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Solved "Engine not working"

Matthew Sibley

Landlubber
Hi all,

Firstly when I tried to start game it just crashes and says "Engine not working".
Then I download "SwiftShader" after 3-4 attempts I get playing the game, then whilst sailing I get attacked by a pirate and it goes into the battle.
It then crashes with the same message as before.

Any advice/tips?

Shame such an amazing game has so many bugs...

Technical information:

PC: Acer Aspire 7730
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2 GHZ
RAM: 4 GB
OS: Windows Vista (32-bit) - Service Pack 2
 
I just looked it up and it has: NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT DDR3 / 9300M GS graphics.

This laptop should not need Swiftshader as that is for the Intel graphics only. Will it run POTC without Swiftshader? If not, then that is a clue that it also has Intel graphics installed. Some laptops are like that.
If that is the case the Intel graphics need to be disabled.

EDIT: AHA! Err, why is yours different from what I found with a search? Yours does not have Nvidia graphics also?
 
Thanks Hylie, so your saying my laptop has 2 graphics cards on it?

It wouldn't run without it.
How would I go about disabling the Intel graphics?
 
I'm not familiar with laptops, but you need to go into your bios to disable the Intel graphics. It might be possible to do it in the control panel. There is a thread about this somewhere close by.
 
Hylie, sorry if I'm being stupid/very unobservant, but where does it mention the Nvidia control panel? Also I've noticed a lot of people saying not to install in the 'Program Files' I have, could that be contributing to the problem?
 
The Nvidia control panel is mentioned in post #11. I got that info from another thread on this subject. I don't have a laptop so can not be sure, but if you go into your control panel you should find Nvidia there.

Installing POTC into "program files" is a very bad idea because doing that activates the windoze security measures, which makes POTC tend to not run. Move your POTC folder out of "program files" and try it again.
 
I do remember people before who had two graphics cards, one real one and one Intel integrated one.
They got the game to run by selecting the nVidia one. Somewhere. I don't remember the specifics.

Installing the game in Program Files does not interfere with the unmodded game working.
However, as soon as you try to install the modpack, it messes things up pretty badly.
 
Is there anything you can find in your Hardware Configuration / Control Panel?
 
Okay, a couple of things happened:

I disabled the graphics card, the screen went black so I restared the computer.
Everything now looks magnified and 'puffy' (on desktop). I managed to play the game for about 40 minutes fine, but then it happened again.

Thanks for all the help so far!
 
Did you go at sea with the game running smoothly during those 40 minutes? Does your computer now use your nVidia card?
Maybe the crash you got this time was for another reason?
 
Been at sea a couple of times, which a clear improvement!

Could be, but it still displays the same error code.

I'm not sure, but it's not running the intel one anymore.

Thanks for all your help so far, it's a great community here!
 
Have you tried error logging? Refer to the FAQ for the details.
Any crash of the game will give the same on-screen error, but that doesn't mean the reason is the same.
 
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