Hi, I hope I don't dumb-down the conversation but I'm not highly computer literate (or otherwise) and still a novice to EAW as-well-as new to this forum!

I loved playing EAW on my old computer and have just upgraded to Dell when old faithfull died (hear the violins).

The Dell has an Intergrated Intell Graphics Media Accellerator 900. Did I stuff-up in buying a Dell?

Now all I get when I Try to run EAW is "Error Num 7217".

I found this info, at one site:

"
Bugs and Technical Problems

European Air War has suffered from the progression of technology. Due to its usage of 8 bit graphics, many video cards will not run the game, and return a '7217 error'. Graphics cards with drivers that are still 8 bit compatible are becoming harder and harder to procure.
"

Does this mean I'm doomed, having an intergrated graphics unit that may be incompatable to the game software?

I'm sure I'm not the first desperate amature to get 7217ed!

Thanks & sorry for such a long post...

OH no ! you're not the first !

Welcome to this forum, make yourself comfortable, make yourself some drink and wait for the 'Gurus' to arrive.

Cures exist for the 7217, but being computer analphabet as I am, I won't be of much use. Don't despair, just give some more info on your card and system, so the 'doctors' can work out what remedy they can use.

Hope it'll turn out ok for you, in the meantime check out what the Girl has become

Cheers

Nico

Error Num 7217: If you are having problem running the game due to Error 7217, which means that the game has failed to initialize Direct Draw surface for the main screen, we suggest following possible solutions:
.Make sure you have the latest driver for your 2D video card.
.Try adjusting your desktop size and resolution to 640x480x256 or 800x600x256. You can do this by going to the Start | Settings | Control Panel | Display | Setting. Adjust the Desktop Size to 640x480 or 800x600 and Color Palette to 256 color.
.Try adjusting your video card hardware acceleration feature. The slider for this can be found under Start | Setting | Control Panel | Display | Setting | Advanced Properties | Performance. Try adjusting the slider bar for the Hardware Acceleration to max.
.Run the Direct X diagnostic utility, DXDIAG.EXE, which should be found in your c:\Program Files\DirectX folder or subfolder.


im NOT a "guru" and i know very little about PC's etc but...

i had the same prob and thats what i found out and it works fine for me now. Hope it can offer some help, till one of the guru's as nico put it arrives.

take care


James

Hi Geoffro,

Welcome

The only available solution to your problem with your specific graphics solution will be found in RAF_Dumoulin's EAW Wiki; you will want to take this link ; look for the header "EAW and Error 7217--Updated (April 2006)".

You will want the more involved instructions in order to locate and download the correct files you will need to have in order to solve the error. At a minimum, you will want Sydbod's v.1.26e patch file and Mr. Jelly's Error 7217 modified executable file and added files. If you choose to run OAW, he has packed his files in an E folder for ease of use. If you choose not to run OAW at this time, you simply copy the files contained in the E folder into your EAW install. Do back your install up elsewhere prior to overwriting any files by copying others in.

If needed, a set of screen captures of EAW configuration screens is available from GunsUp's Add-Ons page at Sandbaggers (A link to this capture pack is in the Wiki article) to help you translate the EAW configuration screens. Otherwise, you can edit your .ini file in Notepad to set your game up the way you want, but do back your .ini file up elsewhere prior to doing any editing.

I'm not familiar with your motherboard at all; another possible solution involves getting a different graphics card but without knowing what sort of slots you have available and the voltage stuff for your board, that may or may not be possible in your case.

Cheers,
Kay

Geoffro,

It's a shame your old system took a dive. This game runs best on a souped up legacy computer running Win 98.

http://www.simhq.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=143;t=000096

Simple, EAW does not work with Intel graphics chips, and never has to my knowledge.

The only option you have is to buy a cheap video card. GeForce is the best in my opinion, but others may have other ideas.

Do we know for a fact that people with Intel graphics chips still cannot run EAW once Sydbod's patch has been installed and Mr. Jelly's modified executable with its accompanying files are being used? I don't know that anyone has tried that and reported back...

If it won't work to solve the error, then a change of video card would be all that would help. You would have to install a new card to one of your spare slots (and potentially disable the Intel one, though modern BIOS often will disable the onboard video chip automatically when a slotted video card is detected), but you would want to research what sort of slots you have available to you prior to actually buying or installing a new video card. Different motherboards come with different slot configurations. You wouldn't want to buy a card intended for one form of slot if that slot isn't available on your board.

Cheers,
Kay

There suddenly seems to be a lot of 7217 experts ready to give advice :rolleyes: .
Kay has covered developments well, and Sydbod and I did a heap of experiments using some code snippets to pinpoint the exact routine which generates the 7217 error. There is a heap of info on the net about the 7217 error and Intel chips. However, there are a a few places in the eaw.exe where the program is instructed to tell ther user that error 7217 has occurred. They may be a loose connection with the Intel chip error, but the 7217 error in EAW is generated as a result of an unambiguous instuction from the eaw.exe. It literally states "7217". Sydbod and I changed the numbers so that when the error occurred the number displayed told us exactly which routine was being used, and we could narrow it down to one. Therfore I think that there is virtually no connection between the EAW 7217 and other 7217 errors which relate to certain Intel chips, running software that is not EAW.

Most of the newer drivers for newer cards do not seem to support 8 bit. The nVidia situation is well documented. The most difficult problem is when a user needs the latest cards and drivers to make other software run, and therefore reverting to a older driver is not feasible. In such cases the only solution may be to used my 7217 fixed exe, with "simplified" selection screens. The problem is with these screens and not the game itself. My fixed exe cons EAW into thinking the screens are 16 bit. The trouble is that it reads them as 16 bit, and the normal screens are unreadable when displayed as the data for two 8 bit pixels is read as though it is the data for one 16 bit pixel. Hence the need for some readable screens.
I really wish that someone could modify Picpac in some way that it produces 16 bit screens, or alternatively modify the eaw.exe so that it could read *.bmp files, rather than uncompress these *.pic and *.mps files.

Jel

I don't profess to be an expert on 7217, however, I do feel 7217 is a symptom of changing technology. All applications run best on their native platform.

i didnt say i was an expert either, i said you lot were guru's,

i was only writing what i found!! and what had helped me,

i had the same prob, followed the advice that i put on here and my prob is fine now. :p :p