🛠 Troubleshooting

[InterAction_studios]

This topic contains some common technical problems you might encounter while trying to play Chicken Invaders Universe and their solutions (if any).

Only low-level technical problems are listed here – if your problem is gameplay-related, you won’t find it here.

[InterAction_studios]

Game starts up in a very small window

or

After launching the game, it takes a long time (10 seconds or more) for the game window to appear

This is related to slow DirectInput initialization if you have USB devices that are reported as joysticks/gamepads (e.g. some users have reported that DACs can cause this).

When this happens, press Alt+F4 to close the game. Go to C:\ProgramData\InterAction studios\CIU\ia\xxx (where xxx is the latest version) and edit the file CIU.cfg with your preferred text editor. Change the line that starts with bTrackJoystick to read:

 bTrackJoystick=No

_{Note: The CIU.cfg file is reset with every update. You’ll need to re-apply the changes every time a new version is released.}

[InterAction_studios]

When trying to launch the game, you receive the error “The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000005)”

This is a very low-level error which means that the operating system (Windows) couldn’t even start the game. Cause unknown. No fix.

[InterAction_studios]

The game randomly crashes with the error “Uncaught std::exception: bad allocation”

Your computer ran out of free memory. Some potential solutions:

• Close all unnecessary applications while running the game.
• If your computer has been running for a long time, reboot it.
• Add more memory (RAM) to your computer.

If the problem persists, you can ask the game to defer loading resources (graphics, music, sound, etc.) until they are actually needed. This will save some memory, at the cost of slight pauses/stutters every time a new enemy appears, or a new sound effect is played. You computer will still eventually run out memory, but you’ll be able to play longer until it does.

Go to C:\ProgramData\InterAction studios\CIU\ia\xxx (where xxx is the latest version) and edit the file CIU.cfg with your preferred text editor. Change the line that starts with loadMode to read:

 loadMode=2

_{Note: The CIU.cfg file is reset with every update. You’ll need to re-apply the changes every time a new version is released.}

[InterAction_studios]

My profile (progress) is lost!

This happens rarely. Cause is unknown, but still under investigation. No fix.

Workaround: If you’ve installed more than one version of the game on your computer, you can use the profile from the previous (good) version. Go to C:\ProgramData\InterAction studios\CIU\ia. You should see more than one numbered folder (each folder corresponds to a version). Delete the latest version (largest number) and start the game again. Your previous profile will be automatically upgraded. Never rename files or move them from one version folder to another, or you’ll end up losing everything.

[InterAction_studios]

I can’t connect to the game server.

What message do you get?

“Failed: Bad Host” or “Other side closed connection”: Your game is outdated. Download the latest version from: ⬇ Download CIU

SOCKETRR_EACCES or SOCKETRR_ECONNREFUSED: Your firewall is preventing the game from using the network. Allow the game through your firewall, or disable your firewall temporarily.

SOCKERR_ETIMEDOUT: The server has crashed, or is temporarily down for an upgrade. Check this first: 🕹 Game Server Status . If problems persist, see below.

“The network is unreachable (code=101)”: You don’t have a working internet connection.

Anything else: Something outside the game’s control is blocking the traffic (your firewall, router, ISP, government). It could also be a temporary international network fault. Try again tomorrow. If problems persist, try using a VPN.

[InterAction_studios]

Steam version crashes upon startup, however stand-alone version works fine.

The Steam overlay has known incompatibilities with overclocking software like MSIAfterburner or Rivatuner (this is true even if you have disabled the overlay in the Steam options). Disable any such software and try again.