C4 & DFBHD Installing issue

[sleeplessone]

Hi

I seek some help trying to install C4 on to windows XP Pro Sp2 (OEM) ony the new PC i build. This problem exists for DF Black hawk Down as well.

I had no problems installing it in Vista or on my Old PC that was running XP Pro SP2 (upgrade from home)

The Installshield installer , "SETUP.EXE" just hangs and then quits at 0% and in some cases 99%.

I have seen a workround which involved installing through "Safe Mode" in XP, but its a little impractical and I would like to know why.

The only other solution from my investigation was to use "MSCONFIG" in a diagnostic start up, a limbo between safe mode and normal mode, which worked.

However as soon as i add all Services that are labled as Microsoft from the Services.msc , through MSCONFIG Services tab , i get the problem above with the installer.

Problem for me is i would like to try and fix this and oddly enough my MCP in windows XP doesnt help much :)

One possibility is there a Hotfix update for windows XP would be a conflict but i forget which one it is, as i seem to recall there was a few that have on some systems caused games to crash.

[RAB]

I'm not sure why the setup.exe would hang up in XP SP2. That's what I run with all current updates and never had a problem.
But one thing you can do as a work around, if you have the games installed on another PC, is to copy the game folders from your old PC to the new one. Then just create shortcuts to your desktop and the games should run fine.

[RED BARON]

We had 2 pilots that had the same problem some time ago, one was the anti virus program, turn it off, the other was the cd drive he had to rename it to D drive then it installed.

[Bluetiereign]

We had 2 pilots that had the same problem some time ago, one was the anti virus program, turn it off, the other was the cd drive he had to rename it to D drive then it installed.

hmmm... now that is one I hadn't heard.


I've installed numerous times on sp2.. never had a prob..

[sleeplessone]

I have just done a fresh clean reinstall of Windows XP Pro, SP2

so far the only difference apart from the only change of downgrading from MS Office 2003 to Office XP is that i have not gone and done a windows update and downloaded Hotfixes , IE7 , etc... and there is about 93 of them classified as critical.

Before i automatically updated windows XP , this time i will install them 1 by 1 as needed.

watch this space

[EDIT] - correction to statment.

The problem had reoccured and no updates have been downloaded from Windows Update.

Only updates applied was to my Norton Internet Security Suite 2008.
Before any updates to NIS 2008, there was no problem so something had changed there. It seems its making my computer too Secure, its a shame we are faced with balancing act of making a computer secure without it being too secure and causing conflicts.

Issue Resolved.

Anti Virus is probably the cause although usually i find it actually causes issues when you specify a custom install path than actual file copying issues.

One thing can be said although i have not tried this on Vista 32-bit , Vista 64-bit did seem to protect the installer, SETUP.EXE, from the Anti Virus scanner, so hurah for Vista ...

[Phaser]

Hello Gentlemen, I have found that if you step on Microsofts toes, or Bill Gates' toes, (samething) you will run into all sorts of problems. My advise to anyone using ANY Microsoft product is to stick with Microsoft.
I use Windows XP, this was originally supplied with my first machine (OEM), when I purchased a new machine, I was installing Windows XP from my original disk, but as the installation was going ahead, the disk shattered in the drive, I phoned Microsoft about this, and they replaced the disk and did it free of charge.
I have also used Norton Internet Security, with a load of problems. I then changed over to Windows Live Onecare, and it has never given me a problem.
It seems to me that, although no one likes Bill Gates, if you stay faithful to M/Soft they treat you well and everything within M/Soft is compatible.
If you do not wish to use M/Soft the choose another OS like FireFox os Opera or even Linux, but these too seem to have their problems.
I think the biggest problem with any computer is compatibility. So bestto keep it the same, whichever you choose!

[sleeplessone]

I after saying that i believe Norton Internet Secuirty caused a problem , and a chance it might have , uninstalling it still didnt change anything.

for now i am just giving up trying to work it out ..
to clarify

1) on a clean install of my Windows XP [only essential drivers only] , the installer works properly
2) somewhere when installing all drivers, and applications does something change. only changes occured

Applications checked -
Diskeeper defragmenter
Acronis Disk director and True Image

Suspected Symantic NIS 2008 - known issue with incompatibility and system hangs , uninstalling [probably not a clean removal] no difference.
[ updates for NIS ]
suspected ASUS graphics driver to ATI graphics card - specifically Catalyst Control Centre n .NET framework 2

[sleeplessone]

i dont like to revisit this subject ... but

recent information i feel i should share has come to light. The problem is not just limited to Comanche 4 but all games / installers by installshield that have a setup.exe version 5.X

MSI. packages and later versions of Installshield installers are unaffected

Unfortunally i still have not pin pointed the conflict but it seems that installing Comanche 4 under diagnostic startup "msconfig" ... will try safe mode next.... get the game installed but i end up with not behing able to start missions , both Singleplayer and Multiplayer are "greyed out" as you would call it - when referring to an option in windows.

