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View Full Version : Trying to help a buddy.....Crash on install

Cajun
02-14-08, 07:03 PM
Buddy of mine is trying to install SH IV....and is not having any luck. Everytime he installs it....goes to play....gets to the UBI "dancing circles"...and gets a "Windows has detected....and must close....failure is SH4 executable. He's got the original disk...and recently thought it was his vid card so he upgraded ....did the online test and now everything passes.

I don't know his specs...I'm posting here...as he doesn't know about here (yet)...and we're trying to get him up and running soon. But his system does pass the online test.

Anyone have similar issues? I can get his specs soon enough. I recommended he uninstall...defrag and try the install again. Would the dump of the error help?
kiwi_2005
02-14-08, 08:20 PM
What OS?, is the game patched to 1.4 as Ubi added a no dvd fix in the latest patch, you wont need the dvd to play. Cause it could something as simple as not reading the dvd in the drive or its jumping and the load fails. :hmm:
Cajun
02-14-08, 08:28 PM
Win XP SP2.
1GB ram
ATI x1950 pro 256m vid card
2.4ghz

Only fails on the upper side due to the 1GB of ram. Makes the cut on the minimum (as does mine...but mine installs).

He's only tried it with the DVD in the drive...not without....should that matter? Wierd if it does.

ETA: Oh I see what you mean...yeah that could be an issue....I don't know what speed his DVD is (or it's quality).
AVGWarhawk
02-14-08, 08:46 PM
Perhaps dump the opening videos will do the trick. I do not know the proceedure to dump the opening videos. Perhaps someone here can direct you to these files. I have seen others with this problem. Dump the opening video and the game loads.
CaptainHaplo
02-14-08, 08:50 PM
just rename the opening video files - or just rename the movies folder to be movies1 or something tends to work well. So he never gets the movie with the sub and poem? When you installed - make sure you install using the directx on the cd- and also install the windows media codecs. Check and make sure he hasnt download any codecs from online as they often conflict with things like game movies and cause such crashes!
Cajun
02-14-08, 09:07 PM
Thanx guys. We're on the phone right now...we'll see it once he's re-installed.

So far he's uninstalled....defragged....and presently reinstalling. I told him NOT to use the Upgrade launcher...and actually just download 1.4 from UBI. We'll look into the movies idea....that's happened to me before on another game.
Cajun
02-14-08, 11:52 PM
Ok...got an update...some progress made.

Once he got thru...all the way...once he removed the DVD. Then it resumed it's old stuff...without the DVD. So we renamed the movies....ok...we got in but it takes forever to load.

Any other ideas?
Torps
02-15-08, 01:23 AM
Ok...got an update...some progress made.

Once he got thru...all the way...once he removed the DVD. Then it resumed it's old stuff...without the DVD. So we renamed the movies....ok...we got in but it takes forever to load.

Any other ideas?

Well run your registry cleaner and defrag that thing a few times:D.
Cajun
02-15-08, 09:53 AM
I'll recommend the defrag...but since he's not that computer savy to be digging into the registry....and I'm 3 states over from him...I'm not gonna recommend the reg cleaner just yet....unless you know of one that only "removes" old/non-used stuff.

Prefer a "free" one....if you know of one...post it here....or drop me a PM.

Thanx again.
Cajun
Cajun
02-15-08, 08:33 PM
Ok..got an update...seems like he only had very little of his HDD left available....like 5% of an 80GB HDD after install. I'm thinking that could be some of the issue (swap file and the like). This is his primary drive where his OS is....I told him to move all of the non-essential stuff (pictures, videos, documents, etc) off to his secondary drive to free up as much space.

Anyone have an idea on how big the swap file/how much space you need on the HDD AFTER you install it ?

Thanx.
Takao
02-15-08, 10:09 PM
I had been playing with about 1.5 gig free and didn't seem to have much trouble. I think on my old system it went as low as 800-900 meg.

Also, have him check to see how much space the recycle bin takes up. Unless he modified it, it is something like 10%. Drop it down to about one or two percent.
Cajun
02-16-08, 12:43 PM
Well he cleaned up like 30G from his primary....and without the movies (movies were renamed) he was able to play. Tried to put the movies back in...no joy. So it looks like we're good...without the movies....but he can watch those stand alone if he needs to. It's the wierdest thing I've ever seen.

Thanks to all who helped.
John Channing
02-16-08, 01:29 PM
Well he cleaned up like 30G from his primary....and without the movies (movies were renamed) he was able to play. Tried to put the movies back in...no joy. So it looks like we're good...without the movies....but he can watch those stand alone if he needs to. It's the wierdest thing I've ever seen.

Thanks to all who helped.

He probably has an older version of Windows Mediaplayer and did not update it during the install. If that is the case the movies won't play, and the whole thing might lock or crash.

JCC
AVGWarhawk
02-16-08, 03:31 PM
John is correct. Get the new version of Windows Media Player.