Starcraft / Brood War FAQs

Starcraft randomly crashes to the desktop or reboots my computer.

Random crashes and reboots are usually related to memory access violation errors.

Let's examine the problem and determine what is exactly causing these crashes.

Go in your Starcraft directory on your hard-disk. There should be a "Error" folder in there. Open it. Inside, you will find one or several .err files. Open one of them using NotePad. Now, the start of a typical .err file should look like this

PROGRAM VERSION: 1.0.9.3
COMPUTER NAME: ComputerName
USER NAME: YourName
TIME: 00/00/00 00:00:00.000
INFO:

Exception code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION
Fault address: 00EAAAEC 00:00000000 XXXXXX

Now, what we are interested in is whatever is written where the XXXXXX is. Here are the possibilities.

Starcraft.exe

If Starcraft.exe is written there, your crashing problems could be caused by

-Corrupted bncache.dat file

Delete the bncache.dat file in the Starcraft directory. This file is used to store temporary Battle.net which occasionally gets corrupted.

-Bad/Mismatched Ram

The RAM sticks installed in your computer must have the same speed, or else Starcraft will crash for sure. Also, if your RAM has gone bad, you won't be able to run any game properly. You can test your RAM using www.goldmemory.cz Download and extract the .zip file. Put in a formatted 1.44MB floppy and run Install.bat. It will get the floppy disk ready for you. After it's done, reboot the computer. Make sure your BIOS is setup to boot from floppy disks. Let the program scan your memory once (should take under an hour and a half) and then press ESC. Let the program exit, then reboot. Go back into Windows and browse your floppy. You should find a file named GM.RPT. Open it with Notepad or any other text editor and scroll down. If it passed, your RAM is in good condition according to GoldMemory. If not, is it faulty. In that case, either your BIOS settings are incorrect (you can ask in the forums for additional assistance with this) or one of the RAM sticks needs to be replaced. You'll need to test them one-by-one by taking the others out until you find the offending RAM stick.

These are not all the possible reasons Starcraft.exe related access violations could occur, but I feel these are the most common causes.

ddhelp

You are running outdated or bad drivers for your video card. Get the latest drivers.

ddraw

Same as above.

dsound

You are running outdated or bad drivers for your sound card. Get the latest drivers.

storm.dll

Same as above.

module *unknown*

Either your registry is corrupted or you are running an application in the background. On Windows 9x/ME, press CTRL+ALT+DEL and make sure nothing is running except Explorer and Systray. Connect to the internet and try again. If it still fails, your registry is most likely corrupted. At this point, a reformat is the only solution I can think of.

Kernel32

I doubt anyone would get an access violation related to kernal32. That only applied to outdated Windows 95's kernals which can be updated at Microsoft's site. If you do get this error, visit the Windows Update Site and make sure you have the latest service pack and/or updates for your Windows operating system.

mprexe

Not common... Simple visit the Windows Update Site and delete all .pwl files in the Windows folder.

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I lost my CD-Key, where can I find it ?

If your game is still installed on your computer, you are in luck. 

Get Magickian's CD-Key Grabber. Launch the appropriate game and connect to Battle.net. At the login screen, alt-tab to the desktop and click the Get CD-Key button. If successful, your CD-Key should be displayed in the edit boxes.

Note: You don't have to fully login (by entering your username and password) in
order to get your cd-key.

If your game is not installed, you will have to get a new CD-Key from Blizzard. Read this page for more information.

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