Reinstall problems, can anyone help?

Olsin · 08-21-11, 05:40 AM

Hi guys .. I've recently installed SH3 on a windows 7 system. I changed the default installation path and it installed and ran just fine.
8 patrols into my first campaign a ran across a convoy at the western approaches. The weather was terrible and the initial contact was quite close so after shadowing it for an hour and finding it's heading and speed i backed off and set up my own waypoints so that i could intercept it later on that night (contact was late morning).
I'd got well out of visual distance so decided to save the game and carry on the next day.
I know of the bug that'll sometimes mess up a reload after such a save but i've never had any problems with it. I've actually saved a game with a convoy right over top of me and theres been no problems reloading.
Anyway...yeps..the reload this time messed up. I tried a few more times to reload the saved game but it'd CTD within 20 seconds of the game loading everytime.
I went back to the career and deleted that saved game so that the current save game was while i was still in base and tried to load that. again it wouldn't have it. Same problem.
So i deleted that whole patrol and the saved games of the previous patrol back to being in base, Exited SH3 and rebooted my computer and restarted SH3.
The current save game still wouldn't load.."Damn" i thought..."i've broken something". So i decided to uninstall SH3 together with all saved games, rebooted the computer and tried to reinstall. As soon as i clicked on the "browse" button to change the default directory it CTD'd with the message that idriver.exe had failed (or something like that).
Then i uninstalled or deleted everything i had that was associated with SH3..commander, mods, etc etc and tried again...same CTD with the same message.

I'm assuming there must be some registry entries or maybe a win 7 related problem thats preventing reinstall of SH3.
I was running SH3 + GWX3 + Magui plus half a dozen other standard mods. I haven't installed any mods lately.
Does anyone have any ideas how i could try and fix the problem?

HW3 · 08-21-11, 07:48 AM

Get one of the several free registry cleaners available at download.com and clean your registry. You should then be able to reinstall SH3. I use TweakNow RegCleaner 2011 myself.

Pisces · 08-21-11, 09:38 AM

It is not just out of visual distance. It doesn't actually despawn unless it it farther then 33 km or so. But the reinstall is a more pressing matter that needs to be solved before the above is usefull. Sorry, I have no suggestion on how to clean the registry. Other than 3rd party tools that have already been mentioned.

Olsin · 08-21-11, 09:51 AM

Downloading a registry cleaner and cleaning the registry unfortunatly didn't solve the problem.

So a bit of searching around online tells me that the problem file (idriver.exe) is something SH3 uses as part of it's autoinstallation. I located the file in program files/common files although i saw there were 2 entries, idriver.exe and idriver(2).exe so i deleted the one with the (2) and tried again...Same problem...Keeps crashing when i click the browse button. Looking back at c:/program files/common files (actually it's program(x86)files) i see the second idriver.exe has respawned so i delete both examples (after copying the original and pasting it to a temp directory) and tried reinstalling sh3 again. Same problem!
Looking back at idriver.exe directory i see 2 more examples of idriver.exe!

I used the reg cleaner you suggested HW3 but i guess whatever is messing about with idriver.exe is either nothing to do with the registry or it's buried in there and TN RC 2011 can't find it...

Has anyone else got any ideas?

Pisces · 08-21-11, 10:36 AM

Isn't there still the normal uninstall option through Control Panel/Programs and Features? Or otherwise trying to install through the DVD but getting the chance to uninstall or repair instead?

Jimbuna · 08-21-11, 10:57 AM

Perform a thorough uninstallation (preferably using the SH3 disk) and include the SH3 folder in your MY DOCS section.

I'm unaware of how good 'TweakNow' is but I would advise using 'crapcleaner'
http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner

(tis free) or even better still the one of my personal choice 'regvac'

http://www.regvac.com/fregvac.htm

This is not free but there is a free trial version available from the above link.

Olsin · 08-21-11, 11:46 AM

Thanks for the replys guys..
Crikey, .. Crapcleaner found an extra 1.3 gig of deletable files over TN RC 2011 although, yeh...it still hasn't sorted the problem out...I'm now thinking that something has broken at OS level so i'm burning GWX3 plus everything else i want to keep and then i'm going to do a full reformat and installation of win 7..
I was hoping i would be spared this solution but short of getting a computer technician around here i can't think of anything else to try.
Weird because apart from refusing to install SH3 my system is running perfectly..I tried installing SH4 and there was no problems there (i stopped the installation though, i just wanted to see if i had a general problem)...Still...it's SH3+GWX i want to play..not the others so a format and reinstall of everything is probably the only way i'm going to get it back..

