Problem (application running) with Steam

[namuh1]

Searched forums for this but failed. Tried the fixes found on Steam forums to fix: This game is currently unavailable (application running)

 

 

In my case this happens on Restart after trying to load a FM . TDM fails to load and Steam gives the above dialog message.

 

So to be specific: TDM runs from the patched shortcut per TDM wiki for Steam compatibility but after choosing a mission to load the restart fails and no mission is ever loaded.

 

On restarting TDM manually there is no mission installed so I'm back to square one.... meaning I can't play at all.

 

any help appreciated.

[nbohr1more]

Are you running TDM v1.06?

 

There was a known compatibility problem in that version with Steam.

 

If so, try running the tdm_updater to upgrade to TDM v1.07.

[namuh1]

I wish it were so, but I started by downloading the latest TDM updater and use it to get TDM.

[GaijinSin]

I am having this exact same problem, and was just about to post a thread about it.

 

The last time i played TDM was last August with 1.06 and it was working fine.

[namuh1]

Same here. I had a heck of a time getting 1.06 up last year about this time and there is a long thread on it that I started. BUT the problem then does not seem to be the problem now. Since I have moved to a new computer but with the same OS... Win7.

 

I did notice one of the TDM config files is used to pass custom parms to Doom when it restarts and I have nothing in it? I checked the old things from my thread last year (don't know how to link it in here sorry... will have to learn) and the FM etc. seem to be getting written where they belong, it's simply that the restart fails with the message above. I was hoping, from laziness, that someone else had solved it so I wouldn't have to start with logs and all the rigmarole again, but it seems to be heading this way.

[nbohr1more]

Where is your Doom 3 installed (path).

 

Eg: C:\Games\Steam\Steam Apps\Doom 3...

 

?

 

Is this Windows 7 64bit? If so, have you tried the 4GB patch?

 

http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=FAQ#Getting_.22Malloc_Failure_for_.23.23.23.23.23.23.23.22_crash-to-desktop

 

Do you have anything unusual in your dmargs.txt ?

 

http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=FAQ#.22COULD_NOT_FIND_TDMLAUNCHER.22_when_installing_an_FM

[namuh1]

Yes it's a 64 bit system and no I did not know about a 4GB patch.

 

The path is: F:\root\g\Steam\steamapps\common\Doom 3\darkmod

 

dmargs.txt was the file I was referring to and it is empty except for the comments.

 

I'll check out the patch.

 

ADDED: I looked at the patch and doubt it is needed. The game ran fine on the same platform last year so unless something has changed with Doom it should still be ok for memory. It also seems unlikely that lack of memory would cause the restart failure I'm getting, but if you know of a reason why it would please say so and I'll use the patch.

 

thanks

Edited February 26, 2012 by namuh1

[nbohr1more]

It's not about a lack of memory.

 

It's about the OS and background applications allocating memory addresses such that the remaining addresses are unrecognizable to a 32bit application.

 

Other than this, I would ensure that UAC or any 3rd party security software is not preventing the dmargs.txt or currentfm files from being written to.

[namuh1]

That makes sense. On the topic of dmargs.txt, mine is empty.... is it supposed to have something in it? The other files seem to be properly edited, but I can turn off UAC at least temporarily.. there is no other 3rd party software that would block it.

[nbohr1more]

From what I can see in the wiki, dmargs is supposed to be empty. Someone else would have to confirm whether anything gets written there temporarily...

[namuh1]

So here is some fresh information. I have discovered that running TDM by directly running the launcher located in the darkmod directory works. BUT only partially in this sense. If I load a new FM and click OK when the dialog indicates that the game will be restarted with the new FM now installed, I get the same error from Steam that the game is unavailable because the application is running. But once I exit that dialog and run the game again from the tdmlauncher in ...\darkmod the mission is correctly installed, will run and will also save instances of the game properly AND will load the instances correctly when the game is run at a later time. So at this point I have two unresolved issues, fortunately, neither of which now prevent playing, but WOULD be nice to resolve:

 

1 - Using the shortcut given in the wiki and running Steam with the passed args does not work AT ALL. It will pretend to load a game, then fail in the restart and on running it again, there is NO loaded game EVER.

 

2 - No matter how I run the game, when I load a new FM initially, the restart fails with the original message that caused me to begin this thread. BUT running the game again from the shortcut scenario gives NOTHING loaded however running the game from the tdmlauncher shows the FM correctly installed and playable... This is true no matter how I initially load the FM.

 

I have no idea why the wiki shortcut method fails, but I AM wondering if the 'restart failure' is related to the original instance of doom not having time to exit properly. I wonder this because in digging through logs I found an entry that gave a message twice about the instance still running and waiting 1 second, then continuing... even though the restart then fails with above message.

 

Could it be that the tdmlauncher is simply not waiting long enough or failing to correctly wait for a complete exit of the first doom instance.. or any other intermediate program that might be still resident? Is there any way to test this, for example, is there a way to force the launcher to wait longer before it tries the restart after copying the new FM into the 'current game files'?

 

That's as far as I've gotten, hope it sheds some light. I'm happy to continue with any debugging that anyone wants to try since I'd like to get this all working seamlessly, but at least I CAN NOW PLAY.... the best Thief Mod in the world... kudos to you folks! Thank you all for the tremendous effort you have put into making this Mod the best ever in the world.

[namuh1]

Am still hoping someone will reply with a way to force the reloader to 'wait' longer for the current tasks to exit so I don't get the (application running) failure..... but simply restarting manually works so maybe it's not super important. I would like to know why the wiki method of making a shortcut with the custom args to steam.exe fails completely while simply running the tdmlauncher.exe works fine, but these are just curiosity questions unless others are having similar problems. Otherwise, I'm playing with everything working although 2x the game has shut down in the middle of an FM once locking itself needing to be terminated by the Task Manager and once taking the whole machine down. Anything I can do to save any information that might help the dev team on this?

[Tels]

namuh, v1.08 wil have no loader anymore, so most of the restarts will be no longer nec But you have to wait a bit before it is released, we are still working on it.

[namuh1]

lol ... well that's one way to a fix. it wasn't really important anyway since the game is playing fine, but i'm kind of a stickler for completeness sometimes.

 

thanks for the heads up.