iw3mp.exe has stopped working

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criccio

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I'm trying to help a buddy diagnose a problem he is having trying to get CoD4 working. Single player works fine but the MP portion will NOT start. Keep in mind, this machine has NO problem playing anything else.

Every time he gets the iw3mp.exe has failed to start. Now, he has re-installed Windows 7 64bit 3 times, each time with the same result. He just tried Windows 7 32bit and got the same thing. Even went as far as Vista 64... no go. (Installing XP now...)

The hardware is as follows:

Asrock X58 Deluxe
i7 920 (stock clocks)
4GB OCZ Obsidian DDR3 (only in dual channel)
Nvidia GTX260 (most recent drivers)
OCZ StealthXStream 600w
1TB Western Digital HDD (not sure of model)
Gateway FPD2185W

Event viewer shows the error but says absolutely nothing that could help.

I'm really stumped at this point. 3 OS'ed later and the same exact error persists. Single player is great but MP just won't load.
:confused:
 
I've had this problem for some time on the rig in my sig (vista64), and have tried all the solutions I found in gaming forums. None worked, until I uninstalled cod 1 and 2 completely. Now, I still get the error, but only sporadically, not enough to worry about. If I re-install cod 1 or 2, sure enough, the error reappears every time cod4 is loaded. If I get the time, I'll see if I can find links to some of the other solutions I found and post them here, but you can find them by googling the error message and spending some time poking around.
 
Yea I forgot to mention that both my buddy and I spent quite awhile reading about the topic to no avail. Thanks for your help though.
 
try installing it on a different partition and see if that works

i had a similiar type of problem with Steam once, steam wouldn't work at ALL, and i was only using a single volume as well

when I partitioned my hard drive, and installed it ont he new partition, it worked

might wanna give that a shot
 
Anything at all is welcome at this point, thanks!

I'll have him try that ASAP.
 
I know what it's like to have those kind of problems, it's a really shitty feeling.

Has he tried patching it up?

current patch = 1.7

i got all my patch files from filefront
 
Its Steam so yea, its patched. Hes already begun the XP install so if that fails we'll move on to playing around with different partitions.

Thanks again.
 
damn he really has to fart around

you can get a 90 day free trial of Windows 7 enterprise

someone on here named Azhar had a link to it in the DC forums i think
 
Haha, thanks for the help so far but what does that have to do with anything?
 
i don't doubt that you've done your fair share of googling but here are a few that seemed to come up often:

common culprit - SOUND CARD DRIVERS

remove your sound card drivers do the following:

* Open the control panel link from the start menu
* Check the programs and features tool to see if your sound card drivers are listed here
* If they are not open the system tool in the control panel
* Click on the device manager task on the left
* Locate your sound card in the list, it should be in the sound, video, and game controllers section
* Right-click on the video card name and select Uninstall.
Click to expand...

Enable Stereo MIX, Vista RealTek
Fixed Mine This way.

-Start, control panel
-Hardware and Sound
-Sound
-Recording Tab
-Right Click in window, chose "Show Disabled Devices"
-"Setero MIX"appeared, Right Click and choose enable
-OK
Click to expand...

Method 2: Resolve Issues with Soundcard Driver

Iw3mp.exe error is known to occur due to problems with sound card drivers. One method that is known to resolve the issue is to uninstall the sound card drivers for realtek and other similar cards and install the default driver on the PC.

You may use the following method to uninstall sound card:

1. Open Start menu, select Run, type sysdm.cpl and then press Enter to display the System Properties dialog box.
2. On the Hardware tab, Device Manager.
3. In the Device Manager window, expand Sound, video, and game controllers.
4. Right-click the sound card driver and then select Uninstall.

After uninstalling, it is recommended that you use a good registry tool, such as RegGenie to clean your registry and remove any left behind entries. After removing the sound card, install the default sound card drivers on your PC. When you do this, note the make and model of your sound card. You may need this information later on.
Click to expand...

Here is how i did it under Windows Vista.

1. Change your default audio device to headphones
2. Start the game.
Click to expand...
 
doh, just saw that he tried windows 7 32 bit

I actually didn't see where you said he had it on Steam

it was kind of coincidence that I mentioned the partitioning

I just read things fast, and not always completely :(
 
Yea we did the whole sound card shuffle already. That trick was the first real thing we tried.
 
is your friend downloading the game every time he reinstalls or is he getting the files off an external or something?
 
The partition trick should fix it...

but there is one other thing you can try...

Every once in a while I come up with obscure errors that are fixed with a DX update. Had this happen on Vista several times and once on 7 with a few games several years old. What seemed to happen is the game had the latest DX version on it, but was expecting a DX file from a much older version that it just assumed was there...probably from an older XP service pack.

Downloading the DX redistributable straight from Microsoft seemed to fix the problem.
 
Ok, it works in XP 32bit. He is going to reinstall 7 x64 and try out the partition and DX ideas and I'll let you know.
 
glad to hear it bro

perhaps it was trying to write the files onto bad sectors? I'm not a hard drive expert, I'm just taking a guess here

was the hard drive wiped clean and checked for bad sectors?
 
installing it on a different partition should fix your problem if the sound driver fix doesn't do it for you

try that
 
I completely removed the realtek drivers from my system and cleaned it up with drivesweeper in safe mode. My motherboard is EVGA x58 LE and the onboard audio seems perfect with the default windows 7 drivers.

Will keep it this way for a few days and see what happens!

I downloaded the newest Realtek drivers and will try that in a few days if everything seems ok so far and see what happens!
 
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