Windows 10 - Bigfish Games

MartinTrpovski · May 15, 2023

Hello,

As of recently, I have been unable to play many video games purchased from Bigfish on my Windows 10 laptop. They worked fine as recently as December 2022, but now in May 2023, they won't start up at all. There are over 30 games that I can no longer play, all of them rather old. I don't know when exactly they stopped working, because I did not try to play them between December and May, and I suspect that the issue might have been caused by one of the updates that my laptop installed in the meantime.

In order to get the games running, I have tried the following, based on instructions available online:

- run them directly from their .exe rather than through the Bigfish game manager

- apply compatibility settings (run as administrator, Windows XP compatibility mode, reduced color mode, run in 600x800 resolution, etc. in various combinations)

- changing the resolution of my display

- changing the scaling percentage of my display

- adding new firewall rules that allow individual games' .exe files on my domain, public and private network alike

- disabling my firewall altogether

- clearing my Chrome cache

- clearing my SSL state

- adding exception to the DEP configuration for individual games' .exe files

- disabling DEP except for essential programs

- restarting my computer after some of the steps listed above

- reinstalling the Bigfish game manager

- reinstalling individual games (this only makes the problem worse, because they won't even install after I've uninstalled them)

- checking for Windows updates (I have all the latest updates installed)

- checking for new drivers (I have the latest drivers installed, including an optional Intel driver recommended in the Windows updates section)

- disabling Windows Defender

- uninstalling McAfee

- scanning for threats (no threats detected)

None of my troubleshooting resolved anything and I still cannot run any of the affected games. I don't get any error report when I try to run them: an hourglass simply appears next to the cursor and then disappears. In the Task Manager, I can see the game's .exe appear for a few moments, before vanishing again without any notification. I managed to click on some of the .exe's in the Task Manager before they disappeared and there was no wait chain. The Task Manager said that they were running normally.

I have contacted Bigfish support and all they could say was that they were going to be updating their games at some indeterminate point in the future.

The only solution that I was able to contrive was to set up a virtual machine with an XP OS and run the games there. Then they work just fine. However, this is quite impractical and I would like to be able to run my games on my host OS directly, as before.

The problem cannot simply be that the games in question are old or not udpated, because on my second laptop, an ASUS with Windows 10, all of them run just fine. What's more, they run just fine on my mother's Windows 11 computer. Consequently, there must be some issue with my Dell laptop, for which I present detailed specifications below:

Model: XPS 13 9380

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8565U CPU @ 1.80GHz 1.99 GHz

RAM: 16.0 GB (15.8 GB usable)

System type: 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Disk: PC401 NVMe SK hynix 512 GB

GPU: Intel(R) UHD Graphics 620

Windows version: 22H2

OS build: 19045.2965

Experience: Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.19041.1000.0

Furthermore, the problem cannot simply be my computer, because when I download the problematic games from Shockwave or WildTangent, I have no problem running them. Thus, the problem has to be a combination of factors specific to my Dell Laptop (which differentiate it from my ASUS laptop) and to Bigfish (which differentiate it from Shockwave and WildTangent).

I reiterate that all of my games worked well in December 2022 on this same Dell laptop.

I would really appreciate if someone could tell me what to do to get my games running.

:)

NYIA green

There’s honestly nothing wrong with the device it is because they have to update it to work with the newer version of every device if you were to use an older model of a tablet it would probably work

MartinTrpovski

Hello,

I am afraid that the DirectX Runtime did not solve the problem either. In the meantime, I have located the crash reports generated for the games which no longer run on my computer. This is one example:

Version=1

EventType=APPCRASH

EventTime=133291501667063944

ReportType=2

Consent=1

UploadTime=133291501668626097

ReportStatus=268435456

ReportIdentifier=c7d978fc-b861-4064-a1b1-2a5abb09e391

IntegratorReportIdentifier=f41a20ae-cff9-45df-b49c-0d7c13bd8ee0

Wow64Host=34404

Wow64Guest=332

NsAppName=Build-a-lot 4.exe

OriginalFilename=Keyhole.exe

AppSessionGuid=00000094-0001-00b7-936d-0a20ea8bd901

TargetAppId=W:000013034e263dae23b57b7fa88a84a940f00000ffff!0000a8a57e0d29202b835cd07ca77be5823c4225694f!Build-a-lot 4.exe