I had already done a thorough uninstall jim plus i deleted the program folders and basically everything SH3 related...rebooting a couple of times in between..Didn't help though unfortunatly.

I'l never save a game close to a convoy again from now on though..learnt my lesson there..

Thanks again guys for your help...

Jimbuna · 08-21-11, 11:57 AM

Oh heck!!....if it was only a corrupted career save then simply start a new career

If it is more than that then where did you download GWX from?

Olsin · 08-21-11, 01:23 PM

I had already tried to create a new career and get shot of the problem before i made my first post...It was that failure that kicked me into gear to ask here for help..
There wasn't any problem making a new career although just like the initial career it CTD'd within 10-20 seconds of being in world. The base load up was fine, it just CTD'd shortly after i was in the boat.
It was something more than a corrupted career with idriver.exe being at the heart of it...I've tried everything i know to get rid of idriver.exe but it just keeps respawning no matter what i do. I've even - and i'm not happy about searching or deleting anything manually from the registry - searched the registry myself for any idriver.exe related entries, being prepared to delelte whatever i could find. I found nothing!
I'm no computer technician and without someone being able to give me solid advice on the problem, maybe based on their own experience of said same problem..then a reformat is my only viable option if i want to carry on enjoying SH3..
I know i could have probably waited a few days to see if anything cropped up and that option is still available...but i've only got a weeks holiday left and i don't want to waste half of that waiting for a maybe solution....so this evening i'm preparing for a format....if theres no more advice available by tomorrow morning then i'll be reformatting before breakfast...should be back on the bridge by dinner time

Hm,,where i downloaded gwx3. I'm pretty sure it was thegreywolves.com..In fact now that i've just checked that site i'll say 100% that is where i got it from....what significance do you attatch to that jim?

Jimbuna · 08-21-11, 01:32 PM

Not saying this is your problem but for over a year now some people have been reporting problems with GWX files downloaded from our web site.

Current 'best practice' is to take them from my FF account (link above my sig) because it is believed my files may be the only ones available for download that are okay.

Do you have any non GWX mods installed?

Olsin · 08-21-11, 01:48 PM

hm...ok...sounds like i won't be on the bridge until later in the afternoon..;

I won't take any chances..i'll redownload fresh GWX files from your site as you suggest jim...Thanks for the heads up.

Yes, i use a few other mods alongside the GWX made mods...Magui, lifeboat and debris, TDW ejecting pilots and ship/plane damage, torpedo damage final, a few sound and grammaphone mods and a IXc skin mod...nothing exotic and all mods i've used for a long time..maybe some of those are made with GWX3 in mind, i'm not sure.

Jimbuna · 08-21-11, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Olsin

hm...ok...sounds like i won't be on the bridge until later in the afternoon..;

I won't take any chances..i'll redownload fresh GWX files from your site as you suggest jim...Thanks for the heads up.

Yes, i use a few other mods alongside the GWX made mods...Magui, lifeboat and debris, TDW ejecting pilots and ship/plane damage, torpedo damage final, a few sound and grammaphone mods and a IXc skin mod...nothing exotic and all mods i've used for a long time..maybe some of those are made with GWX3 in mind, i'm not sure.

Well take this in an honest context but I would suggest you only use those mods that come with GWX until your certain that your installation is safe and working properly.

After you have achieved that then and add additional third party mods I won't be in a position to assist.

08-22-11, 03:58 PM

Just for the record:

The idriver.exe and related files are InstallShield files.
GWX does not use InstallShield and cannot corrupt those files.
The problem with those Idriver.exe's is well known but there seems to be no easy fix.
Lot's of ways to try, but none are guaranteed to work except for a complete re-install of you OS.

