Iamgrim

SpaceChem crash on start-up

I recently purchased the “Humble Frozen Synapse Bundle”, in order to play the wonderful SpaceChem. Unfortunately it proved unnecessarily difficult to get to run on my Windows 7 laptop, because of — well, basically because of Toshiba and Intel. It was sufficiently annoying to fix that I felt the steps I took to remedy the problem may be of interest to other people in a similar situation.

My machine: Toshiba Satellite C660-21Q with an Intel P6100 i3 processor: a low-end laptop, recently bought new. Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit.

The problem: Game crashes on start-up. A window opens, but immediately closes; the Zachtronics bug report form is loaded in a browser window.

What follows are the things I did to solve this problem, but they are not meant as instructions. Please don’t make any changes to your computer unless you know what you doing, and you’re happy to take personal responsibility for any damages or loss that may occur. 

• Diagnosis: outdated graphics drivers.
• Action taken: visit Toshiba website, install new graphics drivers. Reboot, etc.

Result: No change. Game crashes on start-up. A window pops open, but immediately closes. The Zachtronics bug report form is loaded in a browser window.

• Diagnosis: …???
• Action taken: email Zachtronics for support.

Result: a quick, helpful response.

• Diagnosis: possible graphics chip incompatibility.
• Action taken: Edit SpaceChem config file, set disableFBOs to True.

Result: No change. Game crashes on start-up, window opens, closes, Zachtronics bug report form.

• Diagnosis: red mist
• Action taken: Roll up sleeves. Visit Intel website, download new graphics driver installer. Run it.

Result: Installer refuses to install. It tells me to go download graphics drivers from Toshiba instead.

Action taken: Gnash teeth; wail; swear; sob; ultimately, go to bed.

* * *

• Diagnosis: Murder.

Actions taken: download ZIP file of driver software from Intel website. Unzip it into a location of your choice. Now, to convince Windows to actually install and use it. But let’s just recap: any changes you make to your computer are your own responsibility.

Click ‘Start’, right-click ‘Computer’, click ‘Properties’. Click ‘Device Manager’. Open ‘Display Adapters’. Right-click ‘Intel HD Graphics’, then click ‘Update Driver Software’ on the menu, to open a dialogue. Click ‘Browse my computer for driver software’. Click ‘Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer’. Click ‘Have Disk’ to open the ‘Install From Disk’ dialogue. Click ‘Browse’ to open the ‘Locate File’ dialogue, and browse to the location of the unzipped driver software, then enter the ‘Graphics’ subfolder. Select the ‘inf’ file that appears there, and click ‘Open’ to select the file and close the ‘Locate File’ dialogue. Do not choose ‘autorun.inf’. Click ‘OK’ to close the ‘Have Disk’ dialogue. Finally, click ‘Next’, and cross fingers. When it’s done, let it reboot.

Result: with a bit of luck, the graphics drivers have been upgraded to generic Intel ones which are more recent than the ones Toshiba have on file. SpaceChem loads and all my frustrations are immediately doused in a frenzy of atom-bashing molecule-mashing mayhem™.