Troubleshooting

Frequently asked questions

When starting the game, a notification says the video card is unsupported even though it has enough memory.

• If the game is started with a video card having 4 GB memory or more, the game mistakenly thinks it has insufficient memory and displays a notable UNSUPPORTED dialog. The only way to fix it is to edit SWAT4(X).exe in a hex editor. This patch is tested to work with Good Old Games SWAT4 v1.1 and TSS v1.0 binaries.
• Open SWAT4(X).exe in a hex editor. Search for bytes:

  0F 85 5C 01

  There should be exactly one match. Replace this with:

  90 E9 5C 01

  The warning will now be skipped at startup. If you cannot find the bytes or there are multiple matches, the patch is not valid for that game binary. Make sure you have the GOG version installed.

I need to host an Internet multiplayer server behind a firewall or NAT (Network Address Translation). Which settings do I need to change?

• This guide explains how to host a publicly accessible server on the Internet. For hosting on private VPNs, see Host Private Server.
• To be able to host a game you need administrative access to your firewall or NAT device. It may not be possible if you have a NAT-shared IP among many users.
  • For people having only a firewall and a public IP pointing to the same machine:
    • Go to your firewall settings and allow all incoming connections to TCP and UDP ports 10480, 10481, 10482, and 10483. Outgoing traffic should be enabled without restriction.
  • For people behind a NAT device with different public and LAN IP's:
    • Go to your NAT device settings and forward all the incoming connections to TCP and UDP ports 10480, 10481, 10482, and 10483 to your LAN IP in which the game server is run.
  • If you are having problems hosting behind a firewall, alternatively it is possible to place your computer in the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone) so that all the incoming connections from the Internet are forwarded to your computer. Beware this might cause security problems if you have any open services on the host computer.

When I start the game I see the launch logo, but then only a black screen appears. I use SWAT 4 v1.1 or the expansion pack.

• This is usually a firewall problem as the game freezes trying to connect to the Internet. Set up your firewall correctly to allow the Swat4(X).exe to access the Internet.

When starting the game on Windows 7, the screen starts flickering between the desktop and black while an occasional sounds plays. After that the game crashes with a message like Error setting display mode: CreateDevice failed (E_INVALIDARG). Please delete your Swat4X.ini file if this error prevents you from starting the game. I have multiple screens attached.

• This issue is related to having multiple screens with different resolutions. One way to fix it is to disconnect all others except the main screen, and the game should run.

When starting the game on Windows 7, the splash screen takes a several minutes to appear while rundll32.exe hangs in the background.

• This might be caused by a glitched dll in the Windows compatibility layer.
  • If you have 64bit OS, go to windows\syswow64\ and rename gameux.dll to something without .dll extension
  • If you have 32bit OS, go to windows\system32\ and rename gameux.dll to something without .dll extension
• In both cases you'll have to take ownership of the file to move it. See more [1].

When I start the game I can see the 3D-background but not the menu and/or my graphics look very strange (example). I have an old Nvidia video card.

• When encountering any rendering glitches, it's usually best to update the graphics drives which you can get from Nvidia website.

When I start SWAT 4 or TSS I get a "C++ runtime error". I have a PC with a dual core processor (usually Dell or HP).

• This problem is caused by the Securom copy protection. You need a new Swat4.exe file to start your game. See here how to get it.
• Another recommended way to fix this is to just acquire the GOG version of the game, since it has no bundled DRM installed.

Support forums

If the above section didn't help, you should see the SWAT 4 subreddit or ask for help on any similar web forums.

Remember that any issues need to be described in more detail:

• What kind of user actions are needed to reach the faulty game state.
• The exact error message if there was any.
• A description of your system specs and what mods are installed on the game. If you don't know what kind of PC you have, then you can also submit a DxDiag infofile.
  • Windows Start Menu -> type DxDiag -> there is a button which you can use to export all the information to a txt file that you can add to your post.