I give up
 

For some reason, I can't get SH3 to run again on this machine.
I've tried every trick I can think of, but it still refuses to run.
I can only think it's the Win SP-3.

Some more details please.
An idea might come up.

Don't give up yet.:up:

I'm not sure SP-3 will be the cause, I'm farly confident I ran the game on XP with SP-3 installed in the past.

Some solid details on your rig, your SH3 version and all the tricks you have thought of and we'll get you running...

You say run again, when did it last work successfully? Have you reinstalled SH3? At what point does it fail to work?

I presume you performed a registry clean after deleting the original SH3 folder prior to reinstalling the game.

How smoothly did Windows Update go after the reformat/reinstall of XP? Reason I ask is because I did the same thing on my work computer computer about 5/6 months and had a horrible time with the updates. The Background Intelligent Transfer Service kept getting deleted, which stopped the update service from working properly. After googling the problem it appeared there were a great number of people experiencing windows update problems with XP.

I noticed in one of your other posts you mentioned indexing. Try turning it off or on as the case may be. Some years ago I had another game, Grand Prix Legends, that refused to run on my XP machine unless indexing was turned on.

Thanks for the replies: The game ran fine on this machine in the past. I had to do a reformat (falcon NW factory disc, no new hardware) and did a complete windows XP pro update. In the past I had NOT installed XP SP-3.
Indeexinfg was on- WTF I need indexing for I dunno, I allowed everthing to install/run whatever it wanted...

Head hurts

So that's why you asked me about SP-3 earlier. I didn't look then, and now that I'm looking I don't know where to look. I can't find the Service Packs anywhere. :oops:

SP-3 for XP was released April, 2008. Surely someone would have complained about SH3 having a problem with SP-3 earlier, no? A corrupt installation I can see, hence the reason I asked about Windows Update. Was there any problem installing SH3, or just that it won't run?

To check the XP Service Pack - rightclick "My Computer" -> Properties -> General Tab

It should read your OS and the installed Service Pack - iirc (has been some time now)

Don't install SH3 into the default path - as SP3 came with some sort of UAC.

UAC protects certain directories and you may have trouble with modding the game.

Yep, that reinforces my thinking....the game used to be installed on my D drive on my old system :yep:

A good point.

Thanks for straighting out my poor old head. Yes indeed, I have SP3, and SH3 runs perfectly.

So, try to reinstall on a separate drive then?

Or perhaps reformat again, but use the starfarce-free version? Where would I find that, at UBI?
Back in a bit.

Got to be worth a try...good luck.

"I give up"

Well if you're on the German side in WWII eventually you'll have to, that Churchill is a bulldog. :up:

I have XP Media Edition, similar to XP Pro but with some fluffware. After a OS reinstall I usually have to remove a bunch of stuff from startup, or change the settings in START, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services. Particularly crap like Adobe and Java automatic updates, which insist on setting themselves to automatic startup then check the internet to see if there's an update every two minutes while you're trying to run a game. Most likely cause of any problem after a new OS install is conflicting crap that really doesn't need to be running.

Other possibility is some DirectX files didn't get installed, START, RUN, type DXDIAG in the RUN window to see what you have.

"Don't install SH3 into the default path - as SP3 came with some sort of UAC."

I had to install SP-3 for one of the Trainz patches, no UAC here. AFAIK Vista was the first Windows to have UAC.

...same. worked fine.

Separate drive, no go.
It's gotta be the win update.

It doesn't have to be a different drive. Just not in "Program Files". So any other folder created in the C-drive should do fine to avoid UAC. If it is actually present in SP3, I'm not sure myself. But it can't hurt to install it elsewhere.

I just checked this post http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=144708 , it seems the problem is not XP SP3.

There is surely another problem with your case.