Cavscout74

@Henris One thing to double check is the direction of control.  If the drone core or crew pod is oriented wrong, the rover won't operate correctly.   It can be very easy to get drone cores pointing up instead of forward, for example.   If you spawn your rover and the horizon is pointing straight up, the controls are set wrong.  It should point straight forward
For your second question- no, the stock rover wheels don't need any DLC to operate.  They've had built in motors since long before any DLC.  Only the aircraft landing gear are unpowered.

Should be F1 for the default screenshot key (and F2 to hide the UI).  There is no sound or notification for the in-game screenshots (vs the Steam screenshots).  The screenshots should be saved to the screenshot folder in the KSP directory of the copy you are playing. 

Not a fix, but the only time I've had KSP reset resolution is if I click the mouse or tap a key while the game is either in a load screen or otherwise hanging while it's doing something.  If I'm very careful about not doing that, it never resets on me.  There also was a mod (AnyRes or something like that IIRC) that allowed you to change resolution without going back to the main menu. 

After getting the Schnauzer fixed by replacing the cfg file, I decided to look on the US2 thread to see if anyone else was having octocore problems and it turns out I wasn't alone.  Replacing the beta-2 release with the beta-1 release broke everything, so then I went further back and replaced it with whatever version I was using in 1.8.1 and everything is working fine.

Look in the "Gamedata/Squad/Contracts/Contracts.cfg" and there is a line "AverageAvailableContracts = ##"     You can edit that value (or write a MM patch) to increase it.  20-25 is usually a good figure

Do you have Kopernicus installed?  It is version locked and among other things can cause issues with solar panels when the wrong version is installed.  I don't know if there is a 1.8 version yet, you'd have to check on the Kopernicus thread.

Take a look here:
 
 

So, I just confirmed I'm having the same issue.  I even used a different fuel tank, but the same engine.  So then I tried it with a Poodle instead of a Wolfhound, and still the same issue.  For what it's worth, as of version 1.6 (I think), it was in fact working like an Apollo-style service module, and the fuel & oxidizer in the SM were available to an attached engine.
 
Update:  I was looking in the Bugtracker and I think this has already been reported as a bug:
https://bugs.kerbalspaceprogram.com/issues/21141
 

Alternately, just use the Alt-F12 cheat menu & select "unlimited electric" from the cheat menu.  It should allow you to regain control to turn you battery on, then toggle the cheat off.

And I had a chance to pull up my old version & launch it in 1.4.5 and guess what:   I made it.  Almost.  It still broke - at the engine plate this time.  But it broke at around 45km, when I got a little too aggressive trying to pitch up a little to bump my Ap above 70km before my lower stage ran dry.   I also noticed some of my life support tanks had the wrong materials in them in the old version, and I don't know how the densities compare, so I could have had more mass there too.  So between different materials in the tanks, extra payload weight & a lumpier fairing, that combination is the probable cause of the break, not a change in 1.4.5