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Linda Leck (Lindaleck)
Advanced Solitaire Player
Username: Lindaleck

Post Number: 63
Registered: 6-2003
Posted on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 9:03 pm:   

Just today (after 4pm EST) my daughter went to play Action Sol under her user name and went to play Beleagured Castle (her favorite game-she has played over 5000 games) but when you click on the icon the screen does not bring up any cards and the left hand top is plain gray. If you can tell me HOW to do a screenshot I can show you. All her other games work fine. When I tried to even see her stats for Bel. Castle I got an error that said "access violation at 0041EF4A; reading from address 656C6566 and then Action Sol closed. All MY games under MY user name work fine. Any ideas?
Gregg Seelhoff (Seelhoff)
Master Solitaire Player
Username: Seelhoff

Post Number: 288
Registered: 1-2003
Posted on Thursday, July 26, 2007 - 11:45 am:   

>Just today (after 4pm EST) my daughter went to play Action Sol under her user name and went to play Beleagured Castle (her favorite game-she has played over 5000 games) but when you click on the icon the screen does not bring up any cards and the left hand top is plain gray.

I do not know what the problem is (yet), but any crash is, by definition, a bug.

>If you can tell me HOW to do a screenshot I can show you.

When the image is on screen:

1) Press the 'PrintScrn' (print screen) button. This puts the screen image into the clipboard.

2) Open 'Paint' (or your preferred image editing program), usually found in 'Start->Programs->Accessories'.

3) Create a new image if necessary. (Paint usually opens up to an empty image, but if not, use 'File|New' or Ctrl-N.)

4) Paste the screenshot, using 'Edit|Paste' or Ctrl-V. If asked, confirm that the image/canvas will be enlarged.

5) Save the file as either a PNG (preferred) or BMP file. (Older versions of Paint do not support PNG.) Note: Please avoid JPEG files, since that is a "lossy" format designed for photographs; it can make screenshots illegible.

>All her other games work fine. When I tried to even see her stats for Bel. Castle I got an error that said "access violation at 0041EF4A; reading from address 656C6566 and then Action Sol closed. All MY games under MY user name work fine.

This must be either a corrupted log file and/or corrupted save game. Ideally, I would like to get a copy of her 'beleagueredcastle.log' and 'beleagueredcastle.actsol' files to confirm.

In Windows XP, these are in the following folder:

\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Goodsol\Action Solitaire\<player>\

where <user> is your Windows user name, and <player> is your daughter's player name in the game.

The easiest way to get there, probably, is to select 'Start->Run...' and type in "%appdata%" (without the double quotes) and browse from there (into 'Goodsol'). This should in Vista, too, even though the folder location is different.

Any ideas?

Yes, please make sure that you have the latest release version of Action Solitaire, version 1.2; if so, there will be an 'actsol.error' file in your Documents folder. It would be very helpful to get a copy of that file, which tells me exactly where the crash occurred.

That is a lot of information, I know... :-)
Linda Leck (Lindaleck)
Advanced Solitaire Player
Username: Lindaleck

Post Number: 64
Registered: 6-2003
Posted on Thursday, July 26, 2007 - 6:55 pm:   

Hi Gregg-thanks for the quick reply :-)
Did you want this info in an email to you or post it here? The file log is quite long!

Thanks again
Gregg Seelhoff (Seelhoff)
Master Solitaire Player
Username: Seelhoff

Post Number: 289
Registered: 1-2003
Posted on Friday, July 27, 2007 - 4:17 pm:   

>Did you want this info in an email to you or post it here?

You will probably want to send it directly to me at beta@sophsoft.com, in this case, though the usual technical support address is support@goodsol.com for most situations.

Thanks. :-)
Gregg Seelhoff (Seelhoff)
Master Solitaire Player
Username: Seelhoff

Post Number: 290
Registered: 1-2003
Posted on Thursday, August 02, 2007 - 3:27 pm:   

For the record, I received your screenshot and log file, and the news is that this is a bonafide bug. Whether that is Good News or Bad News depends on ones perspective. :-)

This will be fixed in the next Action Solitaire update.