This does make sense since the installer will not run under a normal boot or a Microsoft Clean boot of windows XP - "disabled SYSTEM & WIN .ini's , only microsoft services , disabled all startup items" within MSCONFIG on selective start up.

what we (i know)

1) clean install , no drivers installed or updates and applications , the installer works fine.
2) windows xp updates not an issue - found on last clean install
3) Nortin AV and firewall not an issue - found by uninstalling .
4) Suspect a hardware driver / software. Specifically Creative X-Fi - which will be my next test.


[EDIT]

when i ran a debugger on the comanche 4 "setup.exe" i saw a **Warning message ** "unable to verify checksum on SETUP.exe" - dunno if its important - MS windbg used

also i am unable to copy all the contents of the CD to the harddrive in normal boot. will try setup from harddrive when i copy files to it in safe mode

any other boot type safe mode or diagnostic in msconfig doesnt have this issue with copying/reading the CD

[RED BARON]

Have you tried another cd rom drive? Or you can download the demo and see if that installs and runs ok.

[sleeplessone]

I have tried another "cd rom drive" as i wondered that my self.... the drive seems to be fine .
I know there is an issue somewhere in windows XP - reason
3 computers in front of me all with windows XP PRO SP2 with different drives in each ie DVD writer + DVD ROM.
2 computers are up to date installations ie software i use , up todate drivers , all critical Windows Updates ... and both have problems installing comanche 4.
The remaining computer is just a plain clean install of windows XP PRO SP2
- no software, no additional driver apart from what windows xp uses ie "yellow ?'s" and has a dvd rom drive of same make as in one of 2 mentioned above... no problems installing comanche 4 here.


*****
I guess from my previous post , debugger just was unable to verify the checksum , and creative x-fi drivers are ok

and now for some GOOD news

after going through the Services.msc in windows XP , and looking ... finding some ?? , and saying to my self

what the ??? is this ....
when did this get installed?
what uses this ?

followed by some google searching , and then the removal of software .. what was removed was in one instance an Instant messenger program AOL's AIM , which seemed to have hadded something called Viewpoint Player which i do not need another media player ... and since i prefer to use a multi-IM protocol Pidgin (was called gaim) i can use AIM through Pidgin.

I have also removed the AMD Athlon 64 X2 drivers for windows XP, and the Dual core optimizer. The installer still doesnt work properly - safe mode to install but from below comanche 4 is playable.

Reinstalled comanche 4 in safe mode and now it runs properly XP .. YIPPE! - sorry a little cheer

will update to see if i can play online.

The only issue i have now if the update works is that the Intro Move does not play and is skipped.

[EDIT]

Update succesfully installed , Intro plays ... looks like its all fixed ....

if im a betting man , the only potential problem from above that causes all this would the the AMD drivers and Optimizer for my CPU.... , although i dont know if i install them again , i may do if i have issues and will test the game then

[Phaser]

You may have avoided all this if you went to M/Soft's help website, and read the instructions on how to perform a "clean boot" - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353 - another thing is;
I use M/Soft's Flight Simulator 2004, there is an application called 'FS2004AutoStart'. This, if used, will shut down unessential programs and services whilst using M/Soft Flight Simm 2004, giving the maximum resourses to the flight simm. Then, when you shut down the simm, all normal services will be restarted.
It is also able to be configured, so if you want a program or service to continue to run, you can allow it, and, if you want a service to start at the boot of FS2004; i.e. TrackIR, you can configure that too.
I am just saying this because, someone with a little more intelligence than me, may be able to modify this AutoStart program to be used with c4 (just a thought)

[sleeplessone]

I have tried the "clean boot"

somewhere in a previous post i mention this , and this had no effect at all.
I was still unable to install C4 , and the setup.exe still hangs at 99% then quits, latter it will jsut hang and quit at 0%.

Changing the path to the "TEMP" environment variable has no effect either. The problem still occurs.

On a small note i have browsed the InstallShield Community forums , specifically the legacy products section and it is a widely experienced problem that any Software that was compiled with Installshield Professional 5.X will fail to install and encounter a hang in Setup.exe.
This will occur on systems from Windows 2000 Sp4 to Windows Server 2003 , XP included. I must stress that it may not happen for everyone but it is common.
As to why and a fix , i dont think anyone there knows yet.

Something i did notice when using the WinDbg.exe Debugger from microsoft on the Setup.exe for C4 , is that after it reads the .exe i believe it has trouble loading the _setup.dll and other _*.* files from the CD. I am unsure why. This then causes the Setup.exe process to then have a "kernel32 wait for input" - cant remember the exactmessage, as to what input i dont know - the hang phase.
then a command follows that kills the setup.exe , probably windows XP or some kernel32 command which thinks the setup.exe had frozen and stopped responding.

I will run the debugger again on the setup.exe now that i am more familiar with the debugger.

I have been using it to troubleshoot the minidump's from BSOD on another windows XP computer .... its alot of fun