Requesting help with SH3 Installation Problems

I have an early DVD version of SH3 that includes the Starforce driver in the installation package. I didn't realize that my DVD included the Starforce driver until I saw an error message that said that the Starforce driver was incompatible with my OS.

I searched for and found the Subsim post that describes the process of uninstalling SH3, removing the Starforce driver, re-installing SH3 and the 1.4b patch and replacing the SH3 executable and 4 DLL's with new files from the rld-sh14.rar archive.

I followed those instructions to the tee. I was able to perform all of the above steps and successfully run SH3. The first time I started SH3 after working through the above process, the game started just fine. It played the full intro movie without problem and I was able to navigate through the various menus.

I exited the game and came back to start SH3 again a few moments later, at which point I got one of those generic, nondescript Windows error messages. After the Windows error message appeared, McAfee Anti-Virus popped an alert saying that it found a virus in Utils.dll and quarantined the file.

The odd thing is that after I downloaded the rld-sh14.rar archive, I scanned it with McAfee and McAfee didn't detect any viruses.

I am hoping that someone here has a clean, virus free version of the rld-sh14.rar archive. If anyone has a virus free version, please contact me via PM and I'll work with you to transfer the file via some other means.

Thank You In Advance,

Mike

[ExFishermanBob]

Are you sure that it's actually a virus indication - it could just be McAfee detecting a change, I suppose, to the file. Can you indicate to McAfee that it should (say) ignore the SH3 installation?

Hi ExFishermanBob, I don't know if McAfee detected a real virus or if it hit on a false positive. McAfee reports that it found a virus or threat, but it doesn't specify which one it is. McAfee reports the threat name, that it was found it in the Utils.dll file in my SH3 installation folder and that the file has been quarantined. I would have expected McAfee to find the virus, if it existed, when I initially scanned the archive before unpacking it, but it didn't.

[PapaSmurf]

McAfee did the same thing to me. I told it to ignore and things ran fine. I did not let McAfee quarantine the file. It gave me an alert every time I fired the game up. I turned McAfee off and ran the game a few times over a couple of days and then turned McAfee back on and it never happened again. I hope your fix is as simple.

Hi PapaSmurf, I must have McAfee configured wrong, because it automatically quarantined the file before I could do anything about it. I completely uninstalled SH3, so I'll give your suggestion a shot and see what happens when I re-install SH3.

[PapaSmurf]

Yeah BWS, reinstall the game and turn McAfee off and play the game for a few days. Then turn McAfee back on and see what happens. It worked for me. I don't know if McAfee "learned" that the file was safe or what but like I said earlier, it never quarantined the file or gave me any alert after I did that. I have been playing the game for a couple months now since that happened. Good luck.

[CTU_Clay]

Originally Posted by Battle Wagon Sailor

Hi PapaSmurf, I must have McAfee configured wrong, because it automatically quarantined the file before I could do anything about it. I completely uninstalled SH3, so I'll give your suggestion a shot and see what happens when I re-install SH3.

To cleanly uninstall sh3 you must rid your system of all traces of the sh3 folder/files etc., which includes the files in the "Documents" area. Then it is a must you clean up the registry. I use an older version of ccleaner to clean my mistakes.

BTW: I seen nothing in the thread previous posts as to what operating system you are using in your computer.

Best wishes,
-clay

Originally Posted by PapaSmurf

Yeah BWS, reinstall the game and turn McAfee off and play the game for a few days. Then turn McAfee back on and see what happens. It worked for me. I don't know if McAfee "learned" that the file was safe or what but like I said earlier, it never quarantined the file or gave me any alert after I did that. I have been playing the game for a couple months now since that happened. Good luck.

Hi PapaSmurf,

Thank you for the tips! I'll give this a try and see if it solves the problem.

Originally Posted by CTU_Clay

To cleanly uninstall sh3 you must rid your system of all traces of the sh3 folder/files etc., which includes the files in the "Documents" area. Then it is a must you clean up the registry. I use an older version of ccleaner to clean my mistakes.

BTW: I seen nothing in the thread previous posts as to what operating system you are using in your computer.

Best wishes,
-clay

Hi Clay,

Thank you for the advice!

I deleted the SH3 folder in My Documents after I uninstalled SH3 via Control Panel. I also had to manually delete the main SH3 folder since there were remnants still left in the folder from the 1.4b patch that Control Panel didn't remove.

I'm running WIN 7 Pro 32 Bit. I have SH4 and SH5 installed on the same machine, so I installed SH3 to the default C:\Ubisoft folder. I made sure not to install to the x86 Program Files folder. I also used CCleaner to clean the registry after everything had been uninstalled or manually deleted. (Learned about CCleaner here on Subsim )

Hi Folks,

I just wanted to give a quick status update and bring this thread to closure.

I searched for another version of the archive and found a link to another version in a thread here on Subsim. When I compared the files in this new archive with the files that I previously found, I discovered that the files were exactly the same as those I downloaded previously from another source.

I uninstalled SH3, manually removed any remnants and cleaned the registry with CCleaner. I then reinstalled SH3, patched to 1.4b and replaced SH3.exe and the four .dll files with the replacement files from the archive. The first two times that I started SH3, the game launched without problem. On the third restart, as before, Windows generated an error message and McAfee detected a virus and quarantined the Utils.dll file.

Based on advice from CTU-Clay, I purchased a digital download version of SH3 that is patched to 1.4b from Amazon for $ 9.99. I went through the whole uninstall, manual deletion of remnants and cleaning the registry with CCleaner process again. The game installed without problem and reliably starts and plays every time without any issues.

I would like to thank everyone for their advice and insight. I can finally play SH3 again without the Starforce headaches.

Best Regards,

Mike

[CTU_Clay]

Glad to see everything worked out okay for you MIke.

Happy Hunting!

-clay

Originally Posted by CTU_Clay

Glad to see everything worked out okay for you MIke.

Happy Hunting!

-clay

Thanks Clay! On now to getting some mods installed and working.

Best Regards,

Mike