08-21-11, 05:40 AM	#1
Olsin Bosun Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Denmark Posts: 63 Downloads: 162 Uploads: 0	Reinstall problems, can anyone help? Hi guys .. I've recently installed SH3 on a windows 7 system. I changed the default installation path and it installed and ran just fine. 8 patrols into my first campaign a ran across a convoy at the western approaches. The weather was terrible and the initial contact was quite close so after shadowing it for an hour and finding it's heading and speed i backed off and set up my own waypoints so that i could intercept it later on that night (contact was late morning). I'd got well out of visual distance so decided to save the game and carry on the next day. I know of the bug that'll sometimes mess up a reload after such a save but i've never had any problems with it. I've actually saved a game with a convoy right over top of me and theres been no problems reloading. Anyway...yeps..the reload this time messed up. I tried a few more times to reload the saved game but it'd CTD within 20 seconds of the game loading everytime. I went back to the career and deleted that saved game so that the current save game was while i was still in base and tried to load that. again it wouldn't have it. Same problem. So i deleted that whole patrol and the saved games of the previous patrol back to being in base, Exited SH3 and rebooted my computer and restarted SH3. The current save game still wouldn't load.."Damn" i thought..."i've broken something". So i decided to uninstall SH3 together with all saved games, rebooted the computer and tried to reinstall. As soon as i clicked on the "browse" button to change the default directory it CTD'd with the message that idriver.exe had failed (or something like that). Then i uninstalled or deleted everything i had that was associated with SH3..commander, mods, etc etc and tried again...same CTD with the same message. I'm assuming there must be some registry entries or maybe a win 7 related problem thats preventing reinstall of SH3. I was running SH3 + GWX3 + Magui plus half a dozen other standard mods. I haven't installed any mods lately. Does anyone have any ideas how i could try and fix the problem? __________________ Prediction is a very hard thing to do, especially if it's about the future .. Niels Bohr.

08-21-11, 07:48 AM	#2
HW3 Navy Seal Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Gresham Oregon Posts: 6,574 Downloads: 458 Uploads: 0	Get one of the several free registry cleaners available at download.com and clean your registry. You should then be able to reinstall SH3. I use TweakNow RegCleaner 2011 myself. __________________ "Some ships are designed to sink...others require our assistance." Nathan Zelk

08-21-11, 09:38 AM	#3
Pisces Silent Hunter Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: AN9771 Posts: 4,904 Downloads: 304 Uploads: 0	It is not just out of visual distance. It doesn't actually despawn unless it it farther then 33 km or so. But the reinstall is a more pressing matter that needs to be solved before the above is usefull. Sorry, I have no suggestion on how to clean the registry. Other than 3rd party tools that have already been mentioned. __________________ My site downloads: https://ricojansen.nl/downloads

08-21-11, 09:51 AM	#4
Olsin Bosun Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Denmark Posts: 63 Downloads: 162 Uploads: 0	Downloading a registry cleaner and cleaning the registry unfortunatly didn't solve the problem. So a bit of searching around online tells me that the problem file (idriver.exe) is something SH3 uses as part of it's autoinstallation. I located the file in program files/common files although i saw there were 2 entries, idriver.exe and idriver(2).exe so i deleted the one with the (2) and tried again...Same problem...Keeps crashing when i click the browse button. Looking back at c:/program files/common files (actually it's program(x86)files) i see the second idriver.exe has respawned so i delete both examples (after copying the original and pasting it to a temp directory) and tried reinstalling sh3 again. Same problem! Looking back at idriver.exe directory i see 2 more examples of idriver.exe! I used the reg cleaner you suggested HW3 but i guess whatever is messing about with idriver.exe is either nothing to do with the registry or it's buried in there and TN RC 2011 can't find it... Has anyone else got any ideas? __________________ Prediction is a very hard thing to do, especially if it's about the future .. Niels Bohr.

08-21-11, 10:36 AM	#5
Pisces Silent Hunter Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: AN9771 Posts: 4,904 Downloads: 304 Uploads: 0	Isn't there still the normal uninstall option through Control Panel/Programs and Features? Or otherwise trying to install through the DVD but getting the chance to uninstall or repair instead? __________________ My site downloads: https://ricojansen.nl/downloads

08-21-11, 10:57 AM	#6
Jimbuna Chief of the Boat Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: 250 metres below the surface Posts: 190,473 Downloads: 63 Uploads: 13	Perform a thorough uninstallation (preferably using the SH3 disk) and include the SH3 folder in your MY DOCS section. I'm unaware of how good 'TweakNow' is but I would advise using 'crapcleaner' http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner (tis free) or even better still the one of my personal choice 'regvac' http://www.regvac.com/fregvac.htm This is not free but there is a free trial version available from the above link. __________________ Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something. Oh my God, not again!!

