[NON-ISSUE]Display Change Failed (Category: Misc)

[iconmember]

Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU E2160 @ 1.80GHz (2 CPUs), ~1.8GHz
2038MB RAM
Intel(R) 82945G Express Chipset Family
Windows Vista Home Premium (6.0, Build 6002)

When I click on the icon to start the game, an error message appears. The window heading is Display Change Failed, the message is Hardward failed to switch to the specified game mode.

I had a similar problem when I first downloaded Episodes 1-3. All I had to do was edit configuration, put the detail level on custom, and uncheck all the detail boxes. I also had to either switch from or to fullscreen mode, I honestly cannot recall. However, now that I have added the episode 4 patch, it doesn't work in or out of fullscreen mode. Please help =)

[wilco64256]

Try also visiting your computer manufacturer's website and see if they have any new video drivers for your computer - and in addition to unchecking the Fullscreen mode box you'll want to change the resolution option to 800x600 and uncheck all the boxes for extra stuff like reflections and shadows.  That may help to get it working again.

[iconmember]

I went to my computer manufacturer's website and my video driver is up to date. I changed my resolution to 800x600 and unchecked all the detail boxes. Still a no go, but the opening credit music is playing as if the program is running, and when I hit ctrl-alt-del and go to task manager it says no program is running, even though the music is playing! I have to restart my computer in order for the music to stop. Next I deleted TSL completely from my computer and tried installing the full version of the game as opposed to just adding on the episode 4 patch. I'm still coming up with the same problems. I don't understand what is wrong, Episodes 1-3 played fine for me once I switched the screen mode!

[wilco64256]

How much video memory does that computer actually have?

[iconmember]

256 MB

[wilco64256]

Try hitting up http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com too and see if they have any actual Windows updates for your system.  You do meet the minimum requirements to run TSL, so it seems something else on your system just isn't being cooperative in getting the game started up.  Let me know if any of those updates help.

[iconmember]

Windows Update was run and everything is updated, inlcuding my adobe flash player, etc... But it still isn't working! This sucks because episodes 1-3 were great and I was looking forward to episode 4. So I guess at this point I'm just going wait for a patch to be released addressing problems that hopefully are the ones I am unable to identify. Is there a mailing list for patch releases, or will that info be announced on the general mailing list?

[wilco64256]

Try running the game just using a regular command prompt.  Go to the directory where it's installed and type "tsl.exe -log 2" (without the quotes) to run the game.  After doing that when it hangs up look in the install directory for a console file with the date and time.  Attach that file to a reply here.

[iconmember]

Followed the instructions, got the same result with no console file. Did I get the cmd right?

C:\Program Files\Phoenix Online\The Silver Lining>dir
Volume in drive C is COMPAQ
Volume Serial Number is 1A73-DCC4

Directory of C:\Program Files\Phoenix Online\The Silver Lining

11/15/2011  09:43 PM    <DIR>          .
11/15/2011  09:43 PM    <DIR>          ..
11/06/2011  08:52 AM         6,172,536 Four Winds Issue 1.pdf
11/06/2011  08:52 AM         9,337,088 Four Winds Issue 2.pdf
11/06/2011  08:52 AM            11,112 Four Winds Issue 3.pdf
11/06/2011  08:52 AM            11,112 Four Winds Issue 4.pdf
11/15/2011  09:48 PM    <DIR>          game
07/20/2011  04:55 PM             7,077 main.cs
11/06/2011  08:52 AM         2,759,291 Manual.pdf
07/20/2011  04:55 PM            86,016 OpenAL32.dll
11/06/2011  08:52 AM                47 The Silver Lining Website.url
11/05/2011  12:04 PM         3,734,016 tsl.exe
09/26/2011  03:18 PM         1,305,600 TSLConfig.exe
07/20/2011  04:55 PM           262,144 wrap_oal.dll
              11 File(s)     23,686,039 bytes
               3 Dir(s)  226,611,130,368 bytes free

C:\Program Files\Phoenix Online\The Silver Lining>tsl.exe -log 2

<<<<<< At this point I got the same dialog box (twice) "Hardware failed to switch to specified mode"
<<<<<< then went looking for the console file

C:\Program Files\Phoenix Online\The Silver Lining>dir
Volume in drive C is COMPAQ
Volume Serial Number is 1A73-DCC4