In the interim, the quick solution is to delete the 'beleagueredcastle.log' file, as the error was triggered by the size of the log file. As alternative, I could remove all of the incomplete game scores from the log you sent, which will allow your daughter to retain her high scores; just let me know.
Linda Leck (Lindaleck)
Advanced Solitaire Player
Username: Lindaleck

Post Number: 65
Registered: 6-2003
Posted on Thursday, August 02, 2007 - 7:58 pm:   

Gregg- I just deleted the file. She said she doesn't care about high scores, she just likes to play it. :-)
Is there a way to keep her log file a manageable size? And what are "incomplete game scores"? Is she playing it wrong?
THANKS SO MUCH for your help with making the rest of summer vacation bearable!! :-)
Gregg Seelhoff (Seelhoff)
Master Solitaire Player
Username: Seelhoff

Post Number: 291
Registered: 1-2003
Posted on Friday, August 03, 2007 - 12:50 am:   

Is there a way to keep her log file a manageable size?

Since she does not care about high scores, she could simply clear the statistics every time she gets up to 500 games or so. (That empties the log file.) That said, the correct solution is for us to fix the bug and then for you to get the update. :-)

>And what are "incomplete game scores"? Is she playing it wrong?

Incomplete games are those where one chooses to start a new game before the previous one is done, rather than playing each to the end. This does not result from doing anything "wrong", per se, though I will admit that I did not really anticipate players quitting games so often.

The log file you sent showed that only 22 games were actually finished, but your daughter is not the first person to have a huge number of results, most being incomplete.

As long as she is enjoying the game, we will be happy. :-)
Mike Bailin (Mikeb)
Master Solitaire Player
Username: Mikeb

Post Number: 113
Registered: 3-2003
Posted on Friday, August 03, 2007 - 9:51 am:   

Quote from Gregg: In the interim, the quick solution is to delete the 'beleagueredcastle.log' file, as the error was triggered by the size of the log file.

I take it that for whatever reason, ActSol is different in this respect from PGS, which will quite happily handle log files of many thousands of games? Or is it the high proportion of incomplete games that's the problem?

If it's the incomplete games, there's one other work-around for users (once the log has been cleaned). Keep auto-save turned on, and if you don't intend carrying on with a game just exit it to save it. Then (you'll probably have to close ActSol temporarily first, though Gregg can confirm or correct this) go to the appropriate folder and delete that saved-game file. B-i-n-g-o (oddly, that's a banned word here), it was never played.
Gregg Seelhoff (Seelhoff)
Master Solitaire Player
Username: Seelhoff

Post Number: 292
Registered: 1-2003
Posted on Friday, August 03, 2007 - 12:09 pm:   

>I take it that for whatever reason, ActSol is different in this respect from PGS, which will quite happily handle log files of many thousands of games? Or is it the high proportion of incomplete games that's the problem?

Action Solitaire is different from Pretty Good Solitaire in this respect only due to this recently discovered bug in the former. It is designed to handle any number of games, but in certain very specific circumstances, the problem occurs.

The problem is not specifically related to incomplete games. However, one can get to a huge number of results more quickly by quitting lots of games in the first round. (Playing complete games takes more time, especially if you are good. :-))

>Keep auto-save turned on, and if you don't intend carrying on with a game just exit it to save it. Then (you'll probably have to close ActSol temporarily first, though Gregg can confirm or correct this) go to the appropriate folder and delete that saved-game file.

This is a functional, albeit tedious, workaround for eliminating games before they become incomplete. One only needs to return to the game menu in order to be able to delete the saved game; it is not necessary to exit completely.

That said, there is still nothing fundamentally wrong with incomplete games. :-)
Mike Bailin (Mikeb)
Master Solitaire Player
Username: Mikeb

Post Number: 114
Registered: 3-2003
Posted on Friday, August 03, 2007 - 8:06 pm:   

Tedious?? I simply added a shortcut to that folder into my Games desktop-folder, and saved games stick out like a sore thumb because of the different file type.

Someone (probably notable) once suggested that lazy people (like me) make the best employees because they/we are highly inventive in finding new ways to make tasks easier.

Oh, and thanks for confirming that GoodSol doesn't need exited, just the specific game involved.

Gregg Seelhoff (Seelhoff)
Master Solitaire Player
Username: Seelhoff

Post Number: 293
Registered: 1-2003
Posted on Monday, August 06, 2007 - 11:25 am:   

>Someone (probably notable) once suggested that lazy people (like me) make the best employees because they/we are highly inventive in finding new ways to make tasks easier.

:-)

>Oh, and thanks for confirming that GoodSol doesn't need exited, just the specific game involved.

No problem. (I assume, of course, that you meant "Action Solitaire".)

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