TargetAppVer=2007//12//19:20:20:49!146754!Build-a-lot 4.exe

BootId=4294967295

ServiceSplit=48365568

TargetAsId=4389

IsFatal=1

EtwNonCollectReason=1

Response.BucketId=bbd4a3177eeb0bf748d2cf5781e74b0b

Response.BucketTable=1

Response.LegacyBucketId=1788719976768031499

Response.type=4

Sig[0].Name=Application Name

Sig[0].Value=Build-a-lot 4.exe

Sig[1].Name=Application Version

Sig[1].Value=3.2.0.0

Sig[2].Name=Application Timestamp

Sig[2].Value=47697d21

Sig[3].Name=Fault Module Name

Sig[3].Value=StackHash_a9cd

Sig[4].Name=Fault Module Version

Sig[4].Value=0.0.0.0

Sig[5].Name=Fault Module Timestamp

Sig[5].Value=00000000

Sig[6].Name=Exception Code

Sig[6].Value=c00001a5

Sig[7].Name=Exception Offset

Sig[7].Value=PCH_CC_FROM_ntdll+0x0007303C

DynamicSig[1].Name=OS Version

DynamicSig[1].Value=10.0.19045.2.0.0.768.101

DynamicSig[2].Name=Locale ID

DynamicSig[2].Value=2057

DynamicSig[22].Name=Additional Information 1

DynamicSig[22].Value=a9cd

DynamicSig[23].Name=Additional Information 2

DynamicSig[23].Value=a9cd4e85eb5b6c23668eeff6540cc348

DynamicSig[24].Name=Additional Information 3

DynamicSig[24].Value=5f0c

DynamicSig[25].Name=Additional Information 4

DynamicSig[25].Value=5f0c873eeab1717038081c15f8d6d218

UI[2]=C:\Program Files (x86)\Shockwave.com\Build-a-lot 4\Build-a-lot 4.exe

LoadedModule[0]=C:\Program Files (x86)\Shockwave.com\Build-a-lot 4\Build-a-lot 4.exe

LoadedModule[1]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll

LoadedModule[2]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\KERNEL32.DLL

LoadedModule[3]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\KERNELBASE.dll

LoadedModule[4]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\apphelp.dll

LoadedModule[5]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\AcLayers.DLL

LoadedModule[6]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\msvcrt.dll

LoadedModule[7]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\USER32.dll

LoadedModule[8]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\win32u.dll

LoadedModule[9]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\GDI32.dll

LoadedModule[10]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\gdi32full.dll

LoadedModule[11]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\msvcp_win.dll

LoadedModule[12]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\ucrtbase.dll

LoadedModule[13]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\SHELL32.dll

LoadedModule[14]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\SHLWAPI.dll

LoadedModule[15]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\OLEAUT32.dll

LoadedModule[16]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\combase.dll

LoadedModule[17]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\RPCRT4.dll

LoadedModule[18]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\SETUPAPI.dll

LoadedModule[19]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\cfgmgr32.dll

LoadedModule[20]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\bcrypt.dll

LoadedModule[21]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\MPR.dll

LoadedModule[22]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\sfc.dll

LoadedModule[23]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\WINSPOOL.DRV

LoadedModule[24]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\sfc_os.DLL

LoadedModule[25]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\AcGenral.DLL

LoadedModule[26]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\sechost.dll

LoadedModule[27]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\ole32.dll

LoadedModule[28]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\ADVAPI32.dll

LoadedModule[29]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\UxTheme.dll

LoadedModule[30]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\WINMM.dll

LoadedModule[31]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\samcli.dll

LoadedModule[32]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\MSACM32.dll

LoadedModule[33]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\VERSION.dll

LoadedModule[34]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\USERENV.dll

LoadedModule[35]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\dwmapi.dll

LoadedModule[36]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\urlmon.dll

LoadedModule[37]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\SspiCli.dll

LoadedModule[38]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\winmmbase.dll

LoadedModule[39]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\iertutil.dll

LoadedModule[40]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\shcore.dll

LoadedModule[41]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\srvcli.dll

LoadedModule[42]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\netutils.dll

LoadedModule[43]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\SortServer2003Compat.dll

LoadedModule[44]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\IMM32.DLL

LoadedModule[45]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\WININET.dll

LoadedModule[46]=C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.windows.common-controls_6595b64144ccf1df_5.82.19041.1110_none_c0da534e38c01f4d\COMCTL32.dll

LoadedModule[47]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\comdlg32.dll

LoadedModule[48]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\kernel.appcore.dll

LoadedModule[49]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\bcryptPrimitives.dll

LoadedModule[50]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\clbcatq.dll

LoadedModule[51]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\amsi.dll

LoadedModule[52]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\profapi.dll

LoadedModule[53]=C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Platform\4.18.2304.8-0\X86\MpOav.dll

LoadedModule[54]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\ws2_32.dll

LoadedModule[55]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\inetmib1.dll

LoadedModule[56]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\NSI.dll

LoadedModule[57]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\IPHLPAPI.DLL

LoadedModule[58]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\snmpapi.dll

