Installing problems(BFD)

[Duneguy]

I am currently running on a pentium 4. i got a geforce 2  and 256 ram. my read speed is 40x. i am going to install dune and when it gets to "dialouge.ab" it freezes.. then nothing. any ideas?

[Nyarlathotep]

Has the game run okay before on this system ? You might want to check for scratches on the cd, or try to install it on another comp to see if it might be the cd.

Could you please attach your dxdiag output here, with the tests on the video and sound run ?

[Duneguy]

it has never run on THIS system. it has however run on my previous system. it was win/98. and where would i get the dxdiag you speak of?

[Nyarlathotep]

Go to start => run and type there dxdiag. Run the tests on the video and sound tab. When done, on the first tab you'll see a button "save all information". Save it as a txt file on your desktop for easy access. When you reply here, click the browse button and attach the dxdiag.txt file.

[Duneguy]

here it is.. better than i thought :)

[Nyarlathotep]

Are you able and if so, have you tried to install it on another computer (to make sure it isn't the cd) ?

I will go over the attachement and get back to you ASAP.

[Nyarlathotep]

You might want to try and update the video card drivers..

[jacobdouds]

Are you sure it wasn't any of your 'Dark Side of Life' things that could have caused a problem?

[Duneguy]

lol it may have benn.. but i didnt mess with it... um it installed on my old somputer.. but then i tried to install it again after i wanted to play it on here and couldnt, and it stuck on the same thing... someone told me that westwood had said there wer esome cases of faulty cd's... i dunno... but my dark side of life didnt get to this!

all my drivers are up to date i believe.. i have an auto update thingy...

[jacobdouds]

Auto-update? How?

I thought thats for windows only.

[Nyarlathotep]

About installation problems, try this from the Westwood FAQ (especially the program they include):

"First, delete all contents of your Windows Temp folder. You can do this by clicking Start, Search, Files and Folders, then type 'Temp'. You should have one temp folder for Windows. Double click this. Select all files in your temp folder, then press delete. Depending on the number of files you have in that folder, this process may take a few minutes.

Second, try copying the entire contents of the setup folder to your hard drive and then run the setup.exe from your hard drive. Make sure you still have the Emperor disc in the CD-ROM when you do this.

Third, try to change IDE transfer mode from DMA2 or PIO Mode 4 to PIO 1 mode or standard mode. Most of the new drives are now shipping with DMA2 and PIO mode 4. This change can be done in System BIOS set up if the BIOS setup allows.

Fourth, right-click on the "My Computer" icon and select "Properties". Then click on the [Device Manager] tab in the window that appears. Click on the "+" next to the "CD-ROM" listing. From whichever drive you're using to install, double-click on it (or click once and select the properties button below) to access the properties of the drive. Under the [settings] tab, make sure you turn *off* the checkbox for "DMA". If it is already off, you may want to try turning is *on* to see if that works too.

Fifth, from the same settings window as the DMA, try turning *on* "Autodetect", if it's not already checked.

Sixth, if the DMA switch doesn't work, or if it's not an available option for your CD-ROM, please check with the CD-ROM manufacturer's website for an updated windows driver. Sometimes in addition to the driver a company will offer firmware code updates to the actual hardware in the CD-ROM. Either of these have worked for other customers having the same compatibility issues.

Note: for Windows 2000/NT users you may need to edit your registry. To do this, change the DMA setting for NT (as the DVD/CDROM is

loaded as a SCSI(ATAPI)) device as below:-

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesatapiParametersDevice

1DriverParameter

and change the key value from "DmaDetectionLevel = 0x1;" to...

"DmaDetectionLevel = 0x0;".

Seventh, you may attempt to install Emperor on another system to be sure that the CDROM isn't faulty.

If so, you can find CDROM drives at your nearest computer retailer for as low as $20 US Funds. An investment that will ensure your ability to run programs developed by various software companies.

If you are still experiencing installation problems, please see visit this link and download the update: ftp://ftp.westwood.com/pub/emperor/update/EMPENGINSTFIX10.ZIP

The directions about how to apply this update are included in the download. Make sure you read and print them BEFORE proceeding to the other files. The instructions are named emperor.txt. "

[Duneguy]

Hrm nothing worked... the file has to have become corrput somehow.. it gets 3/5 done then it always freezes, even when i try to copy and past it to my HD

[jacobdouds]

Odd, but, I think I will just Jot that down Nyar, thanx.

It may be a corrupt file, but, it doesn't sound like it, chack the surfice of the disk, and, check, if you can, the laser of your CD-Rom.

[Duneguy]

hrm.. the cd is in almost perfect condition, and the cd rom works fine for everything else...... i can afford to but another game.. plus i will have 3 game backup disks

[Nyarlathotep]

Have you made sure that you've shutdown any program that you might not need (like your virus scanner) ?

Also, try installing the game on a fiends computer.

Do you have any cd copy programs installed, like CloneCD, Nero, ect. If so, try uninstalling them.

[Duneguy]

yeah i shut down anything i dont need. didnt work on a freinds , and nope dont got any cd cloning programs

[Nyarlathotep]

Well if it didn't work on a freinds computer, it looks like the cd..

Does your friend have a copy as well ? If so, try his copy..