Birth of the Federation

Hello.

It's been maybe 10 years since I've played this, so I'm not the best with how to find issues with the game files. Sorry in advance

I had a look through the old topic titles, but I couldn't find anything that matched - I found something about the starbase crash but it appears it's been fixed and is not exactly the same problem.



My game crashed when I am in combat. The combat loads, but when I click the "turn" button, the game crashes. I thought it might be due to starbase model, but I tried out a ship to ship battle and it still crashed.

I tried reinstalling and this time doing windowed screen. It still crashed.

I downloaded the game from BOTF installers 2.0.4 (released 7-5-2026) link.

Here are the event viewer details for the non windowed and windowed screen crashes.

Non-windowed
Faulting application name: trek.exe, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x37965563
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00000000
Faulting process id: 0x40DC
Faulting application start time: 0x1DD23160184154A
Faulting application path: C:\botf\UM5\trek.exe
Faulting module path: unknown
Report Id: f82aff83-3ae8-4e26-9ac4-563315717b29
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:


Windowed
Faulting application name: trek.exe, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x37965563
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00000000
Faulting process id: 0x7DD0
Faulting application start time: 0x1DD231B37A62A9E
Faulting application path: C:\botf\UM5\trek.exe
Faulting module path: unknown
Report Id: dbb4431e-46a4-4e9b-9802-0d36a9c2b0a9
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:


If you could help, I would greatly appreciate it. If you need me to get more data or install other things to get it working too, please let me know and I will do my best!

Thank you for reading this.

Hi Billos,

A saved game would be helpful and any info on how to reproduce crash.

Thank you for the reply. I appreciate it!

I've attached my save game file to this reply.


I installed only the Ultimate Mod 5 from the installer as mentioned in the previous message.
I didn't do anything special like changing any files. I am running Windows 11.

I will try running the game without any mods and see if the same result happens too. Maybe it's something to do with my system.

*Edit 1

-As for recreating this error, this save game was from my campaign (the battle starts on the next strategic map turn), but I tried starting a new game and got into a battle and it also crashed the same as before.

*I just checked and it doesn't crash in the vanilla game when I get into battles.

**Edit 2

**Tried it on the UDM, it crashed again.
**However, I realised that if I don't select a target, for instance if I just hold position, it doesn't crash after I press end turn. It only crashes if I select a target to attack and then press end turn in battle.

Just tested your saved game without any issue in combat.

Billos wrote: ↑Mon Aug 03, 2026 9:30 am Maybe it's something to do with my system.

before we start looking at your system I have a couple questions;

1. installer version 2.0.4? viewtopic.php?p=47018#p47018

2. what resolution did you install?

if 2.0.4 this might just be a corrupt download?

Thank you for the reply. I really appreciate it.

I just added an edit to my post above at the same time you replied.

Yes, it was the 2.0.4 installer version that you linked.

I installed the 1920 x 1080. I play on a 3840 x 2160 screen. I actually changed my resolution for my screen on my whole system to 1920 x 1080 the first time it crashed to see if that would fix it.

I will try to redownload and reinstall it now. I will send a reply to this thread to let you know how it went.

I redownloaded the installer. However, the same crashes occured both in my original saved game and in a new game that I started. Both crashed to desktop in battles.

I should have asked before any info in crash.log in install path?

will combat "auto" complete?

remove these 3 files from install path (move to new folder)
dxwnd.dll
dxwnd.dxw
ddraw.dll

you will have bad mouse lag but try to see if combat will complete
if still crashes move 3 files back into install path.

Thanks for the reply.

The crash.log in install path has no info in it. It's just an empty notepad/text document

Autocompleting battles still works

I removed the files (put them into a new folder - you were right about the bad mouse lag) and the crash still happened unfortunately.

Here are (some of) my system specs if it helps:

AMD Ryzen 5 7600 6-Core Processor (3.80 GHz)
32GB Ram
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER (12 GB) [I think I also have the built in AMD radeon graphics from the CPU too)
Windows 11 Pro

Thanks again for your help. I appreciate it!

try this,

open stbof.ini and change line;
3D=SOFTWARE
to
3D=DIRECT3D
save stbof.ini
then test
if still crashes
change to
3D=3DFX
save stbof.ini
then test

Unfortunately, I tried all of your suggestions, but they didn't work.

I actually decided to go through and see what mods were having the same crash problem. Maybe it could help identify the problem (or at least let me play some mod)

What I did was start a new game and search for battles (I used scouts mostly and either played federation or klingons)

Here is what I found:

AAM - slightly different crash. Took a few seconds before crashing in battle
AAML - slightly different crash. Crashed on turn 2 (not turn 1)
BOP - No crash
BOPL - No crash
ECM - Same crash as UM5
ECMS - Same crash as UM5
FAW - Same crash as UM5
FMPM- No crash
GALM - No crash
MUM - Same crash as UM5
PLUS - No crash
UCW - Same crash as UM5
UCWL - Same crash as UM5
UDM - Same crash as UM5
UDML - Same crash as UM5
UM5 - Crashed again :/

I also tried the following mods from the older mods installer:

No Building Upgrade Mod - Same crash

The Ultimate Building Mod - It didn't crash - However, has an issue where the research level is always 1 no matter what starting level you choose in the game setup

Babylon 5 - Same crash

To be honest, I really wanted to try out the game with the no building upgrades part which I why I wanted to play UM5.

I understand if you're unable to help more. I really appreciate what you've already done for me with trying to help me fix this problem.

very interesting results, not really what I expected.

I am guessing all tests were 1920 x 1080? if so have you tried 1366 x 768? windowed would be safe or check if 1366 x 768 is supported by your video card.
How to check if resolution is supported by BOTF

general question, did you ever install any prior versions of installer/game? (2.0.3 or any 2.0.4 release candidates?) if so did you have any issues?

I suspect some setting on your video card is conflicting with game.
I am not familiar NVIDIA software, but you should be able to create a custom setting for the trek.exe. I suggest turning most options/settings off.

one other thing you can try is use DxWnd GUI exe
important; the 3 files you removed earlier must not be present in install path to use DxWnd gui
DxWnd GUI can be found in "Tools" C:\botf\tools\DxWnd\dxwnd_Fullscreen\dxwnd.exe
there is a lot of settings you could try in "modify"

Billos wrote: ↑Tue Aug 04, 2026 10:33 am The Ultimate Building Mod - It didn't crash - However, has an issue where the research level is always 1 no matter what starting level you choose in the game setup

this is how Joker intended starting tech

Thanks again Thunderchero for all the help.

I tried windowed 1366 x 768 (it is supported after checking my system) but the crash still happened.

I installed the game from the 2.04 release on the website 5 days ago (viewtopic.php?t=3509). I haven't installed the game on this system before that.

I tried removing defaulting the settings on NVIDIA with this program but it didn't work unfortunately. I also downloaded the tools and tried DxWnd Gui (without the 3 files that I had removed that made the mouse laggy). I tried a few different changes on there but it well above my knowledge of gaming and software.

I really appreciate all your help, but I think I will call it here. I might try one of the mods that worked or I might just leave it til I buy a new graphics card/system

Thanks again for all your help. I really appreciate you helping some stranger half way around the world trying to get their game running Thanks for running this website and all you've done for BOTF fans

I sent you a PM with link to previous installer to test

you can also try to install DirectX 9 redist this does not change your current version of directx. It will only add any files that is not on your system.

EDIT;
one other thing you can try is to use these mpr files. backup and replace current files in install path