Directory of C:\Program Files\Phoenix Online\The Silver Lining

11/15/2011  09:43 PM    <DIR>          .
11/15/2011  09:43 PM    <DIR>          ..
11/06/2011  08:52 AM         6,172,536 Four Winds Issue 1.pdf
11/06/2011  08:52 AM         9,337,088 Four Winds Issue 2.pdf
11/06/2011  08:52 AM            11,112 Four Winds Issue 3.pdf
11/06/2011  08:52 AM            11,112 Four Winds Issue 4.pdf
11/15/2011  09:48 PM    <DIR>          game
07/20/2011  04:55 PM             7,077 main.cs
11/06/2011  08:52 AM         2,759,291 Manual.pdf
07/20/2011  04:55 PM            86,016 OpenAL32.dll
11/06/2011  08:52 AM                47 The Silver Lining Website.url
11/05/2011  12:04 PM         3,734,016 tsl.exe
09/26/2011  03:18 PM         1,305,600 TSLConfig.exe
07/20/2011  04:55 PM           262,144 wrap_oal.dll
              11 File(s)     23,686,039 bytes
               3 Dir(s)  226,610,597,888 bytes free

<<<<< did not see one. Any ideas?

[snabbott]

It sounds like the game is exiting before it ever gets a chance to create the log file.

[DawsonJ]

Seeing as how that's a Vista machine, you may want to uninstall the game, reinstall the full (1.7gb file) into C:\TSL\, and install the Win7 patch (which likely applies to Vista, too - though Wilco can clarify that). Then, if Vista allows it, right-click on the icon for The Silver Lining and choose "Troubleshoot Compatibility" (I know Win7 has it, and I think Vista does, too). If it's not available, then go to Properties (for the icon) and manually set Compatibility settings.

That will alleviate some future issues (such as game saves), before you change the settings and get it working, just to find out that it can't restore saved games. I did that when my Win7 was having other problems, to simplify my struggle.

[wilco64256]

Yeah try changing the compatibility mode to run the game as if you were in Windows XP Service Pack 2.  See if that helps at all.

[iconmember]

Downloaded the Windows 7 patch, no luck, still same problem =(

[snabbott]

The other suggestion I've seen is to change your display resolution (though to what I'm not sure). I don't know if it would help, though. Also, have you opened the configuration again after changing the settings to make sure they "stuck"? If you didn't run the configuration utility as an administrator, they might not have. (Pretty much grasping at straws here... )

[wilco64256]

If you use the Windows "Run" option and run a program called DXDIAG through that box, take a look at the Display tab.  Does it say anywhere on there under the card name or driver information anything about Microsoft?  Everything on that page should be attributed to Intel.

[turnandburn]

Having this exact same problem... following this thread with interest! I'm also running Vista and meeting/exceeding minimum requirements and have tried all these fixes to no avail!

[iconmember]

Wilco- Does not change anything if I change the compatibility mode to windows service pack 2 as if it is windows xp.
Snabbott- Success!... kind of   Ok so I changed my display settings on windows to 800x600 to match the settings I have for the game config of 800x600 and voila! It works and lets me start to play Episode 4. I get through the opening movie where Rosella is confronted by the wizard in front of Pandora's Box, and then the title screen comes up, and then the game crashes   So I went ahead and deleted the windows 7 patch to see if that was why it crashed, and it still crashed after the opening movie. I recorded the error report after each attempt (with and without the win 7 patch) and the report was the same, so I did not reinstall the patch, as I have Vista not 7. Here is the error report for my new problem with the game:
Problem signature:
 Problem Event Name:   APPCRASH
 Application Name:   tsl.exe
 Application Version:   0.0.0.0
 Application Timestamp:   4eb585d7
 Fault Module Name:   ig4dev32.dll
 Fault Module Version:   7.14.10.1461
 Fault Module Timestamp:   47e9296a
 Exception Code:   c0000005
 Exception Offset:   0001c093
 OS Version:   6.0.6002.2.2.0.768.3
 Locale ID:   1033
 Additional Information 1:   fd00
 Additional Information 2:   ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160
 Additional Information 3:   fd00
 Additional Information 4:   ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160

[snabbott]

From what I'm reading, it sounds like a compatibility problem between Intel drivers and OpenGL.

[wilco64256]

If you currently have the very most current video drivers from your computer manufacturer's website and it's crashing they may have an actual OpenGL bug keeping it from running.  Many drivers sites have an "archives" section where you can find older graphics drivers - maybe try looking for that for your computer and try an older graphics driver from around 6 months ago or thereabouts.

[DawsonJ]

I had the same problem. That's when I did what I mentioned above, PLUS I went to WWW.AMD.COM (since I have an ATI video card) and went to the site menu: Support & Drivers>Find a Driver>Driver Autodetect and got the newest video drivers. Then, after reading a post on the forum about the Spell Ingredients Scroll, I learned that the scroll is populated by Adobe Flash, so I went to WWW.ADOBE.COM and got the newest player. Then, voilá! Success. I hope that helps you.

Edit: AMD.COM, not AND.COM