Windows 8 Crash related to prefs.prop
I recently upgraded to Windows 8. The game now launches in windowed mode and immediately crashes. However, if I delete the prefs.prop file inside My Documents/Telltale Games/The Walking Dead then the game launches perfectly fine because it resets all the sound/video settings. Presumably upgrading to Windows 8 causes some problem with the game settings that needs to be reset.
The problem with this solution is that it causes me to lose all my game progress, which is completely uncool. Any ideas on what I can do to keep my save game progress and get the game working properly?
The problem with this solution is that it causes me to lose all my game progress, which is completely uncool. Any ideas on what I can do to keep my save game progress and get the game working properly?
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Not certain what, if anything, I can do. I have everything backed up still.
To make sure you still use the files from your backup, it's best if you delete all existing *.save files and the prefs.prop from the savegame folder, copy the original ones from your backup into it, and then try again in XP Compatibility mode.
Sadly this leaves me with the same error. The game will run, starting originally in windowed mode, but the saves are not detected. This is using all the original files I had backed up.
Did the game work without problems on Windows 7 or did it crash at some point?
Did you run it in any Compatibility mode on Windows 7?
To clarify, the error I have when using my old prefs.prop is that the game launches in a small window and crashes in a white screen. I am forced to exit it out. If I delete prefs.prop, the game launches, but then I lose my saves.
Mine start with save_1.
Even if i delete all .save files the game starts without problems. Once i try loading a savegame of course it doesn't behave normally. It shows a black screen with an axe.
It's as if your backed up prefs.prop is in some way corrupted.
What's its approximate file size?
Did you use multiple save slots?
Only used one save slot. The back up is about 2kb in size, which seems small since I seem to remember it being closer to 7.
*EDIT* I have a 7kb one as well (I'm starting to get confused and lose track of things). I am able to launch using this file when I start the game in windows xp sp3 compat mode. However, it still doesn't list any saves (I'm betting Windows XP stores saves in a different file location)
Your prefs.prop appears really small. It grows over time, and mine is 66KB. Although i have 3 save slots in it, so that might have some influence too.
My best guess is that your prefs.prop was corrupted at some point before you made your backup copy, although i don't have any idea how it could have happened.
There is no official way of recovering savegames when the prefs.prop is broken, but there is an unofficial workaround that seems to work. There is no 100% guarantee that everything is the same afterwards, because the savegame system is a bit weird, but it looks okay.
Jump straight to the "Manually fixing a savegame" section.