08-21-11, 11:46 AM	#7
Olsin Bosun Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Denmark Posts: 63 Downloads: 162 Uploads: 0	Thanks for the replys guys.. Crikey, .. Crapcleaner found an extra 1.3 gig of deletable files over TN RC 2011 although, yeh...it still hasn't sorted the problem out...I'm now thinking that something has broken at OS level so i'm burning GWX3 plus everything else i want to keep and then i'm going to do a full reformat and installation of win 7.. I was hoping i would be spared this solution but short of getting a computer technician around here i can't think of anything else to try. Weird because apart from refusing to install SH3 my system is running perfectly..I tried installing SH4 and there was no problems there (i stopped the installation though, i just wanted to see if i had a general problem)...Still...it's SH3+GWX i want to play..not the others so a format and reinstall of everything is probably the only way i'm going to get it back.. I had already done a thorough uninstall jim plus i deleted the program folders and basically everything SH3 related...rebooting a couple of times in between..Didn't help though unfortunatly. I'l never save a game close to a convoy again from now on though..learnt my lesson there.. Thanks again guys for your help... __________________ Prediction is a very hard thing to do, especially if it's about the future .. Niels Bohr.

08-21-11, 11:57 AM	#8
Jimbuna Chief of the Boat Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: 250 metres below the surface Posts: 190,473 Downloads: 63 Uploads: 13	Oh heck!!....if it was only a corrupted career save then simply start a new career If it is more than that then where did you download GWX from? __________________ Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something. Oh my God, not again!!

08-21-11, 01:23 PM	#9
Olsin Bosun Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Denmark Posts: 63 Downloads: 162 Uploads: 0	I had already tried to create a new career and get shot of the problem before i made my first post...It was that failure that kicked me into gear to ask here for help.. There wasn't any problem making a new career although just like the initial career it CTD'd within 10-20 seconds of being in world. The base load up was fine, it just CTD'd shortly after i was in the boat. It was something more than a corrupted career with idriver.exe being at the heart of it...I've tried everything i know to get rid of idriver.exe but it just keeps respawning no matter what i do. I've even - and i'm not happy about searching or deleting anything manually from the registry - searched the registry myself for any idriver.exe related entries, being prepared to delelte whatever i could find. I found nothing! I'm no computer technician and without someone being able to give me solid advice on the problem, maybe based on their own experience of said same problem..then a reformat is my only viable option if i want to carry on enjoying SH3.. I know i could have probably waited a few days to see if anything cropped up and that option is still available...but i've only got a weeks holiday left and i don't want to waste half of that waiting for a maybe solution....so this evening i'm preparing for a format....if theres no more advice available by tomorrow morning then i'll be reformatting before breakfast...should be back on the bridge by dinner time Hm,,where i downloaded gwx3. I'm pretty sure it was thegreywolves.com..In fact now that i've just checked that site i'll say 100% that is where i got it from....what significance do you attatch to that jim? __________________ Prediction is a very hard thing to do, especially if it's about the future .. Niels Bohr.

08-21-11, 01:32 PM	#10
Jimbuna Chief of the Boat Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: 250 metres below the surface Posts: 190,473 Downloads: 63 Uploads: 13	Not saying this is your problem but for over a year now some people have been reporting problems with GWX files downloaded from our web site. Current 'best practice' is to take them from my FF account (link above my sig) because it is believed my files may be the only ones available for download that are okay. Do you have any non GWX mods installed? __________________ Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something. Oh my God, not again!!

08-21-11, 01:48 PM	#11
Olsin Bosun Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Denmark Posts: 63 Downloads: 162 Uploads: 0	hm...ok...sounds like i won't be on the bridge until later in the afternoon..; I won't take any chances..i'll redownload fresh GWX files from your site as you suggest jim...Thanks for the heads up. Yes, i use a few other mods alongside the GWX made mods...Magui, lifeboat and debris, TDW ejecting pilots and ship/plane damage, torpedo damage final, a few sound and grammaphone mods and a IXc skin mod...nothing exotic and all mods i've used for a long time..maybe some of those are made with GWX3 in mind, i'm not sure. __________________ Prediction is a very hard thing to do, especially if it's about the future .. Niels Bohr.

08-22-11, 03:58 PM	#13
Madox58 Stowaway Posts: n/a Downloads: Uploads:	Just for the record: The idriver.exe and related files are InstallShield files. GWX does not use InstallShield and cannot corrupt those files. The problem with those Idriver.exe's is well known but there seems to be no easy fix. Lot's of ways to try, but none are guaranteed to work except for a complete re-install of you OS.