State[0].Key=Transport.DoneStage1

State[0].Value=1

OsInfo[0].Key=vermaj

OsInfo[0].Value=10

OsInfo[1].Key=vermin

OsInfo[1].Value=0

OsInfo[2].Key=verbld

OsInfo[2].Value=19045

OsInfo[3].Key=ubr

OsInfo[3].Value=2965

OsInfo[4].Key=versp

OsInfo[4].Value=0

OsInfo[5].Key=arch

OsInfo[5].Value=9

OsInfo[6].Key=lcid

OsInfo[6].Value=1033

OsInfo[7].Key=geoid

OsInfo[7].Value=19618

OsInfo[8].Key=sku

OsInfo[8].Value=101

OsInfo[9].Key=domain

OsInfo[9].Value=0

OsInfo[10].Key=prodsuite

OsInfo[10].Value=768

OsInfo[11].Key=ntprodtype

OsInfo[11].Value=1

OsInfo[12].Key=platid

OsInfo[12].Value=10

OsInfo[13].Key=sr

OsInfo[13].Value=0

OsInfo[14].Key=tmsi

OsInfo[14].Value=222149696

OsInfo[15].Key=osinsty

OsInfo[15].Value=1

OsInfo[16].Key=iever

OsInfo[16].Value=11.789.19041.0-11.0.1000

OsInfo[17].Key=portos

OsInfo[17].Value=0

OsInfo[18].Key=ram

OsInfo[18].Value=16129

OsInfo[19].Key=svolsz

OsInfo[19].Value=462

OsInfo[20].Key=wimbt

OsInfo[20].Value=0

OsInfo[21].Key=blddt

OsInfo[21].Value=191206

OsInfo[22].Key=bldtm

OsInfo[22].Value=1406

OsInfo[23].Key=bldbrch

OsInfo[23].Value=vb_release

OsInfo[24].Key=bldchk

OsInfo[24].Value=0

OsInfo[25].Key=wpvermaj

OsInfo[25].Value=0

OsInfo[26].Key=wpvermin

OsInfo[26].Value=0

OsInfo[27].Key=wpbuildmaj

OsInfo[27].Value=0

OsInfo[28].Key=wpbuildmin

OsInfo[28].Value=0

OsInfo[29].Key=osver

OsInfo[29].Value=10.0.19041.2965.amd64fre.vb_release.191206-1406

OsInfo[30].Key=buildflightid

OsInfo[30].Value=A50EAE6F-2FFF-4C77-9AFE-7D29EBA95601.1

OsInfo[31].Key=edition

OsInfo[31].Value=Core

OsInfo[32].Key=ring

OsInfo[33].Key=expid

OsInfo[34].Key=fconid

OsInfo[35].Key=containerid

OsInfo[36].Key=containertype

OsInfo[37].Key=edu

OsInfo[37].Value=0

FriendlyEventName=Stopped working

ConsentKey=APPCRASH

AppName=Keyhole DRM Application

AppPath=C:\Program Files (x86)\Shockwave.com\Build-a-lot 4\Build-a-lot 4.exe

NsPartner=windows

NsGroup=windows8

ApplicationIdentity=36C4BA68DE2FEBE56BB35508A690305C

MetadataHash=-1881812076

Based on this report, can you figure out what is causing the game to crash?

Best wishes

Tommy - MSFT

Hello MartinTrpovski

Thanks for your reply.

The error message seems to include some old things that we can't get information about this.

But it seems that is a DirectX problem.

Maybe you can try to download the DX runtime installation to fix this problem.

Download DirectX End-User Runtimes (June 2010) from Official Microsoft Download Center

( make a folder to store the extra file)

Best Regards,

Tommy-MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Tezzarrific

its a directd error, direct 3d is quite quirky in later versions of windows 10 and even 11. try and reinstall your gpu drivers from the manufacturer website

go here which is the official dell site and redownload the graphics driver, install it and restart the machine

Support for XPS 13 9380 | Drivers & Downloads | Dell UK

Tommy - MSFT

Hello MartinTrpovski

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

.

Regarding to your information I assume that you can't play the bigfish game now.

Could you provide the system information that the laptop can run the bigsfish game?

It's may caused by the some compatibility issues of these old games.

First, you can turn off all feature about Device security in Windows security.

Then youu can try to select the .NET Framework 3.5 in Turn Windows features on or off.

And then you can try to run CMD as administrator then enter these commands one by one to fix the system files.

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

SFC /Scannow

You can also try to create a new account to test that these game can play in the new account or not.

Create a local user or administrator account in Windows - Microsoft Support

If there is anything not clear, please do not hesitate to let me know.

Best Regards,

Tommy-MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Windows 10 - Bigfish Games