirectX, have out dated drivers or the hardware acceleration level for the video card has been set too low.

  • Make sure your system meets the minimum system requirements of the game.
  • Install DirectX 8.0 from the game CD.
      1) If the game CD is in the CD-ROM drive open My Computer on the desktop and right-mouse click on the CD-ROM drive.
      2) Select the option to "Install DirectX".
      3) Follow the instructions and allow the program to re-start your system if necessary.
  • Make sure you have the latest video and sound card drivers from the manufacturers' websites.
  • Make sure the 3D hardware acceleration is turned all the way up:

    For Windows 98:
        1) Right-click on the My Computer icon on the desktop and select Properties.
        2) Select the Performance tab and click the Graphics button.
        3) Make sure the acceleration slider is set to Full. 

    For Windows XP and 2000:
        1) Click on the Start button > Settings > Control Panel.
        2) Double-click the Display icon.
        3) Click the Settings tab.
        4) Click the Advanced button.
        5) Click the Troubleshoot tab.
        6) Make sure the acceleration slider is set to Full.

7. The game will sometimes freeze while I am playing.

  • Set your desktop settings to 640 by 480 and High Color (16 bit).
  • All background applications must be shutdown prior to running the game.
  • Make sure the 3D hardware acceleration is turned all the way up:

    For Windows 98:
        1) Right-click on the My Computer icon on the desktop and select Properties.
        2) Select the Performance tab and click the Graphics button.
        3) Make sure the acceleration slider is set to Full. 

    For Windows XP and 2000:
        1) Click on the Start button > Settings > Control Panel.
        2) Double-click the Display icon.
        3) Click the Settings tab.
        4) Click the Advanced button.
        5) Click the Troubleshoot tab.
        6) Make sure the acceleration slider is set to Full.
8. When I play the game I get a MSVCRT.DLL error.
  • Turn off the Hardware Acceleration in the Sound Options for the game.
  • Some customers have reported that ending task on devldr16 has resolved this problem for them. If the above steps did not help then you will want to press Ctrl-Alt-Delete keys on your keyboard and End Task on devldr16 in the Task Manager prior to running the game.
  • If the MSVCRT.DLL file has become corrupt, you will need to manually copy the file from the game CD to the Armada 2 directory on your hard drive.
      1) Insert the Armada 2 CD into your CD-ROM drive.
      2) Close the Splash screen for Armada 2.
      3) Double-click the My Computer icon.
      4) Right-click on the CD-ROM drive that has Armada 2 CD in it.
      5) Select Find.
      6) Type in MSVCRT.DLL in the Named section.
      7) Press the Enter key. This should find the file MSVCRT.DLL on the CD-ROM drive.
      8) Right-click on the file that was found.
      9) Select Copy.
      10) Go to the directory on your hard drive where you installed Star Trek Armada 2 (i.e. c:\Program Files\Star Trek Armada 2) and Paste the file into the game directory*.
      11) Restart your computer and run the game.

*If you can't replace the file because it's being used by Windows, then you will need to copy the file from the CD to the hard drive (root of C) and then restart the system in DOS mode (only available in Windows 9x). Once the file has been copied from the CD and the system rebooted in DOS mode, you need to type in this command:

COPY C:\Msvcrt.dll c:\Program Files\Star Trek Armada 2

Then press the Enter key. DOS will ask if you want to replace the file, select yes; it should say 1 file/s copied.

When you are done you will need to delete the file from the root of the hard drive. To do this, enter the following command:

DEL MSVCRT.dll

Also, if you cannot see the file, make sure that "Show All Files" is turned on. To do this, go to View > Options > View Tab > Show All Files. If this is not turned on, you may not be able to see this .dll file.

Try restoring the original system file to the Windows directory. NOTE: This fix will NOT work on Windows NT, 2000, or XP.

If the above has not fixed the problem, try the following:

Windows Millennium Edition (ME):
1) Click Start, and then click Run.
2) In the Open box, type Msconfig, and then click OK.
3) In System Configuration Utility, on the General tab, click Extract File.
4) In the Specify the system file you would like to restore box, type Msvcrt.dll, and then click Start.
5) In the Restore from box, browse to the location of your Windows Millennium Edition (Me) CD.

NOTE: If you have an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) installation of Windows Me, the Windows installation files may be stored in C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\INSTALL 6) In the Save file in box, type C:\, and then click OK. You receive the following message:

Extract File

The destination folder c:\ does not exist. Do you want to create it? Click Yes, and then click OK.

7) Repeat steps 3 through 6, but substitute Msvcirt.dll for Msvcrt.dll.
8) Insert your Windows Me Startup disk, restart the computer, and then select Minimal Boot on the Microsoft Windows Millennium Startup Menu that appears.
9) At the command prompt, type Rename C:\Windows\System\Msvcrt.dll Msvcrt.old, and then press ENTER.
10) Type Rename C:\Windows\System\Msvcirt.dll Msvcirt.old, and then press ENTER.
11) Type Copy C:\Msvcrt.dll C:\Windows\System, and then press ENTER.
12) Type Copy C:\Msvcirt.dll C:\Windows\System, and then press ENTER.
13) Remove the Windows Me Startup disk, and then restart the computer.

For Windows 9x:
1) Click Start, and then click Run.
2) In the Open box, type SFC, and then click OK.
3) In the System File Checker dialog box that appears, click Extract one file from installation disk.
4) In the Specify the system file you would like to restore box, type Msvcrt.dll, and then click Start.
5) In the Restore from box, browse to your Windows 98 installation CD.

NOTE : If you have an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) installation of Windows 98, the Windows installation files may be stored in C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS

6) In the Save file in box, type C:\, and then click OK. You receive the following message:

Extract File

The destination folder c:\ does not exist. Do you want to create it? Click Yes, and then click OK.

7) Repeat steps 3 through 6 but substitute Msvcirt.dll for Msvcrt.dll.
8) Quit System File Checker, and then restart the computer in MS-DOS mode.
9) At the command prompt, type Rename C:\Windows\System\Msvcrt.dll Msvcrt.old, and then press ENTER.
10) Type Rename C:\Windows\System\Msvcirt.dll Msvcirt.old, and then press ENTER.
11) Type Copy C:\Msvcrt.dll C:\Windows\System, and then press ENTER.
12) Type Copy C:\Msvcirt.dll C:\Windows\System, and then press ENTER.
13) Restart the computer. 

9. When launching the game, I get a Fatal Error in Direct 3D.

  • Make sure your system meets the minimum system requirements of the game.
  • Make sure you have the latest video card driver from the manufacturer's website.
  • Make sure the 3D hardware acceleration is turned all the way up.
      1) Right-click on the My Computer icon on the desktop and select Properties.
      2) Select the Performance tab and click the Graphics button.
      3) Make sure the acceleration slider is set to Full.
  • Make sure that Direct 3D is enabled.
      1) Click on the Start button > Run and type in dxdiag.
      2) Click the OK button.
      3) In the DirectX Diagnostic Tool, select the Display tab.
      4) At the bottom make sure that DirectDraw Acceleration and Direct3D Acceleration are enabled.
  • Reinstall DirectX from the game CD by running DXSETUP.EXE.